Holiday Ornament Commemorates Pittsburgh Mall Demolition

PITTSBURGH, PA — As the razing of Century III Mall in West Mifflin continues, an enterprising Pittsburgh artist is selling holiday ornaments commemorating the demolition of the former shopping mecca.

Multidisciplinary artist Toby Atticus Fraley has begun selling the ornaments, which feature the mall's famed entrance logo being demolished by a bulldozer. They cost $32 and are scheduled to ship on Dec. 9.

Count Fraley among those who feel nostalgic about the mall.

"I fondly remember going there with my family every Christmas," he said. "I'd always visit the model store in that odd little nook tucked under the staircases with the cobblestone floor."

Once one of the largest malls in the world, Century III's interior closed in 2019. J.C. Penney, which had an exterior entrance, was the mall's last remaining store; it went out of business in 2020.

Crews began tearing the mall down earlier this year, starting with its vast parking garage. Pictures recently posted on the Century III Mall Memories Facebook page show that the J.C. Penny store has now been entirely demolished.

Fraley is the artist who in 2019 designed the famed sinkhole bus ornament. It captured the image of the Port Authority (now Pittsburgh Regional) Transit bus that was swallowed by a sinkhole in Downtown Pittsburgh.

To commemorate the fifth anniversary of the event, Fraley has crafted a new sinkhole bus ornament painted in festive holiday colors.