A relic of retail
Just a quick and scenic ferry ride across the Puget Sound from Seattle is Kitsap County. Located on the Olympic Peninsula, the locality serves as a suburb of the Emerald City and even has its own enclosed shopping center with Kitsap Mall, which I thought was surely the only game in town. But across Sinclair Inlet in the smaller town of Port Orchard is another mall- Town Center of Port Orchard.
Inside Town Square.
Though the two are not really comparable, Town Square is much more of a fit for the smaller hamlet. Built as a two-level community center, I would hazard to say that the sparse interior had never seen a redesign before my initial visit in 2015. Larger tenants included Ace Hardware and Goodwill, but the main concourse was home to a rather robust selection of locally owned merchants.
The interior of Town Square.
Opened in 1981 as South Kitsap Mall, as far as I can find, the diminutive complex was never host to any traditional department store anchors. Built as a family endeavor, the mall was sold in 2005 and then received its present name.
Town Square pamphlet ca. 2019. View the full PDF version here.
I am currently putting all my old home videos on digital. I stumbled across South Kitsap mall in one of the tapes. It's so crazy how much time has passed, how different it all looks. I remember the mall being much more of a buzz back then. There was the Hub upstairs, the Christian book store, God Father's pizza, KBB toys, and downstairs there was Madame Butterfly, a couple of pets shops, the old shoe repair place, ice cream shop, a health store, etc...The nostalgia upon viewing my old tapes is so emotional for me. I truly miss Port Orchard back in the latter 80's and early 90's.
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