Farewell to Monmouth Mall
The mall that sits on rt 35 and 36 off Wyckoff Road will be history come March. Monmouth Mall's humble beginnings started off in 1960 as a open air shopping center known as the Monmouth Shopping Center starting with anchors Bamberger's and Montgomery Wards. By the 1970's, that small shopping plaza turned into the enclosed Monmouth Mall in 1975 which grew with three more anchors and Wards left and Alexander's coming in along with Hahne's, JC Penny and Abraham and Straus (A&S) which was a nice solid mall lineup for a decade. As a small kid growing up in Freehold, this was the first major shopping plaza I ever stepped foot in being Freehold did not recieve a major sized mall for a good two decades. Monmouth was thriving well into the 1980's till the mall started a few anchor changes as Alexander's left in the early 80's and Caldor came in as a discount alternate to the 4 upscale anchors. In 1986, Bamberger's rebranded to Macy's as the chain ret...