King of Prussia, Pennsylvania - Encyclopedia of Greater Philadelphia (2024)

Twenty miles northwest of downtown Philadelphia, where the Pennsylvania Turnpike converges with the Schuylkill Expressway, a sleepy rural town clustered around a colonial-era tavern expanded massively in the twentieth century to become the region’s largest employment hub outside of Center City Philadelphia. Its suburban location in fast-growing Montgomery County proved irresistible to real estate developers in the 1950s, when highway builders added the turnpike-expressway interchange to the area’s already-existing connections to two national routes slated for significant upgrades: U.S. Route 202 running north-south and U.S. Route 422 stretching west into Ohio. Although built as an auto-dependent suburb, King of Prussia in the twenty-first century fell increasingly under the influence of new urbanist preferences for a higher-density grid pattern and transportation options that accommodated pedestrians, bicyclists, and transit users.

King of Prussia, Pennsylvania - Encyclopedia of Greater Philadelphia (1)

King of Prussia’s name comes from an inn and tavern opened in 1769 in a converted farmhouse originally built by Welsh Quakers in 1719. The owner named his tavern to honor King Frederick II of Prussia, an eighteenth-century monarch who opposed Britain’s imperial ambitions. The business prospered because its location stood at a crossroads exactly one day’s travel from Philadelphia by horse, a favored position further boosted with the arrival of a rail connection to the Pennsylvania and Reading railroads. By 1850, both the inn and the place were called King of Prussia. By the twentieth century, its size warranted its own zip code (19406) and post office, but King of Prussia existed as an incorporated governmental jurisdiction in Upper Merion Township, not a separate town. In this edge city, so-called because of its replication of historically central city functions in a previously rural area, the King of Prussia Business Improvement District established in 2010 became the closest thing to a governing framework through its work to enhance the commercial environment and to influence township policies on zoning, planning, taxes and transportation issues.

King of Prussia Business Park

King of Prussia, Pennsylvania - Encyclopedia of Greater Philadelphia (2)

Highway construction in the mid-twentieth century set the stage for King of Prussia’s rapid development into an edge city. The Pennsylvania Turnpike, constructed from west to east across the state, arrived at Valley Forge in 1950, and by 1954 it extended eastward to the Delaware River. Almost at the same time Philadelphia was building its Schuylkill Expressway, which fully opened in 1958. That same year, spurred by the turnpike’s arrival near King of Prussia, Boston developer Cabot, Cabot & Forbes acquired rights to 710 acres north of the turnpike interchange and began signing up companies like Western Electric, Smith Kline and French, Merck Sharp and Dohme, and Pennwalt to occupy warehouses, office buildings, and factories. Since the highway interchange made it a reasonable commute from many other suburban communities, jobs quickly multiplied in what was then called the King of Prussia Industrial Park (later known as the Business Park). While some companies came from outside the region, others moved from Philadelphia to this convenient suburban location. For example, General Electric in 1962 relocated a major division from West Philadelphia to King of Prussia.

Subsequently the business park hosted software, biotech, pharmaceuticals, medical devices, finance, and insurance firms. From the beginning it welcomed defense contractors, one of which became the target of a famous anti-war protest by the Plowshares Eight. In September 1980 antiwar activists Daniel (1921-2016) and Philip (1923-2002) Berrigan with a half dozen other protesters illegally entered the General Electric plant in King of Prussia, vandalized the nose cones of several nuclear warheads being assembled there, and poured blood on company documents. Their arrest and trial sparked the Plowshares Movement, which grew into an international Christian peace movement. The business park continued to house numerous defense-related firms, most notably Lockheed Martin Space System Company, which took over the General Electric facility through corporate mergers.

King of Prussia Mall

King of Prussia, Pennsylvania - Encyclopedia of Greater Philadelphia (3)

To the average resident of the Philadelphia region, King of Prussia became known even more for its retailing than for its industrial production. The Kravitz Company began building its first-generation mall near the highway interchange in 1963. That early outdoor mall consisted of a strip of anchor stores (Korvette 1962, JC Penney 1963, John Wanamaker 1965, Gimbels 1966) around an Acme supermarket, along with a cluster of smaller specialty shops. Starting from that mid-market retail cluster intended to serve middle-income households, the mall gradually shifted toward luxury goods for higher-income shoppers. This evolving business strategy reflected the mall’s location in a favored part of the region where high-paying jobs abounded.

As early as 1970 the mall added an enclosed arcade to provide some indoor shopping at what came to be known as “The Plaza.” Then, in 1981, a second complex called “The Court” opened, adding upscale stores including Bloomingdale’s and Abraham and Strauss. The Court signaled the developers’ effort to rebrand King of Prussia as a higher-end shopping location for the increasingly affluent population living in the area. In a subsequent upgrade during the 1990s, the owner added nearly a million square feet to the older Plaza to make it the second largest mall in the United States, behind only the Mall of America in Minnesota. The renovations of the 1990s made room to add increasingly pricey shops to the existing retail mix, leading locals to distinguish between the “poor mall and the rich mall” because different sections of King of Prussia attracted different customers.

King of Prussia, Pennsylvania - Encyclopedia of Greater Philadelphia (4)

In 2003 a major retail developer based in Indianapolis, the Simon Property Group, bought a controlling interest in the King of Prussia Mall. The Simon Group continued upgrading the property to provide the largest collection of luxury retailers in the region (for example, Neiman-Marcus, Nordstrom, Tiffany’s, and Hermes). Additional renovations done in 2016 included an indoor heated connector between the two main shopping centers—The Plaza and The Court—to tie them into a single complex while simultaneously adding fifty new stores and restaurants. The resulting three million square feet of mall space was projected to serve twenty-six million visitors a year, about one-fifth of them tourists in the region. Interestingly, that renovation sacrificed four hundred parking spaces, signaling a shifting vision for the edge city as a place that would also be reached by public transportation.

Coping With Congestion

King of Prussia’s history of reliance on the automobile made congestion on local roads a major problem for daily commuters, shoppers, and even tourists visiting nearby Valley Forge National Historical Park. Regional transportation planners and township zoning officials took steps to reduce dependence on automobiles and encourage people to live near their workplaces. With the closest rail station located two miles away from the mall, bus service on congested roads offered the only transit option, especially frustrating to the large number of transit-dependent riders commuting daily from Philadelphia to jobs in King of Prussia. To address this problem, SEPTA reviewed proposals for a five-mile rail extension to bring the Norristown High Speed Line into the core of King of Prussia, winding through the high-end stores, chain restaurants, and offices, with stops in both the shopping mall and business park. Construction was projected to start in 2020, with a cost exceeding one billion dollars.

As part of a broader movement to create a more traditional urban environment, Upper Merion Township rezoned the Business Park in 2014 to foster mixed uses and more compact development, to reduce parking requirements, and to promote pedestrian-friendly designs. The new guidelines authorized multifamily residential developers to build as many as thirty units per acre. Over time, plans called for replacing existing buildings with multipurpose structures to house people as well as businesses, restaurants and shops, allowing residents to live near their work.

That trend continued in plans to develop the last major open parcel, a former golf course west of the mall, as the Village at Valley Forge, centered on a “lifestyle shopping mecca” with streets laid out in a walkable grid pattern, sidewalk cafes, living spaces built above stores and restaurants, and a town square area for programming public events like yoga sessions and movie nights for families. Beyond that core, additional elements of the new Village at Valley Forge were to include hotels and a conference center along with a new surgery center for Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. This ambitious plan prompted some critics to question whether the area really needed more shopping, restaurants, and services. Wouldn’t that simply worsen congestion?

Despite spirited debate, it should not have surprised critics to see township officials approve the plans. Ever since the highway cloverleaf triggered new development in the late 1950s, Upper Merion Township’s government mostly maintained a pro-development stance, largely because new investment generated enough tax revenue to allow the township to keep its residents’ property taxes among the lowest in the region.

Carolyn T. Adams is Professor Emeritus of Geography and Urban Studies at Temple University and associate editor of The Encyclopedia of Greater Philadelphia. (Author information current at time of publication.)

Copyright 2016, Rutgers University

King of Prussia, Pennsylvania - Encyclopedia of Greater Philadelphia (5)

The King of Prussia Inn

Historical Society of Pennsylvania

The King of Prussia Inn was once just a small farmhouse built in 1719 by Welsh Quaker and farmer William Rees Sr. His son, William Rees Jr., inherited the property in 1756 and in 1769, he converted his childhood home into a successful inn and tavern. Rees ran the inn for three years before illness forced him to sell the business and the surrounding farmland.

It is unclear who bought the inn from Rees, though it may have been a family member. What is known is that a man named James Berry managed the property through the American Revolution. According to local tradition, the inn hosted important military figures on both sides of the war, including General George Washington and some of his officers. It is also said that the Masons held their meetings on the second floor of the inn and that the Marquis de Lafayette joined the Masonic brotherhood there at General Washington’s request.

In 1783, the inn and surrounding property was sold to the Elliot family, who remodeled the building, constructing a large stone addition that doubled the size of the inn. The Elliots operated the inn for the next three and a half decades. During this period, the inn functioned as the local community center and town hall. In 1868, James and Madeline Hoy bought the property. After James died, Madeline continued to run the inn and the farm until 1906. The property changed hands a few times before Anna Heist bought it in 1920 and turned it into a tourist destination.

In 1952, the Pennsylvania Department of Highways acquired the property, which stood in the middle of a highway expansion project. Thanks to community activism, the building was saved from demolition, but it sat vacant for several decades on the median strip between the lanes of Route 202. Although it was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1975, and despite local efforts to maintain it, the inn slowly deteriorated and by the 1990s, it was in very poor condition. When PennDot started planning for another expansion of Route 202 in 1997, it became clear that the inn would have to be relocated.

Over the next three years, through the combined efforts of PennDot, the Kravco Company, and the Arthur Powell Foundation, more than $1.5 million dollars was raised to relocate the inn. The local community raised another $400,000 in order to restore the building after the move. Today, the fully restored King of Prussia Inn is located at 101 Bill Smith Boulevard and serves as the headquarters of the Montgomery County Chamber of Commerce.

King of Prussia, Pennsylvania - Encyclopedia of Greater Philadelphia (6)

King of Prussia Turnpike Interchange

Special Collections Research Center, Temple University Libraries

Highway construction in the mid-twentieth century set the stage for King of Prussia’s rapid development into an edge city, so-called because of its replication of historically central city functions in a previously rural area. In 1958, spurred by the turnpike’s arrival near King of Prussia, Boston developer Cabot, Cabot & Forbes acquired rights to 710 acres north of the turnpike interchange, shown in this photograph from 1954.

Since the highway interchange made it a reasonable commute from many other suburban communities, jobs quickly multiplied in what was then called the King of Prussia Industrial Park (later known as the Business Park). While some companies came from outside the region, others moved from Philadelphia to this convenient suburban location. The business park hosted defense contractors as well as software, biotech, pharmaceuticals, medical devices, finance, and insurance firms.

King of Prussia, Pennsylvania - Encyclopedia of Greater Philadelphia (7)

Gimbels Grand Opening, King of Prussia

Special Collections Research Center, Temple University Libraries

To the average resident of the Philadelphia region, King of Prussia became known even more for its retailing than for its industrial production. In 1963, the Kravitz Company undertook a $20 million open-air shopping center project in King of Prussia near the highway interchange. That early outdoor mall consisted of a strip of anchor stores, including Gimbels, which opened its doors to the public on May 2, 1966. This photograph depicts the grand opening celebration.

King of Prussia, Pennsylvania - Encyclopedia of Greater Philadelphia (8)

King of Prussia Mall

Visit Philadelphia

The King of Prussia Mall has changed drastically since first opening in 1963, catering to customers' shifting expectations for shopping environments and services. Shoppers who visited the mall in the 1960s walked along large exterior sidewalks. That early outdoor mall consisted of a strip of anchor stores around an Acme supermarket, along with a cluster of smaller specialty shops, totaling more than a million square feet of space.

As early as 1970 the mall added an enclosed arcade to provide some indoor shopping at what came to be known as “The Plaza.” In 1981, a second complex called “The Court” opened, adding upscale stores including Bloomingdale’s and Abraham & Strauss. The Court signaled the developers’ effort to rebrand King of Prussia as a higher-end shopping location for the increasingly affluent population living in the area. In a subsequent upgrade during the 1990s, the owner added nearly a million square feet to the older Plaza to make it the second-largest mall in the United States, behind only the Mall of America in Minnesota.

The central fountain of the Plaza, pictured here in 2012, reflects the attempt to incorporate open spaces, natural lighting, and other elements of nature (like plants and water) into the shopping experience, while offering a temperature controlled environment and protection from outdoor weather elements.

King of Prussia, Pennsylvania - Encyclopedia of Greater Philadelphia (9)

King of Prussia, Pennsylvania - Encyclopedia of Greater Philadelphia (10)

King of Prussia, Pennsylvania - Encyclopedia of Greater Philadelphia (11)

King of Prussia, Pennsylvania - Encyclopedia of Greater Philadelphia (12)

Themes

  • Greater Philadelphia

Time Periods

  • Twenty-First Century
  • Twentieth Century after 1945

Locations

  • Montgomery County, Pennsylvania

Essays

  • Edge Cities
  • Schuylkill Expressway
  • Shopping Centers
  • Turnpikes
  • Automobile Suburbs

Decourcy-Hinds, Michael. “Eight Sentenced In 1980 Protest At Nuclear Unit.” New York Times, April 11, 1990.

Economy League of Greater Philadelphia. “Understanding the Economic Impacts of SEPTA’s Proposed King of Prussia Rail Project.” Philadelphia, December 2015.

Garreau, Joel. Edge City: Life on the New Frontier. New York: Anchor/Doubleday, 1991.

Gillette Jr., Howard. “The Evolution of the Planned Shopping Center in Suburb and City.” Journal of the American Planning Association 51 (1985): 449-460.

Infield, Tom. “King of Prussia Still Evolving,” Philadelphia Inquirer, June 17, 2008.

Kanaley, Reid. “The Once and Future King of Prussia: This Prime Piece of Real Estate is More than Malls and Traffic,” Philadelphia Inquirer, November 24, 1996.

Barbara McCabe. “The Maturing Of King of Prussia,” Philadelphia Inquirer, August 4, 1988.

Morrison, J. Michael. King of Prussia. Arcadia Publishing Co. 2005.

Morrison, Michael, Francis X. Luther, and Marianne Hooper.Upper Merion Township: The First 300 Years. King of Prussia Historical Society, 2013.

Shaw, Michael. The Railroads of King of Prussia: The Past Leads to the Future. King of Prussia Historical Society, 2013.

Film

In the King of Prussia: The Trial of the Plowshares 8, written and directed by Emile de Antonio, 1983.

King of Prussia, Pennsylvania - Encyclopedia of Greater Philadelphia (2024)
Top Articles
Latest Posts
Recommended Articles
Article information

Author: Ms. Lucile Johns

Last Updated:

Views: 5267

Rating: 4 / 5 (61 voted)

Reviews: 84% of readers found this page helpful

Author information

Name: Ms. Lucile Johns

Birthday: 1999-11-16

Address: Suite 237 56046 Walsh Coves, West Enid, VT 46557

Phone: +59115435987187

Job: Education Supervisor

Hobby: Genealogy, Stone skipping, Skydiving, Nordic skating, Couponing, Coloring, Gardening

Introduction: My name is Ms. Lucile Johns, I am a successful, friendly, friendly, homely, adventurous, handsome, delightful person who loves writing and wants to share my knowledge and understanding with you.