The mall opened in 1969 as Franklin Mall, with Troutman's, Sears and Grant City (which became Hills in 1976) as its anchors.[3] An Acme supermarket was also located in the mall parking lot just past Grant's/Hills. It closed in 1977. Troutman's closed in 1984 and was sold to Pomeroy's,[4] which in turn converted to The Bon-Ton in 1987. A 1985 expansion to the mall added Hess's and a new Hills, while converting the original Hills location to a food court and additional retail space.[5]
In 1999, the mall was renamed Washington Crown Center and underwent a renovation.[6] Among the changes were the addition of a movie theater on the site of the former Hess's, which closed four years prior;[7] the conversion of Hills to Ames,[8] and the addition of Kaufmann's as a fourth anchor.[9] The Ames store closed in 2002 and became Gander Mountain in 2003,[10] while Kaufmann's was converted to Macy's in 2006. In 2013, Marshalls replaced the vacant Old Navy space as Old Navy moved up to Tanger Outlets Pittsburgh years prior. In 2014, Ross Dress for Less took 25,000 square feet of former specialty retail shop space. The trend of replacing small shops with big box stores continued through 2014 with the addition of Jo-Ann Fabrics, Ulta, and Books-a-Million. In January 2015, PREIT announced that it was planning on selling Washington Crown Center along with four other malls.[11]
In August 2016, PREIT sold the Mall for $20 million. It was reported that the occupancy had dropped to 87.4% before the sale and had represented a drop in performance.[12]Macy’s and Gander Mountain closed in 2017. Gander Mountain would be replaced by Rural King in March 2018. The Bon-Ton closed all locations by August 2018. On August 31, 2019, it was announced that Sears would be closing this location a part of a plan to close 92 stores nationwide. The store closed on December 15, 2019.[13] This was the last remaining Sears store in western Pennsylvania (not counting Sears Hometown and Outlet Stores).
On October 3, 2020, Hollywood Theaters announced it would be closing all of their locations permanently due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Ross Dress for Less closed on January 19, 2021. This left Rural King, and Marshalls as the only anchor stores. Ulta Beauty moved to a nearby shopping center in April 2021. M@C Discount, an online auctioneer reselling returned merchandise from mainstream retailers, operates from a portion of the former Macy's location as of December 2021.
A new car dealership, Crown Chrysler, Dodge, Jeep, & Ram, would take the majority of the former Sears lot in June 2023. Ollie's Bargain Outlet would open inside the former Ross Dress on October 18, 2023.
