The Miracle Mile, Don Casto’ s Vision
By Scott Philpot
The Miracle Mile— built in 1954— is one of the first major suburban shopping centers in the area, and according to the Miracle Mile developers,“ the biggest of its kind between New York and Chicago.” A product of the post-WWII economic boom, shopping centers were gaining momentum.
A forward-thinking real estate developer from Columbus, Ohio, by the name of Don Casto heartily embraced the concept and began looking for an opportunity to build one of these modern, massive shopping areas. Ideally, he wanted an underdeveloped area that offered abundant free parking, to take advantage of the new mobility of the era.
On advice of a friend, Casto investigated the Pittsburgh area, bringing along his builder, Joseph Skilken. They soon focused their attention on the young community of Monroeville. The PA Turnpike’ s plans to establish an exit in Monroeville and the proposed Penn Lincoln Parkway extension that would connect the turnpike to downtown Pittsburgh made Monroeville the logical place to build.
The duo found a piece of property along Route 22 just a stone’ s throw west of the turnpike. The land, a reclaimed strip mine owned by the Monroeville-Pitcairn school board, functioned as a slag dump.
The school board, who decided to build away from Route 22, wanted to sell the property. Casto and Skilken made an offer of $ 165,000 and the
board accepted. Several years later, Skilken’ s son Steve stated,“ That is the best deal since Manhattan.” They broke ground as soon as possible and spent roughly 10 million dollars to build the shopping center.
While Skilken started construction, Casto searched for tenants. He knew he wanted two supermarkets— one to anchor each end of the center. Casto believed supermarkets were recessionproof and would drive customers to the shopping center even if the current economic climate took a downturn.
He approached the large downtown department stores, but they rebuked his proposal, stating that“ shopping centers will never last.” Not deterred in the least, Casto turned his focus to filling the center with the type of stores people would need for everyday life.
The shoppers could go to the center to buy not only their groceries, but also furniture, hardware, tires, shoes, clothing, paint, jewelry, sporting goods, and liquor. They could also do their banking and get a haircut.
One of the first merchants in the Miracle Mile, Mel Pollock, opened Young Fashions, a children’ s clothing store. In a 1995 interview, Pollock recalled meeting Casto and stated,“ He reminded me of a carnival barker.” Nonetheless, he listened when Casto told him,“ Young man, you get out there to Monroeville and buy any property you see. In the years to come, it will be valuable.”
Even though that sounded like“ hogwash,” Pollock took out a bank
loan and made a deal with Casto, who agreed that Young Fashions would be the only children’ s clothing store in the Miracle Mile.
According to newspaper reports, the Miracle Mile opening included prize giveaways, free pop, fireworks, and“ Suicide Pete” crashing his motorcycle through a tunnel of fire.“ The center was a hit from the start,” Pollock said, almost completely selling out of his stock in the first few weeks.
Over the years, the Miracle Mile has experienced a few challenges to its success but has met each one. When Kaufmann’ s department store opened next to the shopping center in 1960, many predicted its doom.
Nope, the new retailer just brought more people into the area. When the Monroeville Mall opened in 1969 and stores like JCPenney relocated to the mall, many once again predicted the shopping center’ s demise.
Nope, the Miracle Mile found new tenants and the mall also brought new people to the region.
As the retail climate changed over the years, the Miracle Mile lived up to its name and has been able to adapt and even thrive. If you walk the strip today, you will not often see an empty storefront, but rather shops filled with customers— something rare in this day and age!
For more information, visit monroevillehistorical. org or follow the MHS on Facebook @ MonroevilleHistoricalSociety.
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