The Monroeville Shopping Mall, located in Monroeville, Pennsylvania, originally opened on Tuesday, May 13, 1969. Located east of Pittsburgh, Monroeville Mall has appeared numerous times in pop culture, most famously being used as the filming location for George A. Romero’s 1978 zombie horror movie Dawn of the Dead.

Romero began filming Dawn of the Dead on location at the Mall in October 1977, with all shooting taking place at night after the facility had closed, with filming often continuing until dawn. Filming was suspended when Christmas decorations were hung shortly after Thanksgiving, resuming in January after the decorations were removed. It was during that break that much of the mall’s exterior shots were filmed, as well as filming at other nearby locations.

In the film’s storyline, Monroeville Mall was used as a fortress to protect four human survivors from a world taken over by zombies.

Several photos taken during the filming are on display in a room on the upper level near Macy’s. Additionally, Monroeville Zombies, also called The Living Dead Museum & Gift Shop, was located on the lower level near Macy’s, featured a museum and gift shop dedicated to celebrating zombies in pop culture. The museum’s main focus was Dawn of the Dead and contained artifacts, memorabilia, scale models of the mall as depicted in the movie and a boiler room walk through with various life-sized replicas of movie zombies.

In 2013, the museum was relocated to Evans City, Pennsylvania, home of the original film Night of the Living Dead. In October 2020 the Living Dead Museum relocated back to the Monroeville Mall and is located on the upper level.

The Monroeville Mall’s original anchor tenants at its opening in May 1969 were the Pittsburgh-based Horne’s Department Store, Gimbels, and JC Penney. A Montgomery Ward was added in the 1970s. However, it would close by the mid-1980s. As of 2024, the mall still features JC Penney, along with Dick’s Sporting Goods, and Macy’s, in addition to a Cinemark Theatres.

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