This D.C. neighborhood used to be synonymous with high-end shopping. Now it’s mostly abandoned.
![Mall interior entrance of a gated, empty and dark Neiman Marcus store.](https://s3.amazonaws.com/journalism.industrydive.com/special-projects/retail/2021-retail-graveyard/Neiman_Marcus_interior.jpeg)
Retail has collapsed in Friendship Heights. The neighborhood, which sits on the Washington, D.C., and Maryland border, was once known as a high-end shopping destination. The commercial district is made up of several distinct groupings of businesses including Mazza Gallerie, which was once anchored by Neiman Marcus, the Chevy Chase Pavilion, which held a number of specialty retailers including H&M and Old Navy, The Shops at Wisconsin Place, which once held MAC and Anthropologie, a stand-alone Lord & Taylor and a row of luxury retailers. And, with an average household income reportedly between $170,000 and $200,000, residents were once primed to spend money at those stores.
But those stores are gone now, along with most of the retailers, even as plans for revitalization have emerged. Here’s a look at the current state of the once bustling center.
![The boarded up Lord & Taylor store exterior with the Lord & Taylor logo.](https://s3.amazonaws.com/journalism.industrydive.com/special-projects/retail/2021-retail-graveyard/Lord_%2B_Taylor_Exterior.jpeg)
![Former Lord & Taylor store entrance with panels of plywood covering the exterior windows.](https://s3.amazonaws.com/journalism.industrydive.com/special-projects/retail/2021-retail-graveyard/Lord_%2B_Taylor_.jpeg)
![Mall interior of empty escalators going to different floors.](https://s3.amazonaws.com/journalism.industrydive.com/special-projects/retail/2021-retail-graveyard/Empty_Escalators.jpeg)
![Photo from the top floor of a mall peering down to a now abandoned Starbucks.](https://s3.amazonaws.com/journalism.industrydive.com/special-projects/retail/2021-retail-graveyard/Mall_Interior_with_Starbucks.jpeg)
![Central space of a mall that depicts empty floors and the tip of an American flag hanging from the ceiling.](https://s3.amazonaws.com/journalism.industrydive.com/special-projects/retail/2021-retail-graveyard/Mall_Interior.jpeg)
![A gated, dark store entrance to a former H&M store.](https://s3.amazonaws.com/journalism.industrydive.com/special-projects/retail/2021-retail-graveyard/Former_H_M.jpeg)
![](https://s3.amazonaws.com/journalism.industrydive.com/special-projects/retail/2021-retail-graveyard/Saks_exterior.jpg)
![Exterior of a former Neiman Marcus store with a bank ad hanging inside the store’s large windows.](https://s3.amazonaws.com/journalism.industrydive.com/special-projects/retail/2021-retail-graveyard/Neiman_Marcus_Exterior_-_Mirrored_Picture.jpeg)
![Mall interior of two non-functioning escalators blocked by velvet rope.](https://s3.amazonaws.com/journalism.industrydive.com/special-projects/retail/2021-retail-graveyard/Escalators.jpeg)
![Empty storefronts with “retail space available” signs in the widows.](https://s3.amazonaws.com/journalism.industrydive.com/special-projects/retail/2021-retail-graveyard/The_Shops_at_Wisconsin.jpeg)