The permits are in place. So, will the Potomac Mills sign return?

WOODBRIDGE — The Potomac Mills sign is gone but not forgotten. 

The 140-foot tall blue sign that for years hovered over the Woodbridge skyline noting the location of one of the state’s largest malls, and also was once Virginia’s largest tourist attraction, was pulled down Sunday night after high winds caused it to lean. 

Long after it had dropped “outlet mall” from it’s marking and the old apple tree from its logo (remember the oversized cereal bowl of apples located in the grand court area of the mall during the early days?), a modified version of the Potomac Mills logo still stood tall. 

And now that it’s gone, we can only look back at this iconic sign and remember what it meant to us. 

I mean, the sign was a big deal, big enough to delay nearly 90,000 school students heading to class on time.

When it was still leaning on Sunday night, Prince William County Public Schools delayed school on Monday morning due to the sign debacle.

A portion of Interstate 95 had been closed after the sign began to lean and there were fears the sign could not be brought down due to high winds, the highway would remain closed, and traffic would be snarled. 

Thankfully, those fears never materialized. 

A representative for Potomac Mills mall had no comment on whether or not the sign would return. 

Prince William County spokesman Jason Grant said it could if the mall wanted to bring it back. 

He wrote us in an email: 

“They have a permit for the previous sign. Obviously, if they plan to put a sign up, there will have to be some construction work on that since the poles were snapped. They would have to submit plans, and we would have to review them.”

Plans for a new sign have not been submitted to the county, he adds. 

The shopping mall opened in 1985 and quickly became a shopping destination, putting Prince William County on the map. Though I can’t remember a time before the sign, couldn’t confirm if the sign was erected the same year as the mall was built or sometime later. 

The original sign was white and featured the apple tree logo. 

However, it had a blowout in February 2011 when, again, fierce winds shredded the south-facing side of the sign, causing the sign material to hang and blow in the wind. Continued winds weakened the sign material on the north-facing side and caused the entire portion to blow off. 

Later that summer, the sign was replaced with the blue version that was pulled down with ropes last week.