Skowhegan Village and Kennebec Plaza across the street were the only shopping centers in Skowhegan for years until the opening of Walmart at the Fairgrounds Marketplace in the 90’s. Skowhegan Village is a shopping center made of one main building that had a department store and a straight line of smaller stores to its left. 

A recent listing of the plaza mentioned that the shopping center opened in 1967 as the Skowhegan Shopping Plaza. The original anchor store was W.T.Grant. That store closed and was replaced by JCPenney in March 1977. In 1982, Giguere's supermarket opened. JCPenney closed in November 1982. Ames opened in the 51,000 sq.-ft space in July 1983. Nothing special happened at the plaza until the opening of a Pizza Hut on a pad site in the left front corner of the property. Unfortunately for them, Ames closed not long after in 1996, leaving their restaurant at an anchor-less shopping center. 

The store remained boarded up for a moment until it was replaced by "Skowhegan Outlet", a store selling Maine crafts, clothing, wood crafted products and more. That store closed and was replaced by Bob’s Discount, a Maine-based closeout chain. Bob’s reused most of Ames racks, shelves and fixtures. Then, another free-standing store was built on a pad side, on the right side of the parking lot, Movie Gallery.

The former Ames building has a small section located at right of the store which was used as a seasonal & sporting goods department.  This section has its own exterior door with a line of boarded up windows on one wall, possibly a former restaurant or seasonal area.

In 2005, Bob's Discount closed as part of a reorganization by the chain. In August, the son of the owner of Bob's Discount announced he would open his own store in the vacant space. The store was quite similar but was called "Chapter 11". In 2011, the store was still open though it had been downsized with a wall added to divide the space.

From then to 2015, almost all stores have closed at the plaza. Chapter 11 closed their store, Mr.Paperback went out of business and Radio Shack closed as well as many others nationwide.

A real estate developer from Presque Isle, bought the plaza in 2016 with the idea of refurbishing the existing storefronts and attracting new tenants. 19,000 sq.ft. of the plaza's 80,000 sq.ft. are occupied.  The new owner wants to open a Maine Veterans Museum in the former Chapter 11 store.