There used to be the Atrium Mall at Chestnut Hill, just west of Boston. Had the closest Border’s Books to me, a Cheesecake Factory, and my favorite Chinese restaurant was just up the street, so I used to go there on occasion. I guess the place was something of a white elephant from the beginning, though; found an interesting article that describes its troubled history and eventual closing. It tried to be high-end and never quite succeeded. Border’s closed, and the Cheesecake Factory dropped my favorite dish from their menu, so I stopped going.
I remember hearing some time ago that the current owners were looking to gut it and convert it to a high-end professional building, medical offices and such. A bit of googling and it looks like they’re now converting it to office space. I haven’t been by it in ages, but the website shows a whole new facade. I recognize the layout of the floor plans though, so they didn’t rebuild it from scratch.
Man, when I was little Dutch Square had… I forget if they were monkeys or lemurs, but they had some kind of primate on display!
Now it’s one of those malls kept alive solely by the movie theater (which is, in fairness, not a bad one.) We took our baby to see Santa there because Off Brand Santa was bring your own camera free, and there was a thrift store in the mall. Never seen that before.
Of course, there’s also Richland Fashion Mall, which contains the Old Lady Belk and a Barnes and Noble that I’ve heard gets free rent if the occupancy is low enough. Pretty much everything else is gone but it didn’t turn Scary Mall, just Dead Mall. The quiet is unnerving.
Just remembered one in DC: The Shops at National Place. I frequented their software store when I worked in The Old Post Office. The mall was hardly recognizable when I went back for the first time in over a decade, I guess that was about five years before they closed.
i don’t generally go to malls at all, but just last summer I was at the Mega Mall of America, here in a Minneapolis suburb. I had been there a couple of times before, a few months after it opened. I was astonished at how dead it seemed. Not that many customers. And a fair amount of boarded-up spaces.
But I could see why – hardly any of the stores were selling anything I would consider buying! Most of them seemed to be selling vastly overpriced, under-quality T-shirts with stuff printed on them, poor quality tennis shoes at outrageous prices, etc. Seemed like half the spaces were selling clothing or ‘accessories’, and anther third were selling some kind of food. The stores I recall doing well were an Apple store, a corresponding Microsoft store (anemic by comparison) and Sears (good tools section, also some quality shoes). Oh, and a place selling Minnesota souvineer stuff to tourists – they seemed to be doing well. But not much else I’d consider spending 3-miles-worth of gasoline to get there.
I’ve seen the biggest total decline in Sarasota. There was a tiny mall downtown that opened several times and rather quickly dwindled down to its food court before shutting in a couple years. Several miles south of downtown is Sarasota Square Mall which was never in trouble when I lived there. Between downtown and Sarasota Square were two malls, Southgate and Gulf Gate, which alternated between closing and opening, usually in an alternating sequence. They weren’t big enough to be a destination, I guess, just one large wing and a food court. When I first moved to Sarasota, Southgate was in that almost-closed creepy state, made weirder by the fact that half of it was outside yet under a flat, Brutalist roof with abstract bronze sculptures echoing in the breezy emptiness (and then bam, around the corner was a bowling alley).
For awhile, after the population had increased and before Internet shopping was big, all 4 malls were a going venture. Not sure if they are anymore because I’ve only been there once in the last 10 years.
Damn…got to thinking about the place. I bought my first Bialetti there. I bought a Bali-Song Inc marked butterfly knife from Cutlery World there, and have it still, 30 years later. There I applied for, and got and still have, a Discover Card when the card was first introduced. My first foray into credit ratings. I just wanted the jumbo candy bar you got for filling out the application. Took my mom and aunt there on shopping trips from Punxsutawney. Lived 5 minutes from the place with my first wife. I spent more time there than I thought.
Underground Atlanta has pretty much struggled from Day One. It was closed for a while, then $$$ thrown at it and re-opened, etc. A complete waste of taxpayer’s dollars.
If it weren’t for the bar crawlers and the criminals who prey on them, it would pretty much be empty.
The city has announced that they are selling it off for a mix-used development.
Ref my post 17, it’s kinda hard to beat a vacant 300ish acre area where they not only took down the building but pulled up the parking lot as well. Scorched earth and all that.
Eastgate Mall in Chattanooga is the one I grew up with and remember in it’s heyday. I saw the first Star Wars movie there in 1977(I was 4, and only really remember being cold because air conditioning ) By the early/mid 90’s it was on it’s way out, and now I don’t know that there are any actual stores in the mall building, just offices and such.
I work within 2 blocks of Underground, and I’m really hoping that this redevelopment works. I’ll believe it when I see it, of course, but with the growth of GSU, I think there’s a solid maybe for it.
Nope, Olde Towne Mall was different, although it is also defunct. Olde Towne was in Torrance. I remember loving the churro place there. does a bit of googling Hmm, apparently it is now an open-air strip mall.
I remember hanging out at Hawthorne Mall in the mid '80s (I was a teenager then). Even then it was pretty much my least-favorite mall.
Olde Towne in Torrance was awesome in the early 1970s. Since you’re apparently in the area, can you give us an update on that German-themed mall / tourist trap nearby? I can’t recall the name for certain but “Alpine Village” is sounding about right.
I know there’s a town in northern California by that name, but that’s not what I’m talking about.
Yep, Alpine Village is still there. It’s pretty much a ghost town except during September and October, when they hold Oktoberfest and the place gets packed with drunks. The rest of the year it’s deserted except on the days there is a swap meet in the parking lot. The little roller coaster and the other rides are long gone.
As a kid I thought Old Towne was great. A carousel, two dark-rides, and a nice movie theatre made it a great place to spend a rainy day. As I got older, I realized that other than the book store (I think it was a Waldenbooks) they didn’t sell anything I wanted to buy, which is probably why the place went under.
White Flint Mallwas the upscale mall in the Montgomery County suburbs of DC. It had lots of water features, and a section that was made to resemble a street in Georgetown, with streetlights and brick facades on thin store fronts.
It just got less and less traffic, although I didn’t personally see the decline - I moved out of the area 20 years ago.
But it was still sad to hear it closed in January and is going to be demolished this year.
The Gallery at Market Easthad undergone a decline over the years ,becoming seedier and seedier. They finally gave up on the patchwork changes and are renovating it wholesale.
The Springfield Mall moved OK for a while despite having a ‘Mall of Death’ rep (there was a shooting spree in '85. But the past decade has not been kind and it started going downhill. It will soon be collpased and replaced with a more open platform.
The biggest Malls in the Philadelphia region: Cherry Hill Mall and King of Prussia Mall are doing fine and expanding.
When we moved to the Spring area in 1979 (Houston suburb) it was the closest mall and the only place nearby to do that kind of shopping. It then turned into ‘Gunspoint Mall’ for awhile. (In fact, a friend of mine from high school had moved with her folks to a very fancy area of The Woodlands. She got a job at the Hallmark store at that mall. She was followed home from there one night and carjacked on her very fancy street. <aside–why buy a 16 yr old a fancy car?? It never ends well>) Greenspoint is still there and I occasionally go to its parking lot b/c there’s a Goodwill there. The website makes it sound like it’s still a real viable mall but it’s not. The parking lot looks like they’ve been doing bombing runs on it.
About the only real life I see there is the carnival thing I see about once a month. It’s about to go the way of the Town and Country mall, which I named The Mall of the Damned the one time I went there about a decade ago. EMPTY. It was still nice—but empty. It’s gone.
It was one of the very first malls I remember. It began as an open air thing and then got enclosed as that form became popular. It held a special place for me because the Old Wench and I got our engagement/wedding rings there when it was still shoulder to shoulder with Christmas shoppers the winter of 77.
I also miss Greengate Mall but not enough to Google it.
) By the early/mid 90’s it was on it’s way out, and now I don’t know that there are any actual stores in the mall building, just offices and such.