DEAD MALL: MOUNTAINEER MALL - Morgantown, WV. Old School
Vložit
- čas přidán 5. 12. 2020
- Join the conversation with us and other content creators: / discord
The UNICOMM MALL is open! T-shirts, hoodies, mugs, masks, and more! teespring.com/stores/unicomm-...
Patreon: / unicommproductions
Instagram: @unicommproductions
Twitter: @unicommvids
Flickr: www.flickr.com/photos/unicomm...
The DMOD Dead Malls of Discord Family:
The Expedition Log with Sal: / thedevilstrill
Ace’s Adventures: / @acesadventures1
Retailpocalypse: / @retailpocalypse
Faded Commerce: / channel
The Vintage Spaces Channel: / @thevintagespaceschannel
JonRev: / jonrev
Photo blogs:
Retailpocalypse: / retailpocalypse
The Caldor Rainbow: / thecaldorrainbow www.flickr.com/photos/thecald... thecaldorrainbow.blogspot.com/
JonRev: / jonrev
The Neon Explorer: / theneonexplorer
Rustbelt Expeditions: / rustbeltexpeditions
Support woman creators by checking out these awesome Instagram pages about malls and vintage architecture:
Let’s Go 2 The Mall: / letsgo2the_mall
Dead Mall Crawl: / deadmallcrawl
FlannelKimono: / flannelkimono
DeadMills: / deadmills
Boston Mall Rat: / boston_mall_rat
Retail Death: / retail_death
(if you’d like to be included in this list hit me up on Twitter @unicommvids)
Back to the 80s, when Wards, Sears and Pennys ruled. Ahhhh, Thank you Kristin for taking us back. 😁
I might go to Morgantown just to visit this place! This is truly a tourist attraction! This place MUST be saved! If anything, make this a movie studio and start filming movies, commercials here or music studios! WELCOME BACK TO 1975! 😆
It’s well worth a stop. They are actually really friendly to people who visit to just check out the mall
Someone really, really cares about keeping this mall spotless. Shiny floors, not a single light bulb out, none of the ailing mall symptoms like buckets or water stains. I hope it continues on, trapped somewhere in time.
Considering that but a few stores are still operating in there, it kind of makes you wonder what's really going on behind the scenes with that place. Most malls or stores would have shut down completely long beforehand... but not this one
And while it's known that because of tax loopholes, malls served as great tax shelters. I sense a money laundering scheme with this one... which might explain why it's so well-maintained and even decorated nicely for Christmas. The logic would be that well-maintained structures tend to not attract negative attention; thus,reducing the chances of a 3rd party external agency conducting an audit of the place
I could be wrong and probably am. But this place us just too mysterious not to question its continued existence and maintenance resources being put into it to this day
@@jackmomma7481 I think its more having to do with the fact that teletech is based there its a huge in call business that provides alot of jobs and probably keeps the mall in business .Most everyone knows someone that worked at teletech ,I live here and have visited this mall numerous times.
@@jackmomma7481 Well, she said that three of the four anchors spots are occupied by nontraditional tenants. The rent income from those and other tenants still in business in the mall, evidently is enough to keep the mall well-maintained.
Thank you for treating my local mall with respect and sharing the history, many people I've found don't know things or are distasteful. I hope you enjoyed your time in Morgantown.
Indeed I did enjoy your city! Dissing someone’s favorite hangout is not my style, and this mall is so lovely (and welcoming of vintage mall fans).
1975 I was a mere Lad back then. I remember Lums in Florida you sit eat and relax, and a beer if you were old enough. She’s right about “semi retirement” I’m just Paraphrasing. When Covid becomes history, that mall would be a great 70’s night eat in and music Morgantown could have a party😏
"...or to thank your lucky stars you've finally arrived safely back home in the '80s that you never should have left. I think we can all agree that this whole time moving forward thing is a terrible idea and we should have never agreed to it." I love this SO MUCH. Another fabulous production, you guys. Thank you! 🙏🏻💙
Thank you, Dean! It's a big part of why I love going to these unremodeled relics, it's the closest thing to getting to visit your childhood.
I’m a 2000s kid but I kinda feel this too, there’s even a big difference between the early to mid 00s and now.
@@logank6261 That’s for sure. I am more appreciative of the ‘00s now even though I grew up in the 80s. They resemble the 80s more then now and the teens. Up until 2007 you could see people not looking at cell phones every place you looked. You could engage in conversation more. That’s one thing I liked.
As a Morgantown local, I can hardly understand why people still talk about this mall. The first memory I have of going there was when I was four, in the mid 2000s there was art shows in the oldest area of the mall. I revisited it a few months back with some friends, and almost nothing has changed. Alums was turned into a advertisement stand. But other than that, I saw one old guy reading a book near where the Christmas tree is on one of the benches, and some staff cleaning the floors. They still host events like bingo, and craft shows. They also sometimes have food truck events in that giant parking lot.
Well, that’s kind of it. Most malls this age have been remodeled and modernized, sometimes more than once, to a point where they no longer feel familiar. This mall looks like the ones people remember when they were younger, so it’s a nostalgic place to visit. I agree it’s not a popular shopping destination any longer but it’s sort of a community center now and really, that’s kind of what you hope a building that’s fallen away from its original use to become. I’m sorry that the purpose of my content did not come through for you; my channel is dedicated to the memory of the golden age of the mall. Since this is such a well preserved example of what nearly all of them used to look like, it’s significant to people who are nostalgic for that sort of thing. Does that make more sense?
Yep, a lot of looks like my high school which was built in the 60's and not very far-Pittsburgh.
This is my old mall. About ten years ago I used to go and sit and read. I remember when it full of stores. The mall in Fairmont was first. That was my mall growing up in the early 70s-mid 80s. Gabriel Brothers = now known as Gabe's. It is located above the other Mall (The New Mall) in Westover.
the mid 1970s to the late 1990s was the absolute peak for shopping malls. id say late 70s to late 1980s was its prime
I love the lights I in the ceiling. I love the brick. I love the shiny floors.💚
OMG. LUMS!
Hey, cruise director, I appreciate you finding kind words for these spots. Mocking seems easier for a lot of the other channels. You are different.
I appreciate that! I just can't bring myself to talk smack about places that people clearly still care about and have warm memories toward. It just feels cruel.
@@UniCommProductions Unfortunately, one of the most popular dead mall CZcamsrs has become very popular mocking and making fun of malls that have fallen on hard times. I quit watching him and others with the same attitudes.
@@bertram_oredrock I agree that can be very disrespectful-I will throw shade at owners who neglect the properties but I try to be sensitive that the place I’m covering is or once was someone’s favorite place to be.
@@UniCommProductions I agree. Thanks for giving these dead and dying malls the respect they earned in American architecture and culture.
@@ryanwolff4058 One day they'll all be gone and the videos people are taking now will be used for reference
Murphy Mart was a part of GC Murphy. GC Murphy was a store much like FW Woolworth. My mother also referred to GC Murphy as "the five and ten." That tells you exactly what kind of store they were.
Somewhere in the middle of this, i forgot that i was watching a video at all. I felt as if i was walking through the mall with you, listening to you talk about the mall next to me. I only realized this when the video was nearly over. This is very compelling work.
Thank you, Kenny! What a nice thing to say. I really try to make the videos about that first-person experience.
You know it's a dead mall when you walk by the directory less than a minute in- and it's just blank. Because dead mall. That it's still in such good shape regardless is a rare thing- malls bleeding this much money for lack of enough stores tend to start having visible decay in no time.
That place isn’t just clean. It is shiny!! They kept it up nicely! Great video. 🙂
I've been in malls half this place's age that are FILTHY so this was a really nice surprise!
I LIVE IN MORGANTOWN
13:07 so I also watch a completely unrelated channel called Technology Connections and that’s gotta be the theme song from it. Small world! haha
Oh that was an intentional nod to one of my favorite CZcams channels! Only a few people have noticed. Good ear!
@@UniCommProductions I instantly recognized it as well, but it's slowed down. Love that channel ! Also, I grew up in Morgantown during the 90s. This mall is indeed a time capsule and there's something hauntingly beautiful about it as you stroll through it's empty halls with the sound of mercury bulbs buzzing. And oddly enough, I must have just missed your filming on location, as I took my own little footage only a few weeks prior. I still visit this mall occasionaly just to walk around for the exercise but also when I'm in a down mood. The silence is quite peaceful and relaxing.
HEY I DANCE THERE
The tree made of poinsettias is lovely!
hit up the orange julius 🥰
I'm wait for the pandemic to be a memory too but who knows if or when that will happen. thanks i enjoyed the mall walk 🖤
Were there an Orange Julius still open in there I'd be all over that!
@@UniCommProductions LMAO i appreciate it! 😂
I moved to Morgantown in 1974 when there was no retail outside of the sparse downtown area just off the WVU campus. At the time the mall was a welcome addition and an alternative to Hills in Suncrest and Hecks in Sabraton - two regional mediocre discount stores. At the mall you could get fried clams at Lums, an inexpensive lunch at the Red Rose, or a course for your teenage daughter at the Wendy Ward Charm School - while you were getting your brakes relined. Coal was king then, and the glass factories were closing one by one until none were left.
I remember going into the glass factory when I was young with my mother downtown.
I got the same school vibes. The four across doors, the almost reflective quality of the floor tiles. The cinder block walls painted white in places. It does exude the feeling I’m walking through Anderson HS. I can almost smell the blue water they use to clean those floors to make em shine.
The four across doors DEFINITELY have a gymnasium quality.
@@UniCommProductions or an auditorium.
FYI-- Lum's most famous dish was their key lime pie. It tasted like no other. Many people ( including my grandparents ) would go to Lum's just for the pie. My grandmother always had a few pies kept in her freezer as they only got to Lum's every few months. They visited the location in Bridgeport WV.
Oooh. I feel sorry I missed out on Lum’s in that case I love Key Lime Pie...I was born in 1982 so I barely missed it.
Just came across you! Love the content so far! Your voice is like buttah
i can totally picture teens in the early 80s walking through the mall smoking ciggarettes in their blue jeans wearing judas priest and billy squier t shirts 😂
In the 1980s we called them soul-less materialist temples
In the 2020s we should wish to have as much soul as that
I used to live off of Greenbag Road. The way you describe that place is exactly how it feels!
I love abandoned places like these. Makes for great backdrops for spooky storytelling.
Especially one that has a pharmaceutical company attached.
🎃👻
One Word: PRISTINE! Thank You for being our cruise director. I
What a beautiful mall. I knew it was a great time capsule from photos I'd seen, and seeing the walking tour did not disappoint.
Thanks for coming along!
I dance in that building
I saw a dance school in there!
Whoever strips and waxes those floors is the real hero.
Absolutely!
Very good video by the way. I remember seeing this mall a year or so ago, Sal or one of those other guys was there, and it seems like such a cool deadmall.
I met the security guy he was very nice
This is one of those malls that if youre into this sort of thing you have to eventually make a trip there. When I lived in Cincinnati it wasn't really on the way to anything, though, so it felt so much further.
Security/maintenance guy seemed like a stand-up dude I agree!
My family made so many wonderful memories in this mall! Very sad to see it empty!
That main area with the Christmas tree is such a great space! I know its very plain but that Aesthetic really gives me the fuzziness! I think it is because that's how so many things looked in my childhood in the late 70s and 80s. This look was still out of date at the time but there was still plenty of it to be seen. I also love those faux gaslight sconces. I love that look!
Those sconces really bring back a time when everything had wagon wheels and was brown.
My local mall is Glenbrook Square in Fort Wayne, IN. Built in 1966, not only is it still operating - but thriving. After Sears went under, the empty space was torn down and is currently being rebuilt into additional retail and restaurant space. There are also several additional free-standing restaurants that have gone in on the property in the last few years.
I’ve seen photos of that one, and it’s a really nice looking mall. In general, places that have one or two malls are still doing ok. It’s in a lot of cities where they had too many that you see them dying off.
Another one I've been in many times over the decades.
Wow. This blew me away. I'm not sure if you used the yellow/soft incandescent filter on this, but either way, this is a gorgeous time capsule that I'm glad is a community space in its golden years.
The brick, the skylights, it just evokes my childhood so much.
There’s some mild color tweaking because it looked much more “green” in camera than it did irl but this is in fact actually what it looks like in there.
@@UniCommProductions the super 8mm simulatior at the beginning... I use something much better that looks way more authentic. It's a super 16mm camera app that you can download for free. The color you can get is unbelievable
This place is so large. Just wow! Beautiful
My eighth grade class stopped at this mall on our way back home from a school trip to Washington DC in 2003! I remember it looking exactly like this and especially the food court!
Should have asked the guys working in the store Pure Collectibles for an interview.
Mountaineer is probably my all time favorite Dan Bell Dead Mall. Good to see it’s still chugging along and knows it’s place (And yes, if I lived in Morgantown this would be my walking spot.)
Oh it would absolutely be mine too! I live on the opposite side of the state and we don't have any wide-open malls that are anywhere near this interesting.
Wouldn't it be funny to be walking into a dead mall like this during Christmas and you just find a Santa sitting there twiddling his thumbs next to a big Christmas tree?
Go to Forest Fair Mall in Cincinnati on the right day; they have a Santa every year for a few days and the poor guy is so lonely.
This one was perfect with a perfect ending. Thanks for sharing it!
Thank you! I’m glad you dug it!
Yeah, it was awesome.💚
A new video! Thanks you two.
Our pleasure!
Wait, is that Technology Connections I hear at 12:00?
It is! Good ear!
Great tour. Loved the holiday feel it had. Thank you!
Thank YOU! It doesn’t feel like Christmas this year and seeing that tree helped a little.
I love Frosty.💚
I do too! It was always my favorite.
I actually worked right next to this mall at teletech, we would go to the hot dog shop there. Not gonna lie they were solid 5/10 hot dogs. And you described the vibe really well, simultaneously unnerving and serene, really just fits the weird big emptiness. Like you can tell it was made for a lot of people, and it feels like it’s just waiting for the crowds to come back.
Just found your channel. I also follow a few other mall channels. Your research is second to none (as is your sense of humor 🤩). I live an hour from Gurnee Mills Mall in IL. Have walked every mall in NE IL. Used to travel around on business before retirement. Sad to see what has happened over the decades. Thanks for all you do! 👍🏻
Illinois has a lot of really interesting malls and it's an area I haven't gotten to go to much yet.
The whole time I also thought it looks like a high school.
DOESNT IT THOUGH??
at 2:35 that was once an achor store right?
No, actually that used to the the entrance to the mall. The section we started in was an addition that was added later.
Love the work you put into your videos
Thank you for making that work worthwhile!
This video has made me a subscriber. Great stuff!
Thank you, Matt! I won't let you down!
The Middletown Mall in Fairmont, WV is older than the Mountaineer Mall.
I know. It’s also closed permanently and awaiting being turned into a strip center. I think I put that sort of awkwardly when I mentioned it (it’s in White Hall). The former Crossroads Mall in Beckley is also older.
Lovely place, thanks for the nicely produced overview!
Thank you very much for watching!
As usual, you did a spectacular job with recording and narrating what you saw at the Mountaineer Mall. In my opinion, your documentation of failing and dying malls is the best. I used to live north of Morgantown in Uniontown, Pa 1982-85 and have been to that Mall many times. It was normally packed with teenagers, families, and senior citizens even during the week. It's sad to see has lost it's popularity as a retail outlet but, It's good to see some of the spaces are being used to help the community. Happy New Year to you and best wishes in 2021. Thanks!
The good news is that it’s probably going to be exactly the same 10 years from now! I love driving out there the scenery is so pretty. Happy new year to you also and thank you so much
Keep waiting for a jump scare
Like a real life 5 nights at Freddie's
No offense, that was spookiness at it's best!
Hey whatever resonates with you…some of these places have some major backrooms vibes
wow what an incredible find! thank you for bring this to us!!
I really love this place. It's just so well preserved and of another time.
My very first job - I was a 17 year old High School senior - was at Lum's (in Hollywood, Florida). It was great: hot dogs steamed in beer, the tasty "Ollie Burger," ah happy memories! Oh, where is the Occupancy Thermometer???
This was a toughie, and the "gray area" answers to some of the questions on that list is why I left it out this time. Technically, 3 of the 4 anchors are occupied, but they're not stores. Technically a good 1/4 to 1/3 of the mall is occupied by *something* but they're not traffic drivers and they're not retailers. So basically my tl:dr is, because it's a vital center of business but it's completely dead as what we think of as a mall.
16:23 Wow! Just Wow! Twilight is beautiful!
The scenery in this state is incredible
sweet video as always. like everyone else i really love that tree!
It’s so pretty and simple! If they had more going on in that court, it wouldn’t look as good but just the big red tree is a great look.
OMG at 11:42 that's the closing theme music for the Technology Connections channel. Was that actually being played live or did you add the music in post?
I added it in post. I really enjoy that channel and thought I would sneak it in
I was here on July 3rd it was open and awesome
It's such a neat mall to walk around!
Great video !!! I love you're work but you already know that
I appreciate that!
@@UniCommProductions you're welcome
There's a storefront shown in the intro that has 'olde worlde' style bowed windows either side of the entrance. I've seen this in other dead malls, I think Rolling Acres had one. What store were these originally?
Yeah I'm pretty sure I've seen this in some of Dan Bell's videos, but he didn't know what chain it was either.
I remember Dan mentioning that in his video, and the best I’ve got is that a commenter on Labelscar said it was a chain called Brooks Women’s Wear (different from Brooks Brothers)
It was Brooks. This was my teenhood mall. Glad to see it’s so beautifully maintained. My parents and I use to do our Christmas shopping here, then sit down to dinner at Lum’s and people watch through those table side windows. 😌 Good memories. Thank you!
What sad and depressive mall I hope can re open after all this s...t pandemic ends soon.
This one is likely to be exactly the same a decade from now...its days as a retail hub are gone, but if you need a cheap space for your model train club to meet and play around in, it's there for you!
Oh wow Oh Christmas Tree, buzzing lights, spit shined floors. Just a wonderful cruise tonight. Thanks Kristin for all you do! Your a ⭐️
Truly old school! Thank you for all your support Mark :)
Check out Country Club Mall in La Vale Maryland, its about a 1hr 20 min east of Morgantown. This mall has lost all 3 of its anchors in the last few years; Bonton, Sears and Jc Penny, as well as numerous stores. This mall also has a Walmart attached.
That sounds really interesting I’ll need to look that up!
@@UniCommProductions it was just recently sold via auction at the beginning of November. The buyer has yet to be announced.
This is a backrooms lvl if you didn’t know or liminal space to lyk
Those terrazzo floors are in amazing condition... But the connections between the original mall and the addition is a bit odd... I've never seen a mall addition that didn't address the threshold between the addition and original structure.
This is the cleanest mall I've ever been in. Whoever is taking care of it is doing a fantastic job.
I was telling my wife that it reminded me of our high school so you were dead on with the school vibes. Great video 👍
Great minds think alike!
How long has Gallery been there? It looks like it was there in the 70s or 80s. It’s still there now?
It wasn’t always a gallery-when the mall opened it was a woman’s clothing store called Brooks Fashions (not to be confused with Brooks Brothers who sell men’s suits). It is still there; this video was shot a couple weeks before Christmas in 2020.
@@UniCommProductions The video looked 70s style at the beginning where it shows the Gallery store, thanks though.
@Joseph Mackela It looks old thanks to the magic of editing! 😊. It's all new footage. You can see the same storefront looking very much the same at 8:45
Good Evening, Kristin! FINALLY a non-live cast after quite a while...
(6:14) - You've mentioned that that the Gabriel Bros. chain was based there in Morgantown... Well, Wallie B26 (the "rocker" from Pittsburgh, PA) just made a video about a former Kmart store there in Western PA of its' modern iteration, GABE'S, which I thought was "a nicer Ollie's or Falas, but below a TJ Maxx or Marshall's" (didn't mention Big Lots, as Gabe's has a lot more clothing).
It is such a pity that such a WELL-PRESERVED MALL is SO EMPTY, that not even the locals frequent in any was, but then again I come from a place where malls, even dead ones, are enjoyed as public plazas (just ask Sam of Brick Immortar). Probably the community where is at changed too much for them to sustain any resemblance of business patronage
Morgantown is a pretty small city--and they have another mall that is newer and still doing quite well. This one became "obsolete" when the new one opened, so while it's still open and serving as a sort of low-cost community hub with small local businesses, the "other" mall in Morgantown is where people go to actually spend money.
Gabe's feels a bit like a thrift store that sells new merchandise. A lot of the clothes they sell are catalog overruns, factory irregular, etc so there are some deals if you're an "unusual" size (very small or very large--I've seen entire racks of nothing but size 00 Express jeans before) or are willing to take a long time looking through racks and racks.
@@UniCommProductions - Kristin, I do believe you're describing Fallas (called Falas in the Island) to a tee, nothing above it (hope there aren't stores that look like "a tale of horrors", like I've seen in YT* .
It does cater to people like me (oversized and doesn't give a hoot about brand names, just the great deal).
Hope your day is better today...
* My nearest store moved to a nicer and larger location (the A/C was "kind of wonky")...
We had Fallas up here for a while, there was one in Cincinnati and yes, Gabe’s/Gabriel Brothers is a really similar vibe. (I tend to win in the shoe department at such places, I wear a 5 1/2 and those are always what’s left over!)
This doesn't have a mall feel to it..It seems more like a museum or hospital.
It definitely does…or a school
Eloquence Antiques (seen on the corner - closed in this video - at 0:57) is a lovely store!
It looked nice when I walked by-there are quite a few businesses in here that seem to close really early but it may be because of the pandemic
It was open in July
There's still a LOT of stuff inside. I don't think there's any reason to think they've permanently closed.
Another great vid! And was that a pay phone with an actual phone in it at around the 5:40 mark? All the nostalgia feels. Happy Holidays!
There are more payphones in West Virginia than anywhere I’ve ever been-most gas stations still have them-and it’s weird!
I wish I had the male version of your voice for voice-over work. 🎤🗣
I hated my voice when I was younger, but I have grown into it. (And your voiceovers are good!)
I LOVED Daria!
@@claytonbouldin9381 lol I remember that show. I feel old as dirt now hahaha.
Great great great video
Glad you enjoyed it, Mark!
What’s up Kristin ? I know I always ask you for sound advice and here I go again lol. When you speak 🗣 into the mic how close are you to it? I notice I get the best results when I’m right up on it.
I use a pop filter but I would say I’m probably 4-5 inches from the mic. It’s going to depend a great deal on the type of mic, too-the mic I used to use (Blue Sparq) was a cardioid mic where I could be further away but I use a Shure SM7B now which is a dynamic pattern so I have to be much closer,
@@UniCommProductions I use a sm7b as well, but i sit very close to mine. I may try to scoot further away from it as well. However I notice my voice can maybe be to scratchy when I get up close. Check my latest video and tell me what you think on my voice over. I take constructive well .
What do you have it plugged into? Are you using a “mic activator” (like a Cloudlifter or a Dynamite)? For voiceover tips I really can’t recommend Booth Junkie enough-he really knows what he’s talking about.
@@UniCommProductions a Scarlett 2i2 and a dbx 286s. Yes! Booth junkie is awesome 👏
That’s a killer setup. I’ve got a Behringer U-Phoria but no activator (yet). I blew my gear budget on a Pocket 2 lol.
I have that same school vibe, kristin.
I could see this being repurposed as such if the mall dies
and it just made me feel like I was in trouble for being there because...school vibes
Is it just me, or were quite a few public schools built throughout the 70s and 80s? I feel like this phenomena may have something to do with why this mall looks so much like a school. I think a lot of it has to do with the infrastructure. The wings appear to be split up by sets of metal doors with crash bars, straight out of my own high school.
You’re probably right, and this was when mall designs were a lot more utilitarian than during most of the 80s and 90s. This one definitely isn’t a neon and palm trees sort of place, which fits the area.
You should do a piece on Flea Markets in Cincinnati in the 80's/90's. I know some are gone but I'm sure you have great info? I can't find the one we used to go to in image or anything.
That might be interesting!
This place seems frozen in time!
It really is, and it shows no signs of closing.
lt looks nice but also eriee at the same time.Malls have had their heyday and l think everyone got caught by surprise with advent of the internet( just an observation).Yes we should step back into the 80's ,l wouldn't mind going back.lt would be nice to get back to normal and go out to shop instead of doing it online,hopefully these malls will come back life when that happens.Thanks.
Very nice I've seen other people make a video on this mall before but I've been waiting for you to take a shot at it and you knocked it out of the park. I think this is my favorite of your mall videos and the best one on the Mountaineer Mall, the way you film it is such a love letter to this great place. Thank you, your video are one of the great things about 2020.
Awwww thank you! I’ll be real honest I have had a horrible day and your comment made me really happy.
I have a question. You are one of the few dead mall commentators that discuss demalling. How many malls transition from malls to open shopping plazas ? If they do why ? What is the disadvantage of having nicely air conditioned well maintained corridors between the shops ?
The disadvantage from the standpoint of the mall owner is that enclosed malls are much more expensive to maintain, and many of the malls that would be good candidates for a remodel are so structurally obsolete that it is cheaper to partially demolish them than to bring them up to modern standards.
😎
🙏🏻
Well its starting to happen, F.Y.E closed down in eastgate mall. Not much longer now
I am just beside myself about Eastgate you have no idea
How does this place coexist as empty and claustrophobic? I think the lack of skylights doesn't help. You gotta wonder how much of their electric bill on overhead lights could have been saved with a strategic skylight here or there.
I was thinking the same thing, unless they were going for that casino strategy where you have no idea how late it gets to be
YO KRISTEN!!!!!
YO SNAKE!!!!! 🐍 😎
@@UniCommProductions YO UNICOMM!!!! STIL GOT UR PINK HAIR KRISTEN??
No I had to grow it out it’s dark brown again!
@@UniCommProductions COOL U LOOK BETTER THAT WAY WITH DARK BROWN HAIR!!!
👍
Take me home. Country road...to the place I BELONG. West Virginia mountaineer mall...take me Home country road😿
I am not seeing much commerce in there. Is some of this space being used for offices? It looks really dead
Yes. Three of the four former anchor spaces have offices in them, and most of the inline spaces are more like “community” type places-there’s a dance studio, a senior center, a local nonprofit art gallery, etc.
There is a call center named TeleTech in one of the old spaces. I think WVU Medicine should rent out a couple of the spaces and use them as a vaccination center for Covid-19 plus many other small businesses. WVU is currently renting out a former Sears space for Pfizer vaccines at the Morgantown Mall a few miles away. I got my first dose last week and was able to go through in no time with the amount of stations that were there, plus there was plenty of space for social distancing for the 10 minute wait after your shot.
Love the video and thank you very much. Isn’t this the mall in which the local FBI moved into temporarily while their original offices were being renovated?
Oh, just an FYI - as if Milwaukee County’s Northridge saga hasn’t been disappointing enough, Southridge is facing bankruptcy, Brookfield Square’s vacancies have gone up 20%, and even Bayshore lost 35% of their retail space. Milwaukee County may only have Mayfair Mall as the only one left, but the ground floor near Barnes & Noble smelled like sewage when I last visited. When I relocated from Springfield OH (I commented on your Upper Valley Mall video as I was a local at that time), to Milwaukee WI I had hoped to visit every mall (I have nice shots of Southridge and Bayshore just before the mandatory COVID-related lockdowns) but not Brookfield before the vacancy rate went up.
I truly will miss the mall experience. Growing up, Philadelphia’s Gallery and Franklin Mills were my hangouts, South Jersey’s Cherry Hill and Echelon were my second homes in my twenties, Springfield’s Upper Valley entertained me (not that much) during my back-to-college period in the thirties, and hard work allowed me to afford Bayshore and Mayfair in my forties, with Southridge as the local stop. Amazon’s convenience is great, but the experiences of picking out and reading the prefaces of eight-to-ten books at Barnes & Noble, taking a long ride through several neighborhoods to shop at Bayshore, or eat in a packed Southridge food court CAN’T be virtually replicated.
You’re absolutely right-even though we can get our stuff other ways, it doesn’t replace the experience of the mall and getting to see your friends at the food court. There are still some doing well scattered throughout the country (the upscale ones seem to be doing the best at surviving, although the Huntington Mall in Barboursville WV seems to have some amazing resilience and is always packed too). I’d love to make it up to Milwaukee at some point myself, not only for the malls but for Kopp’s too!
yeah, the FBI moved to the Morgantown mall too (The larger mall in the city)
I'm jealous I can't walk through there! I'm an old 80's thrasher who's quite frankly, sick of the social/political climate of my part of the country (Seattle 😝). This time capsule is what I needed. Thanks!
There is something oddly comforting about environments that are the spitting image of our youth. Thank YOU for watching!
Is this a mall or a nursing home? Depressing interiors imho. Great vid, as always.
It has a very “school” vibe. It’s a relic from back when malls were more utilitarian.
Very sad to see....like a stage set for a play that will never perform.
EXACTLY!
Another dead mall. Depressing.
But it's not dead. The Mountaineer Mall is home to several home businesses and community organizations. This video was shot during the COVID-19 pandemic, when many of the organizations, such as the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute, MonSeniors, and the railroad club, are not meeting in person. Once the pandemic is over, people will return.