Dead Malls/Urban Exploration

[CronoTriggerfan]

Okay, this topic is kinda creepy for me. It may sound silly, but these things are the only things that completely terrify me. Dead Mall, as the term implies, is a vacant or mostly empty shopping mall that is either no longer economically viable or is physically decaying. The other day, there was this mall around me called Summit Place Mall in Waterford, Michigan. I remember going there as a kid a couple times, so I figured I'd go check it out, because there was a store in there that sold vintage Nintendo products

I was scared. The mall was literally empty, with one anchor, Macys, and the others were empty and boarded up, smelling like mold. There was a JCPenny and a Montgomery Wards (are they even around anymore?) that were no longer in operation, and this game store I went to and a pet shop were the only places even operating in the interior. The old "food court" had signs of Burger Kings and Sbarros that were long gone, with the counters unlocked and musty-smelling kitchens completely accessible. Nonetheless, the whole experience was quite disconcerting.

I did some research when I got home, and there's a site dedicated to these things, www.deadmalls.com . The one I went to is on there, in addition to more. The most famous is Dixie Square mall, where the Blues Brothers car chase scene was filmed, that has been dormant for more than 30 years, gathering mold and asbestos, and in it's earlier years of abandonment, was home to a number of murders and homeless people. The place is now occupied by over 50 wild dogs, kinda creepy if you ask me.

So do you guys have any of these things near you, or have ever been to one? What did you find there? I know this is kind of an odd-ball topic, but it was really weird for me. I've seen some crazy, frightening stuff in life, but this was probably the most eerie experience so far.

CTFan

[gamer2]

When you said "Dead Malls" I thought you ment something from Dawn of the Dead, lol.

[XPCportables]

Oh yeah! I was just at a dead mall last week. I was visiting my family in Jonesboro Arkansas, and I decided to slide be the Indian Mall (Which had been that happenin' mall up until last year when the new mall opened) and it was one of the most strange and surreal experiences of my life. Having only ever seen that mall full of people and stores, it was almost disturbing, seeing it completely empty (Sears and a Dillard's outlet are the only stores left) I took some pictures that I will upload in a little bit.

[Extreme_Jesus]

Abandoned things are awesome

unfortuntly i live in an island city, and as its finially modernising all the cool squats and warehouses and being knocked down now.

Best one we had was an old warehouse we found, with about 10 office rooms as well. Working lights and heating (till they got kicked in). To turn the electricity you had to wade waist deep in the flooded basement and flip one of those big metal switches, not many wanted to do that

Was great till too many people found out, all the windows got smashed, light bulbs too. Final straw was when there was about 100 kids there, lots of drugs and alcohol and then the cops came. Bastards kicked down all our ramps we'd built too. Well we assume it was them considering we didnt stick around for long

[Triton]

god a lot of the city of ottumwa is like that! out of the 20 or 30 different stores in the downtown area i would guess maybe half of them are occupied, its really sad, we do have some big abandoned buildings but i havent been in any of them

[samus]

i've seen many dead malls in mah time. but only one strikes me as reaaaaally dead. one time when i was on RAGBRAI me and some other girl in my bike team decided to go shopping in this old tiny town. we saw a dollar tree attached to a big open building so we went in. oddest thing... the only people in there were old people walking around. and the only stores open were the dollar tree and younkers. oh, and it looks like before it went dead, they were trying to do some reconstruction so the bathrooms were knocked down in some areas with random slabs of drywall were everywhere.

where i am now all the malls are thriving, so i'm lucky. ^^

[Dr. KillGood]

I forget it's name, but there is a mall somewhere near me with a laser tag store in it, and thats it! It had a card game store called T&T games, but they sold it and moved.

GOD DAMN! I wish I could remember the name!

[bicostp]

Actually I've always found these sorts of things fascinating, how suddenly a place where hundreds of people went on an average day can suddenly become abandoned... Kind of like this forum after the hype from a big project dies down.

EDIT: I used to go to the Lincoln Mall (it's listed on that site under RI). It used to be great, then it died when competition came to town and its anchors flew the coop or died altogether. In recent years they tore down about half of it, rebuilt an anchor, and turned it into a bizarre strip mall / encloded mall / cinema hybrid. It's barely recognizable now.

Here's a site with some current pics (behold the weirdness!):
http://www.labelscar.com/rhode-island/lincoln-mall

Fun facts:
- That Papa Gino's (a really good local pizza chain; find one if you're ever up here) is a very old design, and it's really packed into an odd shaped corner of the building.
- The Radio Shack had the old 70s red letter logo above the door at least until 2002 (last time I remember going there before they renovated the place)
- The center "mall" part is about the only thing that's barely changed. It used to be a nice looking place, but today it's pretty hacked together.

EDIT: If you really want some dead retail fun, head over to http://www.amesfanclub.com/ . Ames was a department store that originated in Connecticut, bought out Hills and Zayre, were really fun to shop at, sold Game Gear games in 2001, reached the #4 spot in the list of biggest US retail chains, and ultimately got too big for their britches and filed for bankruptcy in 2002. Even now, over 5 years later, many of the stores are still sitting as they were when the chain closed, complete with checkouts, decor, signage, and shopping carts. Cheap trucking companies seem to have bought Ames trucks (I see one on occasion), and there's still some big sings around up in New Hampshire. Now that's peculiar. (My local Ames, however, was completely renovated into a Burlington Coat Factory back in '03.)

I scanned some old video game pages from an old Toys R Us flyer and put them up <a href="http://bicostp.portablesofdoom.org/gall ... 2">here</a> if you want a few laughs.

[ganonbanned]

Theres a dead mall by me. it's in milwaukee, its called "northridge", and it was old and really dirty, and had very high rent so it eventually just closed down. They might have torn it down by now, but it was creepy when it was still there.

[xtrmgam3r360]

Theres a dead mall by me. it's in milwaukee, its called "northridge", and it was old and really dirty, and had very high rent so it eventually just closed down. They might have torn it down by now, but it was creepy when it was still there.

lol, i've been there and your right it was pretty creepy

[Adam G]

Quick question:
When a mall is considered "dead", are their still security guards and such around to keep order? Do they walk around as in "normal" malls and make sure no one is up to no good or is the so called "order" to be controlled by the stores still "housing" in the mall?

The reason for my asking...
If some kids, say about my age were to ride their bikes through a "dead" mall, would anyone make a big fuss about it or would no one care? How many people are gernerally in a "dead" mall?


~Adam~

[Life of Brian]

The reason for my asking...
If some kids, say about my age were to ride their bikes through a "dead" mall, would anyone make a big fuss about it or would no one care?

I suppose it depends on how fast you can escape

[Triton]

what really intrests me is the whole urban exploring thing, i was big into reading about it (not close enough to anywhere urban to do much myself) a while back, exploring steam tunnels, abandoned buildings, even urban spelunking (abandoned basements and underground places) its all pretty cool stuff, there are a few good sites out there about it

[Dr. KillGood]

I live near Atlanta, thats a big city! Nothing seems abandoned though.

[ChrisS]

Urban Exploration rocks.


We used to get into the local abandoned state hospital AKA nut house.

I can't believe they tore down Danvers and Traverse City is now condos.