DEAD MALL BLOG

a blog about dead malls and other abandoned spaces

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Abandoned Lisa Frank factory, January 2017. Photos by Julia Alexander.

This article on Lisa Frank’s shady business practices is one of my favorite things ever written!

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hey i just wanted to ask, would you possibly be interested in some really recent photos of upper valley mall in ohio? ohio has so many awesome dead malls (or, rolling acres, ykno) but upper valley is yet another really awesome one to walk around. i've been going since i was pretty young and i have no clue how they even keep the place open tbh

Sure! (P.S. Hi followers, sorry i haven’t posted in forever, as usual. I’m working on my master’s thesis a lot, and will continue to be pretty busy for the next month. Feel free to submit pics, and I’ll try to get through my backlog of suggested malls eventually!!)

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Bon-Ton, Eastern Hills Mall, Williamsville, NY. closed August 2018.

photos taken by me 8/5/18.

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Madison Square Mall. Huntsville, AL. opened 1984, closed and demolished 2017. The lot is being redeveloped into a shopping center.

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Update: according to @backmaskingmax,  after it was torn down, a TopGolf and a Wahlburgers moved in. 

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From @turbomun: “Valley View Center in Dallas, TX. Opened in 1973, still (partially) open.

The mall was built up around a stand-alone Sears that opened in 1965. It was supposed to be demolished to make way for a mixed use development called Dallas Midtown in 2016, and again in 2017, but disputes between the land owner and the city have stalled redevelopment indefinitely. There are no anchors left, no food court, and everything is blocked off except for a third-floor AMC movie theatre that was added in 2003, and a small portion of the second floor with very few tenants. Between 2014 and 2017, the rest of the second floor was used as art galleries and artist studios, but those have also been closed and blocked now. There is a carnival held in the parking lot every summer that rarely has any visitors.”

Photos taken by @turbomun July 14, 2018.

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Power outage at the Porter Square subway station on Boston’s Red Line. Photo taken by me 10/27/18. 

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Star Market. Somerville, MA. This grocery store closed in 2007 and has been sitting empty with its labelscar visible ever since. Photo taken by me 6/13/18.

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It’s so cool to see pics of the buffalo malls around me! Really appreciate you taking all of them

Glad you appreciate them! Shoutout to my hometown~

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Off topic post, but I think it fits with the aesthetic of creepy things and time passing. This is The Angel of Death Victorious, also known as the Haserot Angel, a grave marker in Lake View Cemetery, Cleveland, OH. The angel is holding an upside-down torch to represent a life extinguished. Weathering has made the bronze statue develop black streaks that look like tears. 

Photos taken by me 6/3/18. 

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Empty Sears storefront. Buffalo, NY. Photo taken by me 5/12/18.

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Medley Centre (previously Irondequoit Mall). Irondequoit, NY. opened 1990, closed 2009. 

First three pics are from Labelscar. The advertisements in the third pic were up until at least 2007, even though the mall’s name had changed two years prior. 

The fourth picture is from Democrat & Chronicle and was taken after a water main break in 2014. The building is still standing and the carousel is still inside. There are plans to turn the first floor into a community center. 

Also check out this slideshow of people at the mall in the 1990s!

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Map Dead Malls in Europe

dead mall, europe, shopping center, abandoned malls, empty box, centre commercial, testimony, ruin, ghost box, big box,unused,

Found a blog with a map of some dead malls in Europe! It doesn’t have much info and the blog hasn’t been updated in several years, but it’s always interesting to find out about dead malls in different countries.  I also learned that the French term for dead mall is « un centre commercial fantôme » (lit. “ghost mall”), which is pretty cool.

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The Future of Suburban Retail Looks Worse Than You Realize

Overbuilt malls, corporate mergers, and autonomous vehicles are converging.

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Mac DeMarco - Chamber of Reflection

support mac and buy salad days on the right. https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/salad-days/id799685692 Chamber of Reflection

Off topic but related to my last post on Dan Bell’s TEDx talk: this is my fave vaporwave-ish song. The melody is from “The Word II” by Shigeo Sekito, a song from the 70s that uses an electric organ and is also really worth checking out. I mean just look at the album cover: 

no use looking out, it’s within that brings that lonely feeling

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Inside America's dead shopping malls

What happens when a mall falls into ruin? Filmmaker Dan Bell guides us through abandoned monoliths of merchandise, providing a surprisingly funny and lyrical commentary on consumerism, youth culture and the inspiration we can find in decay.

A friend sent me this a long time ago-- great 12 min TEDx talk by Dan Bell, creator of the Dead Mall Series on youtube. I’ve previously posted about the Owings Mills Mall, which he talks about, here. I love how he mentions vaporwave! I started listening to some vaporwave-ish stuff around the same time that I became interested in dead malls, too.

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“Collin Creek Mall in Plano, TX. Built 1981. Used to have five anchor stores, now has two; one of the empty spaces has been converted to an indoor playland called Amazing Jake’s.

I used to come here fairly often when I was in middle school/high school, and it was always doing all right, if not as well as some other malls in the area. Now it’s clearly on its last legs. According to Dallas News, it really went downhill after Dillard’s left in 2014, and the land may be redeveloped soon: https://www.dallasnews.com/business/retail/2017/06/27/planos-collin-creek-lewisvilles-vista-ridge-malls-may-soon-new-owners“

Photos taken by @turbomun 1/16/18.

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Check out this 15-minute(!!) youtube video on Plano Market Square Mall, which I posted about here. This video is part of youtube user Liquorhead’s Dead Malls of America series.