A Visit to Church Hill Mall AND Laurel Mall (Hazleton PA) 

Thank you for this. I grew up here. Born in 1984, Hazleton holds dear memories in my heart from the time period between 1984 and 2017. The Laurel Mall was where me, my brother, and mother went every Thursday in the summers when I was a kid. Every Saturday with the whole family year-round. McCrory’s was where I got my first slap-bracelet. 😂 I didn’t remember the name until you said it, then the memory hit me like a ton of bricks. I spent my teenage years haunting the place on Friday nights and Saturday days with my friends. Our whole life was focused around the Laurel Mall for a time. Now, at age 39, and living in Europe, a million miles from home, I stumble upon this and get to relive something through your video. Though, both malls are nowhere near what they were in the 90s, it’s still nice to walk them again through your lens. The feelings are still the same. (And your choice of a Duett synthwave song couldn’t have been more appropriate for me.) Thank you.

McCory is was where the family dollar is now, the grocery store was an ACME in the 80’s and 90’s

Nice job as always Mr. Grunt!

I did like the Laurel Mall a little better, since it followed the typical layout of a mall, but at the same time I would love to see more strip malls follow an indoor design like Church Hill.

I've always loved the character of old things - antiques, old houses, old cars, old malls. I love all the warm neutral colors, different textures and materials, styles, etc... Even more, there's stories in these things - the people who made them, used them, lived in them, drove in them, shopped in them.

My Dad (previous owner of the Church Hill Mail) said the new owner is going to do a good job so I'm happy about that.

Great video

Thanks for doing the Laurel Mall. Nice to see my old neck of the woods. I used to go to the Laurel Mall all the time as a kid. Honestly in High School on Fridays pretty much everyone hung out there. The Churchill mall I didn't go to all that much aside from Ollies. I always thought the Churchill mall was cool. And the food at that Diner is pretty good as is Cafe Europa.

Just cray how many malls were made throughout PA!

I hung out at the mall as a teenager back in the 70s I surre missed the fun me and my friends had there..Churchill mall was a cool place too

I was born in Hazleton in 1954, long before there was a mall or even a supermarket or a fast food joint. A trip to a mall in Wilkes-Barre on a Saturday was a big day out -- especially if we stopped at McDonald's on the way home!

used to love that mall late 80’s early 90’s every friday and saturday hangout

Lived there from 1946 to 1964 when i left for college

Loved it! Awesome work :)

Booties was awesome when it opened. Last time I was there, not so much

Too bad you didn't get any Booties on this trip. Who would have known that you can't get booty on Sunday. Both of these malls seem to be doing fairly well. I knew that I had seen that weird star before somewhere. Thanks for clarifying that it was from the same cafe company that was at Phillipsburgh Mall. By chance did you get any footage inside of Boscov's? That looks like it was one of the mirror and neon locations that I need to visit one day.

I have never seen an inclosed strip mall like Churchill. Very interesting. The strip malls where I live are all open air ones. Love the vintage vibe to it. Too bad it is so quiet. Laurel mall seemed nice. Liked some of the different types of stores. Esp that espresso bar. There was some really cool aesthetics in that mall.

Booty’s is meh for the price, you didn’t miss a lot imo. Local restaurant scene is pretty inundated with Hispanic food anymore (and I’m not complaining! J Zapata’s has heart

I live in Hazleton and the church hill mall is now getting a taco bell built in the parking lot other than that nothing new. The laurel mall actually bounced back hobby lobby did open but it's not connected to the mall. The laurel mall is doing well. This is sad but at the time of this comment about a month ago the older lady that works at cafe Europa overdosed and died in the Wal-Mart parking lot.

The McCrorys was where the family dollar is now. I worked there in the early 90s. The grocery store was always a grocery store and used to be an Acme.

Next Friday: cape cod mall in Hyannis Massachusetts.

In the future I feel like the Churchill mall will do better than the laural mall because since 2019 nothing major has been added aside from hobby lobby, and they keep getting rid of stores left and right. Not to mention the GameStop mall purge that happened. I also thing the Churchill mall is under better management than the laural mall

Good video. I liked the Laurel Mall a little more, but Church Hill was nice to see too. Good a mom and pop mall like Church Hill, is still doing well. BTW, is the Boscov's here the type that has the decorative chandelier type lights, mirrored ceilings, and neon? It looked like when you walked up to the inside mall Boscov's entrance, that it was one of those more decorative stores with that interior look. Weird Bath and Body Works was temporarily closed, at the time you filmed this. Was this like 2020 footage, you never got around to uploading till this year?

Cool 😀

I feel like after I moved from hazleton in 2017 to Florida everything went downhill there

Church hill was a throw back in time. McCrory's was an ancient 1970's store. I remember going to that store as a kid. Woolworth's too. Boobie's rrstaurant..so funny. The Laurel mall looked ok. Typical mall stuff..

McCorys was where Family Dollar is now.

Just went there a day ago

Also Cafe Europa has great food. They are a bit pricy but some of the best Buffalo Chicken Pizza I had ever had. I can't remember what is where that big GNC is. What Used to be there? I can't remember at all what store used to be there?

Does anyone remember Space Flight Arcade that was right outside of Value City/Gee-Bees. I don't remember what year they closed. That was the place to go as a kid!

Love the laurel mall favorite mall will make a trip there

also out side the church hill mall was hazletons first multi screen movie theater that is now a chinese buffet

🥇🥇🥇

FYI-The original Anchor stores @ Church Hill Mall were Gaylords & ACME Markets. I worked in both the ACME & McCrorys-McCrory's was where the Family Dollar is now. The Coin Exchange was originally People's National Bank. Too much bad change in that town, went into the USAF in 1982, and never looked back....

Macquarie used to be where Family Dollar was

4:18 (Fleece Johnson voice) "I would have loved some..."

Your close to my hous

I wonder if booties was in the same section as Gaylords?

Fun fact the owner of boties is my moms ex boyfriend Neil forte

What would be really cool is to interview the people that work in the stores or own these small businesses. The emptiness you feel owning a small business that generates not enough revenue to pay rent is really sad or else pure genius as you sit in a dead mall store where you dont bother paying rent because the mall owner is too lazy to eject you or knows that they cant and you wont ever pay rent thanks to Joe Biden liberal type laws. The USA as many of us knew is just dying off and its hard to say that is for the better.

Cute