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Dead Fairgrounds Square Mall Tour | Muhlenberg PA | DEMOLISHED IN 2020

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The Fairgrounds Square mall officially opened in October 1980, with Boscov's and JCPenney serving as anchors. The mall was constructed at the former location of the Reading Fairgrounds. The mall was renovated in 1996, at which point a Montgomery Ward was built as a third anchor.
Source: Wikipedia
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25 авг 2024

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Комментарии : 40

@huntersun9 Год назад

Wow. I worked at Fairgrounds for 12 years, at the Waldenbooks. I remember how it looked before the big renovation with its dingy brown tile floors. It was so dark and the "new" mall was wonderfully light and bright as you mentioned. But over the years, we saw business dwindle and knew the mall was dying a very slow death. Mall management had a hard time attracting higher end stores and it seemed every other space was a cell phone place or a temporary holiday shop. I feel like I could cry now remembering the older stores I enjoyed and the co-workers I came to love. And I met my husband there! I'm very grateful to you for making this tour available. It's sad, but a valuable record and I appreciate the time you take on ALL your videos.

@warrenguy76 Год назад

I worked at the Fox Theatres there from 1992-1995. The mall was certainly booming then! Near us in that wing was Time-Out arcade, Golden Eagle Comics and Chik-fil-A. We had to change out the sign (shown in the first scene of the video) with new movies every week. The ladder was kept within a hidden closet in the pillar facing 5th St Highway.

@233monte 7 лет назад

Both malls used to have kick ass fountains.

@joea.9969 7 лет назад

I remember going to this mall,and there were so many people I could barely get through.The Boscov's is the only place where there are still pretty many people.That Boscov's is very pretty inside.There used to be a Giant Inflatable Playground in the middle.That Zales has been closed forever.There used to be a fountian on front of Limerick furniture,which was JC Penny's.Montgomery ward insisted on putting Montgomery Esclalators in the store,which is now Burlington.There was a good pizza store,a subway,the pretzels,and much more.The Suit store was great.There was so much life.The store with the white doors was a pet shop.I got a dachshund from there.The mall got so bad that they took down the food court sign,as there isn't any food there anymore,just a convenience store.There was a Army sign up store,and so much more.Those neon lights were so bright,and I always looked at them at night.I go used to go to this mall and the Berkshire mall,now I go to the Berkshire mall,which is in great condition and soo busy.

@trenawawrzyniak4397 Год назад

At one time there was a carousel n a huge blow up slides n a grown up n kids bounced house which is about 13 yrs ago around 2007.

@misterhat5823 7 лет назад

You have such a nice voice.

@AllHealthNetwork 6 лет назад

I remember seeing Halestorm perform in this mall way back in the day... maybe 1999 when Roger (the dad) was still playing bass. They set up in that center court area.

@lonestarsanta2003 7 лет назад

Let's tear it down and bring the fairgrounds back!

@chokopyua3577 7 лет назад

Thats still floating around. It'll be a shame to see it torn down but I'm all for the track coming back honestly.

@kingjelly6666 4 года назад

Its not coming back

@233monte 7 лет назад

How in the world does keyboard world stay open?

@SirRobertDole2 6 лет назад

just went there yesterday and they had a sign saying they closed on Dec 1st. Most of the merchandise is still there though.

@ThatProjectZcar 6 лет назад

GovernorVentura yeah I saw that too

@sailorsenshi4504 6 лет назад

They closed now

@cipriandonisa6472 6 лет назад

Wow. This takes me back. I enjoyed it :)

@garyseidel5520 7 лет назад

my old stumping grounds in the 80s. good job on the video. after reading the comments....rent played a part on this dying mall but online shopping is what killed it. : )

@backtothe80s99 7 лет назад

I used to think that about "online shopping" but other malls such as Berkshire are doing much better than this mall... so can't really say that killed it.

@nancydarling4918 6 лет назад

That is so sad that this beautiful mall is dying. Good video. Thanks.

@Kinseydsp 6 лет назад

So sad it used to be a Powerhouse for shopping. I still like malls hate walking outside in the heat or cold to shop.

@sailorsenshi4504 6 лет назад

It was never a powerhouse for shopping but it was a cute place to shop at.

@tstahler5420 Год назад

I remember when it was new. It always felt like a cheap copy of a mall.

@mikesexplorations9314 7 лет назад

due to high rent, and the fact Berkshire mall is so close i bet it has cheaper rent and that, plus online shopping killed this mall. that is my theory

@KimJongMothra 7 лет назад

Oh wow. I remember going in there years ago and it was crowded. Quite the contrast in this video. D:

@duaneshuster6366 7 лет назад

Like other area malls the owners raise rent so high they can't afford to stay. When your mall is dying make the Rent $500 a month you will see a return .

@JesusTapdancingChristOnaCross 6 лет назад

The last Christmas season the mall was open, half of the mall between Burlington and Boscov's had no lights on and no heat. There was no Christmas tree, no Christmas decorations of any kind.

@dappertouge 6 лет назад

Noooooo 😭😭😭 I love this place so much

@streetrodderwillyskid2063 7 лет назад

everyone wonders what happen to that mall. Well let me tell you. piss pour managers and owners who don't care about area at all. collect rents that are way too high for tenants to make any money. That's why empty stores all over. instead of fixing the mall let's paint a food court and get a artist to draw on walls for weeks and pay him high dollars for what. didn't make anyone come in doors. go to managers office tell them that they got a problem well you pay for it. leaks in roof. then they didn't collect bills for months and months and when you decide to leave they send a collection agency after you because they didn't do their jobs. best thing for this place tear it down and make a parking lot out of it. All the companies and banks that own this all they want is collect they don't care about the area. gees people wake up..... But wait. muhlenberg township will help them out... because they want the taxes...

@mikesexplorations9314 7 лет назад

street rodder willys kid , It is shame too, this mall is beautiful and neat

@ConnerRhoads 6 лет назад

It actually has very, very, very little to do with store rent or management at current. Back before the mall was well over the hump of dying, the management at the mall was quiet good. Today, the only management that exists at the mall is a group who's only acting as administration. Case and point on rent: The FYE that left in 2012 had been paying ZERO rent for 2 years. The mall made that agreement to keep a well established company in the mall. Several other companies, like GNC, had similar-ish deals. That's also the primary reason Golden Eagle is still there; as of last I knew, they WERE paying a 'rent' but it was so low that it makes sense to stay there as a destination store where they can make some money on foot traffic sales and most of it as online sales. There are two very big factors why the mall died out. #1.) The site of the mall used to be the Berks Fairgrounds. It was the driving force of bringing people into the mall. At its prime there was a major attraction that brought people in almost every week, certainly, minimally for the big Carnivals they had around Easter, Summer and Fall. Moving the fair grounds to Leesport and then splitting some of the other shows they used to have there off to Kutztown, Allentown and the Berks Convention center didn't help at all. #2.) Berks County inherited *A LOT* of NYC's problems. During the late 60s and early 70s, the mafia managed to persuade PA to change it's legal definition of homeless to be "One who does not have their name on the lease"; making just about every college student in Berks County now classified as homeless; considering Berks County is one of the most densely populated regions for colleges in the country, that says a lot (RACC, PSU, Kutztown, Albright, Alvernia). The people who were "administrating" the social programs in Berks County for a time were basically collecting tons of money to deal with the "epidemic" and then padding their wallets with a lot of money because they did "such a great job" helping the "homeless". When Rudolph Giuliani was mayor of NYC, a program he instituted for homeless persons in NYC was to give anyone they could find that was homeless in NYC a one way ticket to some place in the country that they had family who would take them in. A lot of people got wind that Berks County had "tons of resources for the homeless" and picked that as their destination. Pretty soon, a system that was never developed to deal with the problem all of a sudden had a mass influx of people raging from mentalty ill, to illegal immigrants, to people who were just down on their luck. A lot of residents of Berks County fairly quickly turned the surrounding areas outside Reading into a massive paywall. All of these things led to Reading going from a prominent shopping region for people busing in from NYC, Philly and New Jersey into a practical demilitarized zone almost over night (fairly, over the span of just a few years). For a long time, the only thing that was keeping Fairgrounds afloat is it became the source of a lot of drug trading; though that was somewhat quickly squelched between a crackdown from Muhlenberg Township and more 'attractive' and off the radar places coming into their own in town. The Fairgrounds being in the shape it is today is simply a result of the state of the City, Township, County and State. There's some good object lessons herein, but the bigger question still remains "how to move forward". Sadly, many persons from the community found very quickly that the best way to fix the problem is not to. There's not enough people wanting to fix that area and not enough cooperation from local and state government.

@sailorsenshi4504 6 лет назад

that food court was a mistake

@ZigZagMarquis 7 лет назад

I remember when they tore down the fairgrounds and race track and built this mall. Too bad it's going down the drain, but a lot of the Reading area seems to have done so. Hopefully the area will turn around some time. Jobs are what is needed though. Real jobs making things, not just service industry. NAFTA really screwed over the Reading area.

@backtothe80s99 7 лет назад

There are just not enough good jobs to really support the areas population that and all the jobs that come into the area are distribution, warehouse & fulfillment centers such as Amazon....long gone are the manufacturing jobs.

@noahstmnts 5 лет назад

That Comic and Cards Store that you passed by about 3 or 4 times in this video is still an active store in Fairgrounds Mall.

@itsme3928 5 лет назад

Sad about the Fairgrounds Mall might start doing the same video at the Berkshire Mall not far behind within three years or less be the same as if Fairgrounds Mall