DEAD MALL: Lafayette Square Mall - Indianapolis, IN. Running on empty or picking up speed? 

I used to LOVE THIS MALL in the 80's-90's. The smell of hot caramel popcorn when you came into to the Woolworths side of the mall. It was ALWAYS busy. Wonderful memories of this mall.

I love when you post new dead mall content! You're one of my faves!

Ah yes ... Teen Mall Culture. As a high school teen in the late 80s and early 90s, teenagers kept the malls' pizza parlors, restaurants, and ice cream shops busy and well funded.

I wish to congratulate you on acquiring footage of this mall. I tried to film it and was thrown out by security in three minutes flat.

I just wanna say that your channel is my new favorite thing. It has everything I like all rolled into one: Mall music that sounds distant and echoey, POV footage of empty or sparsely-populated places (liminal spaces, some call it), and history--especially history of middle America. Big kudos to you for what you do, and I can tell you like doing it as well.

These videos are incredible, thank you for making these short films.

Well done as usual. I agree you give us such great history and commentary as you tour. You also give us the vibe with the details and newspaper articles. The world needs more Lonzos! I do like that the mall is surviving with local community stores. The community around the mall keep it going. RIP to sweet Clover ❤️.

I really enjoyed this Kristen! I like these 2 old malls, mostly for the hulking mid-century anchor architecture but also for the fact that they are both still open and people shop and hang out there. I always marvel at how absolutely enormous these malls are. Where I come from (Jersey), the malls all have 2-3 anchors so these 5 and 6 anchor malls are crazy. Both Lafayette and Washington have great old LS Ayres with the large arches (not sure what the proper architectural term is for them) but at one of them, there is a clear labelscar which says "L.S.Ayres" in mid-century script. I also really enjoy the ex-Montgomery Wards with the 70's mansard entrances at Lafayette Square--I think it used to be the Burlington and the brutalist JCPenney buildings. I know Linda may consider these areas "seedy" but then again, she probably only shops at places with "Promenade" in their name. I feel right at home here. Every time I am in Indianapolis, I stop and get a haircut and a shave at a place right outside of Lafayette Square. I also have to tell you that I so appreciate that you give a history of the mall while we are looking at it. I was watching Northridge Mall videos and I kept getting frustrated cuz all anyone was commenting on was how trashed the place was. No history. No nostalgia. No backstory! I was SO grateful to find that you had covered it. I really enjoyed that video too. As I have told you before, it's so nice to have a female voice and perspective on these places. I really appreciate you!

Trips to the mall in the early 1990s often meant coming home with a CD album or two, or maybe a new book, at least for me.

Orange Julius, G.C. Murphy's, Sears, Walden Book store, MCL restaurant, The Bridge and etc. Memories

This was a great video! You had so much research packed in I felt shades of video essay (that is not a complaint!). Always look forward to new content from you.

at 11:25 love the "Buckets O' Fun" is a replica of the Indianapolis 500 Borg-Warner Trophy.

Thanks for the trip to the mall ! I’m sorry about your furry friend 😢

omg you have the perfect narration voice.

So sorry for the loss of your sweet furbaby. Thanks for another great video.

that macys entrance with the pretend storefront cover is so sad.

This was my go to mall growing up! Coming in from the north end I will never forget the aroma of Cinnabon. Thank you for the footage!

I remember working in some stores here. Somehow I never got a feeling it was going to last long. I don't why I thought that maybe because there was a shift to open air malls. Anyway great piece of history thank you so much.

I remember going to Lafayette square in the mid to late 70's and playing Space Invaders at the indoor Cinema after watching the movie Going to the Arcade Great Times on Saturday afternoon with friends was a great memory

Being right next to the Indie Speedway, I don't know why this place doesn't have an indoor GO-Kart track with the cars looking like Indie cars, and a small arcade near it with a kids playground, as that food court just screams for it.

This like the Washington Square Mall was one of the malls I grew up going to. My malls were Greenwood Park Mall, Washington Square Mall and then Lafayette Square Mall. That quote you read from the old man was taken from one of my teachers in Highschool and he was one of my neighbors. My guess is Circle Center Mall in downtown Indianapolis!

What a sad old lady. Growing up in the 80’s, my friends and I spent every spare moment in our local mall, it was the only way to catch up with everyone, hang out, we didn’t have phones and internet, the mall was like the village central of 100 years ago… another age. “ What to do about middle aged,empty nester Linda, who saw kids in ripped jeans and was afraid” … best line ever

As usual… “Killin It” with the dead malls… wait! Is that a good thing? Ha!

Big beautiful colorful mall

Thank You For Sharing This Beautiful Video Vlog

YES. I drove past this a year ago and went, “holy shit, that is a RU-vid video”

I used to come here growing up as a kid and teenager. Have not been since 2009

RIP Clover

Great video as always … hello from the U.K. ! That mall is on its last legs .. awful ceilings ! A lot of space to fill and as mentioned before, it doesn’t have anything that makes it a destination.

Thanks for this video, Kristen! Those of us in nearby Hendricks County used to shop here A LOT back in the day, as there was little to no shopping there then. Our family dropped thousands of $$$ in this mall over the years. Christmas shopping, back to school shopping...so many retail memories took place in this building in the 1980s. I still have many of my music cassette tapes and many of them were purchased at this mall. Last visited here in 1995 and was dying then. Rest well, Clover.

I've driven by this place a few times. It's interesting to see the interior. I pictured it busier, but much more run down, if that makes sense. It's nicer than I thought, but emptier. I just pictured a bunch of low-rent wig stores and churches and maybe a DMV office or two. The exterior looked pretty rough the last time. It looked completely abandoned from the freeway with graffiti and stuff and a guy on the roof. Sorry for your loss.

Great great great video Kristen

Awww ... rest in purr-fect peace Clover! Forgive me for saying this, but this just looks cheap in my opinion. Cheap ceilings. Cheap skylights. Cheap floor tiles (3:50). Cheap lighting fixtures. Cheap retailers - Shopper's World! Especially: cheap uncomfortable seating! It does not look inviting. 6:08 - OMG - what is that? An empty plot of dirt that once held live plants??? Sheesh.

I remember when the planters in the middle of the mall where fountains where people would drop coins into (In the 80s) and where it was booming on Saturday nights.

Thank you for making this video. I was a regular through the 80's and 90's.. It's sad to see it sit rather empty with no big anchor stores. I can remember going to General Cinema 1-2 inside the mall ( and 3-5 in the side parking lot). And of course there was LS Ayres, JC Penney, Waldenbooks, Layne Bryant, Lazarus, Victoria's Secret, Spencers, Suncoast Motion Picture Company, GC Murphy and so many more over the years. Have a lot of good memories of those times.

10:00 LOL they put up a picture of a department store interior to make it look like it's still occupied. Clever! It's like a cartoon where a kid puts up a fake wall with a picture of a clean bedroom to trick his parents into thinking he cleaned his room.

Aw. I’m sorry for your loss of your pet cat.

Lonzo seemed like an awesome dude.

So many memories here. Amazing research, as always. I'll guess the next is Circle Centre, maybe Greenwood. Definitely not Castleton or Fashion Mall.

This is now in the new international marketplace neighborhood and is called Window to the World. It's similar to Epcot in experiences with all new tenants, shops and millions spent to make it feel like a world fare vibe with Faux facades and different tbrmeing in different areas. It's to the nines.

Hello To Everyone From California

I drove by this mall early of last year visiting columbus ohio. Very beautiful mall on the outside but even prettier on the inside. Wish i had the time to stop and view the inside. Thanks for making this video!

The video was great!

Keep up The Great Work

Awsome video as always :)

I hope it's Circle Centre! If not, please consider doing it.

Crime was only part of the reason why Lafayette Square went downhill. It was also because of the opening of the Shops at Perry Crossing. Second, it was the loss of manufacturing jobs in the Indianapolis Area.

I watched the premier and it was as always very good! I unfortunately was eating pizza at the same time and didn't want to get my screen greasy haha. Looking forward to your next.

I've been a subscriber since the beginning and I just noticed today I haven't got any notifications in like 6 months and it unsubbed me so I re subbed and set all notifications. You are so awesome and I absolutely love the quality and the history and seeing this stuff. Keep up the awesome work Kristen!

Excellent video and great commentary. I remember the L.S. Ayres and later Macy’s at this mall- it was such a lovely store. The massive Macy’s at Castleton is nice, but just not the same.

💟 Clover

They’re closing in august and opens in November maybe you could do before and after once it’s done

Ta da....here it is.

I also think of another former DeBartolo mall here in Texas that got bought out by Ashkenazy Acquisition Corporation and was later renovated under the latter: Rivercenter in San Antonio. Around the mid-2010s, some of the more colorful decorative elements that dated from the mall's opening in the late-1980s were toned down to more neutral colors, and this corresponded with an expansion of that mall into the former Dillard's space. Being near the Alamo and on the Riverwalk, Rivercenter seemed to focus more on out-of-town tourists over San Antonio locals, given the expensive parking (because Rivercenter is in downtown San Antonio). I'm not sure if Rivercenter will become a dead mall, but they did lose their Macy's earlier this year, which left them without a traditional department store anchor.

When I was a kid this was the mall to go to, that was the mid to late 80s to early to mid 90s. I've not been inside in a few years.

There was one more mall in Indianapolis that is now defunct but the building still stands. It was the former Eastgate Shopping Center, now used as a data center campus for Lifeline Data Centers.

Lafayette Square was very popular with my friends and I in the 80s. There were three movie theaters--the General Cinema inside the mall, a General Cinema off to the side, and a Loews theater near the back parking lot. They didn't check ids, so that's where we went to see R-rated movies. The last time I walked through this mall (about five years ago), I was very sad to see what had become of it. Almost no businesses. A ghost town. It looks, from this video, like it might have a rebirth.

You can still see the abandoned incredible pizza

cool vid, you deserve more subs

I like the music that was playing in the background, it almost sounded similar to "Everytime You Go Away" by Paul Young

I also heard about there’s right now a development going on there which will soon become some sort of bazaar called, window of the world on the news. Even though I live in a different city of Indiana now, which that’s all I want to let you and all the other users know about because I want to keep my personal info like where I live at private

How about Indy Union Station, or is this still going? Would consider it sort of a mall as there was stores and a food court.

I happened to go by Lafayette Square Mall today and I can say it is truly dead now You cannot even get inside the mall now The only store is still Shoppers World and you have to get there from the parking lot. So sad.

Food Court seemed to be really dead.

RIP Clover 🖤🖤

Your voice would be perfect for audiobooks

I think you are mistaken. Montgomery Ward was behind the food court and Lazarus occupied the center court.

such an odd mall… not even the layout necessarily, but the yellow lighting, exposed ceilings, and inconsistency in design. the empty planters only add to the blank atmosphere. fantastic video though, and great narrating!

Lafayette Square was way cooler looking when it still had 70s designs such as fountains leftover. The remodels make it look so boring. Miss Luca Pizza and Hot Sam's...

Bro pulled up my smoke spot the first second of the vid Lmao

As always great video. Thanks for the reminder of my teenage years of hanging out at the mall. In UNICOMM WE TRUST

What is inside that former Sears? Are they putting pictures over the entrances to make these abandoned stores look occupied from a distance?

I’ve been to Washington square and it’s creepy now in person

Eastgate was the first enclosed mall

Man I feel old lol 😂

This place news a few more cell phone stores.

Can you do a video of Lafayette square mall when the remodeling and construction is over. It’s also getting renamed window to the world and getting turned into a international community

Has anybody seen my sweet gypsy mall? -tony and dawn

Kirstin on this mall’s reporting not only do you get into the details, you seem to have this reporter like quality slash “girl Friday” guy Newar has nothing on you! Sorry to hear about clover, must have been quite the cat 🐈

I used to go there when I was a kid/teenager. The ara has gotten bad. I wouldn't go there without my ak

Did you shoot this when the mall was closed?

I say it becomes a Latin market or bust. The area is gaining populations, surprisingly, so.... who knows.

A spanish man is currently trying to rehab the mall.

What's your sign? Virgo. What are you into? Dead mall vids. Oh.

Wow I heard they built a couple of churches. Now it’s going to become strip mall with high rise apartments and condos.

Even in the 90s Lafayette Square was baaaad.....of all the malls in Indy it is in by far the worst neighborhood. I used to deliver pizzas in the neighborhood south of there when I was in grad school. I GREAT place to get robbed and shot. In THAT mall it was NOT grunge.....it was gangs and crack.

Loff-ee-ette 😉

My God! Looks far worse than when I last saw it! I used to work here in the late 90s.

Im 100% positive that this will be abandoned before next year.

I used to go to Lafayette Square as a child, but the exponentially accelerated crime in the surrounding area and the mall itself in the early 2000s set the mall on its rapid decline and we stopped going around the turn of the century for our safety. And when we had Greenwood Park Mall, Circle Centre and Metropolis Mall around us it stopped being an appealing thought to go to a high crime mall when we had better localized options. Now you’d be hard pressed to find these big malls in the greater Indy area with sufficient occupancy or meaningful foot traffic. That article you read was very poorly written. It wasn’t the teens that caused the downfall, it was the surrounding crime and it was blamed on the teens. Crime has become a major issue in the past 25 years especially.

YO... KRISTIN!!!! U ROCK LADY!!!!

Lafayette Scare. Just a reflection of the horrible dangerous culture that exists in America today.

RIP Clover