That Dillards shopping bag has probably been sitting in that fitting room for almost 20 years. A true time capsule. Also, the fact that Dillards hasn’t changed their shopping bags in 20 years…
This mall is gorgeous, to bad the vandals have already started to rip this place apart. If the mall stays it’s course, it unfortunately will be the next Rolling Acres Mall.
I can talk a good bit about this mall. My granddaddy lived not far from it. Despite the police officer being killed and the mall looking like crap this is actually a very high income area. The mall is in a very bad location along with mismanagement is what killed it. My family went to the grand opening of the Dillards and I thought everyone in the Columbia area was there. As time went on another mall in columbia on the other side of town was bringing people in from far and wide and today that mall is still doing very well. In the early 2000's and effort to redevelop the mall took place. The Dillards end was going to be a high end hotel someone could also buy the room and use it whenever they wanted to. My friend and I took a tour of the hotel rooms they had mocked up in Dillards after the store had been closed several years. I was hoping this video would show them. Even today when you ride by you can see the french doors that led to the hotel rooms. Obviously this never panned out and the mall has been left to rot. I am guessing that the couple of stores left are only paying a few dollars per sqft or are just paying a percent of their sales as rent. Just down the street from this mall a brand new mixed use development is being built with very high end homes and shopping. I am adding a link to a story about the mall. columbiametro.com/Columbia-Metro/January-2011/A-New-Future-for-Richland-Mall/
That's a heck of an article, about Richland Mall. Obviously, it looks like plans that didn't 100% pan out(i.e. with Lincoln Mall in Matteson, IL, the owner wanted to do a full redevelopment and didn't do all the promised plans) have been hurting this mall. Very surprised this place is still open, with how dead it looked inside. It looked just as very quiet inside, as I recall Jamestown Mall in suburban Saint Louis(north of that city) did when I visited in early 2014. Heck I wouldn't have been surprised if there were fewer crowds here, since at least the community groups that met inside Jamestown didn't make that place entirely dead.
One odd fact about this mall, when it went through it’s last transition in the early 2000s. They had a Anna Nichole Smith store which sold merch from her and her reality show.
OMG....I was just thinking of Expose's "Seasons Change" a few days ago....And now, I hear it on this vid....Weird.....I grew up by NYC but i used to call their music style "Jersey Music".....Like you would here it in a mall in NJ or NY.....
It's sad but I've been to the mall within the last few months. The section that is open is a mess as well but not as bad as these closed off sections. The mall's Christmas decorations are so sad but the Barnes and Noble is still a great place to shop.
Props to you Ace! You got some amazing footage, but I can’t believe that this mall is still open despite the lower half being in a state of decay. Also that story in the beginning was crazy and sad.
Maybe. The last "walk through" part was on the completely dead side that has a call center in it (the whole mall is bisected by what seems to be a failing Belk's). It's what's behind the door in the first shot of that section. So, I surmise, that as long as Barnes and Noble and that subcontractor keep paying rent, they'll keep it open.
I've been here at least three times in the past four or five months and have been dying to get this place on film. It seems like everybody's coming to this little neck of the woods. Great video!
I was exploring this mall LITERALLY THE DAY BEFORE this video was uploaded. I live in Columbia and this mall has seen much better days. It is fun to explore though. Here are some of my tips about the mall: THE ONLY REASON that the East Wing of the Mall is even open is because they are waiting for someone to take the place of the former Cafeteria, and there is also a VBO office there. There was a huge gum-ball machine in the East Wing that disappeared last year. I loved it as a kid, seeing Santa at the Mall means all the gum-balls. I’ve been through that service corridor, but HOW THE HELL did you get in the abandoned Dillard’s? We were able to get in an old store (admittedly tiny) and in the unused Management Office with a 90s-era computer. Anyway, it’s super cool and nostalgic that you got in. Kudos.
Terrific video, and you are a better man than me to bravely go into that abandoned Dillards. Which looks like several Dillards I've been in around the country. Saw that Dillards is starting to come BACK to malls again, looking at buying a few of the Bon Ton affiliated stores in the midwest like Elder Beerman. If it could save a few malls. Richard looks so sad. I'm surprised Belk and Lenscrafters are holding on. I'm SHOCKED Barnes and Noble is still there. Considering they closed so many stores including my favorite one at Lincoln Center NYC. Now it's a bleh Century 21. The music was just right, and I have memories of being driven around and hearing Expose in the Jersey malls I frequented. Great group. And just the right about of music, commentary and focusing on letting the video tell the story (though I like your voice and commentary.)
Wow! Awesome, this one looks like its facing the same fate as Rolling acres. Kinda surprised this mall did not turn back into an open air mall after the year 2000, but then again, the only open air mall here in Utah, the Gateway has struggled off and on since it was built just before 2002. Currently, an urban flea market is in the old Virgin music store building, Barnes and Noble is leaving, and Dave and Busters just barely opened. So who knows what people actually want? Anyway, great video, music reminds me of many days spent in old grocery stores back in the day. 💜
It failed to find capital when the Village at Sandhill (a new build lifestyle center) was opening in the growing Northeast suburbs. This place isn't near a lot of growth or interstates so I think investors couldn't justify renovating it.
I’ve lived in South Carolina all my life and I never even knew this place existed lol, Columbiana probably just overshadowed it, I don’t know any mall history here.
Another great video, thank you. The Seasons Change song was very apt for a video like this, when you think of the retail season that is today as opposed to when (some of us) were listening to that song on our car radios. No matter how many videos like this I watch it's still hard sometimes to accept that this is happening. Malls will always be a special place for those of us of a certain age and time, even if it only lives on in memory.
there is a show on A&E every friday and sarurday nights called live PD and they have cameras follow cops around in certain places around the country and two of your last videos have Police departments followed around every week on the show. Great video as well sir
I recall going to this mall during high school right across the street from it. It's a remarkable building in a very nice area. It's an incredible labyrinth of a building. There is or was a cinema on the roof, a huge office building 'underneath' and behind the mall with large call center and law firm doc mill center tenants. I am still amazed no one has restored a smaller mall like this with 'throwback' storefronts + decor as a novelty retro mall.
The old food court in this mall, before they redid it use to be amazing. It had huge windows that let a lot of lights in and had colorful animated robots in the ceiling.
These videos are like modern day archaeology.....it's like exploring ancient ruins, in a way, except these ruins aren't that ancient at all...and their heyday is within living memory of SO many people....
Went to this mall when we first moved to Columbia and didn't know it was abandoned!Turned out to be a fun adventure! I had no idea about the history behind it!
Thank you for documenting and filming this mall. I found this video and I'm definitely saving it. This was a childhood mall when I was growing up. My aunt lived probably about 5 blocks from this mall. I remember in the very late 70s through 1983 going to this mall with my older cousins. I do remember there was an Eckard drugs and it had the little lunch counter. And we used to go there with my aunt.There was also a Woolworth and the mall was pretty much filled with tenants. I do know it was an enclosed mall at this time. There was also an S&S cafeteria I used to love when we ate at. Since you recorded this video it really went even more downhill. It still was fairly decent and repairable at the time you were there. Currently , May 17 2024 this whole mall is in the process of being demolished which is very sad to me and lots of memories being destroyed
Looks like the mall is still open. I haven't been there in a few years, and usually just to go to Barnes & Noble when I'm visiting a friend in the area, but the last time I was there it still looked pretty much the same level of dead.
Probably one of the saddest videos I have seen on RU-vid. I went to high school in the first half of the 90s (graduated 95). I took my first GF to the movies there, they had a theater on the roof. But it just closed this year, I think. Back then, it was like the fictional Starcourt Mall from Stranger Things: tons of life, sound, people, lights everywhere with big windows letting in the sun during the day, etc. I saw so many things in this video that I remember, but I remember them being WHOLE and awesome, so that song 'Seasons Change'? Just adds a massive amount of sadness to the loss. Very similar to the song 'This Used To Be My Playground' (Madonna) for the movie it featured in. Just to add more detail for the imagination of how amazing it used to be. It's located in Forest Acres, which is renowned (or at least used to be) for being a very HIGH price location for housing. Only the wealthiest of Columbia could buy homes out in that area back in 80s/90s. The mall was the pride and joy of their shopping. Thus, it got a nickname among a lot of us (at least in Lexington), "Rich Man's Fascist Mall" (Richland Fashion Mall), because every time we would go there, we got sneered at and looked down on (the length of the uplifted noses) by some of the people, who would then make kind of haughty and snooty comments, because people from Lexington are seen as hicks, rednecks, lower class white trash, etc. We'd still go, even if only to upset 'The Locals' lol But, imagine how great a mall has to be, when it is frequented by people 'of means'! It was a sight to see back then!! And, now, just tragic reminders of time passing... You really ought to come back and go through Columbia Mall or Dutch Square. Those are a couple of great malls of this area that sadly are past their times, as well. Dutch Square is pretty small in comparison to Richland and Columbia Malls, though.
Demolition began on this mall in March (2024). The process began on the right hand side of the mall (facing Forest Drive) where the former Parisian store was located.
I remember visiting the mall as a kid and it was beautiful inside. It looks exactly the same, except now it is run down. I also remember it being called "Richland Fashion Mall" for a time.
My last duty station when I was in the Army(1969-1970) was at Ft. Jackson, just outside the capitol city of Columbia. I used to hang out at a G.I. coffee house called the UFO on Main street, before the days of shopping malls, and being in that city was like time-travelling back one hundred years. It's hard for me to see how the local industry could support an upscale shopping mall, with it being an economically depressed area.
Both malls in Columbia are dying. Have been for years. The other ones even worse. Wow, I haven't been to this mall in over 20 years. It did NOT look like this! It is in a not so nice neighborhood now though.
This explore is awesome, Anthony! One of your best!! I was getting an eerie feeling, when you focused your flashlight into the distance. This Mall looked nice, once. Sad to see it sitting, silent. Super job, sir. 👍💃👊
Love the 80's graphics in the beginning. 2:06 Always wanted to slide down those things but I am sure it would result in a mall ban if not damage to the property in the process which was never my intent. Wow, it is dead dead, I thought it was just on life support (open but suffering) It's sad to see these retail outlets suffering. Thing is, with the Internet, you have everyone, myself including, trying to sell and somehow there is always one or more people somehow selling it below your asking price when you can't go any lower or you will not turn a profit, in fact, may even lose money. The Internet has brought the whole nation if not the world, into one little town and there just isn't enough jobs or retail space in this town for everyone. That is why, I rarely buy online with the exception of if local retail is 20% or more expensive or if I just cannot simply find it locally.
The collapse of society and civlization. So...isn't it chilling that so few people have any video and film of this place the first decade or two of it being open?
You mean the generation after Millennials, called Generation Z? Since we at least grew up with malls at their peak, even if sadly too many are struggling to survive today. :( I'd more be concerned about Gen Z, since they grew up with technology all around them, and probably didn't experience the peak era of malls as much.
I used to live in Columbia, and was at this mall in 2012, it wasn’t in good shape then but it was nowhere near as bad as it is now. The same week as the police officer was murdered, we had a devastating flood in the fall of 2015. That area was one of the hardest hit. I’m not sure but I wonder if some of the damage is from the flood, and not just vandalism.
Love this video! It reminded me of rolling acres and our mall around here it’s either called Fort Henry Mall or Kingsport Town Center in Kingsport Tennessee about 45 minutes from where I live. It’s 80s all the way and it’s slowly dying. I haven’t been there in 4 years!
I'm actually from Kingsport! That mall has nothing anymore. They did open up a Dunhams sports where the old bell home store used to be. My parents live 10 minutes from there and NEVER go there. It's sad.
courtneybrooke35 I live 45 minutes away outside of Johnson City I never go there anymore. When my husband was working in that area we would go but I haven’t been back in 4 years myself!
The office area on the second floor use to be a large food court with a skylight. I spent many hours in the arcade there. They had Marvel Super Heroes, Battletoads, and Marvel VS Capcom. Anyway Verison bought that area of the mall, so the food court went downstairs by the elevator and main fountain.
What gets me. Not just this mall. But malls that are mostly dead and that have parts of the mall that are officially still open. But have no stores. Why are they still climate controlled ? In other words the AC is operating during the summer. Heat during the winter. What stores are open. The rent they pay cannot possibly even come close to covering the utility bills ? P.S. That very 80's song was also very prophetic lol Nice video.
Was here the other day and it looks even worse now. There are leaks in some portions of the malls roof that have not been repaired. The areas with the leaking roofs have simply been blocked off with caution tape. I was also told by mall personal that those leaks have been there for months now and that the mall has no intention of fixing it. All the escalators in the mall have been turned off as well in attempts to lower costs. The condition of this mall have worsened since this video which is very sad.
This place looks like the furniture we had in the 90s In the 00s I dubbed that green color you see on the rails “90s green” a lot of people got cars that color too
Tons of mold in that Dillard's. I've always been curious what the former Dillard's space at my recently closed mall (Knoxville Center) would look like and this gives me a glimpse. That space has been abandoned since 2008 and the mall entrances were completely walled off. I'm sure it's gnarly inside.
So sad to see this mall in this state as a Columbia native. I remember walking through this mall as a child even got a job working in the bath & body works I believe that was around 2010 - 2011. Sadly 2 other malls Columbia mall & Dutch Square Mall are headed in the same direction. You should check out them out if you get the opportunity.
I used to go to this mall with my parents in the early 90's. It was rarely used back then. I would beg my folks to take me to Babbage's and B. Daltons! A lot of good memories with my family happened here. We would drive to this mall from Sumter SC to go to the theater. I saw Jurrasic Park here. Sad to see it in such bad shape!
I love those malls with that mid to late 80’s aesthetics, our Polo Park Mall in Winnipeg much like this mall was originally an outdoor mall, but was converted in 1964 to an indoor mall, and a huge reno in 1985-86, made the mall 2 floors, and had the best aesthetics ever, but in 2008-9, they “upgraded” the mall and changes the colours, tiles and aesthetics to a more “modern” look as they call it.
That song reminds me of a tape my mom gave me when I was a little kid... Avon's Rock 'N Rio .. with Kim Wilde, Don Johnson, and of course: Expose (among others) lol
This mall was pretty dead when I was a teen in the mid 2000s but we would go to the movie theater (on the roof!) sometimes. I remember seeing Bubbly Boy there 🤦🏻♂️
This was my childhood mall back in the late 70's and early 80's. Used to go with my grandma to the Woolworths and then we'd eat at S&S cafateria. There was also an Eckerd drug store and my aunt lived about a mile from it. All the big stores like dillards moved to the new mall and this place went down hill even further. I still go to this mall though to go to Barnes and Noble which is still there
Not even background music or voices in the mall itself, just silence. I thought for sure you were heading to check out what store that old shopping cart in Dillard's was from.
There was a Richland Mall in PA near Johnstown, PA, technically I think it was called Richland Township. My uncle lived down there in the 90's and we would go to that mall. It was similar to my hometown mall in DuBois. Then they built the big 2 level Galleria in J-town and the Richland Mall faded into oblivion. I was confused when I saw the title of the video, because I knew they razed that Richland Mall in PA many years ago, if my memory serves me correct. Anthony you should put the locotion (city, state) in the description box. I know you prob say it in the video, but it helps people with info.
This was the go to mall for me as a kid. I cant believe it's still in as great of shape as it is. It was also referred to as Richland Fashion, not Richland Mall.
This is cool I'm also writing a book about retail archeology and its really sad the way these beautifully. Designed malls are going to waste it's sad!!!!!
