This makes me bawl my eyes out because I would go to the mall every weekend with my grandma. Now she's at the end of her life just as the mall is at the end of its life. I would do anything to be able to relive those moments one more time.
I hate to say it but 3C closed for good at the end of last month (August 2020). At the end of August JC Penny closed for good. Currently their are no stores operating in this mall.
The worst part about seeing the mall like this is knowing that memories like the ones I made in it can never be made again. A mall used to be a social event of sorts, and they played a role in lots of adolescent lives.
Wow. I'm beyond speechless. This absolutely blew me away. You've truly done Century III justice, and I'm floored with the production value. Seriously well done, brother.
The sad thing is JC Penny and Sears both had catalogue departments they could have built into an online store to compete with Amazon if they had some management with a vision
I'd argue that Amazon et al are the modern day Sears, JC Penney's, ect mail-order biz. Its coming full circle, but more technological, encompassing, and exposed. My kids marvel, watching old episodes of MASH, and they were thumbing thru a Sears cataloge, during the war. Sears' mailorder model was around a long time, 1880's? Amazon et all just refined it with technology. Not much different today, but they flip thru web pages, and only see paper when UPS\USPS delivers the boxes in about a week. MASH took several months.
(1) JCP and Sears had to charge sales tax to mail-order customers in any state where they had a store, while Amazon didn't charge sales tax because they had no stores. (2) It wasn't at all clear that Amazon's business model would ever make money -- they only became profitable a few years ago and that's mostly from their cloud computing division.
What people don’t realize is that a dead mall like this one is no more than a corpse-period. That’s the real reason that when you walk through it, it’s literally deadly silent, your footsteps the only living sound in it. When you see a dead and gone mall like this one (and in particular when you see the old photos of when it was lively), your mind goes back to the time when you were young and would hang out there just to watch the people. You’d go to the food court, get yourself a sandwich or a couple pieces of pizza, and as you ate, you watched the people go by and you looked at the shops, to see what was going on there, too. It was the best (almost) free show in town!!! The young people of today have absolutely NO comprehension. And with the rate that malls are dying, they probably never will experience anything like it. Yes, thank God that we still have some lively malls. But then, how much longer will the malls survive, especially with COVID-19......
Your opinion of what a mall was like, is 100% true. I get sad seeing all of the old pictures of what the mall was like when it was alive. And this isn't even my local mall. This is defiently an era that will never be again😢. FU covid
The malls that do remain alive get swallowed by Simon and Brookfield and have any personality in design drained like you sliced a hole in them snd watched everything fall out and throw cheap plastichrome and paper thin white and gray tile over the opening, Woodfield Mall in Schaumburg was once full of color and now it’s charcoal gray carpet and cheap white tile so thin you get banned from the mall if you use a pallet jack for deliveries in common areas
Well after Nov 4 the plandemic virus will be over but the malls will decline more due to amazon not a plandemic virus from the liberal Democratic Party.
John Sanders I wouldn’t be so quick to say the pandemic will be over by Nov. 4. Even the CDC doesn’t say that, and they’re the ones monitoring the vaccine development. And, since your comment is obviously political, all I can say is that this has done nothing but hurt both sides. Yes, it’s hurt Trump, but it hasn’t done any favors for Biden, either. They can make as many speeches and promises that they want, but they have no say in what the medical community will ultimately come up with. Yes, I’m aware of backroom politics; but no one is going to say yes to a vaccine that hasn’t been tested thoroughly-and that’s regardless of the November election. To do so would be political suicide, and I don’t think either Trump or Biden are stupid enough to do THAT.
Very sad. This mall was a huge part of growing up for me. My school choir sang here at Christmas time years ago. Went last minute Christmas shopping with my dad in a snowstorm at this mall (my dad has passed). Walked through a couple months before they shuttered it for good. A lot of wonderful memories & just as much sadness over it's demise. Thanks for the video 👍
Thanks for preserving all these places Anthony. I truly miss the days where a whole family, grandparents thru grandchildren would go to the mall for a day. Or I would go to the arcade with my buddies. It was a different time then.
This mall was such a staple of my entire childhood and into adulthood. I have vivid memories from when I was a kid, going to kaybee toys getting my has to WWF figs, and so desperately wanting that G1 Optimus Prime with truck bed. Going into my teens having the option of going to be games, babbages, or software etc for video games. Wanting to get shirts and jeans from Gadzooks. Getting CDs from National Record Mart and learning all about widescreen and it’s importance to movies while browsing Suncoast. Going into my early 20’s and visiting cash n culture, buying ridiculous shirts from Steve and Barry’s, and paying on my cell phone bill at the AT&T store since they bought out Cingular Wireless. My absolute favorite part of that mall is under the food court with the cobblestone floor. When I was a kid there was an awesome hobby store there where I would get the original Batman 89 trading cards and we would take my grandma to get ice cream from the Dairy Queen. It’s weird how closely the mall looks to when I had a weird dream about it a couple months ago, thinking I myself was walking through the mall, lighting very similar to this, but some stores stayed open. I’m glad it hasn’t been vandalized, but I do miss this mall a lot.
Great video. The mall looked awesome in its heyday. Very creepy and apocalyptic now. I loved the video and eerie feeling it gave me. Thanks for taking the time to do this wonderful video.
It is really something how those malls died. The owner HAD to raise the rent in order to pay for the rising costs of utilities, or another mall 50+ miles away had better bells and whistles, then came onlinee buying, this was easier than spending gas to go to the mall. When I see abandoned malls, the song, HAVE I STAYED TOO LATE AT THE FAIR? comes to mind.
This was a great mall. I don’t understand why, with our 6 months or so of winter in the northeast, people would rather shop at outdoor “lifestyle centers”??? Don’t get it. (Pre-corona, of course).
Wow the "before and after" vibe here really hits me hard. A place that was once filled with life is now nothing but an empty ghost town. The first clip of the walk through that showed the floor, I imagined a ton a feet that used to walk on it. Now it's just dead silence. And it hits hard cause I know I can't really complain about it because I can't remember the last time I went to a mall. Or a Sears, Kmart or any other struggling retail.
I worked at a long gone Sears (demolished and used as part of expansion for new mall anchor at Woodland Mall in Kentwood, Michigan. Worked there 4 years ago when walked without giving a reason (those who really knew me when I worked there would have know for sure and knew I was as final straw broke the camels back.)
It's almost like a dystopian video game, that walk-through. I'm surprised that place is not haunted for the millions of people that walked through it and worked there.
Those old photos of the mall brought back some great memories. I remember the stage being filled with performers and the entire area around and above it being packed with people. My dad having to drop us off at the door to spend half an hour looking for a parking place. After I had my oldest son, taking him here to ride the train and see Santa ... and when we moved away from the area some of the last times we spent here I knew it was the end. You could feel it was over, even back in the early 2000's, it was getting emptied out. Thanks for the great videos and the memories. You're the best!
I have to agree with Sal, This is the video I've been waiting along time for, You Nailed 💯, I been watching your videos for a very long time and this is straight Gold Man, GoodUp,Liked very much, Staysafe
Despite malls being tied to so so many of my good memories from younger times, I'm not to upset seeing them go away. This was a really good video, keep documenting these places for us.
I see all these empty malls and cant help think wouldn't they make awesome small aged condo communities, as the late teenagers of the 70's and early 80's get to retirement age...Entered adult life hanging around them, leave adult life hanging around them, sadly poetic.
Century III reminds me so much of my mall experience at Rolling Acres. I spent much of my teenage years at the mall, most weekends I was there with my friends. When I was younger my dad would take my brother and I so we could go to the arcade. I hate this, it’s so hard seeing malls abandoned and now forgotten. The memories I made I know our daughter won’t have the same. My husband and I both talk about the malls we went to, he’s from Columbus Ohio and Eastland was his place. Great video one of my favorites by the way!
Wow, as if those dead plants weren't the perfect visual representation. I spent a lot of time here growing up, and my first job was there on the second floor at Finish Line. Later on I'd come back and work at the Macys there. How crazy it is to see how different it looks just a decade or less later...
Beautiful piece here Ace. I can not believe that it has taken so long to turn this amazing building into something else. Perhaps a university campus or even a casino. Such a shame to let a building like this go to waste.
Hello, I too am sad that the Great Halls of Commerce Malls of my youth are all being destroyed, a great change has befallen us. I've been watching a lot of abandoned videos, malls mostly and I particularly enjoyed your segement at the 13:35 time mark to the end - A Rememberance of Past -great times at the mall photo montage with the very nice & emotional, droning, thought provoking music of course that set the closing video piece on fire! Excellent work Ace and friends, thank you! :)
Thanks so much for finally getting footage of this mall. Its such a shame what this place has come to my parents use to take me to this mall as a child. Nobody has got any inside footage since it closed but you just got yourself another subscriber!
Unforunately it due to the greed etc in America. We have tons of abandon sturctures here some cities that's all that's left. Other areas corporations have f up the land so nothing can be done with it so big swath of land become superfund sites.
Our wage grew slowly but none the less grew, the USA .....! Mate! Oh and yes I've seen em die here to it's just thjat they get turned into something else. One near me is now a Bunnings. Or as I call em Bunnies! No we don't have Wallies.
First thank you for taking the time to post this wonderful video. I have been wondering how the mall was making out while abandoned and it seems like it’s all still mostly intact. You did bring up some serious memories. The coffee peddler is where I met my first girlfriend. The walk thru was well done and if you make a longer video of it I would watch that too. Good job
Thank you again for a great video. I loved ever visit to that mall and miss Pittsburgh. This video made me sad but this was a fitting way to say goodbye. I don't want to see videos of her like Rolling Acers. So long C3 and memories of my grandmother taking me to Pittsburgh.
Century III strikes a particular chord for me maybe because it was once so grand, vast, and beloved, but also because I know I will never personally get the chance to see this place. It's like a graveyard of "the Third Place" which is quickly becoming an obsolete concept in the USA.
I live 10 minutes away, and was in Pennys a few weeks ago. I peeked through the gates into the mall, and there was water all over the floor, and it was just a sad way to remember a once thriving mall. We'll always have great memories, but the future of this mall is unknown.
I wonder if mold is starting to grow in there. If that’s the case, it’ll be more difficult for someone to buy and use this building for something else.
You did a great job in documenting a dying breed that will be killed off by COVID as this spreads thought the retail industry. I liked the music and old photographic memories. This has become part of my 80’s generation growing up going to shopping malls. I just now had a back flash as I was typing this seeing myself on the city bus going to the mall. I grew up in Encinitas, California and we had a Mall in Carlsbad that was half an hour by bus. I just saw myself traveling by myself to spend part of the day at the mall. We called it the ”Carlsbad Mall” and I remember years later it became the ”Westfield mall”. I remember going with my parents. My mom would spend hours shopping for clothing and I remember my dad and I would go get a bite to eat while my mom shopped. My dad would buy his dress shoes in Sears and my mom would buy me clothing at Sears or JC Penny. I would get so bored trying on clothing my mom would pick out. What I did like was going to a record store called ”The Warehouse” and once I was in that store it was hard to get me out 🤣. I remember my dad telling me ”c’mon Daniel we got to go, your mother is waiting”. Great memories and it's sad to see these malls one by one get finished off by COVID. The next generation will only know about shopping malls from videos like this one or reading about them online. It's wonderful people like yourself and others are documenting these malls before they are gone for good. I know prior to COVID these malls were hanging by a strange barely holding on as they battle financial issues. Online shopping was slowly killing them off and now COVID just finished them off for good 😞.
What a great but sad video! I remember going there as a kid with my grandmother. She was still able to smoke in the food court. We went every weekend. I wish I could get in there so bad and just walk through one last time, for nostalgia. thanks so much for posting this!
Cant believe this mall has been closed for over a year and a half. I remember seeing the decline of the mall firsthand. Goodbye, century III. We knew this day would come.
Seeing this video has reality set in REAL fast...kind of makes one wonder of all this technology we have today that no one forsaw the coming changes with the advent of the way we would communicate and purchase things we needed/wanted.l live in Canada and the city l'm in is slowly starting to lose places like this too.They call it a victim of progress...l say because of modern tech we're becoming introverts and losing touch with society and the outside world...maybe/maybe not.This is a great video sir.Keep up the good work.
Very sad, I use to work in the food court and I remember my double shifts there because we was so very busy! I spent so much of my life in this mall! So very sad!😿
This is an epic space. One of my personal favorite malls that you document and an amazing location for some sort of movie. We architecture alone is quite interesting and very dynamic
Great job. I parked in that lot to get my bus to Pgh every day. We felt so lucky to have that spot at Christmas and not to have to drive around and around and look for a parking space. This breaks my heart. Sooooo many memories. Thank you for this last view of a very special walk down good memory lane.
I had heard security made getting into C3 almost impossible. Glad you got in there, Ace. Better than those videos i saw of people videoing from JC Penney into the mall (before it closed).
I went to college in Western PA in the early 80's. I was used to King of Prussia and remember everyone from out there saying Century III was better and fast forward to 2020 and King of Prussia is still going and this place is abandoned. I did go to Century III a few times but what killed it and other malls is that the stores they offered were the same at other malls while KOP has retailers nobody else has and is a destination mall.
Late to the party. I know. But I have vivid memories of this mall from the 80's and early 90's as a kid. There were three different arcades. The upper level arcade had a video jukebox. One of three songs it had at the time was Jump by Van Halen. I played the song over and over. We would get dropped off by our parents. Hang at the mall till close then either walk to Pizza Hut or Denny's for a few more hours. There used to be a Cinema World in between the mall and Pizza Hut. Some nights we would walk to South Land 9 to hang out. But my best memories were camping out in Kaufman's parking lot of the mall the night before waiting for Ticketmaster to open up so we could buy our concert tickets!! Thanks for sharing the footage!
What!? I was just in Pittsburgh in that exact area when you were filming. It's crazy seeing to see this video pop up in my feed. I have been to a lot of places around the USA, but I have to say that Pittsburgh at least has a few of the last well functioning malls around like the Rosstown mall, Monroeville Mall, and another I can't remember the name to, but if I recall right it was a large one near the airport that had a subway station running either through it or near it. It's been awhile since I lived in Pittsburgh. Very few cities I have been to still have decent malls.
The malls you are speaking of are Ross Park Mall, not Rosstown, and the one you can’t remember is the Mall at Robinson, which isn’t very far from the airport. Both of those malls are still very much thriving and busy. I go to Ross Park Mall all of the time. Monroeville Mall is not what it once was long ago. There is a lot of crime and shootings there and my guess is that it will close in the not so very far future. I live close to The Galleria at Pittsburgh Mills which is now basically a ghost mall with very little left in it. It was opened in July 2005. It was huge and beautiful but was mismanaged from the start. The first 5 or so years it was fairly full of stores and very nice. Years 5-10 saw a moderate decline in the number of stores but it was still pretty good. Years 10-15 is when it really fell apart. The final nail in the coffin was when the JC Penney closed last month. It’s very sad. I loved that mall when it opened. It was the first mall ever close to where I lived. We always had to go to Monroeville Mall growing up and in our young adult lives. I miss malls and shopping in person. Online just isn’t the same.
That's also a very great worry I have, too. That this will become as damaged inside, as Rolling Acres and Dixie Square got before they were demolished. I wish C3 would become something else, even if for all I know it was a mixed use project. I.e. both offices, and apartments? I don't know.
This brings out a lot of emotions. This is my local mall and even though I never truly got to see it in its prime (I was born in 1998) it’s still shocking and sad to see what its come too
This is literally like watching my childhood die. So many memories from this mall years ago, to see it now really breaks my consumerism loving heart. R.I.P. Mall Era. 😥
10680 views and only 798 likes. People should learn to hit the like button more often. Costs nothing and takes 1 second. Great video. Evocative of a vanished past.
As a Pennsylvanian, this is interesting, I remember seeing an abandoned mall out in Greentree back in 2014 when I went on a trip with my dad to Pittsburgh, I never went in it tho lol. Tbh Pittsburgh seems great for videography and photography, especially as one who loves the latter. I liked the old videos and such you showed. Also, my friends and I still go out to the mall lol, hell it's one of the few interesting places around here, so I might as well savor it. It might be closing in the future anyways.
Thanks for the video. The silence was indeed deafening. But I had to laugh at your shoes squeaking because I remember mine squeaking on that same tile. Its interesting that only a few miles away South Hills Village is still a vibrant shopping mall. Unlike Century III, the owners of SHV invested and adapted to the changing retail world. It's sad to see Century III like this... but I still have my memories of wall to wall shoppers, plenty of stores and food outlets and date nights. Thanks again.
Thanks for all your time and effort, have watched you from the beginning to become one of the BEST ON RU-vid IN EVERY WAY!!!!! Watching your work stirs up every emotion, and for this WE CANNOT THANK YOU ENOUGH!!!!!!! I THANK MY FRIEND EVERY DAY FOR TELLING ME TO WATCH YOUR CHANNEL!!!!!!!!
When I was a kid it was a treat to go to this mall. You could spend an entire day there. I spent a lot of time in the arcade and the toward the end, the comic book shop
It was, honestly, THE mall to go to for a while. It was a special trip from the other side of the city. It had a retail mix that was missing from the other area malls.
Wow, this mall either hasn’t been closed long or it’s been taken care of. It’s almost creepier that way, knowing that stores COULD fill these spaces again but never will. By contrast, the closest abandoned mall to me, Jamestown Mall in Missouri, is in shambles. Both are creepy/sad in their own way.
Hi, what a cool video! I miss Century 3 Mall. I used to go to this mall through the 1990s. The last time that I was at that mall was in 2006 or 2007. I'm a subscriber to Wallieb26 channel. I'm on RU-vid and I saw this video on the home screen and I clicked onto your video. I decided to subscribe to your channel because of this Century 3 video. I've seen other videos of Century 3 videos, but this one is the most current one I've seen. It's really sad to see that this mall close. Pittsburgh Mills sadly isn't far behind, if that mall hasn't closed yet. I'm looking forward to seeing your videos. Do you know Wallieb26?
I,ve been to this mall many times as a kid and adult. even tho i was not one to hang out at a mall with friends fri and sat nights, i do miss the idea of a mall for others to go and enjoy. I especially like the pics of all the thought and care that went into decorating for christmas. Good times, good times.
Really, I'd like to know why there's still power, and how it is that anyone can just walk in and use the electricity? Can anyone just move in? Is there running water? Do the toilets flush? Free rent!
That is sad to see it abandoned. We visited family in the North Hills in 2014 and a couple Summers previous to that. We went to the Pittsburgh Mills on Rt 8. It was said a couple years later to be suffering declining foot traffic. It was a beautifully laid out mall. Hope it's still open and making money. This sad mall looks in fair shape. Had an obvious thought, the size of this mall could provide shelter and living space for many homeless. The downside, too many homeless have no regard for property and would likely trash the place without an expensive oversight management team. Each small store space likely has some sort of plumbing that would provide toilet and maybe washing facilities. Larger restrooms could serve as shower space. It would have to have regularly serviced dumpsters outside for residents and a working HVAC system throughout. No idea of the cost. Maybe to start a small section could be opened up but it would have to be watched and serviced regularly, maybe even on sight management like a resident manager. The city or borough might be able to fund it by government subsidy. Worth a thought, any way. Shame to let a viable building go empty when so many are in need with this societal and cultural decay we're witnessing. Just random thoughts on the post. BTW just saw the National Record Mall store shot. I grew up in the late 50s early 60s going to the NRM at the old Northway Mall on McKnight Road in the North Hills. It's now across from the Ross Park Mall we visited on a couple of our trips. That is a nice mall too, hope it's still going.
How did you get into the mall from the 3rd floor ? You walked into The Icing Store on the 2nd Floor,then American Eagle, Disney Story and Old Navy ! I used to work in that mall for years and still remember everything
I grew up on Northside. Allegheny Center (RIP), North Hills Village, and Ross Park were the malls we usually went to. It was a real treat for us to go to CIII. In my teens & early 20s, it became my mall of choice when I moved to the south side of the city. I moved to Owings Mills, Maryland after I left Pittsburgh. They had an absolutely gorgeous mall that is now also gone. 😔
I'm amazed that some malls hold on at all especially during the current epidemic, like South Hills Village in the Bethel Park area in PA seems to still be doing well. I'm still super sad about CIII having the fate it did, I remember going there when I was like 4 and being absolutely stunned with the place, then when I came back in 2016 I was sad to see the state it was in then, yet I had no idea what I should've prepared myself for 3 years later when I was there the week the mall shut for good (besides JCPenney)
South Hills Village has more upscale stores and clientele, which is why it's still doing well. Same with Ross Park Mall, which has become the "destination" mall in western Pennsylvania, with Nordstrom, Louis Vuitton, Tiffany & Co., Kate Spade, and several other upscale stores with only one location in the Pittsburgh area. It's the standard malls that are at risk, because they don't make as much profit per square foot as the upscale malls. Three factors led to the demise of Century III Mall: 1) A large lower-middle-class market. 2) Population loss. 3) Market saturation. The area around Century III Mall is a mixture of middle- and lower-middle-class suburbs, so there's not as much disposable income to go around. In addition, population losses in the Pittsburgh metropolitan area have been most severe in and near the Monongahela River Valley, including much of the area near Century III Mall. This stands in contrast with the population gains in the wealthy northern suburbs near Ross Park Mall, and flat population in the upper-middle-class to wealthy suburbs near South Hills Village. The beginning of the end of Century III Mall was when The Waterfront "lifestyle center" opened in Homestead in 2000. South Hills Village had long peeled the upscale clientele away from Century III Mall, but The Waterfront began to peel the rest away. Ultimately, the location of The Waterfront made more sense anyway, because it was convenient not only for the middle- and lower-middle-class clientele in the Monongahela River Valley, but also for the wealthier clientele in some of the nearby East End neighborhoods in the city of Pittsburgh.
@@dr4782 Yeah that actually makes plenty of sense, and I agree with the waterfront part especially because it applied to myself, where I live in pittsburgh it's just simply a more convenient location than CIII, and of course it had better stores pretty quick into its' life. Ross park mall is definitely the rich person mall lmao
It was honestly smart of the current owners to keep the power on. As long as electricity is flowing it keeps copper scrappers away. Judging by the lack of black mold and peeling paint, it looks like the HVAC might still be running. The latest plan as of 2019 is to demolish the mall and turn it into a mixed-use office space, hotels, restaurants, and apartments. By the looks of it, I really think the owners are hoping for a bid to repurpose the structure, because why go through all of the trouble to protect the structural integrity of the building by keeping it so well preserved AND hire 24/7 security? Great job on this video! The gimbal and camera work have made a huge difference in making everything look professional; plus your editing is top notch!
