Middlesboro Mall - 1983 Revisited (INCREDIBLE vintage aesthetics) 

I grew up in Claiborne County, Tennessee but this was our mall. I came here a lot with my parents in the 80s and was a mallrat here in the 90s as a teenager. We probably crossed paths in the arcade lots of times.

I was honestly surprised they were real!

Awwww damn now I'm blushing thank you :)

☺️ My pleasure - please keep up the great work!

I wear mens noir cologne from b&bw.

@@bahgawd8158 How is that I need to find out if my man will like it!

@@UniCommProductions it smells terrific. I get compliments all the time. I heard they are discontinuing it though..why I ha e no idea because it smells great. But Im sure you can find it online.

I am in love with that tile and I don't care who knows it.

I love this mall, because it’s what most people’s’ local mall looked like when they were younger before they were renovated! I think Steve and Barry’s was operating on extremely tight profit margins and they expanded too fast. If they’d kept things small they may have stuck around. There aren’t a ton of places to buy cheap guys clothes-women have Forever 21 but just regular dude stuff is expensive!

Thank you! I’m so glad you found me!

You know honestly it’s doing better than a lot of other malls I visit in similar settings. I am working on a video about the mall in Harlan that only has four stores in it.

Aww thank you! I'm glad I was able to take you for a visit.

That is terribly interesting and makes complete sense! Thank you for that!

I remember my high school was built in 1981 (I attended in the late 90s) and it was all the same quarry tile, orange carpeting, avocado green carpeting, wood railings, harvest gold appliances, and nothing was white, the closest color was a light cream they called "antique white" and everything was very angular. It had those spherical globe lights that look like moons. It was like the Brady Bunch house but half a million square feet. I loved it and I love that era but it's all but disappeared. This is amazing to see.

@@craigjensen6853 Sounds like a tour-de-force of 1980s aesthetic! The problem was all that carpeting - especially shag carpets ... yuck! So dusty and unhygienic!

@@MrButch-ls8vl Ha ha, yeah, a lot of it had the seams duct taped together by then too.

Glad you enjoyed it--this is a mall I was really excited to share with the world because it's hidden away in the hills as it is.

You and me both

You have to be "of a certain age" to get that reference for certain. Thank you for watching!

When I walked in I was not prepared for what was in store. It was like "I'M HOME!"

It's like time stopped one day and it's just been the 80s ever since in there. Thanks for watching, bruv.

Complete with an arcade. You can't get more "80s mall", than having an arcade still in operation.

A lot of the younger people watching this channel are avid collectors of “vintage” electronics like that much like I was in high school covering my dad’s records…but kids now are doing that with CDs, which just kill me that they’re now considered “retro”! 😂😂😂

I think a big part of why malls are failing that doesn't get talked about much is how no one seems to have time to spend the afternoon browsing anymore! (I always try to buy something at the malls I visit and have a really big B&BW problem--in my car, shower, candles...)

It does desperately need some food places, which it doesn't have. ESPECIALLY pretzels.

Yay, thank you!

That is why I love this mall. It's in the middle of nowhere but if you were an 80's kid it's EVERYBODY'S MALL. We had one really similar to this one back in Cincinnati called Cassinelli Square.

@@UniCommProductions The one near me..Cumberland Mall..used to look at lot like this when I was a kid before they updated it. Lots of browns and plants everywhere...had like 4 fountains. Btw you have the perfect voice for doing these videos. Very relaxing to listen too.

@@bahgawd8158 Thank you!

Especially with that amazing court in front of it with the plants and fountain

This is just the most vintage place I've been in a while, especially with so much life left in it.

@@UniCommProductions I definitely need to visit. Was Rose's the original Kmart?

This was part of the trip that I shot Cumberland Regional and South Side---I think I drove a total of 7 hours that day!

That sounds like my kind of trip! Thank you for watching!

I remember it very well back in the 80's, and early 90's when Rose's was competing with K-Mart/Walmart, as I use to buy a lot of video games there growing up as they a lot of times had the best prices, and one of the locations here has been open since the 80's, and you are right it is surreal seeing what it's become. We also have another one that was an old Walmart built in the late 80's(moved 5 mins down the road for a Super Center Strip mall where I worked the site prep construction for it in the early 00's) in which 1/2 of it became a Steve and Barry's before Rose's took it over, and later Tractor Supply taking the other 1/2 of the old Walmart. Man how Rose's has fallen.

It's a neat place. You should stop and stretch your legs on your drive next time!

And it’s just there. Like this is normal and every day life. Like it always has been. It’s a really great place to walk around, it’s like a spa treatment for your mind.

I just love how it’s just sitting there looking brand new in this out of the way place. You don’t want to use the word “best kept secret” too much but this might be the one

@@UniCommProductions It really is exceptional, and very well-maintained. I was looking at street view; new roof, fresh paint, nice parking lot, manicured landscaping, the owners clearly have pride in it. These rural/mountain malls seem to be doing much better at adapting to serve their area so I'll definitely be taking a road trip and dropping some quarters in that fountain and wishing them the best!

Welcome aboard! I love how universal the look of this mall is-because I feel like everyone went to a version of it at some point

What a gentleman you are to take your mom out for her birthday even though you’re an adult. Hats off to you! Thank you for watching!

@@UniCommProductions Well, it was the least I can do for her, and even my family went shopping with Mom.

That's interesting, I'll need to look up the plaza the Big Lots is in on Google Maps and check it out. There are a few more malls in Northern TN/southern KY that I really want to check out soon (I ran out of time on this day; I hit not only this mall but the ones in Williamstown and South Williamson too)

@@UniCommProductions The old mall in Middlesboro where Big Lots and Gamestop are is tiny, you'd miss it if not looking for it (when facing Big Lots it's to the left) and the last time I was in it had a Christian book store that sold vacation bible school supplies. I found this link showing a picture of it www.flickr.com/photos/120051008@N03/16726488095 from Jamie Middleton. I grew up in Lee Co Virginia so my family went to the Middlesboro Mall, Fort Henry Mall and I don't know if Jamie told you but there's also a tiny really dead mall in Harlan Kentucky that's straight out of the early 80s as well, it was once anchored by Belk and Magic Mart and is called Village Center Mall (I've noticed putting Village in a mall name happened in both Middlesboro with it's old tiny mall and in Harlan Kentucky and both aren't far away from each other). I was born in 1979 so I remember all these malls in the booming times and if you need any help with information I'll do what I can to help. Middlesboro Mall from the mall entrance at JC Penney when I was a kid had a store that I guess was like a Hot Topic in the 80s and didn't stay long, I'd love to know what it was called it was on the right directly outside JCP and I remember getting a punk rock bracelet and some buttons. It looked like on your video the decorated cookie place outside of JCP wasn't open and it's a shame if it's gone as it was always a treat for me. It took me until today to find the name of an old ice cream bar and lemonade place from Fort Henry Mall and my 80s childhood where they'd hand dip ice cream bars in chocolate and shake fresh lemonade and was called Bob's Old Fashioned Ice Cream Bar that was in several malls. I wish we'd had camera phones in the 80s and early 90s as I would love to see the old malls and shops from my childhood. I'm just grateful people like you guys are going out and filming them and you have the perfect voice for these videos. It's probably hard for some to believe but Middlesboro used to have a neat eye glasses place outside of JCP that was unique, a wood trimmed Foot Locker and large Hallmark shop. If I sat down I could probably list almost every store they've had however out near Belk it's always been a nail salon and military recruiting office. In Middlesboro I remember going to the drug store, Foot Locker, The, Sears, Hallmark, Kmart and the Steve and Barry's final days; I didn't make it to JCP closing and hope something takes it's place that does well! Middlesboro Mall I used to go to daytime movies where a ticket was $3! Lol In Middlesboro and Harlan it wasn't Amazon or over malling that killed it but just a coal economy coming to an end. It was too many ever newer shopping centers however that's currently killing Fort Henry Mall/Kingsport Town Center in Tennessee. Thanks to this pandemic sadly Piccadilly is gone from Fort Henry Mall. If you're ever back in the area and need any help just let me know.

Um...Big Lots moved from Village Square around October 2018. It moved to the old Food City building down the street. Yes, Roses was in the Village Square location many, many years ago (over 25). Shouldn't confuse those who are from out of the area and might want to come and explore.

I think you're probably right about it having been an old Aladdin's Castle (or maybe a Tilt)...This mall is just so well maintained and pristine inside. It's a real rarity to see healthy plants and a fountain! Thank you so much for watching!

Yea it was an aladdins castle

You are correct. It used to be an Aladdin's castle. I used to go there as a kid in the mid to late 1990's it was a great experience for a kid back in the day. Makes me miss what once was in this place......

Every mall I cover has someone like you who cares a lot about it and I never want to hurt that someone’s feelings by trashing it.

I feel like that phenomenon probably started in the early 2000s.

This was a mall I was ready to move into! I was like a time traveler "LOOK AT THE BENCHES OH MY GOD *be cool Kristin be cool*"

I’m still stunned and excited to see that shiny black tiled AMC! I remember that teal blue gold, black 1986 Art Deco vibe

@@kimh659 If it ever reopens I'd love to know what the lobby looks like!

All the planters, benches, and trashcans are original to the mall's opening. They also had matching ashtrays from back when you could smoke inside; big ol' honking things.

Thank you!

Welcome aboard! I'm glad you found us!

It absolutely has, which is to be expected. Most middle class malls are suffering in part due to the fact that the popular national chains that used to fill them seem to be succumbing to bankruptcy at an alarming rate over the last few years. It’s about half full-the end closer to Rose’s is completely lively but the other parts not so much

I think you’re probably right-I definitely could see brown there too

It’s beautiful isn’t it? Thank you for watching!

I grew up in the midwest, our malls were INCREDIBLY brown (and really dark by modern standards). It sounds like you had a fun day!

@@UniCommProductions - yup! It was "Sam's* favorite mall" here (Plaza Del Sol), which has a Walmart and a Home Depot as bookends and do coexist with all size of other mall stores, both local and from The States. I hope we get to listen to your opinion on any of our malls and OUR WAY OF SEEING AT THEM sometime in the future... *as in Brick Immortar

The mall did most of the work on this one!

I’ve seen some photos of Regency from before it closed and I can absolutely see that!

I mostly remember those from K-Mart. It seemed like they always had one out front!

@@UniCommProductions yea but this one with that BASE [AKA the motor] is so rare.

It really does, doesn't it? You could shoot a movie that took place in the 80s in there and not have to change a thing.

@@UniCommProductions yes it's amazing would.love to give it a visit but i'm in Europe..

I could see that! I never got to see Westland; it was closed by the time I developed an interest in vintage malls (although I've walked around the outside a few times since it's been closed).

Stratford Square is one that's high on my list should I get a weekend to travel further (I live in West Virginia so it's pretty far for me)

I'd sure love to see your take on the Chicago mall scene! If you do get up to Stratford Square, you also ought to check out Fox Valley. There are quite a few thriving malls in Chicago, unfortunately these two aren't doing so well.

She's trying her damnedest that's for sure

I need to look that up it sounds like my kind of place.

@@UniCommProductions Yeah, it's a small place, with only about 4-5 stores inside and the same amount on the outside. Like I said, it's part of the main campus.

It’s effectively unchanged since it opened, though. The title is referencing that there are malls in the US built in the 60s and 70s that are practically unrecognizable compared to their original appearance but since this one has never been remodeled it still looks like 1983. Sorry to disappoint; it was not my intention to be misleading.

Steve and Barry's was always a cheap way to pretend you cared about sports because you liked the apparel. I did the same thing!

This one is on the way to nothing, it's an easy one to miss.

I live in Elizabethtown and I rarely venture to that side of the state.

It’s such a cool place if you ever happen to be passing though (and a pretty drive from the highway to boot!) I’m glad you found us again!

We can only hope.

That’s a good question-and I’m not sure of the answer. It’s possible they have taken on less debt over the years than some of their now-defunct counterparts

Thank you and welcome aboard!

I have been told it reopened at some point since I visited.

@@UniCommProductions I'm glad to hear that.

Being that this is in Kentucky I’d blame the ceiling on decades of indoor smoking, considering that the mall has clearly never been remodeled much.

@@UniCommProductions Yes, good call.