That wing used to house a coffee shop and the arcade up until the mid 90s I think it was when they closed it off. Lots of memories of that mall in the 80s and 90s.
I stopped here about 5 years ago when passing through and took some video of the JC Penney store when I saw how old it was. The mall was already a dead mall but it had a surprising amount of activity for a dead mall. I get the impression that people still loved this place.
For sure, I don't think there was ever a time where I went to the mall and there was no one there. There was always a good handful of people milling around the stores or just chilling in the halls. kinda sucks that it's gone, I miss getting Auntie Anne's pretzels and checking out the bookstore. The next closest mall is like 20 miles away but it doesn't have the same charm. The only thing special about it in my eyes is the fact it has an aquarium and a Hot Topic.
Great video . The vintage ads and video of the mall really helps with the history from its opening days to when it started to decline . Thanks for the memories ❤😊
Great video! I spent thousands of hours here, mainly at National Record Mart and Walden's books. We were also regulars at a big diner-type restaurant in JC Penney's. Those escalators were terrifying when I was a tot. Good times.
Kinda gets me right in the feels. I remember going Christmas shopping there both as a kid and with my kids, browsing the new releases at Waldens, flipping through vinyl at National Record Mart, and talking games with the employees at Software Etc. Things gotta change, I guess, but those were good times.
I used to love going to FYE here for CDs and movies. The last few years or so I've stopped in annually for Spirit Halloween and the entire property was just absolutely depressing. I'm amazed it stayed open as long as it did.
I got my first prom dress at this mall. Didn't shop there much unless I was with my grandma. She loved the shenango mall. Memories........❤thank you for this video!
I’m not. It’s just a big eye sore. If I wanna go to Wendy’s I gotta drive thru that disaster of a parking lot. You’ll pop your tires driving through the parking lot of the mall
Thanks for making this video. Never knew it opened a couple months before my birthday. I grew up in the small town of Fredonia not far away and still live close in Hubbard Ohio. Had a lot of great memories going to that mall. Was sad to see its demise.
I’m gonna deeply miss this mall. It was integral to my childhood, coming here was so exciting since at the time when KB toys was still there was the only place in the area that sold Godzilla toys. In recent years, I would frequently visit the FYE when they were still there also with my older brother which became our favorite store. It’s going to be so strange not this seeing this place in the future.
Hey so a few things 1)It wasn't the mall fighting the city to stop demolition, it was JC Penney's fighting the mall owners to stop any redevelopment of the property. 2)Hickory Township/Hermitage never really had a downtown to speak of, in fact where the mall is now is pretty much Hermitage's downtown, such as it is. You're thinking of nearby downtown Sharon, which is where all the department stores were. 3)If I understand it correctly, it wasn't just JC Penney's that had say/veto power over development of the mall, it was supposed to be a three-way consensus between the three anchors, but because after 2017 Penney's was the only anchor left it was a case of loophole abuse keeping the mall as is. 4)Kauffman's, the store that replaced Strous's, was pronounced "Cough-man's". The fact that we've reached a point where people are too young to remember Kauffman's makes me feel ancient lol. 5)What's your source on the medical office plans for the north wing? You're right that it was sealed in 1997 but this is the first I've heard about plans to convert it to medical offices. For years there have been various theories and contradictory stories floating around the net about why it was sealed. Until very recently the story I'd heard most often was that Pocketchange Park, which was the biggest attraction back there, closed around Christmas 1996. At the same time, Sears was looking to expand, so in February 1997 they evicted the remaining stores, permanently locked the outdoor entrance and sealed the inline entrance (which was between GNC and Rave, those two storefronts are now one space occupied by Maurice's). From there, the story gets murky. All I know is Sears ultimately never went through with the expansion and in March 2004 the mall took an employee corridor linking the restroom hallway to the hidden hallway and opened it to the public, opening the wing once again. After talking to someone who was not working there in 1997 but WAS in 2003 when they decided to unseal it, my new educated guess/theory is that it was sealed in Feb 1997 with the intention of redeveloping the wing, possibly as a movie theater, but the mall changed hands shortly thereafter and the plans were abandoned. In late 2003 new management looked at those storefronts and wanted to lease them...but they couldn't because they'd built Maurice's in front of the entrance. So they unsealed it using the aforementioned employee corridor. After the 2004 unsealing there were two businesses back there: Twice Loved Appliances, which had previously been located in the former Fashion Bug/antique shop, and a Mercer County government office. Over the next few years a handful of businesses would try leasing space back there (hopefully for cheaper rent than on the main concourse lol) and the mall opened a community room back there in the old mall office in 2005. The longest running tenant back there after the reopen was actually a karate school which lasted about 3 years before finally giving up the ghost in early 2010, they were the last tenant to try it back there. (Side tangent here: If the movie theater plans were true I have to wonder if it was Cinema 8 looking to leave Hickory Plaza. They were in the back of the plaza and most of their auditoriums shared a wall with the kitchen of the popular restaurant The Italian Oven. I'm not kidding, 29 years later I STILL associate The Santa Clause with the smell of spaghetti sauce).
Unfortunately the hey day yrs of the malls in the 70s-90s are gone. They're not coming back. Some malls will hang on a while longer but it's clear that the inevitable changes of life are taking a toll, leaving us to remember what was.
This random video popped up on my feed, but i watched it cause its about my hometown...then i see my daughters in the video from a news clip they were in like 10 years ago lol.
Did anyone else notice the sign from outside ad that was spelled JC.Penny? Hmmmmm.... maybe that is why people remember it being spelled as such. Thoughts? BTW, I hate that malls have gone to the side because there was never anything like walking the mall with friends.
Wowwwwww- seeing this show up in my recommended is wild! I used to hang out here and shop with my friends a lot in school, i used to work at the JCPenney photo studio, and macys. My sister once worked at the Claire’s and Kay when it was in there still. I literally live 3 blocks from here 😂 i was half expecting to see my neighborhood in that drone shot 😂and the lady talking about macys closing: she was one of my favorite customers! I got my cat from her and everything this is willlld to me seeing this on here 😂
The only malls that are still in business are outlet malls, luxury malls like Millenia Mall in Orlando, and novelty malls like Mall of America. With the housing issues going on, these abandoned/dying malls can be refashioned into affordable housing. There are numerous cities doing this. I know that in Northern West Virginia, they converted the dead malls into office complexes and restaurants.
I disagree. In my community, there are still tons of malls, and they are not all luxury malls. I live in an area with lots and lots of middle-class immigrants…and the mall is filled on the weekends with mom, dads and kids from these immigrant families as well as all kinds of other people. I think these malls are dying in communities that have been left behind but in prosperous, growing communities, the malls are flourishing.
Honestly I’m sad to the mall. I wish we could get new development without losing the mall. And that story about new castle teens arrested at the mall in 1971 shows New Castle people have always been causing trouble here lol.
In all the years of going to my childhood mall, which is Woodbridge Center mall in Woodbridge, New Jersey, I can gather that it’s never been renovated except for paint jobs and removing fountains and the Dick’s sporting goods Wing
Sad to see it gone. I knew it's end was coming because driving through the parking lot you would have to swerve around the crater sized potholes. Firestone is still open at the front of the mall parking lot. But for how long?
18 unpaved? WTF? you're so wrong on that. PA 18 was a significant N/S highway until 79 and 376 came along. Don't make Sharon/Hermitage-Hickory to be hick country. Rural, small town, but no dirt raods dammit!
