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Your first Dead Mall experience?

xXElias_EthernetXx's profile picture

Posted by xXElias_EthernetXx

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My first experience with a dead mall is actually the mall closest to my hometown. I grew up in a very small town in Ohio, and the closest city with a mall was across state lines in Indiana.

This mall has never been huge, but as I've grown up it's become a peak example of a small, Midwestern dead mall. The parking lot is empty, and full of tire obliterating pot holes, the live stores are outnumbered by the vacant. Its anchor stores always seem on the verge of going out of buisiness, and anyone I talk to about seems genuinely surprised that the mall hasn't gone under yet.

This mall isn't much, but I have a lot of memories there. My parents took me to the Claire's there for my 13th birthday, and The Dillard's is where I got the dress for my senior prom, which was the first time I went out with my now Fiance. The thought of it withering and disappearing feels upsetting.

It's sad to see it slowly become a living ghost, and I've been watching it happen since before I knew about the concept of a dead mall. I think that's a big part of why I find dead malls so fascinating. It's interesting how these retail spaces shape our lives.

 That's why I'm curious.

What was your first experience with a dead mall? How did you get interested in them or even learn about the concept?


 


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Violet Loranda's profile picture

Reply by Violet Loranda

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Thank you for sharing your experience! It paints such a relatable picture for all those emotional ties that pull at us when we see these tangible places fade into memories. I think there is always a comfort in knowing we can revisit the malls we went to growing up as a living monument to remind us that not as much time is passing since those days.

However with so many malls becoming the ghosts that we chase, it’s those nostalgic wounds that are a reminder that time has indeed moved on from those simpler days.

I remember when I first became aware of the Dead Mall phenomenon. It was Miracle City Mall in Titusville Florida that was reduced to a few stores, a hot dog stand and an anchor JC Pennys. The mall has been built during the prosperous bubble that sprung up around the space race and served those workers and their families that relocated to the space coast to work for NASA. Being there resonated with an echo of abundance in an era that I never witnessed. There is this dichotomy of an image of American prosperity and  what’s left behind in a changing reality. The Dead Mall is a testament to that and has been of great interest  to me since.


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