Wow. When I moved to Columbus in the early 70s, this mall was jumpin’. My young husband and I were especially fond of the Lazarus restaurant that was upstairs, overlooking the mall. They had amazing food for a reasonable price. Wonderful warm apple pie with cinnamon ice cream. Lazarus is gone, my husband died. “Oh, the times they are a-changin’’. (Bob Dylan.)

- I miss Lazarus, especially the downtown store during Christmas.

great video , this mall is way above westland in it's condition!! these malls hold special memories for our generation, fun times and good days!! your videos document these malls for people in the future to young to experience malls for themselves. thanks

Thanks for the video. I grew up with Eastland and I worked at two stores there (Spencer Gifts and JB Robinson Jewelers) in high school and college in the late 70's to mid-80's. It certainly is a shadow of its former self.

As a teen, that was my hangout in the 1970s. Fun Times! Now teens go there to shoot each other. Cause Eastland Mall is in Da Hood now.

I went to that restaurant many times as a child. It was cafe-style similar to MCL. The food was good but I was always excited to go, because the carrot cake squares were excellent and I have never found a suitable replacement. I also performed a few clarinet solos in the mid-court area. I can still see the path through one of the anchor stores, which you can no longer access. Thank you for documenting Weird Ohio

I grew up in that mall. It was a blast in the 80's to come here and people watch.

I live about ten minutes from there, and this mall had promise for a rebirth. In fact the street it sits on leaves a lot to be desired.

Nothings gonna save that place. Times have changed. Even once powerful outlet malls are falling victim.

We always wanted to eat at Lazarus because the balcony overlooked the mall, a perfect vantage point.

I so miss the way this mall used to be

I worked in this mall for a year or two around 2014, there were several shootings. The cool part was there were a quite a few independent retailers and a really good rib place

I remember watching Ghost Busters when they had a theatre, I also remember throwing pennies in the fountains here as a kid. Also miss the Olive Garden across the street, the one in Pickerington doesn't have that same feel inside, not built with style like they did back then.

I love the store that just says “Oil” in neon letters

IIIIIIIIIIVE BEEN WAAAAAAAAITING FOR A VIDEEEEOOOO LIIIKKKE YOOOU "Because you basically took over the Jeep" I love you two together and your banter. Hilarious and cute.

Security kicked me out of this mall in January 2018 when I was only taking still photographs with my cellphone, so I'm amazed you were able to shoot all of this video without hassle.

Anyone else remember the fountains there in the 80s?

Great video. Great footage. Thanks for filming.

Wow. Eastland Mall is still open?! Huh... honestly shocked they made it this long!! When I was there it was pretty grim.

I practically lived at eastland as a teenager. All these malls dying is so sad.

glad you're back ...I haven't been to Eastland for years but glad to see it is still somewhat thriving ..Living on the westside we miss Westland

My first so called, stomping grounds, it was plush back in the day. Shoulder to shoulder, now it’s deserted.

One can only imagine what the mall looks like now In the world's current state

I lived in the area around 1997 and even then Eastland had a reputation for being a dangerous place. I think I only actually entered the mall once or twice.

Yo...that funky song you opened with is a perfect accompaniment to that amazingly brutal Sears. They go together like a glass of pink Ripple and a platter of Triscuits with assorted Swiss Colony spreads. Those 4 minutes took me somewhere awesome. I humbly thank you for that.

I made the suggestion of turning the anchor store spaces into apartments while the rest would be shops, keep the food court, and an indoor walking area. I guess the current owners are not into that.

They should just tear down the empty anchors and build midrize apartments that have a lobby entrance to the mall as well as outside entrance. If you built 3 or 4 apartment midrises with 200 apartments in each you would have 600 to 800 apartments. This mall seems really sketchy.....

Thank you for this video. I used to work there in the 80s at the Sears store.

When my brother would come up from WV he would always give me 50 bucks and we would meet at eastland and I'd play games at Time Out. Time Out was taken out in the late 2000s and replaced with emergency exits for some reason. I also used to go to B. Dalton, which was down the hall from the food court and on the left.

Brings back a lot of memories.

So much yes! I missed you guys. So glad to see this upload!

I love your videos. Very interesting. keep up the good work!

In a corner of the east edge of the parking lot, up next to I-270 used to be a China Coast restaurant. It was a standalone building and was open maybe all of 30 days. It was packed all the time and then it closed. The building was demolished and the parking lot became part of the COTA bus stop.

Lazarus's Owner actually bought macys also, good video

As always a great video and thanks for the informative narration.

The original Lazarus store also turned into an alternative school for children for a while, but they did not make it because of the bomb threats and shootings that we're going on in the mall. So that Lazarus location did not sit empty that entire time, and was occupied for a year or two. The JCPenney store ended up closing because they were not able to keep up with the financial situations that was at hand, along with keeping the store and proper condition for everyday use because the the roofs were leaking every time it rained from the fourth floor to the first floor and they weren't able to repair it properly, let alone the escalators were always breaking down. On top of the decline of people that came in to keep the store in business, they just were not able to afford a four-floor location at a mall that was rapidly declining and going to eventually be closed down, which is the way it's still looking. Since then, Sears has closed and many other stores have left the mall and as you see it is rapidly becoming another Westland Mall. I worked at that JCPenney location for about eight years before I moved away from Columbus and that's how I know so much.

No one looks happy!

this place is perfect for 80s/90s photoshoots! the food court and arcade that used to be there (i think it might be closed now) were perfect for my 80s themed photo project

I remember going to that mall on a sunny morning and the way the light hit the east wing was really nice , made the place look much lighter than in your video.

Omg! This was my hangout in high school in the 70’s. Really at that time we would go to check out the guys. Ha ha ha

I grew up in that area and went to that mall alot when I lived nearby. At one time, it was THE place to shop on the east side of town. I worked at Macy's, and closed that store down in 2017. It was a very sad time. I think Sears lasted about another year. Macy's furniture across the street closed in March after COVID, and never reopened.

Awesome video Kristin. I like your old intro! Very cool.

I remember going to this mall whenever I visited my grandparents.

Wow. This is really sad. I worked for Eastland Mall Security from 1994 to 1998. It was still busy with customers back then. Gangs were moving in and it was getting to be unsafe to go there by the time I left. If the Security had been given more authority, and been allowed to carry firearms it would have helped because people were afraid to shop there and Security was helpless to protect them. The thing that really killed the malls was the internet though. Very sad.

Great video! I live about a half hour from Eastland so I’ve visited several times over the years. I really liked the Sears store. It was really big and had a lot of retail space. My favorite dead mall I’ve been to is Forest Fair Mall in Cincinnati which I know you did a few videos on last year.

you know its bad when the bath fitter ad is there.

I've been waiting for this one, when I accidentally found this years ago the Macys, Sears and Pennys were all still there and the Kmart across the street was still open. I didn't get to go in because of 2 locals that told me to leave the area immediately.

Lazarus eventually owned Macy's: Lazarus (Columbus) was one of the four founding members of Federated Department Stores (along with Williams Filene's Sons Co. and Abraham & Straus and Bloomingdale Brothers). Federated purchased Horne's (Pittsburgh) in 1994 (except for the 3 Northeast Ohio stores, which were sold to Dillard's) and merged it into Lazarus. Federated Department Stores also purchased Macy's in 1994, and then purchased The May Company in 2005 (which was a massive retail merger with 800+ department stores across the US). At different points in it's history, the May Company was comprised of the following regional brands that maintained their own regional buying, advertising, visual display, and credit card operations: May Company Ohio (Cleveland); May Company California (LA); Famous-Barr (St. Louis); O'Neil's (Akron, OH); Kaufmann's (Pittsburgh); Strouss (Youngstown, OH); Sibley's (Rochester, NY). FYI: May Company Ohio, Strouss, O'Neill's, and Sibley's were all merged into Kaufmann's between 1986-1990 (and Kaufmann's expanded south from Cleveland-Akron and west from Pittsburgh into Columbus). May-Daniels & Fisher (Denver); G. Fox (Hartford); Meier & Frank (Portland, OR); Lord & Taylor (NYC). The May Company purchased Foley's (Houston), Filene's (Boston), from Federated Department Stores in 1988 when FDS was in bankruptcy. FYI: The back-office operations of Kaufmann's was merged in Filene's in the very late 1990s. May Company California and JW Robinsons merged to form Robinsons-May. Other May Company stores included Wanamaker's (Philadelphia); Strawbridge's (Philadelphia); The Jones Store (Kansas City, Missouri); Zions Cooperative Mercantile Institution (Salt Lake City); and Marshall Field's (Chicago). In the early-2000s, Federated had already started changing their regional nameplate to Lazarus-Macy's, Rich's-Macy's, etc. On February 28, 2005, Federated Department Stores announced that they would acquire the May Company for $11 billion. By September 2006, all of the May regional nameplates, except for the Lord & Taylor chain, ceased to exist as Federated consolidated its operations under the Macy's mastheads including some of May Company's most famous names: Marshall Field's, Filene's, Hecht's, Foley's, Kaufmann's, and Famous-Barr, as well as the last nameplate to still have the May name (Robinsons-May). All locations that were not sold off were rebranded as Macy's. FDS (Macy's) sold off Lord and Taylor. Eventually Federated Department Stores changed it's to Macy's, Inc. and is traded under the letter M on the NYSE.

Eastland had its place back in the 80s when I knew it. I haven't been in that area in decades though. I was a Northland Mall person in the 80s as a video gamer with Aladdin's Castle. That was my stomping ground. The same named video game outlet was outside the main frame of Eastland mall so I didn't go into the mall itself much. I remember Northland Mall when it was an open mall before they enclosed it. So sad to see these places going down.

7:07 I wonder if that's Akiba Arcade on the right. I just noticed your flickr link in your description! 🥰 💖 💕

Excellent video...I loved your Pgh Mills video too...I. Only live 3 miles from there lol. I knew they built Pgh Mills way too late. Beautiful mall but very bad timing. I love your work. God bless you!

6:00 that arcade looks promising

I can't believe Southland was even mentioned. That place was a joke.

This mall could use some major renovation done to it

I lived by Northland Mall as a kid but visited Eastland a few times. It wasn’t great in the 80’s and with Easton so close, I’m surprised Eastland looks this good.

I love Eastland mall. Right in my neighborhood

Funnily enough, there's an Eastland mall (or shopping centre as we call them in Australia) in my hometown of Ringwood. It has expanded HEAPS over the years, and it's still very lovely and lively to this day!

Across the street is a Macy’s Furniture Clearance store. Great place to shop for furniture.

Heres a eastland story i have: So when i was about oh 9ish i went here and they had a Spencers and i legit thought it was a toy store. So i begged my mom to take me in and when we went in my mom was covering my eyes as there were provocative things in there and me being that age i didn’t know it was not appropriate so we just left. Lol

Several weeks ago, this mall shut down its website eastland-mall.com , apparently due to a change in ownership or management. It is no longer managed by Woodmont.

Eastland was always the “cooler” alternative to Westland. Northland was too far. Eastland had Frenchies, who had the best onion rings EVER!

Are you going to Westland Mall in Columbus aka Hilltop.

Damn this is sad... always christmas shopped here

It’s sad that so many malls are closing. Here in England it’s a similar situation and one mall close to where I live has about the same occupancy as the one you’ve filmed, I’d film it if it wasn’t patrolled by security.

Hurts my Heart

The mall is now permanently closed and sitting rotting away. You should try and come back and explore it.

The mall just shut down. A shame, but not very surprising. It’s actually more surprising it stayed open until now. The last anchors left over five years ago, something that kills other malls almost immediately. It’s close to Easton, Columbus’ most popular retail destination, whereas Westland and Northland didn’t last very long after Tuttle and Polaris opened; in the case of Northland it shut down almost the same moment Polaris opened. I guess Easton didn’t siphon Eastland’s anchors like what happened with the other directional malls, though. Even most Columbus residents thought the mall was shut down already, and looks that way when driving by it. I kind of wanted them to keep on going, because of its place in Columbus’ history and because it was home to a lot of local businesses. However, I’m sure those small businesses can find greener pastures elsewhere. I’m sure anywhere would have better real estate than a mall a lot of residents didn’t even knew still existed.

I like your voice over sound. What's your sound setup like?

HAHA!!I sold a lot of weed there back in the mid to late 80's.Fun times!!

I've watched about 5 of your videos. They're all well shot and very well researched. Imho the aesthetics of these malls has not aged well. Nor have mall owners been able to successfully reimagine the mall shopping experience. Idk what the answer is but the malls close and then Amazon buys them AND turns them into distribution centers. Ouch.

Southland mall isn’t a mall anymore. It got turned into a school.

Eastland prep I went there for 8th

you guys film with osmo pocket?

I do not miss that place at all.. It went to hell when crime and punks took it over.. Then someone tried to sucker me out over 200 dollars over worthless bath salts... LUCKY they had an owner that cared and went to put an end to the sellers tactics.. He made them tear up my credit card stuff and they lost there store... The owner even had the gall to try to get me to go to an ATM to get money to pay the owner in CASH... Not long after that I stopped going... There is nothing there now.. You cannot even get a hair cut there.... I HEAR ANYTHING SHE WANTS IN Vapor wave..... Wham ROCKED.....

U ROCK UNI COMM!!!

This place is my childhood.

So surprised to see this video! This mall is about 15 or so mins from me. Honestly was shocked it has as many stores as it does. Its a pretty crappy mall in a bad part of town. Most people make the 25 min drive to Easton Mall or 35 min drive to Polaris Mall. Im very surprised this mall is even still open.

Technically Lazarus (Federated) purchased Macys.

I was up there today and nothing changed 🙃🤨

Tune Sound like, Just let you Soul Glow 🎤 from coming to america

FN'1ST!!!!! BEEN WAITING 4 U!!!!!

Our senior project was to help stock the new Lazarus in 2005 when they were trying to revitalize the mall... I shopped there for 3 more years until American eagle and the good stores left...used to love this place. Had my radio stolen out of my car in 2007 there, parents took me to see santa in the 90s.. bought girls jewelry from the jewelry store, bought my first CD there, spent hours following my mom around as a kid in JCPenney, Spencer's, got my ear pierced at 18 at the piercings place, ate at Panda Express bought cologne at the Macy's there, got hats from the kids store by the food court, a PR suit from the suit shop, bought shoes with my mom, a friend's dad owned an ATV store in it for awhile, got zip zaps at the radio shack, went to key store outside alot, fubu hats from JCPenney in 2004. Man it's so sad to see what they've done to it.....

Can you tell us what day of the week, and time of day, you visited when shooting this video?

Hay de history for Refugi die the father in apartments

Ohio seems to have a lot of dead malls. Why is this?

The malls are suffering the same way here in the UK and Europe. Retail has changed in the past 20 years or so. Internet ??? I think so.

They just need to close this mall down lmboo, there's nothing exciting about this at all. It's a lil nice place to stop and get nice stuff here n there but they just didn't keep up the work to bring new attractions or stores. Even in the parking lot it look like meteors hit the street and dinosaurs walked on it. I thought maybe for over 20 years from the late 90s that it would at least changed but no lol

everyone is buying online now, no need for these stores tbh

The mall rules does say no video taping so why you doing it

i tired of seeing these dead malls i just a dumb janitor i put my two cents in this mall needs to convert Sears into storage center i would try to revive it with live entertainment bars social meeting place add residence apartments to it a virtual computer arcade free internet access a gym and add flea market space u got to think out of a box to make these properties work maybe add a hotel in anchor outlet live entertainment which bring folks into it sports bars ohio folks love sports a zip line run length of mall add some neon lights an indoor pool maybe bowling alley an a shooting rage inside mall. I would open medical clinic there u got to get customers to come in i would replace fake trees with community garden. This mall has to be multipurpose i would add drive in theater to empty parking lot too covid has ruined indoor theaters fresh air never killed no one. mark tryed it get cold in Columbus i live in Wichita falls texas 2 inch of snow here a blizzard lol but i would like to see this mall evolve and survive hole lot of in closed space all u need is imagination and this mall will survive.

I went to this mall once... once. It was a shit hole then as well.

I never thought i'd live to see the Day Malls actually closed,and Anchor Stores closed their doors permanately ! Times haven't changed,people have.they depend way too much on the internet and gotten lazy.seriously,people don't want to do anything.pretty soon grocey stores will be on here abandoned,no thanks to this new generation,they're the cause of all the Mall closeures,amazon needs to GO !!! One last thing,we can't have anything nice because again this new generation,they don't want anything old,they want everything new and suited for them,and the heck with everyone else. Karoke lounge,umm sounds like something this new generation would say,they don't care about the older generation,oh i would imagine alcohol would be sold there too,umm watch the crime rate skyrocket.

I'm getting SEASICK watching this video. The woman with the camera is bouncing as she walks with the camera. I'm going to throw up!

Judge declares Eastland Mall a public nuisance, allowing for demolition if not cleaned up by Lisa Rantala Monday, June 13th 2022 COLUMBUS, Ohio (WSYX) - A once iconic mall on the east side of Columbus, Eastland Mall has now been declared a "public nuisance" by the Franklin County Environmental Court. "This court does find the subject property in this case Eastland Mall to be in violation of Columbus City Code and a public nuisance," said Environmental Court Judge Stephanie Mingo during an injunction hearing Monday. City Code Enforcement started issuing violations to the owners of Eastland Mall back in 2019 for issues of not maintaining the parking lot, broken and missing mortar and zoning noncompliance. Code enforcement officers took the stand during the hearing to testify many of the same issues existed last week when they last inspected the property. Neighbors also testified to call the massive 70-acre property an embarrassment to their community. "On the inside, there's a stench in the air," testified Felicia Saunders. "I don't know what that smell is but it's a very bad stench." The property manager for Eastland Mall Holdings LLC, Nihal Weerasinghe, took the stand and admitted to having up to 1,200 potholes in his parking lot. He said many have been fixed but neighbors also contribute to the problem by cutting through his lot instead of using the highway. While removing illegally dumped furniture from the lot and completing a massive power upgrade, management said $258,000 have been spent so far on repairs. However, current tenants not paying rent for months has contributed to a cash crunch which has prevented more from being done. "This court finds that pace of the work to be absolutely unacceptable," said Mingo before giving her injunction ruling. She said owners must bring Eastland Mall to compliance within the next 60 days, pick up litter every day and cut weeds and grass at least every two weeks. If her orders are not met, she will allow the city to abate the property at the owner's expense. She said she would allow for any possible demolition if part of the city's abatement plan. The case goes back to court on September 22nd.