Hi. I grew up in Chattanooga and this was my childhood mall. For anyone that cares, here are a few memories from the 80s. At 1:55, the area to the right was a Revco drug store that my mother frequented. I remember my mom being on a first name basis with the pharmacist there, named Ross. One day, my mom came in to get her prescription and they told her Ross had died from AIDS, which was a fairly new disease at the time. At 4:25, that huge dome skylight is one of the few things that seems completely unchanged over the past 40 years. In the year 2000, the college I went to had off campus classes in the mall. It was pretty much a dead mall back then, almost 25 years ago. There were still a few shops up until about 15 years ago. I remember when I had college classes there, one of the glass panes in the skylight busted, and they covered it with a garbage bag. It came a downpour and water was pouring onto a small stage that was sitting where that modern art sculpture sits now. Also, a few years after that, 2003 maybe, there was an ice skating rink there. At 10:10, down that corridor to the right was my childhood toy store, called Circus World. It was where I bought all my Star Wars action figures. I remember a time in the mid 80s when Star Wars figures went for 99 cents in the discount bin. Also, if you had gone out that door and turned right, you would have seen a preparatory school that was a movie theater in the 80s, and I saw many a movie there. You can see footage of the theater in the background of this car show video: kzfaq.info/get/bejne/ps2JmZtzupu5k6s.html At 13:05, to answer the narrator's question about when the food court opened, it was after the mall had been turned into office space, so probably 20 - 25 years ago. There was never a food court when this was a functioning mall. A few restaurants I remember from the 80s, a Chick-Fil-A, and Woolworth diner, located in the Woolworth's that sat where the narrator is at 14:09. There was an Orange Julius and Great American Cookie kiosk and a Chinese restaurant called Chinese Combo King. Also, there were TWO plane crashes in the parking lot, One in 1985 and one in 1982. Here is a news story about that one: kzfaq.info/get/bejne/p9iAgNaZsM6Xqnk.html Haven't been to Eastgate Mall in years and this video made me very melancholy, but in a good way. I'm glad the building is still there as a testament to all my memories of it.

I'm from this area and go here all the time to just walk and listen to vaporwave. Such a vibe.

Kia in chattanooga, oh yes you couuuld!

I’m from the Chattanooga area and I remember going here in the VERY early 2000s (2001-2002ish) with my mom and grandmother. Only one or two stores were left at that point. One being a Dollar Tree that we went to regularly until it too sadly closed. RIP Eastgate Mall

I still live in that area! Eastgate also used to have a pretty good arcade, called 'Time Out'; my own claim to fame there being that I won a competition in the arcade's twilight years, walking away with one of it's pinball machines! :D

I’m absolutely in love with this place. Really fantastic job, VP. Can’t wait for the next one.

Your channel and production skills is probably one of the best out there… gold standard for dead mall channels. We are starting to see this happening in New Zealand… 👍👍👍

Incredible... You spoke almost precisely the story of my youth at my local first major mall 57 years ago. Bravo ! !

Your commentary is unmatched, often encapsulating my feelings about these spaces.

In the old days the restaurants were scattered all through the mall. Around the mid to late 90’s they were all moved to what is now the food court.

Those tables and chairs sitting in that empty hallway at the start of the video are so sad in a way.

That fountain is gorgeous. I feel sorry that it is in a place where few can really appreciate it. I also am sad that many malls have removed their fountains. I love fountains and don't want to see them disappear from malls.

I'm glad they kept the water feature. Thank you for the great video!

My dad was the property manager of the mall ("town center") in the late 90s or early 2000s. There used to be an ice skating rink in there too!

This video is wonderful to see! As someone in this area. If you ever need help with another video around here, let me know. Audio, video, photography, all that.

Folks grew up going here. They'd love to see this when I show them.

I needed a fix bad, and look what shows up in my recommended feeds. A good happy dose of Kristin. 🙏😁🙏❤️

Eastgate was my mall growing up. I still miss the Waldenbooks chain.

I remember my dad managed the old radio shack here in the 80s. Mom would take me to Eastgate almost daily, it seemed. I took baton classes and we'd have exhibitions, they'd hold bird shows and at Halloween a carousel with store to store trick or treating. My grandmother adored Loveman's and I loved eating at Morrison's or even the little Chinese place, I forgot if it was imperial garden or jade garden, either way they were good. After retail started leaving I worked at a call center that had moved in, I was there in 2000 to 2002. I really miss the mall as it was when I was a kid. It was so fun.

I went there as a very small child. It never left the early sixties in a way, I mean they would move a wall,throw on some paint but it was truly frozen in time for its thirty five year life span.❤ I would of course be too young to remember much before 1968 and it's open days.

This was amazing. Thanks so much for sharing this, VP. You are the standard.

I used to go into this mall when I was in my teens and early 20's. Not often, because Hamilton Place was bigger and had more. I remember when they started to convert it to a place for offices and the like. A big call center went into it and that sort of set the direction. I may actually start using it for my mall walking adventures.

I have to end up seeing this place during the early morning. I loved the steady camera work and your narration. Amazing stuff.

This video gave me so many feels. I remember being a little kid in that mall. I could picture where the Burger King used to be as you passed it. Also, nice choice with the Final Fantasy music.

This is amazing, an utterly surreal venue with amazing commentary. Thank you for creating this

Wow I’ve driven past here before! Sadly have to miss the premieres tonight, it’s a busy week, but Friday evening will great!

Such amazing work! As always, I love the pacing of the VO, footage, and music. I love the thesis on "liminal spaces" you develop while the footage patiently walks down the corridor. One of my favorite parts of your narration with so many of these videos is how well you develop complex scripted ideas within the context of the footage. And that great Zen moment, which you telegraph so well, by the waterfall! I love how your videos are not only so well-scripted but always have patience for the moment, rather trying to over-edit over it. Related: That this amazing video has only one fourth the views after 24 hrs of the unedited predictable ramblings of a reliably bitter narcissist is just a crime against humanity!

I grew up with this mall and I work here now. Funny to see it on YT when I was just there having a hot dog at Griffins. I remember going to Lovemans as a toddler and buying vinyl records as a teenager. Saw the first 3 Star Wars movies at the movie theater that used to be there.

If you come back to Chatt you can check out it's sibling Northgate Mall. It's slightly less dead, mostly due to the Chick-fil-A inside that I'm convinced is keeping it running singlehandedly. Oddly enough the satellite stores in Northgate's parking lot are doing quite well, it's just the interior that's dying off.

This is probably the last place I'd expect to hear music from Final Fantasy VII! You're right, that foundation is gorgeous. Definitely would be my spot for lunches as well.

That cafe desserts place is still active and actually pretty decent. I eat there semi-regularly.

Eastgate Mall still holds many memories for me as a kid. My mother would go shopping at Goody's store and would always let us go to dollar tree for a toy if we were good while she shopped. Plus the Chinese combo king stand in there was FANTASTIC! Plus was always fun in the 2000's when they brought out the ice skating rink.

you can see it while passing through i75 split but youd never guess it used to be a vibrant mall

I'm from Cleveland, TN. About 30 minutes away. We have a dead mall too. It's sad that so many of these places I'd go to hang out with friends now closed, especially since there aren't many places to hang out for nerds down here in the first place. Thanks for this video!

0:10 I always shudder upon hearing the ominous music of ‘You Can Hear the Cry of the Planet’ knowing that it leads into THAT moment in FFVII. But contrary to a tragedy, it was striking to see all that emptiness leads into that glorious fountain; like an oasis in the middle of a desert of office spaces. I do hope folks visit that peaceful corner of the world to appreciate it as well. Great song choices again; I instantly recognized ‘Highschool Lover’, too!

A lucidly presented and excellently researched dead mall tour. The expression of your emotional impressions are absolutely poetry. You are truly gifted at this!

That might just be one of if not the most beautiful fountains I've ever seen.

It’s so well maintained!

I think this might be the weirdest place you covered, amazing video!

I grew up in Chattanooga. My brother and I used to walk to this mall to the arcade at the time.

I live just right across the street from here, but I’ve never been in there before. I’ve only lived here for about two years tho. Good to know there’s a free indoor walking space!

My husband went here when it was a smoking mall with shops. I also worked here for FedEx international TRAC.

There's a mobile device repair store here, and a few other tiny shops. It's always weird going in there though, since it's so empty.

I remember going here when I was a kid in the late 80s early 90s. The fountain was added after the mall was closed. That back corner area by the fountain was the entrance to Profits I don’t know if it still is but it was a call center when I lived around the area. The area that’s recessed in with the brown brick, and the brown paint while you’re walking towards the fountain, used to be a JCPenney across from that Woolworths. I remember getting shoes and shopping at JCPenney and buying music here and watching movies.. I can’t remember exactly when but JCPenney moved to Hamilton Place early 90s mid 90s. I remember doing some contract work for AT&T in the early 2000s I walked in utility area that has the transformers for the neighborhood at that time next to the mall and had the distribution for the telephone network for the area. It was built onto the mall. on the side next to the JCPenney I found a scrapper electrocuted apparently he thought because the mall was dead. The power was shut off, but it was not it fed the neighborhood. What I remember of the food court was it was sort of in the middle of the area that you walk in other small food stands in the middle. The only place I remember eating there was orange Julius and a place that made white castle type burgers.

My mother worked at the JC Penney when they had a candy department next to the escalator and the post office outside of the mall used to be Lionel Playworld

I wasn't in this mall in its prime, but I remember going to a doctor here when I was younger, about 2012. I heard a fountain and wanted to explore but my parents told me not to lol. I'm happy to hear that this place is real and not something younger me imagined.

I live in Chattanooga I was sad to see the Small die and turn into the business park that it is I have a lot of fond memories of being there with my parents and grandparents

Great video Kristin!

Always love your productions. You do them with such style and heart. I know that the videos of this kind are slowly dwindling away as there are fewer and fewer properties left. It is very sad, but I am glad that at least the buildings can be repurposed. For those who knew it as a mall, can walk through and remember from time to time.

I remember taking ice skating lessons there when I was little. There were even a few stores left inside then too. That was 2002 probably

I remember ice skating inside this mall when I was a kid!

As I remember the food court was added in the mid- to late 80s up until then the restaurants were scattered throughout the mall. As I remember the food court was never anything special in Eastgate 1 or 2 restaurants at the end of the row

Oh yeah, i used to live near there. Its errie how the plaxe is simultaneously loud and quied at the same time.

Another fantastic cruise. You really know how to perfectly describe the feeling or vibe of a space. Thank you for sharing your talent!

I've lived in the chattanooga area most of my life and hadn't heard about eastgate until recently. My mom actually worked at a nearby Profits in the 90s and helped in the official closing of the eastgate location, said it was the most fun she ever had at work. Malls were always a weird thing to me, a sort of unfulfilled promise. Unlike kids in the 80s and 90s who grew up on malls, I didn't really get that chance due to my local mall kinda sucking (Northgate is holding on by a thread named chik-fil-a) and covid taking away those developmental years for starting to be able to explore public spaces with just your friends instead of parents. Malls were something that was supposed to be a fact of life, but just weren't for me. Of course, Hamilton place is alive and well, and many kids still hang out there. But its just something that will never feel familiar and nostalgic for me, I feel like an outsider every time I step in one.

Been watching for some time, since my hometown mall was covered on this channel. Consistently awesome work. It surprises me on occasion how well researched these places are, and are given their due in the videos. The 'liminal space' portion of the script is clip-worthy. It perfectly encapsulates the fascination and nostalgia with these now largely empty venues. Well done!

Brooooo i live in Chattanooga! I see this abandoned place all the time. You should come back and check out Northgate mall in a couple years, it’s dying too

I miss when they had the library book sales in here. I'm also just old enough to remember there being some stores here.

Hi Kirsten,good to see another video😊you and Sal are the best channels for dead mall content 👍🏻🔥👏🏻thank you for such quality content

Oh man I live in Chattanooga and Eastgate is so depressing. I've always wanted to take my longboard thru there lol. Admittedly the fountain is pretty nice. The place has basically stayed the exact same over at least 20 years

As you were talking about liminality, I started to wonder if spaces like these, clearly still used but not as the mass gathering places they were originally intended to be, could bring on a separate feeling, a frustrated liminality...the impatience prior to a slow elevator door, for example, but more diffuse. I've felt that way in one or two malls, where eventually wandering around and failing to find a familiar store despite the evidence of its exterior branding or the memory of its position in an otherwise changed concourse shifts my own awareness.

My childhood mall!!! I’m so very excited ❤❤❤

Yooooooo... I had no idea Eastgate was open to the public!

I remember that plane crash. The mall is not that far away from the airport just a mile or two

I used to go to this mall when I was a kid in the 80s. It had become a bit of a rough area even as early as the 90s and was quickly eclipsed by the new Hamilton Place Mall in Chattanooga.

I love that this video begins with "Listen to the Cries of the Planet" from Final Fantasy VII!

The Food Court is where the Woolworth’s was located. JC Penney was directly across the mall from that

Thank you Kristin! This was my childhood mall! My current employer used to have offices there about 12 years ago! I spent many Saturdays here as my mother worked at Woolworth’s!! Thank you for doing this mall! You and I chatted about it a little during your Mountain Mall video!

The background music you used is absolutely beautiful. It really made for a chill vibe. ❤️

The predecessor to Eastgate was Brainerd Village shopping center which is right next door. It was built by the same company that built Eastgate. That is where the JC Penney was before it moved to Eastgate. Eastgate was built next to the I-75 and I-24 split and can be seen from the interstate. However, if you were not familiar with the area it was hard to get to from the interstate. CBL tried to get an exit built from the interstate to the mall but it never happened. Therefore, CBL built Hamilton Place which had an exit from the interstate and all of the major businesses moved there. This mass exodus caused the entire area around Eastgate to decline. The area has began to build back up in the past few years but is still nowhere near what it used to be. I used to work security at this mall and at the time if you happened upon certain doors being left unlocked you could get behind some of the newer walls and see some of what was left of the original store fronts. The fire exit plans mounted on the walls next to the exits still showed a map of the old stores. That foundation was not original to the mall and was added well after its decline as something to fill the space.

ms griffins hot dogs are life changing

OMFG Thank you! I’m so happy to see this covered so well. ❤

That food court is so sad it makes me sad too.

I absolutely love your channel! It definitely gives me closed mall vibes. What you described is exactly how I feel about malls closing. The fountain is beautiful! At least the building was able to be saved and repurposed instead of demolished. The malls of my childhood are closing or are dying.

Love it! Looks exactly like a convention center hallway connecting to an old Sheraton hotel! What a waste of an amazing fountain! 😂

The best mall fountain I've ever seen. Good video.

That's a fantastic space, I'd go there just to relax, lol. The long corridor reminds me more of an airport than a mall. Sucks to see such a beautiful place going to waste.

I just recently saw Sal’s latest video on the Carew Tower in Cincinnati, in which he recommended his subscribers and viewers to watch your take on the Carew Tower since you uploaded a video not too long ago. So I clicked on the link Sal provided. I love your own unique video presentations of these once great places for people to socialize, find solace & sanctuary. Your voice is so calming and you have a very profound style in expressing your perspective on the topic. After watching this new episode, just like Sal’s videos, I couldn’t get enough. Just subscribed to your channel. I look forward to the next one!!

I used to work at the call center that was attached to the side. Id sometimes walk around the empty mall on breaks. There used to be a sandwich shop there but i only ate there once.

You have the kind of soft soothing voice I could listen to all day. You could be a radio announcer. That is a really nice waterfall they have in there.

My mom used to work there, used to be bustling, lots of places to eat. This is depressing to see that it's completely dead now. 😢

The food court was indeed added after the mall was enclosed

That fountain was beautiful and the trees were also beautiful and well looked after. American shopping centres always seem more respectable than British ones. My local centre is full of pawnbrokers, bookmakers, vaping shops, cheque -cashing places and shops selling cheap merchandise. Cheap in all senses of that word.

Mall turned into an indoor office park, with a water feature. Wow👀

Great info thank you, the netherlands.

I have lived here in Chattanooga for 13 years but never saw this mall when it was alive with people and business. I've been to this mall several times for little things here and there, or to just walk sometimes when it's raining outside. There is a very calm vibe there, but there are also time when hood rats come in a ruin the peace and tranquility.

In college I worked at that awful Merry go Round store there.

I grew up near Chattanooga in north ga- growing up eastgate mall was the closet mall so we went to eastgate frequently- we did all of our Christmas shopping there as well as at service merchandise which was was a home goods store that also sold expensive jewelry- we shopped for all our back to school clothes at eastgate and knart - we went to see movies at the theatre that was nearby - this brought back lots of memories- Hamilton place opened in 1987 and was the huge big mall that killed eastgate - currently eastgate houses businesses and govt services- i work for the state of tn and my current office is located inside the complex however it has become unsafe and dangerous with drive by shooting in the parking lot even in the daylight - i am glad to be working from home most of the time

It seems like it is being turned into office space. A lot of old malls are being converted into offices.

There’s something quite haunting about former malls. I understand what has caused the downfall sadly and it’s worldwide - not as bad here in the UK where I currently live as malls weren’t as big as their US equivalents but there is a lot of dying town centres/shopping plazas which is not to distantly related I guess. In my native South Africa there were many huge malls easily on a par with US Malls and last time I visited in 2013 they were all very popular, how it is now I don’t really know. Awesome video and really enjoy your narration!

Do Northgate Mall next.

I haven’t been to eastgate in a long time i live about 20min from there sad to see how it looks now :(

Y'all premiering when I'm at work!!! 😢 Well, at least I'll have something good to watch when I get home. 🦄😉

Lovely.

That fountain alone is superior to any "modern architecture" in the usa

Was it here or northgate that had the random lego stations for kids to play at randomly in the hallways ? Either way mom would take us to the 75 cent theater here and then get central park and go to the duck pond beside the office building

chattanoogan here! i’m not old enough to remember eastgate ever being anything other than dead. i can’t prove this, but it sure looks like all the other malls in the county pretty much died when hamilton place opened.

Northgate isn't far behind it now

Great video!

Didn’t know there was still anything inside, from the way I heard people talk about eastgate I thought it was was just a bunch of dark hallways with a daycare connected to it