Someone really, really cares about keeping this mall spotless. Shiny floors, not a single light bulb out, none of the ailing mall symptoms like buckets or water stains. I hope it continues on, trapped somewhere in time.

"...or to thank your lucky stars you've finally arrived safely back home in the '80s that you never should have left. I think we can all agree that this whole time moving forward thing is a terrible idea and we should have never agreed to it." I love this SO MUCH. Another fabulous production, you guys. Thank you! 🙏🏻💙

The tree made of poinsettias is lovely!

I love the lights I in the ceiling. I love the brick. I love the shiny floors.💚

Back to the 80s, when Wards, Sears and Pennys ruled. Ahhhh, Thank you Kristin for taking us back. 😁

Somewhere in the middle of this, i forgot that i was watching a video at all. I felt as if i was walking through the mall with you, listening to you talk about the mall next to me. I only realized this when the video was nearly over. This is very compelling work.

Hey, cruise director, I appreciate you finding kind words for these spots. Mocking seems easier for a lot of the other channels. You are different.

That place isn’t just clean. It is shiny!! They kept it up nicely! Great video. 🙂

1975 I was a mere Lad back then. I remember Lums in Florida you sit eat and relax, and a beer if you were old enough. She’s right about “semi retirement” I’m just Paraphrasing. When Covid becomes history, that mall would be a great 70’s night eat in and music Morgantown could have a party😏

13:07 so I also watch a completely unrelated channel called Technology Connections and that’s gotta be the theme song from it. Small world! haha

Thank you for treating my local mall with respect and sharing the history, many people I've found don't know things or are distasteful. I hope you enjoyed your time in Morgantown.

FYI-- Lum's most famous dish was their key lime pie. It tasted like no other. Many people ( including my grandparents ) would go to Lum's just for the pie. My grandmother always had a few pies kept in her freezer as they only got to Lum's every few months. They visited the location in Bridgeport WV.

I might go to Morgantown just to visit this place! This is truly a tourist attraction! This place MUST be saved! If anything, make this a movie studio and start filming movies, commercials here or music studios! WELCOME BACK TO 1975! 😆

I moved to Morgantown in 1974 when there was no retail outside of the sparse downtown area just off the WVU campus. At the time the mall was a welcome addition and an alternative to Hills in Suncrest and Hecks in Sabraton - two regional mediocre discount stores. At the mall you could get fried clams at Lums, an inexpensive lunch at the Red Rose, or a course for your teenage daughter at the Wendy Ward Charm School - while you were getting your brakes relined. Coal was king then, and the glass factories were closing one by one until none were left.

I used to live off of Greenbag Road. The way you describe that place is exactly how it feels!

As a Morgantown local, I can hardly understand why people still talk about this mall. The first memory I have of going there was when I was four, in the mid 2000s there was art shows in the oldest area of the mall. I revisited it a few months back with some friends, and almost nothing has changed. Alums was turned into a advertisement stand. But other than that, I saw one old guy reading a book near where the Christmas tree is on one of the benches, and some staff cleaning the floors. They still host events like bingo, and craft shows. They also sometimes have food truck events in that giant parking lot.

I got the same school vibes. The four across doors, the almost reflective quality of the floor tiles. The cinder block walls painted white in places. It does exude the feeling I’m walking through Anderson HS. I can almost smell the blue water they use to clean those floors to make em shine.

Wow. This blew me away. I'm not sure if you used the yellow/soft incandescent filter on this, but either way, this is a gorgeous time capsule that I'm glad is a community space in its golden years. The brick, the skylights, it just evokes my childhood so much.

That main area with the Christmas tree is such a great space! I know its very plain but that Aesthetic really gives me the fuzziness! I think it is because that's how so many things looked in my childhood in the late 70s and 80s. This look was still out of date at the time but there was still plenty of it to be seen. I also love those faux gaslight sconces. I love that look!

What a beautiful mall. I knew it was a great time capsule from photos I'd seen, and seeing the walking tour did not disappoint.

I love abandoned places like these. Makes for great backdrops for spooky storytelling.

My family made so many wonderful memories in this mall! Very sad to see it empty!

One Word: PRISTINE! Thank You for being our cruise director. I

This is my old mall. About ten years ago I used to go and sit and read. I remember when it full of stores. The mall in Fairmont was first. That was my mall growing up in the early 70s-mid 80s. Gabriel Brothers = now known as Gabe's. It is located above the other Mall (The New Mall) in Westover.

the mid 1970s to the late 1990s was the absolute peak for shopping malls. id say late 70s to late 1980s was its prime

Yep, a lot of looks like my high school which was built in the 60's and not very far-Pittsburgh.

Murphy Mart was a part of GC Murphy. GC Murphy was a store much like FW Woolworth. My mother also referred to GC Murphy as "the five and ten." That tells you exactly what kind of store they were.

Oh wow Oh Christmas Tree, buzzing lights, spit shined floors. Just a wonderful cruise tonight. Thanks Kristin for all you do! Your a ⭐️

Mountaineer is probably my all time favorite Dan Bell Dead Mall. Good to see it’s still chugging along and knows it’s place (And yes, if I lived in Morgantown this would be my walking spot.)

You know it's a dead mall when you walk by the directory less than a minute in- and it's just blank. Because dead mall. That it's still in such good shape regardless is a rare thing- malls bleeding this much money for lack of enough stores tend to start having visible decay in no time.

My local mall is Glenbrook Square in Fort Wayne, IN. Built in 1966, not only is it still operating - but thriving. After Sears went under, the empty space was torn down and is currently being rebuilt into additional retail and restaurant space. There are also several additional free-standing restaurants that have gone in on the property in the last few years.

Great tour. Loved the holiday feel it had. Thank you!

Whoever strips and waxes those floors is the real hero.

Another one I've been in many times over the decades.

This place is so large. Just wow! Beautiful

Just found your channel. I also follow a few other mall channels. Your research is second to none (as is your sense of humor 🤩). I live an hour from Gurnee Mills Mall in IL. Have walked every mall in NE IL. Used to travel around on business before retirement. Sad to see what has happened over the decades. Thanks for all you do! 👍🏻

A new video! Thanks you two.

My eighth grade class stopped at this mall on our way back home from a school trip to Washington DC in 2003! I remember it looking exactly like this and especially the food court!

As usual, you did a spectacular job with recording and narrating what you saw at the Mountaineer Mall. In my opinion, your documentation of failing and dying malls is the best. I used to live north of Morgantown in Uniontown, Pa 1982-85 and have been to that Mall many times. It was normally packed with teenagers, families, and senior citizens even during the week. It's sad to see has lost it's popularity as a retail outlet but, It's good to see some of the spaces are being used to help the community. Happy New Year to you and best wishes in 2021. Thanks!

Lovely place, thanks for the nicely produced overview!

wow what an incredible find! thank you for bring this to us!!

This one was perfect with a perfect ending. Thanks for sharing it!

Love the work you put into your videos

This video has made me a subscriber. Great stuff!

I actually worked right next to this mall at teletech, we would go to the hot dog shop there. Not gonna lie they were solid 5/10 hot dogs. And you described the vibe really well, simultaneously unnerving and serene, really just fits the weird big emptiness. Like you can tell it was made for a lot of people, and it feels like it’s just waiting for the crowds to come back.

Wouldn't it be funny to be walking into a dead mall like this during Christmas and you just find a Santa sitting there twiddling his thumbs next to a big Christmas tree?

Just came across you! Love the content so far! Your voice is like buttah

sweet video as always. like everyone else i really love that tree!

Great video !!! I love you're work but you already know that

I was telling my wife that it reminded me of our high school so you were dead on with the school vibes. Great video 👍

Keep waiting for a jump scare Like a real life 5 nights at Freddie's

The whole time I also thought it looks like a high school.

Great great great video

The Middletown Mall in Fairmont, WV is older than the Mountaineer Mall.

OMG. LUMS!

I LIVE IN MORGANTOWN

I love Frosty.💚

I was here on July 3rd it was open and awesome

HEY I DANCE THERE

16:23 Wow! Just Wow! Twilight is beautiful!

My very first job - I was a 17 year old High School senior - was at Lum's (in Hollywood, Florida). It was great: hot dogs steamed in beer, the tasty "Ollie Burger," ah happy memories! Oh, where is the Occupancy Thermometer???

i can totally picture teens in the early 80s walking through the mall smoking ciggarettes in their blue jeans wearing judas priest and billy squier t shirts 😂

In the 1980s we called them soul-less materialist temples In the 2020s we should wish to have as much soul as that

Check out Country Club Mall in La Vale Maryland, its about a 1hr 20 min east of Morgantown. This mall has lost all 3 of its anchors in the last few years; Bonton, Sears and Jc Penny, as well as numerous stores. This mall also has a Walmart attached.

Another great vid! And was that a pay phone with an actual phone in it at around the 5:40 mark? All the nostalgia feels. Happy Holidays!

Good Evening, Kristin! FINALLY a non-live cast after quite a while... (6:14) - You've mentioned that that the Gabriel Bros. chain was based there in Morgantown... Well, Wallie B26 (the "rocker" from Pittsburgh, PA) just made a video about a former Kmart store there in Western PA of its' modern iteration, GABE'S, which I thought was "a nicer Ollie's or Falas, but below a TJ Maxx or Marshall's" (didn't mention Big Lots, as Gabe's has a lot more clothing). It is such a pity that such a WELL-PRESERVED MALL is SO EMPTY, that not even the locals frequent in any was, but then again I come from a place where malls, even dead ones, are enjoyed as public plazas (just ask Sam of Brick Immortar). Probably the community where is at changed too much for them to sustain any resemblance of business patronage

I have that same school vibe, kristin. I could see this being repurposed as such if the mall dies

Eloquence Antiques (seen on the corner - closed in this video - at 0:57) is a lovely store!

There's a storefront shown in the intro that has 'olde worlde' style bowed windows either side of the entrance. I've seen this in other dead malls, I think Rolling Acres had one. What store were these originally?

Wait, is that Technology Connections I hear at 12:00?

at 2:35 that was once an achor store right?

Should have asked the guys working in the store Pure Collectibles for an interview.

Very nice I've seen other people make a video on this mall before but I've been waiting for you to take a shot at it and you knocked it out of the park. I think this is my favorite of your mall videos and the best one on the Mountaineer Mall, the way you film it is such a love letter to this great place. Thank you, your video are one of the great things about 2020.

What sad and depressive mall I hope can re open after all this s...t pandemic ends soon.

You should do a piece on Flea Markets in Cincinnati in the 80's/90's. I know some are gone but I'm sure you have great info? I can't find the one we used to go to in image or anything.

hit up the orange julius 🥰

Those terrazzo floors are in amazing condition... But the connections between the original mall and the addition is a bit odd... I've never seen a mall addition that didn't address the threshold between the addition and original structure.

Love the video and thank you very much. Isn’t this the mall in which the local FBI moved into temporarily while their original offices were being renovated? Oh, just an FYI - as if Milwaukee County’s Northridge saga hasn’t been disappointing enough, Southridge is facing bankruptcy, Brookfield Square’s vacancies have gone up 20%, and even Bayshore lost 35% of their retail space. Milwaukee County may only have Mayfair Mall as the only one left, but the ground floor near Barnes & Noble smelled like sewage when I last visited. When I relocated from Springfield OH (I commented on your Upper Valley Mall video as I was a local at that time), to Milwaukee WI I had hoped to visit every mall (I have nice shots of Southridge and Bayshore just before the mandatory COVID-related lockdowns) but not Brookfield before the vacancy rate went up. I truly will miss the mall experience. Growing up, Philadelphia’s Gallery and Franklin Mills were my hangouts, South Jersey’s Cherry Hill and Echelon were my second homes in my twenties, Springfield’s Upper Valley entertained me (not that much) during my back-to-college period in the thirties, and hard work allowed me to afford Bayshore and Mayfair in my forties, with Southridge as the local stop. Amazon’s convenience is great, but the experiences of picking out and reading the prefaces of eight-to-ten books at Barnes & Noble, taking a long ride through several neighborhoods to shop at Bayshore, or eat in a packed Southridge food court CAN’T be virtually replicated.

What’s up Kristin ? I know I always ask you for sound advice and here I go again lol. When you speak 🗣 into the mic how close are you to it? I notice I get the best results when I’m right up on it.

OMG at 11:42 that's the closing theme music for the Technology Connections channel. Was that actually being played live or did you add the music in post?

😎

I dance in that building

How long has Gallery been there? It looks like it was there in the 70s or 80s. It’s still there now?

Well its starting to happen, F.Y.E closed down in eastgate mall. Not much longer now

How does this place coexist as empty and claustrophobic? I think the lack of skylights doesn't help. You gotta wonder how much of their electric bill on overhead lights could have been saved with a strategic skylight here or there.

I have a question. You are one of the few dead mall commentators that discuss demalling. How many malls transition from malls to open shopping plazas ? If they do why ? What is the disadvantage of having nicely air conditioned well maintained corridors between the shops ?

I wish I had the male version of your voice for voice-over work. 🎤🗣

lt looks nice but also eriee at the same time.Malls have had their heyday and l think everyone got caught by surprise with advent of the internet( just an observation).Yes we should step back into the 80's ,l wouldn't mind going back.lt would be nice to get back to normal and go out to shop instead of doing it online,hopefully these malls will come back life when that happens.Thanks.

I am not seeing much commerce in there. Is some of this space being used for offices? It looks really dead

No offense, that was spookiness at it's best!

YO KRISTEN!!!!!

This is a backrooms lvl if you didn’t know or liminal space to lyk

This doesn't have a mall feel to it..It seems more like a museum or hospital.

I'm jealous I can't walk through there! I'm an old 80's thrasher who's quite frankly, sick of the social/political climate of my part of the country (Seattle 😝). This time capsule is what I needed. Thanks!

This place seems frozen in time!

Take me home. Country road...to the place I BELONG. West Virginia mountaineer mall...take me Home country road😿

Very sad to see....like a stage set for a play that will never perform.

Is this a mall or a nursing home? Depressing interiors imho. Great vid, as always.

Another dead mall. Depressing.