Should turn these malls into retirement community for Gen X’ers. Keep the food court and movie theater, subdivide the retail stores to living spaces of various sizes. Add a dry cleaners and a gym. Medical

This is where I got my PS2 and Xbox back in the day... As well as a bunch of other various games from my childhood. Haven't lived in DFW in close to a decade, crazy to see such a ghost-town here.

Ridgmar used to be my stomping grounds in high school. I could spend hours in Waldenbooks and FYE back then.

Completely dead mall. sad, it was so vibrant back in the day.

I remember when that was a thriving mall. Maybe 12 years ago things were different. It's sad to see it like that now.

Mark my words...people will be begging for malls again one day.

Thanks for the look i used to go here all the time growing up in the 80s and 90s

I'm a FedEx PM Courier that works the White Settlement area near Fort Worth. Ridgmar used to be part of my regular route. Mostly just one shoebox package to pick up at either Champ's and/ or Journey's. I would always go in thru the food court past the jewelry stall. The lady there would always bug me about buying from her. There was always at least 4 middle aged or elderly folk doing laps around the top floor. The up running escalator was broken for over a year before it was finally fixed. I remember seeing so many families on the weekdays in the bottom area playing at the Bungee Swing or riding that Train or racing around on those large toy style motocycles. The Aquarium looked nice, but I just remember they have a Toucan in the window. It liked watching me walk by. Auntie Anne's station was super expensive last I saw it. The food court needs some desperate TLC, it has a very old smell to it. Almost like a locker room. I wonder if that bird is still nested on top of the TV. Always wanted to try the food there, but they were always closed by the time I was at work. I wonder how old some of the gumballs in those machines near the food court entrance are. Unfortunately I don't have many memories of this particular mall outside of my job. I was always more of a Parks Mall guy. :)

used to go here as a kid. hulen was closer. never could have imagined this would be empty

This is so depressing. Ridgmar was the mall of my youth. I spent so many days wandering around here, wide eyed and eager to earn enough to buy a video game or new toy at K-B Toys. That Journeys you showed early in the video used to be where the EB Games, later Gamestop, sat. I bought probably 300 games in that store. Always got a cookie at that cookie stand next to it (probably why I'm so fat today in my 50's). This place used to be so full of life, but once the air force base up the road shut down it was a struggle from then on. Even when they put in the RAVE cinema, which is still my favorite theater, even then it was all done but the crying. So so sad to see it all so lifeless and in disrepair. There used to be the gigantic spiral ramp that led from the bottom floor to the top. It was right where the playground now sits. You can see it in an old episode of Walker Texas Ranger. I have so many memeories from Ridgmar. My kid was in the school orchestra and every Christmas we used to get treated to a concert in the center of this mall. She played the bass and they'd do Christmas songs during the holidays. Ugh. I'm gonna go mope now. Cheers, and thanks. R.I.P., Ridgmar. I will still remember you fondly. I mean, I drive by you every day on my way to work, but you're just a husk now.

I know the mall well, I remember when it was built. The reason it is the way it is today is the demographic has totally changed from 1976.

I grew up with this mall, used to hang out here, before the big decline when it was still reasonably full me and the wife would come shopping all the time ( they had the BEST pizza place in the food court). Took my kids couple months back, and it was, just heartbreaking. Hulen is starting to feel the affect as well

I delivered newspapers there in the 80s. It was happening then. A really nice small.

I was wondering about Ridgemar Mall a couple weeks ago. I used to go there a lot. I got my first cell phone there in the mid 90s from Radio Shack.

We used drive almost an hour to shop at this mall when I was growing up.

So many memories growing up here. Honestly, it isn't as dead as I imagined. I heard it was pretty dire these days, but it seems like some stores weathered the storm better than others (Journeys being one of them, that has been there for ages.) My favorite place was an arcade that sadly only lasted for a few years in the mid-2000s, but it was a fun way to kill time while my parents and sister shopped.

My Home Mall...bought my first CD player there 😮

Miss going to Wicks and Sticks and Craig’s.

One of the anchors is now a storage unit - where I currently have some some stuff stored. If a self storage being one of the biggest draws to a mall doesn't tell the story, Idk what does.

spent a lot of time here as a kid. i was so mad when i got to be too big to play on the weird gross rubbery playground they had. it remember really thinking the end must be near when the build a bear moved out. loved going to the rock & fossil shop before they moved out too, really nice old couple ran it. sad to see it so dead.

Some correction to the locations covered: 2:15 - Sear's, not Macy's. Food court starting at 3:26 - Orange Julius, Italia Express (but not the original Italia Express that was present throughout the 90's and early 2000's), a burger joint (can't remember the name) but then turned into a cheese steak joint (can't remember the name); 3:40 stall with the black sign and white lettering used to be an Asian eatery, next to it was Chick-fil-a; 4:02 brick-colored wall with off-white trim was a Chili's, to the right was a Sonic and then Subway (or I might have those 2 reversed). 5:15 - that area where the children were playing used to be a water fountain/pond back in the 90's and there was a spiral ramp that lead to both floors. 5:33 - Macy's, not Nieman Marcus. Also, on that same side where you were standing, somewhere around there was a Kay-Bee Toy Store back in the 90's prior to Macy's being built. 7:16 - Nieman Marcus, not Sear's. The hallway to the left, there used to be a stand alone walk-in Subway. 10:12 - Macy's (lower level), not Nieman Marcus. Prior to Macy's being built in this area, this used to be the food court (90's). I don't remember all the food locations of the 90's but the original Italia Express was there, Chick-fil-a, and Arby's. Equally as important, next to that food court was The Space Port which was the arcade center. 12:15 - Sear's (lower level), not Macy's.

Neiman Marcus was actually the vacant anchor that is shown from around 7:10 to 7:40! That wing of the mall, even when Neimans was still in business, was eerily quiet from around 2009 or 2010 on. There haven't been many stores in that area for years. The vacant anchor to the right around 10:11 used to be the Macy's! It closed in 2016. This and the Hulen Mall were my childhood malls. Visited Ridgmar yesterday and it is so sad to see how it has fallen.

The mall of my youth. This was one of the best malls I have seen. I have traveled 39 states and saw a lot of malls in their peak. If I was making a top 10 list this would be on it. The Chelsea Street Pub was here. It could be a wild spot for a place at a mall. Firsts I remember at this mall. I am pretty sure Chick-fil-A had it’s first store here and there was a great Italian fast food pizza here. TGIF Fridays was a Satellite restaurant there’s also a really good Szechuan satellite stores. Neiman Marcus on one end of Dillard’s on the other All the other typical stores that came and went. It was this mall where a friend was working at one of the record stores when Boston’s first album came out. I remember going up to see him and it was playing. I hated it but my taste was changing a lot at that time. Not so bad in retrospect. Back in the 70s a trip to this mall often came with an air show. The F-16s made at General Dynamics and flown at Carswell SAC base would practice just overhead. Many more stores Thanks for showing this. If you want to know more ask as I might remember most all that was at this mall.

I remember that movie theater. That was around 2012? Been a long time, could not get around this place was packed. Last time i was here was year backs I remember being in a closing store and one of the employees telling us she didn’t care if we stole or bought anything.

I remember when the mall was built...spent most of my time at the arcade ....Space Port ? ....they had a What burger....and a cafeteria style restaurant...Wyatts? ...then Hulen mall opened a yr later....now I only go there to see movies at the Rave....I never venture any further than the theater

It will probably be demolished by the end of the decade, and replaced by a housing development, or mixed-use development. This used to be the place to be.

the projects from Dallas and downtown Fort Worth got moved near ridge mar and that is why it closed . true story .

anyone know the architect of the DFW 80s malls? that vibe is the same regardless which mall youre in.

This mall at one time was booming, it is now dead!

I drive past the Ridgmar Mall once every two weeks, but I’ve never been inside, since I moved to DFW almost 2 years ago. What I hear about it are from people that live nearby, that go to the Hulen Mall.

Went down hill pretty quick after Carswell Air Force Base shut down 😕

I've been in that mall a few months back and I found out the many stores I used to go to when I was young are now gone. There's at least a movie theater downstairs and sea quest.

Used to live over next to this mall. I moved there well after it was dead kinda sucked but Hulen mall is down the road

I own Easys smoke shop not to far from here. It's pretty weird. We go eat at the food court sometimes just to see how busy it is.

I spend a great deal of my youth at Ridgemar Mall back in the day

You walked by the former stalls of Zales, Orange Julius, Hot Topic, Victoria's Secrets, Helzburgs, Neiman Marcus upstairs from the Sunglass Hut, The Gap, and Banana Republic...

Meanwhile Hulen mall is thriving just down the road several miles

Now this is a liminal space

5:10-5:20 down below the balcony where the mats and the jump set is where i spent some good years of my child hood, when this place was still a real Mall, i got takin here a lot as a kid and it was always so busy then, but now its turned into this.

Physical media really did a major blow to the malls and toy stores I used to go to RM to buy CDs and videos at fye, Camelot I think there was a KB toy store there too back in 98 till 2004 I was in middle and highschool so chick's were everywhere we didn't know what a dating app would ruin everything and social media 😢

Alot of stuff around the DFW area is rotting away. Covid did a number on so many of these businesses.

Wow there is almost nothing in this mall ..... havnt been there in AGES.....

I've lived on the west side of Fort Worth since the early 80's and watched this decline myself. While many here have commented on the why's, It's puzzling to me why Ridgmar Mall became a ghost town while there are dozens of other businesses and strip malls that have sprung up and are thriving around it.

Man I remember how it was before they upgraded it.

Great place for a mega haunted house. Js

looked dead when i went like 6 years ago

i used to go here all the time when i was little, sucks seeing it dead like this

Wow, this is cool.

Tbh Kane pixel should have put u in his vid for u to get the money too

Also the only thing keeping this place alive is the sea quest.

There's a great war museum there

The Asian place here in like 2010 and the best potatoes ever so fucking good

cool vid, great music choices

ya 32 yrs ago this place was alive I used to live in Fort Worth last time I was there with my nephews and niece and you can tell most of the stores was closing and they had them animal things for kids to ride I remember because I let my niece drive it with her second older brother we almost took out walls and peoplebut the movie place was around 2005 i think not for sure

Golden triangle still going hard

I believe the anchor space with the decorative rails and ramps was a Nieman Marcus good to see JCP still open

You should go to Southwest Center mall (Red bird Mall) in Dallas that mall has no one in it too just like this one !

Dude I just went today and there is like 3 stores…

That is sears in middle in a mall

Rave cenema was open in 1999, saw the matrix there

Ahh, home

The music should be Elton John's Funeral for a Friend.

Sad to see. It was more alive 30 years ago.

W

Why is the electricity still running? Nvm people still come here?

As far as the food court goes, there was a Subway to the far left nearest the doors, then a long corridor to restrooms, after that there is the old Sonic location with the yellow and red tiles, then if my memory serves me correctly, the lineup should be a Chick-fl-a after that, then a Chinese takeout place that would constantly offer free samples to people walking by (a great way to get free grub as a child with no money lol) and then a self serve frozen yogurt place which was abandoned shortly after 2014. Across the aisle they had a cheese stake place, a pizza place, and an Asian sort of grill, I never ventured over to that side of the food court, but I would constantly go and beg my parents to take me, so I have distinct memories from there. Hardly any of the food court restaurants would convert to anything else after they closed, so you can see the Subway and Sonic being completely abandoned and left in the state that they lie in today, years after they closed, nobody bothering at all to block it off or convert it into anything new. I myself live in the area, and explored many times the back areas of the abandoned restaurants (this is probs not legal but truthfully they haven't had a lick of security in years) and have found a few documents and old advertisements up to the year 2016, so I am going to assume that's when they closed or close to it? It's just a shame to have watched the death of this mall in real time over the course of my life, and not a single person is wanting to try and really renovate and use this massive property to it's potential. Too busy building worthless niche chain restaurants and single-purpose stores in the area to focus on something cool like fixing Ridgmar.

JUST LET THE HISPANICS TAKE OVER AND WATCH IT SPRING BACK TO LIFE.... IT WAS DONE WITH TOWN CENTER NOW CALLED LA GRAN PLAZA.

Also… looked very dirty…

Hm, you should have more views than this. You definitely deserve them.