Someday there will be a Mall-Museum with all the former shops and brands rebuilt by passionate collectors. With all the products we know from the 70's/80's/90's. And people will be willing to pay a lot of admission to relive all the beautiful memories of the past. And Tiffany and Debbie Gibson will give a concert with all their hits from back then.

I just found out they'll be tearing down my local small town neighborhood mall. It's been virtually empty for 15 years now, but I find very few people understand the sense of loss it will bring. I spent many good years in that mall with friend and family, lots of good experiences. Anyway, I comment here because I know others will also get what I'm saying.

Always a good day when North uploads!

Something about this video in particular reminds me, so powerfully of my last day of high school, the very strong sense that I was going through the motions for the last time ever. Yet, there’s something somber and morbid too. It’s just a bit like a funeral.

I shopped here as a kid, and I have fond memories of it as a kid

Imagine the energy it takes to keep such a massive indoor space temperature-controlled for practically nobody.

I love hearing all the locals and their memories!

This was my childhood mall in the 80’s and 90’s. Sad to see it closed. My memories of it was that there used to be two K B toy stores, several book stores, a Herman Sporting Goods store, countless hair salons, a Friendly’s restaurant, an Arby’s, a Chi-Chi’s Mexican restaurant, a Sterling’s optical, and a Radio Shack to name a few.

A common phenomenon with comparing old film clips and pictures from a mall in the 80s to today is that it seems malls in the 80s were darker and not as brightly lit. Not sure if it’s because of all the stores being abandoned or less things in the mall absorbing the light or if a redesign in the 90s or 2000s made the lighting brighter. But dead malls today with the power and lights still on seem brighter than in the 80s.

RIP your wallet! XD IDK why but I've really taken a liking to alot of the old store aesthetics, especially wood tones and eye catching color choices- Shout out to that Marie's at 27:50 with its glass block wall too. I've been watching Dead mall series for a while and find these old, often magificent buildings with their forgotten storefronts to be captivating. Alongside the development history they tell so many stories, and prompt some deep contemplation on what the future holds/ folleys of previous development projects, etc. Thank you for the awesome tour of this mall!

on a real note, it has been years but i still have dreams of every hallway and every branch of lakeforest, behind the walls where delivery are made behind the stores there was signatures and weed leaves dating back to the 1970's. its amazing still being able to fly through the mall in my dreams, thank you for the walkthrough

i last visited it in early 2023, there were still people there, just not too many. lake forest is where i took eye exams and got my glasses.

Adding to the “This was my mall” posts… I remember shopping at the Lakeforest Sears THE DAY BEFORE the rest of the mall opened! I remember they had a huge curtain covering the windowed doors leading to the rest of the mall, and I went and had a peek when I was there. Lots of memories, but sadly I moved away in the early 90’s and missed a lot of the history there, as well as most of the decline. Side note: I also remember, and took classes at the ice rink at Lakeforest that preceded the movie theatre. In the late 70’s\early 80’s. Farewell Lakeforest.

I just love your videos; your storytelling really brings the mall (back) to life, and your soundtrack selection is always sooooo good. Thank you for these awesome mall time capsules! 💜🙏

This is wild. This was the 1 of 2, maybe 3 malls closest to me as a kid growing up. Frederick Md and Gaithersburg Md were equal distances away. The tiered area with that elevator really brought me back. So strange to think how many times we’d just walk the mall on a Friday or Saturday afternoon. My best friend’s mom had a place in Montgomery Village up until around 10 yrs ago.

Wow. Another nice mall gone. I liked the music choice and especially the Dippin the bisquit one. Thanks for another great video.

Finally had the time to watch this video and with your easy to understand commentary (without an information overload), original music choice and relaxed filming it was a pleasure to do so. But hey, your video's always are worth watching..

Can’t wait to watch it! RIP Lakeforest… awesome mall!

I love your vlogs. You go over so much info and the music is amazing.

I enjoy your videos very much. I just got back into art and some of my favorite things to draw are screenshots from your videos. Something about the lines and colors in malls like these literally beg me to sketch them! Thanks for posting!

Always love the vintage photos and video superimposed while you go around the malls. Really helps show just how the mall looked in its busier days and how much each mall impacted the culture of the region it existed in. To me it reinforces the fond memories that people had in their youth visiting these places with their families and friends.

What a great tribute to this beautiful mall. I’m glad you added it the short interview with the local residents who fondly remember this mall. I never thought malls would close until I saw the dead mall community in 2020. I just figured people need to shop. But one stop stores like Walmart have taken over as well as online shopping.

Imagine being chased by a kids train like the ones you see in the mall, but the rolling gaint is the driving the kids train.

When the malls in Michigan closed...the Southfield library got one of the sculptures and the other mall sent a sculpture to the local hospital

Really like your music choices. I don’t know what group to pity or envy more. My generation who grew up throughout the 80’s and 90’s in the heyday of malls and got to experience them in all of their glory, or your generation that didn’t. As for me, malls growing up were just THE best, and something that were the absolute world to me. But…I’ve had to experience their almost total collapse and haven’t found any alternatives that fill that void for me. For your generation, you didn’t get to experience them in their heyday, but I think today you haven’t felt that loss as deeply, and have been much more resilient and able to adapt. So…sigh…I just don’t know. All I do know is that I miss my malls to go to.

Another great dead mall exploration and the music was perfect.

This mall is practically identical (though much smaller) to Lakeside Mall in Sterling Heights Michigan. It, too, is undergoing the same fate and will be permanently closing its doors on July 1st, 2024. I recently went there, and it's sad to see my childhood mall in the state it's currently in.

That was a lot of work. Glad you took your time and did such a great job.

Not has the Internet changed the whole landscape of malls and retail ... it also changed the society as well

Your videos are always enjoyable! I love the thought and creativity you put into these videos. A lot of people don’t do it like you.

Love The New Video North! Can't wait to see whats coming soon! Have a great day!

Thankyou! That was a really great video. You give really good commentary! My shopping centre (England here) is actually still thriving! It was built in stages from 1964 to 1984. It was very Taubmanesque when new! All hexagons and palm trees and brown bricks/brass rails etc. It was like stepping into something from Logan’s Run.. There were fountains and murals/mosaics everywhere. What I enjoyed about the mall (see what I did there?) was that the shops themselves were like crystal caves shining from the edges of a pretty natural-looking, darker colour palette of the shopping centre itself. Cut to 1998ish when the management decided to rip out all the plants, change the colours to blinding white, close the huge open market to plop another Anchor store in its place and remove all the seating.. don’t get me wrong! You can still see the remnants of the style it once had!! But now the shops are darker than the interior of the mall.. you can’t just sit and people watch. You can’t sit at all! Unless you pay for a coffee etc in the “open air” cafes that clog up the once breezy main squares.. The saving grace of the shopping centre? It was built in the exact centre of my once-dying small town when it became a “New Town”. The walkways even follow the same path as the streets beforehand! The Anchor store has gone (they still can’t decide what to do with it) but out of the dozens and dozens of shops, only a few units are empty. Still! In 2024!! I miss the old mall.. but atleast it is still bustling. By the way, it is called “The Kingfisher Shopping Centre” in Redditch, England. Before going to its website to check it out (if you are so inclined), go and Google image it in the old days.. You will actually think you are in an American mall. Thanks for finishing reading my ramblings! 👋🏻

Thanks for making this video. I Used to come here with the family as a kid. I also used to visit nearby white flint mall in rockville pike which was torn down a few years back and redeveloped. Both were absolute time capsules. Some of my earliest childhood memories in both of these locations.

THE FOOTAGE AT THE BEGINNING OMGGGG!!!!!!!

Great video! I enjoyed it. Taubman made some great malls. Hoping for the best.

Very good episode of dead malls! Kinda crazy how malls are going dead so quickly now a days. Online shopping bassically killed alot of stores and malls.

Congrats on finishing the episode! The hard work always shows in the end. I'm currently battling a mild cold right now and your videos are part of my past time while doing so! 😄

Amazing video man!!

Really nice to see such friendly conversation among strangers. And your soundtracks are continually impressive, love glaciere!

Absolutely love you running into other locals and personalities. The love that gentleman had for his childhood mall was just so wonderful to see. Malls mean so much to so many, and he encapsulated that perfectly.

Love your content! I’ve been waiting for this one!😊

You hit it out of the park as usual! It is in fact Galtier Plaza in downtown St. Paul!

cool to meet a local for some old mall stories! great video

Mid 90s this was my mall.

It's such a waste of perfectly good space. We need to band together to save our local malls. I really enjoy this type of mall design even though I never saw this mall in person.

So sad for the last workers that work in a mall like this.

This reminds me of days wandering the mall with my buddies. The scene back then, I was in my late teens / early 20s - malls like this somehow made me feel the world was at my feet. That was 40+ years ago now. I never see those friends anymore.

King Farm was supposed to turn into an amusement park, then became the housing development. If Lake Forest could do anything smart with this mall is to sell to The Walking dead or movie companies for filming zombie apocs or anything in a safe structure. I love what you did with the camera angles and the old VHS cuts. @NorthCdogg22

What an iconic video, well done! Next mall is definitely the stranger things mall 😂.

Your narrations are top notch! Love how you took some risks filming close ups on the interior features. Very well done sir 👍🏻

Yo this is amazing

Hi North C Dogg! I love these videos and all of your other ones! The camera quality and the accurate history of the malls make you the only person I love to watch for mall videos! I heard on a previous livestream that you wanted to go to Stratford Square Mall! Please contact me because down here we are having a party on the closing day and would love to see you!

NORTH!!!!!!!!!

Yes, that black was the coloring of a majority of Hecht's locations. Great video :>

marketplace mall in rochester is super dead right now

I like the conversation pits.

Beautiful video! Next up: Harborplace in Baltimore?

Great video!

just started watching ... that mall looks so good ... i mean its like it could be repurposed for other things other than malls and stores selling things ... like have it be a community center (I say this about alot of dying malls that still looks to be in great shape) with say a library and/or gym in the anchors ... have the less fortunate stay inside to have a roof over their head in some of the smaller (redo them) former stores. I mean i know some areas have way too many malls in a small location but ... i dont mind seeing the say moldy and rundown malls to be taken down .. but so many are so nice looking and there is no need to tear them down

Love the vids dude!

Those random non-national tenants you spoke of on the directory from 2021 would have been something the mall operators refer to as "temporary tenants". They sign short-term leases of maybe 11 months, a year, or month-to-month, and pay very low rent in relation to the national tenants.

I used to love this mall. I remember going here all the time. As a little kid and even in high school. It's a shame because it was relatively busy fairly recently in 2018, but there was a lot of crime around that area and also COVID.

Several factors to Lakeforest Mall closing Higher crime in the area and the county’s soft on crime approach Anchor Stores closing on a national level Change of ownership in a few years and no real goals for future expansion

What a beautiful mall. ☹️☹️

I saw a video a couple years ago with the mom & pop stores at Lakeforest Mall which was dead then. Great to see the locals talking about the mall they grew up with. I like the Sears wing art I would've asked for a piece of the art to say that I have something from the mall. I saw a lot from that final day at Lakeforest taking everything they could get LOL😂

Thanks for another fun episode! Love how you have all the old footage. Neat to see how it was back in the day. One thing I didn't understand, was was "red mall", "green mall", etc? Were they different sections of the mall?

Sad for this mall, I love the sky lights. I hope this mall doesn't end up like Northridge or Century III.

It's weird, the general layout and feel of towns in America are nothing like the UK at all, which is obvious of course. But these videos really hit home how absolutely identical our Malls are (although we don't call them that), and even their general vibe as time has gone on, and how some of them are becoming eerie deserted places in exactly the same way.

I have an idea. We can fix a big part of the homeless situation. By letting them live in these moles, they won't be on the street. Living in disease, they'd actually be able to use a bathroom. It would be safe or at least a lot safer than living on the street. I don't know just a thought

Taubman built Fair Oaks mall in Chantilly / Fairfax virginia as well. The malls have basically the exact same archetexture, though Fair Oaks got a rennovation revently and lost some of its retro charm. If you want to see that mall alive for the most part, head to Fair Oaks. Its dying but still has a fair amount open.

8:02 24:12 Hollister

5:48 "I think I've seen this shot before..." 😂

Looks like it was a nice mall

Awesome video! What was the first music that played before the Seeburg music?

LETS GOOOOOOOOOO

Nothing says classy like a Gussini store.

Lakeforest should be redeveloped as a mixed use retail and business complex.

I used to go here..

@21:53 I know the owner of Rita's Ice cream at this spot, they knew months in advance to close up shop.

Any chance it will be rebuilt and restored to its former glory?

I'm a mall rat from 1994 lake forest back when there were fountains in the middle and going to sears ticket master to buy concert tix

not vista ridge i dont think

That intro to this video was amazing!

My guess about the next mall: Gavidae Commons in Minneapolis?

Kaleidoscope at the Hub in Des Moines, IA? Great video, btw!

Its too bad they covered up the stage and fountain. Really the only unique thing about this mall.

Taubman beauty

I looked it up and it costs about $90 to rent a car in Baltimore for a day, fees included. Uber is highway robbery (literally)

I think I know what the next mall is. Is it Harbor Place Galleria a mall that is now closed?

44:48 - Is Macy's in Bethesda at a mall?

Circle Center Mall in Indy in two weeks?

Where can I get my hands on that version of eyes without a face?

06:35 How can a concrete megamall be "exasperated"?

Can you cover WHY these malls are closing? Is it the rise of Amazon etc.?

Song? 0:02

Keladisscope mall in des moines ia

I know the answer… do you want me to say it?

WallieB26 did a video at this mall a few months ago

Great video