Crestwood Court: Dead Mall in its Final Days (A Walkthrough)
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- Опубліковано 13 вер 2024
- Crestwood court, formally the busiest mall in the St. Louis area, has declined dramatically in the past decade. Although the mall has made an attempt to revive itself by introducing "Artspace" (renting out stores to art studios), the mall's fate was sealed when Sears announced the closure of their store. Sears was the last remaining anchor store. Today, we take a walk through the mall 2 days before all art tenants were told to move out. The mall will mostly be torn down and gutted in the coming year, hopefully being turned into a new lifestyle center if the funding is available. Follow me on:
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I use to go with my friends there every Friday night during jr high. Some of my favorite memories. I remember that place busting out the walls with people the food court packed and noisy. So sad. Another piece of my younger years gone. Thank you Crestwood Mall.
thank you for sharing your video ~ I grew up visiting this mall, and later even worked at the Soutwestern Bell offices above Dillards. Spent many hours shopping at Famous Barr and shops like Casual Corner and Orange Julius. It's so very sad to see a place that was such a part of my everyday life from the late 70's through the 90's when I left St.Louis looking so desolate and void of life. Crestwood Plaza was my favorite mall as it's big skylights let in the sunshine and it always felt like a happy place.
Damn, its sad to see the mall end up like this, I had great memories there with friends and family 😓
Ah the memories...who remembers Exhilarama?! I miss this mall.
I remember the smell. I don't think i'll ever forget it
I shed tears here not gonna lie. I grew up in Crestwood and visited this mall almost nightly in the 90s and early 2000s the place to be. I remember how packed it was and how traffic was horrible every Friday after Thanksgiving. Sad. I can still retrace my steps and know the floorplan.
This place housed so many memories for me and my sister. Our father (who passed away in Aug. of 2012) worked for Crestwood mall from 1991 or 1992 until 2007. Since my parents were divorced, my sister and I spent many weekends wandering the mall, and our dad also took us "behind the scenes". There was actually a beautiful apartment that was located above the building where Chevy's and Dillard's was. It is sort of sad to see this, as it is an end of an era.
Did not know that - who stayed in the apartment?
I use to work at Sears there from October 1999 thru May 2012. A very sad day indeed!!!!
joseph williams worked there 2007 through may 2012
This was the best mall. I live in St. Louis, so I used to go here all the time. It's so sad to see it reduced to this.
Sometimes I wish I could travel back to the mid 90's. What a great time that was! Bigass malls, the Arch Deluxe... No sense of crushing despair...
This video remains as one of my favorite dead mall videos. The narration is great, and so is the video!
Thank you for filming this :)
This reminds me of a mall near my house. Developers are working on adding new life to the mall. Just sad to see what is happening to these malls. It’s all because of a thing called the internet. Love your videos Jacob! Keep up the good work!
This is getting torn down on Saturday. 😓😓😓😓
I don't visit my local mall anymore. Not because of economic considerations or the neighborhood. I quit visiting simply because of how entirely dull it has become. When it opened, it had book, toy and electronic stores plus a pair of arcades and an pet store. Now they are all gone, replaced by clothing.
I hardly go to the mall now. I go in the mornings if I need to go because I live in a medium size city and there really isn't nothing to do. Go to the movies, mall or main event. So the mall is always packed.
great place for a zombie movie. people should take advantage of these places to do films there before they tear them down.
Right out of the elevator at 4:03 it is 1984 again...My Ever Changing Moods by The Style Council playing.
I been there when I was a kid I went to a school near that area called south tech I watched the sad demolition of the mall It was a great wonderful mall good memories
I half expected a hoard of zombies to to be outside the lift doors when they opened.
Eerie and such a shame. what a waste of money, environment and construction.
thanks for posting.
It's kinda cool that you & those other guys caught each other filming. Great minds & all that!
I'm always saying the same thing to people using almost exactly those same words. Compared to today everything in the 80's seemed so much more modern, futuristic and hopeful. Speaking as another child of the 80's, you would have loved this place. It was all skylights, neon signs, stainless steel and glass fixtures and colorful displays. And the place was packed with cute girls in bright clothes with that crimped 80's hair thing. I wish that I could go back in time just to hang around there.
When the mall was sold back in the '90s, the first thing that the new owners did was jack up the rent. STL Bread Co. was the first to leave. At the same time, the same Co. bought West County, jacked up the rents and as it too began to fail, they were able to get TIF funding to revamp and enlarge that mall. Unfortunately, the same didn't happen at Crestwood. The stores kept leaving and the mall was eventually sold again. By this time, people were going to the new West County and Galleria because Crestwood had been run into the ground. This was a thriving mall. Greed and lack of foresight killed it, not a change in demographics.
Malls have really fallen out of popularity. They were THE place to go shopping and hang out on weekends and after school. Now they're dead if they haven't already closed. The only sense I can make of it is the popularity of the internet and online shopping has taken the place of malls. Having grown up in the 80's when malls were all the rage, these empty, abandoned malls I find really eery and disheartening. Instead of getting out to shop, people are sitting in front of their computers in their panties. It sounds like a creepy movie of a dystopian society. Really bothers me. I have great memories of going to malls as a child and how lively they were.
yup....going to the mall was the thing to do back then....parents would drop you off and you could spend the day with your friends hangin out having fun.....those big glass doors would slide open and you'd hear all the sounds of the people in there and smell the cinnabon rolls cookin......now its all gone ...like you said cheaper stuff on the internet and you can shop in your underwear lol
Not west Edmonton mall. Always crowded except for the Target which is closing. I go to West Edmonton mall lots. Biggest mall in Canada and North America.
Thought I revisit my first Dead Mall video I ever watched, that started my fascination with dead malls and malls in general.
Strangely appropriate dated 80s music playing in the background
I have an idea. Because the mall will probably be torn down, the elevator is probably going too. You should put in a request for the elevator parts if you want them. There is a building in my town that is scheduled for demolition and I already requested the fire alarm system parts. Just contact whoever is the land owner and I'm sure he would let you have those elevator parts. Just a suggestion. Awesome video! :)
Crestwood's problem is that it is located 3 miles or so from two major highways in St. Louis County, whereas South County Mall, West County Mall, and the Galleria are all located right off of their nearest highway exits. Also, it is located near Sunset Hills, which was decimated by tornados in the last year with no interested developers. I feel like I had last visited this place in the last few years. It's sad to see it like this. I wish someone could bring it back.
I remember going to this mall with a friend around Christmas time in '95. We sat down at one of the benches in the middle of the mall (near suncoast ) and the place was so packed that we struggled to even stand up again. The hum of this great mass of people moving and chatting with one another was deafening. It was overwhelming to me, and I remember just sitting there watching this and feeling as though the place was pulsating with its own life.
I was a Mallrat here in the late 80's and early 90's at this mall and South County Center. I really miss the hanging out culture in public spaces that went away like that.
I went there all of the time in the 1990s/early 2000s. Almost every weekend we went and just browsed or shopped. Didn't have to always buy something, as you went for the experience. Later on when I began taking my first girlfriend there; bought her a ring from the Whitehall Jewelery store. There was Exhilarama, the AMC movie theater, and the food court, a classic of the mall. I even remember Athen's Cafe and the face of the guy who ran it. He was there for forever. Good times, great memories.
There is a dead mall in Norfolk that I would like to film but it has been taken over by thugs and thugettes. You go to that mall you risk your life. Lol. The mall in this video could be used to film a zombie movie. It's sad how it's almost abandoned. Where did all of the people go?
whats the other guy you stumbled upon a few times? recording with his phone.
I like how the owners of the mall played sad music
Our mall met the same fate.most malls died when anchor stores finally realized it was cheaper to have a single structure store.which eliminated leasing and high maintenance fees.we had a yearly fee of almost $100,000.00 a year for maintenance fees alone.which was absurd.and it kept going up each year.we eventually moved out when the lease agreement expired.we tried to negotiate bit the mall refused to budge.
This was back in 2004 when it happened.
Malls had their heyday in the 70's and 80's. It was the answer to downtown shopping. The downtown's had their heyday until everyone had a car. I remember my dad driving around the block many times just to find a parking space. The mall offered unlimited parking and no walking in the rain! Next in the evolution was the big box store. Now the store comes to you. Shop in your undies and who needs a parking space? What's next? A drone delivers your package with no UPS man ringing your door.
You are so right, i guess its a constant evolution! Google Delivery Drones, Amazon are one step ahead!
Chris Flegg you guys forget the other thing about the net Finding stuff you never would have found otherwise. I'm Wendy O Koopa and I have an addiction to ebay.
Huh? I don't get what you are saying?
Wait, i do now! I was only just waking when i saw the comment! I also do the ebay thing, but the ones i get sucked into most are my random Chinese selling sites. There are so many things that you never knew you needed until you see them for under $2!
Recently I was supposed to be shopping for a laptop bag suddenly it escalated to two doom plush, and several turtle like children.
Reminds me of the mall near me. But it was not closed. They lowered the rent and updated it. Took five years to redo the whole mall while people were shopping. The mall was saved and now stuff there is not cheap.
The area itself is not bad at all but it is economically stagnant with an ageing population. I walked around it about the same time that this video was made and it still felt like a clean, bright and safe, if somewhat depressing place. Someone who worked nearby marks the decline to when the mall was added to the busline. They told me that store managers would come in complaining about bad behaviour and shoplifting, but I wasn't around at that point so I never experienced that firsthand.
Man, I hate to see mall's in this condition. It's so depressing to walk through them especially when its a mall that you grow up in or one that once was booming with heavy traffic. Where I live, they were able to turn one dead mall into multiple business offices. Hopefully they can find some use with this mall.
online shopping ? are we getting too lazy to walk anymore ? or are we getting too used to sitting at home and using our computers to talk to each other ?
Rock n me better deals there too.
No malls still exist.....
I think that is actually a completely awesome idea. A good part of that mall is nothing but office space anyway. The parking garage could even be converted to a storage facilitly and garage for fire/ems, police and road maintenance vehicles.
this is all due to internet shopping.goodbye malls
Due to capitalism, internet is only a small part.
I don't think so.... Malls still exist...
Bad economy
This video is pretty good. There should be a proposal from congress or local government to mall owners to take video of their locations along with some historical narrative before they're closed. These old malls are going to be a wonderful part of history. The malls that exist now are great too,or at least they look nicer than wal-marts.
The spaces were designed to be public and inviting to people, not just shoppers. To enjoy. Long ago the kids and crime moved in and we could no longer enjoy the spaces as the economy slowly fell. Thus crime and things changed. Kids attack a few old ladies and they stopped coming in. Section 8 housing came in and people had to leave as the neighborhoods crumbled. To the joy of developers, who just build new to last 20 years or so.
***** Morse didn't say one thing about race. Are you serious?
I lived in Crestwood from 1967 to 1969. This WAS the place to be. Back then, it was not as big as it was when they closed, but everything you needed could be found here. Sad to see it left to just a memory, however, it is just a statistic to retail evolution.
My mom used to take me there when I was a kid in the 70's. I remember it being quite busy.
I remember Crestwood Mall was a big place to shop when I was a kid. I remember Exhilarama in the basement adjacent to the food court. I drive past this place everyday on my way to work and it's really depressing to look at. I know they sold it like 2 years ago to a group of investors, but they've been dragging their feet and are yet to do anything with it. I know it will still be up at least through Spring 2016, because they're filming scenes for "The Walking Dead" in February 2016.
Seeing that you're from STL and as I am too, I love this video... You should really really do one on the Mills and show how it turned to nothing almost
I like how all the stores seem to have been dance studios and photography places.
After the stores start closing, business like that will take the space for a time usually. hair salons, studios, churches..etc etc...
Alot of great memories in that place. So sad to have seen it go.
This mall has been demolished.
The problem is where the vision of somewhere else that works is brought into a different area thinking it would be the same result. The risk of unknown ways of attraction.
Did people mourn the passing of the old downtown shopping areas? When malls came out in the 1960s-70s-they forced the old downtown stores out of business. So the malls are now being replaced-normal evolution-you cannot fight progress.
that escalator seemed very narrow, and the food court seemed like it would be cramped. and you've actually got a very pleasant voice to listen to.
St Louis isn't the only city to see this kind of thing. In fact, a big part of urban shopping were via malls back in the late 70's and early 80's. When I was a kid, a developer built a shopping mall in my neighborhood. It was built in a fairly large lot located directly in between Sears and Macy's. Sadly within 10 years most of the shops were gone. At it's Grand Opening over 40 shops were open. 5 years prior to the mall's closing only 4 shops were still opened one being an arcade.
You need to check out the Abandoned Garden Plaza Hotel in St.Peters, the elevator doors still open but I don't dare actually go in. The place is really boarded up, but someone told me that they got a door open at the left side of the building so I think you can get in now. Look in the delivery area to the left of the building (if you're looking from the interstate). I have 3 videos on my channel of the building that can give you a good idea what you're walking into. In the 3rd we actually show the entrance that had been blocked by a locked door afterwards, but has since been kicked open. Also please let me know if you decide to go, 'cuz I can't wait to go back! Great footage by the way!
Fantastic video. I've seen my share of dead/dying malls, and one that was almost there but had a surprising resurrection. That one looked like it was really nice in its heyday, shame to see it now.
Some people say it's not the Internet , but it's playing a big part in it , I'm in my early 60 s and grew up during the time of going to the mall . Was the place to shop . But I must say the last two years we have been doing a lot of our shopping online plus during the Holidays you can even have your purchase gift wrapped , something stores don't even do anymore . They got rid of all the customer service years ago. 😎
The internet may play a small role, but I say the crash of 08. People do not have much extra spending money anymore. And then they do they are spending more wisely and not just blowing a 100 bucks at the mall anymore.
nice to see Crestwood Court before teardown. i can see how busy it was. your tours are very educational.
You're introduction was fantastic. This is so similar to Lafayette Plaza in Bridgeport, CT. Opened in the mid 1960's with eight Dover elevators, the center court elevator being one of the first ever glass Dover elevators and one of the first ever mall glass elevators. The mall was the-place-to-be, bringing prosperity and life to Bridgeport. The mall started to suffer in 1981, getting even worse in the 1990's, then saw its death in the 2000s.
LensCrafters was open until 2013 (they were the only tenant after Sears and all the independent stores closed) before it closed. I don't think this place has been demolished yet, so it's probably abandoned.
I recently went to a dead mall that is scheduled to be demolished in January. Being there was quite strange.
I remember watching Santa come down in a helicopter there for a couple years. Also a great place to drop us kids off for a little while when we were hanging with friends. I don't remember the food court having much on the bottom but the game room was tons of fun. I have been there a couple years ago when it was nothing but art shops and studios. Kind of depressing, but we were able to catch a flix, best seat in the house when your the only one in the theater.
thought I would add, as i remember it, the food court was a large open space with several vendors along the left side with tables in the middle. to the right was a rather large gaming arcade area. They had a rollercoaster simulator, the type you get all your friends into a large flight simulation pod on hydraulic stilts that would shift around as you went around the rollercoaster played on screen.
Liked how there was someone else filming at the same time and place as you
Looks a lot better than what Rolling Acres looked like before it closed down. There was only two stores open in the mall in 2003 however it held on until 2011.
It is interesting to note that Google Street View "drives" through this mall lot as it was in 2007. You can still see the Dillard's and Macy's in place.
Whenever someone tours a Dead Mall. It usually smells there.s no people. Or nothing left behind from what it was used to be. Very very Sad. That.s the Life of how Economy worked at one time. Business comes & goes. All.s left. Just the Memories.
(cont'd) Ironically, the Sears & Roebuck anchor store remained open for a little time afterwards, but was later closed and demolished with the rest of the mall. I just purchased the ad for the Dover Elevators off of eBay advertising their installations at the mall. American history doesn't always involve around politics, because as we have seen, major city's histories typically revolve and depend on retail history. It's just so fascinating to me.
I think the next mall to close up here is going to be Southdale Center in Edina, MN. It's slowly losing it's magnet stores, JC Penney and Macy's both went out this year.
that is like our mall here in Helena. It used to be a very busy place, but after a few years they have lost businesses to smaller shopping centers, or they have opened their own stand alone stores in the new town center. It seems that Malls are just not as popular as they used to be. Unless there is some sort of Draw to them like Mall of America, or a theme park in the mall, its just a thing of the past.
I would have liked to seen this place during its prime.
It was cool. Much of my younger years spent shopping there, eating there and seeing movies there.
The store at 4:05 was The Men's Wearhouse, which later become The Dance Co-op St. Louis. And the store across from the food court elevator was a Aeropostale.
Kickstarter for 1. More videos like this and 2. Steadicam. :-)
I just wanted to say, your voice is very entertaining to listen to. :3 Very good video as well. Very informative on the location, such a sad sight to see what was once such a busy mall go downhill like that.
Reminds me of Century III mall in the Pittsburgh area. Was one of the best places to shop at one point but nowadays it's basically a ghost town. Hard to understand why because all of the surrounding shops keep plenty business, but now there are talks of trying to bring the place back to life. That would be cool to see.
+Sebi's Random Tech I never went to century III mall but i have drove past it. I remember going to the Monroville mall as a child. I haven't been there as an adult. I live way up north in the Kittanning and Ford city area and it's just to damn far to travail with the price of gas. Up here right now we have a Trader horn going out of business that was in the old Jamesway store. Last summer we lost 2 grocery stores after walmart remolded and became a super walmart.
Very similar situation in my home town with the Macon Mall.After a addition was added in 1996,it was the largest mall in Georgia.Over the last many years the area around the mall had declined.Security had become a real problem and many people were afraid to go to the mall after dark.In 2008 a new mall was built in a better area of Macon and many of the stores relocated to the new mall.The mall was sold and the new owners torn down the 1996 addition and have remolded,but it is mostly empty.
Such a sad sight. You can tell it was a busy mall at one point in it's life.
AT THAT EMPTY FEELING (make a zombie movie there huh!)
The mall near my home is the old Metro North Mall. It began its decline along with hundreds of other malls with the bankruptcy of Montgomery Ward LLC, and continued bleeding off anchor store after anchor store into the nearby Zona Rosa Center, an extremely cramped open mall in which they're still trying to shoehorn stores into.
At Metro North, only Macy's remains due to the fact that there's no room in ZR for them. My mom walks in MNM frequently and says that the entire Montgomery Ward wing has been sealed off, and that on rainy days water is clearly audible from the other side of the barriers. Considering the building's design, the roof has probably collapsed in that portion of the building.
Attempts are being made at saving what's left of the mall, like putting a Trader Joe's in what used to be the J.C. Penney's, but the MW wing will need to be razed regardless. MNM had a companion mall, called Antioch Center, which was shut down and bulldozed several years ago. Its two anchor stores, a Sears and a Burlington Coat Factory, were remodelled into standalone buildings.
twotailedavenger It's amazing Sears is still in business. It's one of the anchor stores at my (small town in Pennsylvania) mall. Otherwise our mall is a pathetic, desolate place w/only a handful of people waddling slack-jawed through its emptiness. America has shifted its spending dollars to online. But whatever...MEH....
***** Yep. I'd say you're better off going to Oak Park now.
I filmed the escalators in the mall before they got closed off I also filmed the escalators and elevator in Macy's
The mall in my town is on the verge of shutting down, the JCPenny closed back in May I believe and Belk is moving to another location in 2015, which leaves Sears as the only remaining anchor store. Although I rarely go there anymore I still feel sad to think about it closing b/c I remember going there as a little kid and having a great time. Now there are only about 9 stores left and 4 of them involve closing. I don't blame closing malls on online shopping, I blame the stores themselves...the prices are outrageous, for example a Ninja Blender was around $150 at JCP and only $99 regular price at Walmart and Target.
That's what seems so crazy to me. Walking around at Christmas time in cold weather with sleet or snow blowing in your face is NOT going to entice me to spend more time going from store to store.
Near where I live they have put in an outdoor mall that is almost like a mini-city. It is called Zona Rosa and it is near KC. Getting in and out of the area is a nightmare! There are lots of narrow streets with people crossing every few feet and the only way in and out are always congested.
Is is such a shame that beautiful buildings become forgotten.
They had a lot of nice stores. I won't forget this mall.
West County Mall expanded so much that the traffic moved over their. St. Louis is now a backwater city. All the major corporations sold out. The airport with the exception of SWA has closed concources. Its sad. In the 80's and 90's STL had AB, and McDonnel Douglas and a couple of other large home office business located their. Unfortunatly is over
Not surprising the malls are dying in the Saint Lois area. I was watching a UA-cam video recently(I believe it was by Stefan Molyneux) talking about the loss of population in STL. The numbers were horrific. STL has lost more population than Detroit(percentage wise)! Plus the demographics were shifting decided to darker end of the spectrum. Crime is way up. Average income down. Not a place that can maintain much in the way of retail.
A nice narration to a sad scene! Half of my life was spent managing a retail store in a mall. I was glad to get out...but...there were some good times as well! It's always sad to see this kind of change, it's like going to an airplane "boneyard" to see all the planes that don't fly anymore. High crime, high prices and the internet are partially to blame, the real reason is economics and taxes not only for the retailer but the customer as well. Good job!
There is a dead mall near me, it's called the Martinsburg Mall, it's located in Martinsburg, WV. The mall has been a failure since the day it opened. The Apple Blossom Mall in Winchester,VA and the Valley Mall in Hagerstown, MD are the Martinsburg Mall's two killers!
That's sad.. We have 2 in Kansas city that have shut down since 2000. However, we still hold independence center, the 2nd largest in America.
the Big Town Mall closed down completely about 10 yrs ago by where i use to live in Dallas, Tx. it even had a movie theatre & a bowling alley.
This place was great 15-20 years ago. Very depressing to see this place go! Great memories of this place....
Lots of memories. So sad that it's long gone.
Nice video and description...looks like a nice place, what a shame....and I agree the parking garage was creepy
@TheElevatorChannel Good video. I liked the tour of the parking garage. Did you go back and talk to those guys on the 2nd floor of the garage with the Tripod? I wonder if their video is up on UA-cam. I saw dieselducy's video before I saw this one. Both videos are good. That looks like a pretty big mall. Coddingtown Mall in Santa Rosa Cal. was originally an outdoor plaza but in the 80s was converted to a Mall with a roof. Thumbs up.
Such a shame! Crestwood was by FAR my favorite St. Louis mall! Part of it is I've always been partial to malls that had parking garages. Blue Ridge Mall in Kansas City was another favorite. Also had a parking garage.
This mall is a part of my childhood and its so sad to have seen it go... Many memories reside in this place. So sad :(
Dude, thanks for touring St.Louis buildings, because I live in
St.Louis
Why did you private the other dead mall videos
Very interesting Video That old shopping mall is bigger than our largest mall we have here iin Christchurch New Zealand. Great Narration you sound like Owen Wilson the actor.
10:30 "Man, this floor isn't being maintained at all..." No, that wasn't pieces of the floor that made that crunch noise, it was the upper floor parking lot crumbling above your head. I used to work there and I wouldn't dare step foot on that garage...you could just as quickly find yourself under that garage.
It's always interesting to see what becomes of these malls. I have been through a store closing at a mall and it was just depressing. The mall is long gone now over here in KC too.
Reminds me of the Nassau Mall in Levittown before they tore it down and built a BJ's. The last two tenants were a card store and Pathmark.
sadly this mall is now being demolished
One of the next episodes of "Abandoned" should be one of these abandoned/nearly abandoned Midwest/Northeast malls. As that restaurant showed, these places have a lot of neat fixtures that could be salvaged/repurposed.