I’m so happy you both get to see my home mall. My mom was the mall nurse when it opened. She was attending nursing school. There was a swan 🦢 monument near a fountain in the courtyard. So many buildings that surround this area are VERY 1961. I love you DMOD fam
I mentioned before that the fountain has some plants on it in DMOD. The top plant on the fountain near the security base was a gift from the original tenants and has been kept up. I remember seeing the TMNT on the stage under the long skylight in the hallways
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: th-cam.com/video/pgYf8BU5Ucw/w-d-xo.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: th-cam.com/video/qrPMshKh3zE/w-d-xo.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 worked there in the 80,s,,, Glen Gene Deli , eye ear optical and JW, Jeans West,, it was right before the big Hamilton Place Mall opened, i remember how busy it was that last Christmas before the new mall opened and when it did Eastgate became a ghost town and all the stores closed one by one,,,,
Yeah, at this point it is mostly all office space. I remember they used to bring in the seasonal ice skating rink, and I'm surprised the fountain is still looking that nice!
I remember the ice skating rink. I also vaguely remember it being dimly lit in the halls, with the Goody’s clothing store at the end of the complex being the safe haven as a kid lol.
@goofus1000 bless you for bringing me back to some good memories. Man I forgot all about that revco. Do you remember a big store on gunbarrell rd in the hamilton place area called 'Phar-More' right where bonefish grill is now? It was like a big lots type place with a pharmacy and video rental. I remember renting old school NES games from there around 1990ish.
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… 👍👍👍
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 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.
Thank you so much for helping me fill in some of the gaps in my research; there hasn’t been much coverage of this place for about 20 years in the news so it was a bit difficult to track down when things were changed or added
I remember the Christmas decorations there, a lot of small animatronics. it was pretty cool even after them mall itself closed and there’s only one anchor, store goodies and then an office supply store.And they had a small merry-go-round. I actually like the small better than Hamilton Place when I was a kid.
The woolworth served a great cheap lunch...traditional stainless counter service. When they closed for lunch every evening they placed all the food in a little hallway open to the mall ...maybe 10x 10 foot that was effectively an Automat. I thought I was the coolest kid ever asking mom for quarters to play a video game at the arcade and sneaking over to the automat to buy a piece of chocolate pie for $0.75
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 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.
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!
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.
@@QuietJ0Y I’ve lived about 3 hrs from Chattanooga for about 15 years now, last time I was there, there was a dollartree near the fountain, that was probably like, 2002-2003. This was my grandmothers “walking mall” lol.
While featuring this mall in a Throwback Thursday post for our company (CBL Properties), I found out that when it had been open-air, it had a pond with swans in it. A few years ago, we lost one of our associates who worked for the company until he was over 90 years old. He had worked at the drive-in theater as a teen, and later ended up as the mall manager for Eastgate, and he told me that one of his daily jobs had been to feed the swans. I want a picture of the swans so bad. But all of our records are long-since gone, and I have yet to find a picture floating around on the internet. My mother can remember going to the mall as a while, when it was still open-air, but doesn't remember any swans. This was still the mall we shopped at when I was a little kid. I got my ears pierced at a kiosk in the middle of the mall.
This video is very sad. I'm old enough to remember this place in the 90s, and I also worked a call center job in the early 2000s attached to the mall right by the fountain. I would do exactly as you said and take my lunches by the fountain. Even then, it was all offices, but it was still busy with people. The memories of this place feel lonely now and missing that "something" that made it feel alive.
I remember going to this as a kid. MY mom worked in the profits that was there. Then worked there myself when it was Convergys. Thank god that hell hole closed up now. When Hamilton place opened up that was the death sentence for this place.
I was coming here to say that I worked at Convergys too! I was there from 2006-2007. That job was the source of a lot of stress for me, but the mall itself still holds a special place in my heart bc when I was younger, my parents would take me there to get my eyeglasses made at LensCrafters. We would always make a day of it, going shopping while we waited for my glasses to be done. It was a big deal for us bc we lived in LaFayette, so it was a long drive for us. (I still live in LaFayette to this day.)
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.
Im with you! It broke my heart when my childhood mall renovated and took out their magnificent fountain. I think that mall is still doing alright by today’s standards, but the magic is gone.
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 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've lived here all my life. I am now 45 years old. This was an amazing mall when I was a kid around 8 years old . My fam would go here regularly to shop. Especially around Christmas time. My favorite store there at that time was wicks and thing. I miss those days shopping with my grandparents! 😢When I was in my 20s is when it was starting to change. There was a small Ice-skating ring there for a little while underneath the skylight in the middle. In my 20s we would go to the insane paint ball store that was there to load up on paint ball and co2 lol. The food court was amazing too. The land this mall sits on used to be a drive in theater before the mall came but there was a lot of flooding that kept occurring that shut the theater down. That was before any time I could remember. Grat memories. Thank you for doing this video ❤!
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.
It really is! It kind of reminds me of something you would have seen in a big fancy hotel in the 80s or 90s. Other commenters have said that it was added AFTER it was demalled too, which is crazy to me.
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'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!
@robbiekincaid5448 I moved to Cleveland TN 3 years ago from Florida. The town I lived in in florida had 2 malls that each met similar fates as this 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!
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.
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
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.
A lucidly presented and excellently researched dead mall tour. The expression of your emotional impressions are absolutely poetry. You are truly gifted at this!
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.
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
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.
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.
It is starting to become harder to find places to film that don’t involve an airplane. I’m working on what the next phase of content for my channel will be and you can look forward to that later this year.
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.
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 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!
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
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.
I live in Chattanooga, I work right beside the mall. I have been in and out of that mall for the past 20 something years. They used to have live trees down that main stretch with the glass roofs. My church used to rent spaces at that mall to have church in, my uncle who died this January, used to walk with me, my brothers and cousins after church up and down the mall. It was always a blast! We would walk and talk about everything, sometimes the titanic or the JFK Assassination. He was a great man and those were great walks!
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.
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.
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.
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.
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
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!
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.
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.
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!!
You’re very welcome Kristen. Those words came from my heart. I love malls. I forgot to mention that I love that you take the time to research the malls you explore. You and Sal are my faves. I love others in the genre as well. But the both of you are cherries on top😊
It was developed about the same time Lenox Square was in Atlanta and their progression from semi enclosed to fully enclosed is the same. As far as I know Lenox is still going strong although when I left Atlanta there was a growing gang problem there, it being the northern most terminus of the Marta light rail line at that time. The most unique thing about Lenox were the sculptures of the characters in the Uncle Remus stories of Atlanta resident Joel Chandler Harris which fell into disgrace in the 70's and we're shipped off to Morgan County which has preserved both this sculpture and another which graced the mall from it's beginnings.
I live in LaFayette, GA, which is about an hour away from there (the way I drive, anyway; I’m aware you can probably get there faster via interstate but I’m a big chicken lol). When I was growing up, my parents would take me there once a year for my eye exam and glasses to be made at LensCrafters. It was fun to go shopping while we were waiting for my glasses to be done. But there were also times I stayed there to watch bc you could also watch thru a huge window while they were working on them, and that was fascinating to me as a little kid. In the mid-2000s, I worked at Convergys, which was a call center for various companies. I worked in the DirecTV division. That job was hell on my mental health. I developed ulcerative colitis from the stress. I always wondered what happened to Convergys and if it’s still there; I saw in one of the comments that it’s not anymore, and I can’t say I’m surprised. But it is interesting that there are other offices there and the building is still open and being used. I stumbled across this video completely by chance. Had no idea this channel existed, but now that I do, I’m subbing! 😊
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.
Great video! I don’t think I’ve ever been in there, but I know people who work in offices there. If you’re ever down this way again, you should visit Dalton Mall, formerly Walnut Square Mall. It’s a far cry from what it used to be.
Back in the 2000's me and some friends actually climbed up on the roof of that mall and explored at like 2 in the morning. 😂 Good memories, but even back then it was pretty dead and just mostly offices. All I remember being there was a YMCA and a bar.
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!
Dude, I live like 30 minutes away from Chatt and go there a few times a month. I haven’t been to this place before but I will make it my mission to go next time I head there
I’m absolutely in love with this place. Really fantastic job, VP. Can’t wait for the next one.
I’m so happy you both get to see my home mall. My mom was the mall nurse when it opened. She was attending nursing school. There was a swan 🦢 monument near a fountain in the courtyard. So many buildings that surround this area are VERY 1961. I love you DMOD fam
I mentioned before that the fountain has some plants on it in DMOD. The top plant on the fountain near the security base was a gift from the original tenants and has been kept up. I remember seeing the TMNT on the stage under the long skylight in the hallways
Honestly, the "VP" comment could be read as something of a micro-aggression.
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: th-cam.com/video/pgYf8BU5Ucw/w-d-xo.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: th-cam.com/video/qrPMshKh3zE/w-d-xo.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 worked there in the 80,s,,, Glen Gene Deli , eye ear optical and JW, Jeans West,, it was right before the big Hamilton Place Mall opened, i remember how busy it was that last Christmas before the new mall opened and when it did Eastgate became a ghost town and all the stores closed one by one,,,,
Yeah, at this point it is mostly all office space. I remember they used to bring in the seasonal ice skating rink, and I'm surprised the fountain is still looking that nice!
My memories from the 90s are of the annual ice skating rink.
I remember the ice skating rink. I also vaguely remember it being dimly lit in the halls, with the Goody’s clothing store at the end of the complex being the safe haven as a kid lol.
@goofus1000 bless you for bringing me back to some good memories. Man I forgot all about that revco. Do you remember a big store on gunbarrell rd in the hamilton place area called 'Phar-More' right where bonefish grill is now? It was like a big lots type place with a pharmacy and video rental. I remember renting old school NES games from there around 1990ish.
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… 👍👍👍
I don't know if New Zealand can match the US when it comes to abandoned/dead malls. LOL
Thank you so much and welcome! I think you’re the first viewer I’ve had in New Zealand!
Yeah I said the same a while back, best dead malls channel
Those tables and chairs sitting in that empty hallway at the start of the video are so sad in a way.
They're almost mathematically perfect in their isolation.
Your commentary is unmatched, often encapsulating my feelings about these spaces.
Incredible... You spoke almost precisely the story of my youth at my local first major mall 57 years ago. Bravo ! !
Eastgate was my mall growing up. I still miss the Waldenbooks chain.
I needed a fix bad, and look what shows up in my recommended feeds. A good happy dose of Kristin. 🙏😁🙏❤️
This was amazing. Thanks so much for sharing this, VP. You are the standard.
Thank you so much. Especially coming from a fellow creator I respect so much
This was covered so well. Sometimes they showcase local artists’s crafts on all those empty walls.
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
That's awesome! You still have it by chance?
@@FahimibnDawud Sadly, I do not; after 3 or 4 years, I made the now regrettable choice to accept an offer that a friend made for it.... :(
I think this might be the weirdest place you covered, amazing video!
I'm from this area and go here all the time to just walk and listen to vaporwave. Such a vibe.
they beat you to it. for SHAME
@naswalt there’s plenty for everyone, it never runs out!
Can you skate in it?
@@familyengineering5591 no, they have strict security.
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.
Thank you so much for helping me fill in some of the gaps in my research; there hasn’t been much coverage of this place for about 20 years in the news so it was a bit difficult to track down when things were changed or added
I remember the Christmas decorations there, a lot of small animatronics. it was pretty cool even after them mall itself closed and there’s only one anchor, store goodies and then an office supply store.And they had a small merry-go-round. I actually like the small better than Hamilton Place when I was a kid.
@@flyyxmke Remember the talking christmas tree and the telephones to the north pole?
The woolworth served a great cheap lunch...traditional stainless counter service. When they closed for lunch every evening they placed all the food in a little hallway open to the mall ...maybe 10x 10 foot that was effectively an Automat. I thought I was the coolest kid ever asking mom for quarters to play a video game at the arcade and sneaking over to the automat to buy a piece of chocolate pie for $0.75
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
This is amazing, an utterly surreal venue with amazing commentary. Thank you for creating this
Thank you so much Scott!
I'm glad they kept the water feature. Thank you for the great video!
Kia in chattanooga, oh yes you couuuld!
Kia of Chattanooga!
Ch ch ch chattanooogaaaaa
Kia’s are un ironically terrible card
Can’t help but agree with ya there.
Wow I’ve driven past here before! Sadly have to miss the premieres tonight, it’s a busy week, but Friday evening will great!
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.
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!
You have a great ear to pick that out. It’s such a surreal fountain in that big empty mall.
I have to end up seeing this place during the early morning. I loved the steady camera work and your narration. Amazing stuff.
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.
Great video Kristin!
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.
My childhood mall!!! I’m so very excited ❤❤❤
I ride my bike here weekly. Looks exactly like this and has for a few years. In 2019 they tore up the wood parkay floors
@@QuietJ0Y I’ve lived about 3 hrs from Chattanooga for about 15 years now, last time I was there, there was a dollartree near the fountain, that was probably like, 2002-2003. This was my grandmothers “walking mall” lol.
While featuring this mall in a Throwback Thursday post for our company (CBL Properties), I found out that when it had been open-air, it had a pond with swans in it. A few years ago, we lost one of our associates who worked for the company until he was over 90 years old. He had worked at the drive-in theater as a teen, and later ended up as the mall manager for Eastgate, and he told me that one of his daily jobs had been to feed the swans.
I want a picture of the swans so bad. But all of our records are long-since gone, and I have yet to find a picture floating around on the internet.
My mother can remember going to the mall as a while, when it was still open-air, but doesn't remember any swans. This was still the mall we shopped at when I was a little kid. I got my ears pierced at a kiosk in the middle of the mall.
This video is very sad. I'm old enough to remember this place in the 90s, and I also worked a call center job in the early 2000s attached to the mall right by the fountain. I would do exactly as you said and take my lunches by the fountain. Even then, it was all offices, but it was still busy with people. The memories of this place feel lonely now and missing that "something" that made it feel alive.
I worked there too haha
Northgate isn't far behind it now
I remember going to this as a kid. MY mom worked in the profits that was there. Then worked there myself when it was Convergys. Thank god that hell hole closed up now. When Hamilton place opened up that was the death sentence for this place.
I was coming here to say that I worked at Convergys too! I was there from 2006-2007. That job was the source of a lot of stress for me, but the mall itself still holds a special place in my heart bc when I was younger, my parents would take me there to get my eyeglasses made at LensCrafters. We would always make a day of it, going shopping while we waited for my glasses to be done. It was a big deal for us bc we lived in LaFayette, so it was a long drive for us. (I still live in LaFayette to this day.)
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.
Im with you! It broke my heart when my childhood mall renovated and took out their magnificent fountain. I think that mall is still doing alright by today’s standards, but the magic is gone.
I mean most malls themselves are disappearing. Online shopping has killed the shopping mall
Beautiful Fountain!! Johnny Joe, Jamie, Scottie, and a couple of others built this in the early 90's....wonderful job, still beautiful!!
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 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 grew up in Chattanooga. My brother and I used to walk to this mall to the arcade at the time.
I've lived here all my life. I am now 45 years old. This was an amazing mall when I was a kid around 8 years old . My fam would go here regularly to shop. Especially around Christmas time. My favorite store there at that time was wicks and thing. I miss those days shopping with my grandparents! 😢When I was in my 20s is when it was starting to change. There was a small Ice-skating ring there for a little while underneath the skylight in the middle. In my 20s we would go to the insane paint ball store that was there to load up on paint ball and co2 lol. The food court was amazing too. The land this mall sits on used to be a drive in theater before the mall came but there was a lot of flooding that kept occurring that shut the theater down. That was before any time I could remember. Grat memories. Thank you for doing this video ❤!
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.
That might just be one of if not the most beautiful fountains I've ever seen.
It really is! It kind of reminds me of something you would have seen in a big fancy hotel in the 80s or 90s. Other commenters have said that it was added AFTER it was demalled too, which is crazy to me.
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'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!
Bradley Square? I have a video coming on that one soon!
@@UniCommProductions oh man, that's awesome! Thank you!!!
@robbiekincaid5448 I moved to Cleveland TN 3 years ago from Florida. The town I lived in in florida had 2 malls that each met similar fates as this one! 😂
@@UniCommProductionsLooking forward to that! Any idea when you will release it?
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!
Thank you so much for your support of my channel!
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.
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
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.
A lucidly presented and excellently researched dead mall tour. The expression of your emotional impressions are absolutely poetry. You are truly gifted at this!
Thank you so much! I put a lot of myself into these and it always warms my heart to know it is appreciated by someone!
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.
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 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
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.
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.
It is starting to become harder to find places to film that don’t involve an airplane. I’m working on what the next phase of content for my channel will be and you can look forward to that later this year.
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.
OMFG Thank you! I’m so happy to see this covered so well. ❤
It is an honor to have done this mall right according to a local! I hope you are well!
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
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!
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!
That food court is so sad it makes me sad too.
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
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.
I have good news for you-I did go there when I was there in January! It’s coming!
I worked at the Carmike theater in 2008 and used to walk over to Northgate to eat at the food court on lunch breaks. It felt barely alive even then.
I live in Chattanooga, I work right beside the mall. I have been in and out of that mall for the past 20 something years.
They used to have live trees down that main stretch with the glass roofs.
My church used to rent spaces at that mall to have church in, my uncle who died this January, used to walk with me, my brothers and cousins after church up and down the mall. It was always a blast!
We would walk and talk about everything, sometimes the titanic or the JFK Assassination. He was a great man and those were great walks!
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.
Hopefully a turn in the tide could help bring it back to retail place. 🤞
Fantastic presentation 👏
Another fantastic cruise. You really know how to perfectly describe the feeling or vibe of a space. Thank you for sharing your talent!
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.
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.
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.
That’s what I like about these creative repurposings; you can still visit. They didn’t have to use a fresh plot of land to build offices, either.
The Food Court is where the Woolworth’s was located. JC Penney was directly across the mall from that
THANK YOU! I knew someone could help me solve that mystery!
@@UniCommProductions the food court came along once it converted over to being Eastgate Town Center.
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
Folks grew up going here. They'd love to see this when I show them.
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!
I am so glad I did right by you; I know this one is an important one! Thank you!
Hi Kirsten,good to see another video😊you and Sal are the best channels for dead mall content 👍🏻🔥👏🏻thank you for such quality content
Mall turned into an indoor office park, with a water feature. Wow👀
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.
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.
Thank you! I’ve actually done some freelance voice work.
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!!
Wow thank you so much for taking the time to type this out. Comments like these are what keeps me going!
You’re very welcome Kristen. Those words came from my heart. I love malls. I forgot to mention that I love that you take the time to research the malls you explore. You and Sal are my faves. I love others in the genre as well. But the both of you are cherries on top😊
That cafe desserts place is still active and actually pretty decent. I eat there semi-regularly.
The background music you used is absolutely beautiful. It really made for a chill vibe. ❤️
It was developed about the same time Lenox Square was in Atlanta and their progression from semi enclosed to fully enclosed is the same. As far as I know Lenox is still going strong although when I left Atlanta there was a growing gang problem there, it being the northern most terminus of the Marta light rail line at that time.
The most unique thing about Lenox were the sculptures of the characters in the Uncle Remus stories of Atlanta resident Joel Chandler Harris which fell into disgrace in the 70's and we're shipped off to Morgan County which has preserved both this sculpture and another which graced the mall from it's beginnings.
My husband went here when it was a smoking mall with shops. I also worked here for FedEx international TRAC.
The best mall fountain I've ever seen. Good video.
Omg when I was a kid this place was actually nice I remember it having stores 💀
you can see it while passing through i75 split but youd never guess it used to be a vibrant mall
CHATTANOOGA WOO-HOO!!!! moving to hixson but ill always love chattanooga cause its where i grew up lol
I remember ice skating inside this mall when I was a kid!
It’s so well maintained!
I have a picture of my daughter and her cousin sitting on that fountain in 2013. They had drained all the water out.
I pass this building every day and have always wondered what it looks like inside lol.
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 live in LaFayette, GA, which is about an hour away from there (the way I drive, anyway; I’m aware you can probably get there faster via interstate but I’m a big chicken lol). When I was growing up, my parents would take me there once a year for my eye exam and glasses to be made at LensCrafters. It was fun to go shopping while we were waiting for my glasses to be done. But there were also times I stayed there to watch bc you could also watch thru a huge window while they were working on them, and that was fascinating to me as a little kid.
In the mid-2000s, I worked at Convergys, which was a call center for various companies. I worked in the DirecTV division. That job was hell on my mental health. I developed ulcerative colitis from the stress. I always wondered what happened to Convergys and if it’s still there; I saw in one of the comments that it’s not anymore, and I can’t say I’m surprised. But it is interesting that there are other offices there and the building is still open and being used.
I stumbled across this video completely by chance. Had no idea this channel existed, but now that I do, I’m subbing! 😊
Great info thank you, the netherlands.
Do Northgate Mall next.
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.
With better lighting that would actually be a pretty killer event space.
Great video! I don’t think I’ve ever been in there, but I know people who work in offices there. If you’re ever down this way again, you should visit Dalton Mall, formerly Walnut Square Mall. It’s a far cry from what it used to be.
Wonderful Video!!!!! I Love the Fountains!!! F+L, Corey
Oh yeah, i used to live near there. Its errie how the plaxe is simultaneously loud and quied at the same time.
Ah, Morrison's Cafeteria, home of the perfect macaroni and cheese, and custard pie that should be famous. I hear there's still one in Mobile AL.
Back in the 2000's me and some friends actually climbed up on the roof of that mall and explored at like 2 in the morning. 😂 Good memories, but even back then it was pretty dead and just mostly offices. All I remember being there was a YMCA and a bar.
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!
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
Dude, I live like 30 minutes away from Chatt and go there a few times a month. I haven’t been to this place before but I will make it my mission to go next time I head there
I miss when they had the library book sales in here. I'm also just old enough to remember there being some stores here.