I enjoyed spending the proceeds from my summer jobs at this mall back in the 1980's...County Seat and Kinney's...and Sears...Kaybee's Toys and Hobby, Bergner's...I always enjoyed a good shopping trip!
This is wild. That food court alone was something people would go to because of all of the options. At one point had the only A&W in town. Thinking about how even 15 years ago I was in Jr. High and Eastland was the place to be
This was THE place to be in the 80's when I was a kid. My folks would drop me off and I'd spend hours there with friends. Soooo many memories! The theater, the game room, Hardees, Orange Julius, the diner inside Bergners, the talking Christmas tree! Thank you for letting me take a tour inside! I haven't been there for 35 years!
@@NKinzee So I paid a visit there a few weeks ago with a friend, and it was turned into a shoe dept., which went out of business a few years ago, so now its some sort of study center for a college
Good Lord! That mall looks so sterile and bare now! I remember how ornate and pretty it was back in the 80's! No place to sit except for the food court! I miss Woolworth's! There was no food court. It was Woolworth's and Bergner's to go dine at!
How heartbreaking 💔 spent my childhood 1969 to 1979 there, it was the place to be and be seen. Going to the record store hearing the latest sounds, Baskin-Robbins for ice cream, the movie theater where I saw the premiere of Star Wars and Jaws, and in my teens Friday night showings of Rocky Horror. Going to the restaurant on top of Berners that overlooked the mall to people watch. Getting an Orange Julius. Clothes shopping at Foxmoor and Pines. Great memories.
Thanks for doing a video on Eastland. I grew up in the town that it's in during the 80s-90s. Sad to see the sorry shape the mall is in. There was a time when it was the best shopping area in town, beating College Hills Mall. Now both are going the way of the dinos.
came across this video while looking for pictures of this place to draw in the background of a drawing for my friends birthday. i know this place like the back of my hand. i moved cities not long ago, but daaaamn. seeing this place full of life one year, and dead the next, hit kinda hard
Yep been there a million times. I’m 58 and I can remember jc penny and sears used to both have motorcycles lined up out front for sale. I would climb up on um and pretend I was riding. Pennys did auto repairs like sears, but sears lasted till just a couple years ago. Me and my dad went to sears a lot. Our whole family went their right when Berger’s opened. The busiest time was around Christmas’s of course and you could not find a parking place anywhere. And when you went inside there were so many people walking through the the mall it was shoulder to shoulder. It would sometimes take a while to get where you were going. I guess it’s demise came from Amazon I don’t know I still haven’t ever bought anything on line yet, I can’t even imagine buying something on line. I like to hold something in my hand or make sure it hasn’t been used and returned Before I pay for it. Someday the way it’s been going, the only stores that will be left is grocery stores and maybe Walmart. That is really sad and scary to think about.
I live in Bloomington and went to the mall the other day for Christmas shopping, Kohls is still busy, but there are even more stores gone since this video. Victoria Secret, game stop, and a few others left.
I spent _so_ many hours of my childhood here. I loved it; it was so much better than College Hills mall. I loved that fountain in front of Bergner's. Eastland and Skate n Place..... I suppose that's a ghost town now, too 😔
It's scary how fast this mall has deteriorated. I can remember this was a bustling shopping center when I was in college 2003-07 when my son was born we had his baby pictures taken in Sears now every single anchor store is gone. Even more stores are gone now since this was uploaded
The cinema was located in the old Bergners wing, on the right side facing the old Bergners store inside the mall. There used to be a fountain there in the center of the wing. The mall was a happening place back in the day. Woolworths had their own diner next door. There was a Bishops cafeteria over by the Kohls side of the mall. At one time, the Bergners had a tea room overlooking the wing of the mall. It also used to be the only 2 story business in the mall until Famous-Barr (which became Macy's) opened at the end of the century. There was also a full service car wash at one time on the spot occupied by Applebee's. Also, at one point there was a local news studio in the mall, with a see thru window. The mall up the road from there, College Hills, demolished their interior corridors and converted into lifestyle shops. The anchor buildings are still intact there and functioning. Not much of a future for Eastland as a functional mall in my opinion.
@@yeetwarriorcattt6133 I haven't been to that mall in over 25 years. So I wouldn't know. The movie theater would be the only thing big enough to house a shoe dept store. The theater closed when the parkway theater opened next to best buy (that theater was later demolished). None of the B-N theaters when I left 25 years ago are open. University, Parkway, Eastland, College Hills are all gone.
I went to ISU in Bloomington-Normal and literally during my time there I saw this mall slowly die. When I first went there Macy’s had just closed, then I saw JC Penny close as well as Bergners, then Sears, and saw the food court down to two restaurants
Growing up in blono, I had been to eastland mall plenty of times with my friends from 2005 to 2018. The last time i saw that mall extremely busy including a packed food court was December 26th 2011. To me that was also the last time I saw almost everyone walking and interacting with eachother at that mall. Even all the other times I went afterwards until the last time I was there in September 2018 it was not the same and the people that were there were mostly on there phones plus the crowds in the food court were non existent. I hope they do something useful with the mall to bring it back to life.
The food court was killed when they raised the rent on all the tenants and many pulled out. I used to love going for lunch but with only 3 options I never went.
If you look at the directory, I believe the cinema used to be at 1335 - in your video, I believe it's where She Dept. Encore was (6:41). I remember Woolworth's being at about 1400, and there used to be a Hardee's at 1130, if memory serves me right. Where Ulta is used to be a video arcade.
up to 2017 when macy's closed that's when it really went downhill. the mall used to be filled with people now it's very empty, so many stores closed since then. 4/5 of the anchor stores gone too. i hope in the future they can do remodeling or something to make it look more appealing like fixing the light in the sign where cars pass by, i literally have never seen it turned on. a good repaint would make it look nice. i really do hope there's a way to save it, atm since adding h&m and planet fitness maybe there is a bit to look forward to.
It's crazy how fast the high street and shopping malls are dying everywhere is closing. Companies like Amazon are so cheap it's hard to compete. Its not often i don't buy from Amazon especially since they have an Amazon locker in my work.
I was at eastland last weekend, and it’s just sad. See the jut out where justice was? All gone. The food court? Didn’t see a single soul there. Most of the food places are gone, and the majority of the mall is just empty stores :(
An overabundance of malls during the '80s and '90s giving people too many options, yet limiting people's choices to what the malls themselves want to sell.
The only thing semi good about the mall is the kohl’s. My sister actually works at the kohl’s and I go to planet fitness. It’s pretty smart what they did. I recetly went to the mall and it’s very depressing. Not looking good for it.
Bloomington IL used to be an excellent place to live. But now with all the shootings and property crime its a huge ghetto and is always mentioned on WMBD WEEK and HOI news at least twice a week for something.
I think you may be delusional there bud. Or a generally fear-filled person, which is pretty common in my white bretheren. We need to all toughen up - you have noooo idea what a rough area is.
But yet we will never see a McDonald's close because most Americans can sit on their a-- in a drive thru that is twenty cars deep while no one is standing at the counter inside while simultaneously online shopping from their phones for home delivery from Amazon. That is the lazy overall society America has become today. I always shop brick and mortar first and support local jobs within my community.
Wow,you must live in an affluent area where the residents can still afford brick & steel non corporate shops and eating out.For the rest of us it's Walmart🛒Dollar General and eating what you fix at home.There's plenty of now empty fast food outlets,restaurants and stores in NE.Ohio after manufacturing🏭was handed over to China.🇨🇳
We moved to Bloomington in 1996 and the mall was amazing. This breaks my heart. Illinois, America’s tax capital, is eating itself by unbroken Democrat rule.
How does this place simultaneously look ultra modern in some parts and sketchy as hell in others?! I love it.
That's Bloomington, IL for you.. 😂
At least someone loves eastland mall still 🤦🏽♂️😂
oh the stories i have there as a kid till now i love it
Lol yep
Lol yep
I used to live in Bloomington normal, so this is very nostalgic as I lived there for 6-7 years.
Space Age Indeed.
All the space you need
Zing
This was once a beautiful place to shop. Many high end shops! Many good restaurants, the whole 9 yards! Sad😟
It’s amazing how many malls are dying out! They were place to be when I was a kid.
I enjoyed spending the proceeds from my summer jobs at this mall back in the 1980's...County Seat and Kinney's...and Sears...Kaybee's Toys and Hobby, Bergner's...I always enjoyed a good shopping trip!
This is wild. That food court alone was something people would go to because of all of the options. At one point had the only A&W in town. Thinking about how even 15 years ago I was in Jr. High and Eastland was the place to be
A company out in Indiana bought the mall a while ago, they added some lower end stores and it’s actually more lively now.
Nicely filmed. Definitely in the stages of pre-abandonment, sadly.
Miss this place. Went there a lot with my mom as a kid.
I love the work you put into your videos, they are amazing to watch.. like little documentaries 😍
This was THE place to be in the 80's when I was a kid. My folks would drop me off and I'd spend hours there with friends. Soooo many memories! The theater, the game room, Hardees, Orange Julius, the diner inside Bergners, the talking Christmas tree! Thank you for letting me take a tour inside! I haven't been there for 35 years!
Wait where on earth was the theatre? 😭
@@yeetwarriorcattt6133 If you were standing looking at the Bergners entrance, it was on the right. I'm not sure what is there now.
@@NKinzee So I paid a visit there a few weeks ago with a friend, and it was turned into a shoe dept., which went out of business a few years ago, so now its some sort of study center for a college
I swear, when I first came to Bloomington in 2009, this place was bustling..... Downfall started in like, 2014 or 2015
Good Lord! That mall looks so sterile and bare now! I remember how ornate and pretty it was back in the 80's! No place to sit except for the food court! I miss Woolworth's! There was no food court. It was Woolworth's and Bergner's to go dine at!
How heartbreaking 💔 spent my childhood 1969 to 1979 there, it was the place to be and be seen. Going to the record store hearing the latest sounds, Baskin-Robbins for ice cream, the movie theater where I saw the premiere of Star Wars and Jaws, and in my teens Friday night showings of Rocky Horror. Going to the restaurant on top of Berners that overlooked the mall to people watch. Getting an Orange Julius. Clothes shopping at Foxmoor and Pines. Great memories.
Where was the theater located? I wasn’t around when there was a theater
@@profileyomama3281 I have the same question, did you ever find out?
Now they killed it with a Planet Fitness.
Thanks for doing a video on Eastland. I grew up in the town that it's in during the 80s-90s. Sad to see the sorry shape the mall is in. There was a time when it was the best shopping area in town, beating College Hills Mall. Now both are going the way of the dinos.
came across this video while looking for pictures of this place to draw in the background of a drawing for my friends birthday. i know this place like the back of my hand. i moved cities not long ago, but daaaamn. seeing this place full of life one year, and dead the next, hit kinda hard
Yep been there a million times. I’m 58 and I can remember jc penny and sears used to both have motorcycles lined up out front for sale. I would climb up on um and pretend I was riding. Pennys did auto repairs like sears, but sears lasted till just a couple years ago. Me and my dad went to sears a lot. Our whole family went their right when Berger’s opened. The busiest time was around Christmas’s of course and you could not find a parking place anywhere. And when you went inside there were so many people walking through the the mall it was shoulder to shoulder. It would sometimes take a while to get where you were going. I guess it’s demise came from Amazon I don’t know I still haven’t ever bought anything on line yet, I can’t even imagine buying something on line. I like to hold something in my hand or make sure it hasn’t been used and returned Before I pay for it. Someday the way it’s been going, the only stores that will be left is grocery stores and maybe Walmart. That is really sad and scary to think about.
I live in Bloomington and went to the mall the other day for Christmas shopping, Kohls is still busy, but there are even more stores gone since this video. Victoria Secret, game stop, and a few others left.
Yet another great video!!! Thank you for the great research about the mall.
I spent _so_ many hours of my childhood here. I loved it; it was so much better than College Hills mall. I loved that fountain in front of Bergner's. Eastland and Skate n Place..... I suppose that's a ghost town now, too 😔
It's scary how fast this mall has deteriorated. I can remember this was a bustling shopping center when I was in college 2003-07 when my son was born we had his baby pictures taken in Sears now every single anchor store is gone. Even more stores are gone now since this was uploaded
Lol, I was born in 2003 and I remember having my pictures taken at that Sears when I was a kid.
Charlotte NC had an Eastland mall too and it was torn down several years ago
Eastland Mall would be awesome, if online shopping weren’t a thing. Just sorta dead now. 😉 I’m a Bloomington native so
So dead that I do all my shopping in the Peoria Mall (except groceries and Amazon of course)
The cinema was located in the old Bergners wing, on the right side facing the old Bergners store inside the mall. There used to be a fountain there in the center of the wing. The mall was a happening place back in the day. Woolworths had their own diner next door. There was a Bishops cafeteria over by the Kohls side of the mall. At one time, the Bergners had a tea room overlooking the wing of the mall. It also used to be the only 2 story business in the mall until Famous-Barr (which became Macy's) opened at the end of the century. There was also a full service car wash at one time on the spot occupied by Applebee's. Also, at one point there was a local news studio in the mall, with a see thru window. The mall up the road from there, College Hills, demolished their interior corridors and converted into lifestyle shops. The anchor buildings are still intact there and functioning. Not much of a future for Eastland as a functional mall in my opinion.
So where the shoe dept was is where the cinema used to be?
@@yeetwarriorcattt6133 I haven't been to that mall in over 25 years. So I wouldn't know. The movie theater would be the only thing big enough to house a shoe dept store. The theater closed when the parkway theater opened next to best buy (that theater was later demolished). None of the B-N theaters when I left 25 years ago are open. University, Parkway, Eastland, College Hills are all gone.
I've watched all those huge businesses leave the Mall, then all the small stores died out.
I went to ISU in Bloomington-Normal and literally during my time there I saw this mall slowly die. When I first went there Macy’s had just closed, then I saw JC Penny close as well as Bergners, then Sears, and saw the food court down to two restaurants
In recent times they are saying this mall is struggling because of the COVID-19 impact which makes me think this mall will prob be doing worse now
Growing up in blono, I had been to eastland mall plenty of times with my friends from 2005 to 2018. The last time i saw that mall extremely busy including a packed food court was December 26th 2011. To me that was also the last time I saw almost everyone walking and interacting with eachother at that mall. Even all the other times I went afterwards until the last time I was there in September 2018 it was not the same and the people that were there were mostly on there phones plus the crowds in the food court were non existent. I hope they do something useful with the mall to bring it back to life.
The food court was killed when they raised the rent on all the tenants and many pulled out. I used to love going for lunch but with only 3 options I never went.
Eastland Mall would be doing MUCH better business if it was closer to the Cross Bronx Expressway. You can't fight Bloomington City Hall, though!
Left the twin cities in 1972 right after high-school. Great place to grow up, but..................
It's good to see another mall with people in it. 👍 😆
If you look at the directory, I believe the cinema used to be at 1335 - in your video, I believe it's where She Dept. Encore was (6:41). I remember Woolworth's being at about 1400, and there used to be a Hardee's at 1130, if memory serves me right. Where Ulta is used to be a video arcade.
🥶🥶🥶🥶🥶 cool in michigan nice video 😃👍
Thanks for the tour.
up to 2017 when macy's closed that's when it really went downhill. the mall used to be filled with people now it's very empty, so many stores closed since then. 4/5 of the anchor stores gone too. i hope in the future they can do remodeling or something to make it look more appealing like fixing the light in the sign where cars pass by, i literally have never seen it turned on. a good repaint would make it look nice. i really do hope there's a way to save it, atm since adding h&m and planet fitness maybe there is a bit to look forward to.
Nice one. Thanks RR. 👍🏼🤘🏼😎
It's crazy how fast the high street and shopping malls are dying everywhere is closing. Companies like Amazon are so cheap it's hard to compete. Its not often i don't buy from Amazon especially since they have an Amazon locker in my work.
Jesus, I haven’t been there in like two years. Used to go there with my grandma every week. Also drive past there often on veterans parkway.
Looks similar to Cherryvale southeast of Rockford Illinois It’s dead too. There was a mall in Machesney Park Illinois that was closed years ago
That's a lie! I Saw a lot of people at CherryVale Mall last week. It's not Dead yet.
But it is probably heading in the same direction as the Eastland Mall soon too. Because Sear and Macy's closed down.
It is a lot more busy now because of the coronavirus. Some stores actually get kind of filled.
i havent been to that mall im a few months
I was at eastland last weekend, and it’s just sad. See the jut out where justice was? All gone. The food court? Didn’t see a single soul there. Most of the food places are gone, and the majority of the mall is just empty stores :(
They replaced justice with a Daily Thread store though :)
Wow my Mall!
Sad sad sad 😥
Alright! Who remembers the eternal trash tornado by the doors?
Yep, and they still happen
Sweet!
🎊🎄🎇🎆🎉🍷Happy New Year!2020🍷🎉🎆🎇🎄🎊
What is this theme song for Eastland Mall in Bloomington IL
The theater used to be where Encore shoes is..I'm an old fart
Why did the stores pull out and leave. What caused the downfall?
Online shopping?
An overabundance of malls during the '80s and '90s giving people too many options, yet limiting people's choices to what the malls themselves want to sell.
Amazon
Some stores went bankrupt and out of business.
Online shopping and Walmart
Whelp, I know where I'm going this weekend!
This is it. I have found the absolute bottom of the internet.
Welcome to central Illinois 🤷♀️
Ayoo my mom worked at woolworth 😎
Speaking as someone whos lived there, that mall sucks.
I used to work here
The only thing semi good about the mall is the kohl’s. My sister actually works at the kohl’s and I go to planet fitness. It’s pretty smart what they did. I recetly went to the mall and it’s very depressing. Not looking good for it.
why is the mall dying?
What’s moving into Macy’s ?
Space Age ? More Like The Empty Space Age
I live in bloomington
The chairs be like E
Thank you internet....not really.
Bloomington IL used to be an excellent place to live. But now with all the shootings and property crime its a huge ghetto and is always mentioned on WMBD WEEK and HOI news at least twice a week for something.
Chris Lemaster I’ve literally never felt threatened in town, not ghetto at all. Decatur is ghetto
I think you may be delusional there bud. Or a generally fear-filled person, which is pretty common in my white bretheren. We need to all toughen up - you have noooo idea what a rough area is.
The old theatre was in front of where Bergner’s used to be. (It sounds like you didn’t do an y research.)
I stopped shopping their after I stopped shopping at justice because they’re are really not any good clothing shops.
It is not
People are so lazy
this is my only mall it sucks
But yet we will never see a McDonald's close because most Americans can sit on their a-- in a drive thru that is twenty cars deep while no one is standing at the counter inside while simultaneously online shopping from their phones for home delivery from Amazon. That is the lazy overall society America has become today. I always shop brick and mortar first and support local jobs within my community.
Wow,you must live in an affluent area where the residents can still afford brick & steel non corporate shops and eating out.For the rest of us it's Walmart🛒Dollar General and eating what you fix at home.There's plenty of now empty fast food outlets,restaurants and stores in NE.Ohio after manufacturing🏭was handed over to China.🇨🇳
We moved to Bloomington in 1996 and the mall was amazing. This breaks my heart. Illinois, America’s tax capital, is eating itself by unbroken Democrat rule.
It's no coincidence this mall stated to die the same year Illinois started its loss of population
I live only 38 miles from here in Peoria IL. this mall has been dead since 2003.