ฝัง
- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 15 ต.ค. 2024
- Hello everybody and after so many years I've finally found another dying mall to film for this series, hope you enjoy!
Tracks used in this video -
0:31 - welcome to the lobby! - WAYFARER
2:44 - Customer Information Desk - M∆RBLE PL∆Z∆™
5:03 - ガレリア - 死夢VANITY
6:55 - SHOPPINGMALL 1998 - Michellini
9:59 - can't - waterfront dining
12:16 - 波
#deadmall #ambient #deadmalls #urbanexploration #urbandecay #vaporwave #vaporwaveaesthetic #walkingtour
Should turn these malls into retirement community for Gen X’ers. Keep the food court and movie theater, subdivide the retail stores to living spaces of various sizes. Add a dry cleaners and a gym. Medical
They are doing something somewhat related to this in Dallas Texas. Collin Creek Mall in Richardson (suburb of Dallas) is being converted into a living space. And condos are being built currently in what used to be the parking lot around the mall. I’m not exactly sure what will happen to the mall space itself. It’s been an ongoing project.
@@Surannhealz I live in DFW!!! Checking now!
Don’t forget the old arcade’s! I’m down 😆
@@minormunitions Oh heck yeah!!! How could I forget!!
There's a retirement community across the street from this mall
I will always remember this mall! It's where I got my first ever midnight release of the Nintendo Wii! I still remember when the mall used to be packed! Such good times...
This is so depressing. Ridgmar was the mall of my youth. I spent so many days wandering around here, wide eyed and eager to earn enough to buy a video game or new toy at K-B Toys. That Journeys you showed early in the video used to be where the EB Games, later Gamestop, sat. I bought probably 300 games in that store. Always got a cookie at that cookie stand next to it (probably why I'm so fat today in my 50's). This place used to be so full of life, but once the air force base up the road shut down it was a struggle from then on. Even when they put in the RAVE cinema, which is still my favorite theater, even then it was all done but the crying. So so sad to see it all so lifeless and in disrepair.
There used to be the gigantic spiral ramp that led from the bottom floor to the top. It was right where the playground now sits. You can see it in an old episode of Walker Texas Ranger.
I have so many memeories from Ridgmar. My kid was in the school orchestra and every Christmas we used to get treated to a concert in the center of this mall. She played the bass and they'd do Christmas songs during the holidays.
Ugh. I'm gonna go mope now. Cheers, and thanks. R.I.P., Ridgmar. I will still remember you fondly. I mean, I drive by you every day on my way to work, but you're just a husk now.
This was my childhood mall I remember going here all the time this was one of the malls i walked in recently and realized I havent been there in ages and was shocked how much business it had lost.
This is where I got my PS2 and Xbox back in the day... As well as a bunch of other various games from my childhood. Haven't lived in DFW in close to a decade, crazy to see such a ghost-town here.
Funny thing is, I live just up the street. In Westworth Village if you remember that place. It's basically a tiny speed trap between Ridgmar and River Oaks, but still. It's home.
Anyway, in the last decade there's been a concerted effort to gentrify the area. New stores, new shops, new everything. But still, Ridgmar sits there like a tomb. The only thing that brings anyone in is the RAVE cinema and it's located in such a way that you can enter and exit without ever seeing the mall proper if you choose to see a film here. It's coming into disrepair now too, even as the area just up the street continues to grow and add businesses that are doing well. Thriving even. We just got a 151 Coffee a few weeks ago and there's a new strip mall going in near the Super Target. Poor Ridgmar, I'll always remember it fondly.
I remember when that was a thriving mall. Maybe 12 years ago things were different. It's sad to see it like that now.
Yep bidenomics is working, and the scamdimic.
I'm a FedEx PM Courier that works the White Settlement area near Fort Worth. Ridgmar used to be part of my regular route. Mostly just one shoebox package to pick up at either Champ's and/ or Journey's. I would always go in thru the food court past the jewelry stall. The lady there would always bug me about buying from her. There was always at least 4 middle aged or elderly folk doing laps around the top floor.
The up running escalator was broken for over a year before it was finally fixed. I remember seeing so many families on the weekdays in the bottom area playing at the Bungee Swing or riding that Train or racing around on those large toy style motocycles. The Aquarium looked nice, but I just remember they have a Toucan in the window. It liked watching me walk by. Auntie Anne's station was super expensive last I saw it.
The food court needs some desperate TLC, it has a very old smell to it. Almost like a locker room. I wonder if that bird is still nested on top of the TV. Always wanted to try the food there, but they were always closed by the time I was at work. I wonder how old some of the gumballs in those machines near the food court entrance are.
Unfortunately I don't have many memories of this particular mall outside of my job. I was always more of a Parks Mall guy. :)
Some correction to the locations covered:
2:15 - Sear's, not Macy's.
Food court starting at 3:26 - Orange Julius, Italia Express (but not the original Italia Express that was present throughout the 90's and early 2000's), a burger joint (can't remember the name) but then turned into a cheese steak joint (can't remember the name); 3:40 stall with the black sign and white lettering used to be an Asian eatery, next to it was Chick-fil-a; 4:02 brick-colored wall with off-white trim was a Chili's, to the right was a Sonic and then Subway (or I might have those 2 reversed).
5:15 - that area where the children were playing used to be a water fountain/pond back in the 90's and there was a spiral ramp that lead to both floors.
5:33 - Macy's, not Nieman Marcus. Also, on that same side where you were standing, somewhere around there was a Kay-Bee Toy Store back in the 90's prior to Macy's being built.
7:16 - Nieman Marcus, not Sear's. The hallway to the left, there used to be a stand alone walk-in Subway.
10:12 - Macy's (lower level), not Nieman Marcus. Prior to Macy's being built in this area, this used to be the food court (90's). I don't remember all the food locations of the 90's but the original Italia Express was there, Chick-fil-a, and Arby's. Equally as important, next to that food court was The Space Port which was the arcade center.
12:15 - Sear's (lower level), not Macy's.
Completely dead mall. sad, it was so vibrant back in the day.
It will probably be demolished by the end of the decade, and replaced by a housing development, or mixed-use development. This used to be the place to be.
Ridgmar used to be my stomping grounds in high school. I could spend hours in Waldenbooks and FYE back then.
The mall of my childhood. Anyone else remember the El Fenix there in the 80's?
I even remember it in the 70's I also have vivid memories of the old central fountain and the big spiral ramp between the floors before the remodel that turned the mall in a boring clone of every other 90s mall.
Yep. Ate there as a kid in the early 90s. Have a lot of memories of this mall.
Heck ya ate there many times it was great
I know the mall well, I remember when it was built. The reason it is the way it is today is the demographic has totally changed from 1976.
It was all over for Ridgmar after Carswell AFB shut down. All the old base housing was left empty and eventually either sold off or bulldozed. Funnily enough, where once sat the old base housing is now a walled off neighborhood full of million dollar homes and the area is being gentrified. But still, it's too late for poor old Ridgmar. It's a tomb while just up the street new businesses are popping up all the time. Strange how things work, I suppose. I'm old enough to remember when Ridgmar had an actual weapon store on the second floor, kinda like Dawn of the Dead. Mostly antiques, but still. This is Texas after all. lol
It's like a ghost from the 80s
I was wondering about Ridgemar Mall a couple weeks ago. I used to go there a lot. I got my first cell phone there in the mid 90s from Radio Shack.
I've lived on the west side of Fort Worth since the early 80's and watched this decline myself. While many here have commented on the why's, It's puzzling to me why Ridgmar Mall became a ghost town while there are dozens of other businesses and strip malls that have sprung up and are thriving around it.
Lockheed Martin owns most of that area including white settlement
Carswell Airforce Base closed and General Dynamics laid off 20k people after the Gulf War.
The Fort Worth Naval Air station has less active duty troops than Carswell did.
@@texasrangers4 True...but my point being is that the mall died while ten times more businesses opened up around it and are thriving.
Probably,high rent .
The first closed anchor store you came to was not Macys but it was Sears. The second closed anchor store in the middle was Macys and is converted to storage places. The last closed anchor store at the opposite end of Dillards was Neiman Marcus. I use to work at this Neimans. Too much crime in this area kept people away and mall management did not to deter crime. Once a Dillards Outlet comes into a mall it’s the kiss of death to that mall.
I came here to say this!
We used drive almost an hour to shop at this mall when I was growing up.
used to go here as a kid. hulen was closer. never could have imagined this would be empty
Same here. I went to TCU in the mid '90s and shopped at both malls, and I never would've imagined this mall would be so empty. In fact, my preferred movie theater was the little General Cinema (I think) that was right down the street, and there was a Half Price Books farther down that has now moved next to Target. I guess Hulen Mall thrives because of all the stores packed on Hulen Drive.
In the 80s I remember this was THE mall in ft worth. It was packed. Does anyone remember the video arcade space port? So fun
One of the anchors is now a storage unit - where I currently have some some stuff stored. If a self storage being one of the biggest draws to a mall doesn't tell the story, Idk what does.
My daughter and I made some good memories in that mall...loved the after christmas sales
You walked by the former stalls of Zales, Orange Julius, Hot Topic, Victoria's Secrets, Helzburgs, Neiman Marcus upstairs from the Sunglass Hut, The Gap, and Banana Republic...
Chilis too
I got my ear pierced at a kiosk by Hot Topic when I was a sophomore 😂
Years ago I was working over in that part of town. During lunch break , I went to the mall. When I got back to work the lady I was working for came out , she was wondering where I had gone for a couple of hours. So I told her , Ridgemar Mall
She asked me if I got mugged. It was definitely on its way down.
Alot of stuff around the DFW area is rotting away. Covid did a number on so many of these businesses.
Man if you’d told me in 99 anything other than some dystopian future scape would have closed these malls, I’d have laughed in your face. They were so full of people all the time. So much money running through it. So much money spent in building them. They seemed like these immutable points in time, no way they close. Makes me kind of sad honestly
I delivered newspapers there in the 80s. It was happening then. A really nice small.
I grew up with this mall, used to hang out here, before the big decline when it was still reasonably full me and the wife would come shopping all the time ( they had the BEST pizza place in the food court). Took my kids couple months back, and it was, just heartbreaking. Hulen is starting to feel the affect as well
Except its not
That Italia Express pizza was the best!! The KB toys was the highlight of every trip. Hulen mall does seem to be heading that way too, last time I went to the Hulen mall was December of last year (2023) the food court had some empty spots, and there were more than a couple of unfilled retail spaces. But the area around Hulen mall is starting to go down hill fast unfortunately.
@@art23428 yeah it is.
The area around Hulen is great. Half Price Books, barnes and noble, kincaid's.
@@Caked5 I love that Kincaid's. I get some flack for this, but I think it's better than the original on Camp Bowie. Although, a new local place called Grumps opened up not long ago and it's as good as Kincaid's in my book. I go there now since it's closer and the burgers taste better, at least to my palette.
Neiman Marcus was actually the vacant anchor that is shown from around 7:10 to 7:40! That wing of the mall, even when Neimans was still in business, was eerily quiet from around 2009 or 2010 on. There haven't been many stores in that area for years. The vacant anchor to the right around 10:11 used to be the Macy's! It closed in 2016. This and the Hulen Mall were my childhood malls. Visited Ridgmar yesterday and it is so sad to see how it has fallen.
So many memories growing up here. Honestly, it isn't as dead as I imagined. I heard it was pretty dire these days, but it seems like some stores weathered the storm better than others (Journeys being one of them, that has been there for ages.) My favorite place was an arcade that sadly only lasted for a few years in the mid-2000s, but it was a fun way to kill time while my parents and sister shopped.
I just went there today and there was probably three stores open lol… it’s definitely dirty now too… this video makes it look nice but it is for sure not anymore… so sad..
I own Easys smoke shop not to far from here. It's pretty weird. We go eat at the food court sometimes just to see how busy it is.
The mall of my youth. This was one of the best malls I have seen. I have traveled 39 states and saw a lot of malls in their peak. If I was making a top 10 list this would be on it.
The Chelsea Street Pub was here. It could be a wild spot for a place at a mall.
Firsts I remember at this mall.
I am pretty sure Chick-fil-A had it’s first store here and there was a great Italian fast food pizza here.
TGIF Fridays was a Satellite restaurant there’s also a really good Szechuan satellite stores.
Neiman Marcus on one end of Dillard’s on the other All the other typical stores that came and went. It was this mall where a friend was working at one of the record stores when Boston’s first album came out. I remember going up to see him and it was playing. I hated it but my taste was changing a lot at that time. Not so bad in retrospect.
Back in the 70s a trip to this mall often came with an air show. The F-16s made at General Dynamics and flown at Carswell SAC base would practice just overhead.
Many more stores
Thanks for showing this. If you want to know more ask as I might remember most all that was at this mall.
I remember when the mall was built...spent most of my time at the arcade ....Space Port ? ....they had a What burger....and a cafeteria style restaurant...Wyatts? ...then Hulen mall opened a yr later....now I only go there to see movies at the Rave....I never venture any further than the theater
spent a lot of time here as a kid. i was so mad when i got to be too big to play on the weird gross rubbery playground they had. it remember really thinking the end must be near when the build a bear moved out. loved going to the rock & fossil shop before they moved out too, really nice old couple ran it. sad to see it so dead.
I miss the old ridgmar :( it was my childhood
I drive past the Ridgmar Mall once every two weeks, but I’ve never been inside, since I moved to DFW almost 2 years ago. What I hear about it are from people that live nearby, that go to the Hulen Mall.
My dad redid the AC work back in 98 when I was a freshman at western hills
Thanks for the look i used to go here all the time growing up in the 80s and 90s
Miss going to Wicks and Sticks and Craig’s.
Those turtles used to shoot water into the pool, it was an amazing mall at one time!
Haven't been there in decades, so only realized from this video that THIS is a recurring dream location of mine. It is a trip to see my dream on screen. My brain is swimming in what feels like altered reality.
My Home Mall...bought my first CD player there 😮
This mall at one time was booming, it is now dead!
Went down hill pretty quick after Carswell Air Force Base shut down 😕
the projects from Dallas and downtown Fort Worth got moved near ridge mar and that is why it closed . true story .
anyone know the architect of the DFW 80s malls? that vibe is the same regardless which mall youre in.
Meanwhile Hulen mall is thriving just down the road several miles
I've been in that mall a few months back and I found out the many stores I used to go to when I was young are now gone. There's at least a movie theater downstairs and sea quest.
I remember that movie theater. That was around 2012? Been a long time, could not get around this place was packed. Last time i was here was year backs I remember being in a closing store and one of the employees telling us she didn’t care if we stole or bought anything.
Mark my words...people will be begging for malls again one day.
Used to live over next to this mall. I moved there well after it was dead kinda sucked but Hulen mall is down the road
Now this is a liminal space
i love ridgmar mall! so many memories
Seeing all your videos of these dead malls in Texas is kinda inspiring me to record videos of dead malls in England
Having grown up and worked in many malls in the 80’s and 90’s, it really makes me sad to see these beautiful and empty structures. I guess the megastores (Walmart/Costco/Sam’s/Targets/etc…) and of course Amazon killed these malls. I like to remember these malls when they had 90% plus retail occupancy and always full of sounds, people, and special events.
I spend a great deal of my youth at Ridgemar Mall back in the day
5:10-5:20 down below the balcony where the mats and the jump set is where i spent some good years of my child hood, when this place was still a real Mall, i got takin here a lot as a kid and it was always so busy then, but now its turned into this.
It’s not dead but, it is on life support. 😢😢😢
My grandmother used to be a "switchboard operator" for Neiman Marcus at that mall years ago.
cool vid, great music choices
i used to go here all the time when i was little, sucks seeing it dead like this
Wow, this is cool.
Hulen mall is a great Mall you must have went in the afternoon when nobody’s there. I live 10 mins away it’s always got people . Been here for 15 years
Physical media really did a major blow to the malls and toy stores I used to go to RM to buy CDs and videos at fye, Camelot I think there was a KB toy store there too back in 98 till 2004 I was in middle and highschool so chick's were everywhere we didn't know what a dating app would ruin everything and social media 😢
Wow there is almost nothing in this mall ..... havnt been there in AGES.....
The Asian place here in like 2010 and the best potatoes ever so fucking good
Dillards inside entrances are now sealed off. Only open on outside east side.
This is so sad. I had a blast when I first visited that mall when the yugioh mall tour visited so many years ago. Won a Pharaonic Guardian booster pack for competing in the tournament too.
Where is Force Worse Texas?
Wow I worked at the chess king at ridgmar mall in the early 90’s and it was a thriving busy place. It really took a dive when Neiman Marcus left. Crazy. I wonder if Hulen Mall down the road is the same?
ya 32 yrs ago this place was alive I used to live in Fort Worth last time I was there with my nephews and niece and you can tell most of the stores was closing and they had them animal things for kids to ride I remember because I let my niece drive it with her second older brother we almost took out walls and peoplebut the movie place was around 2005 i think not for sure
I didnt think their were still any malls, certainly lots & lots of closed locked up doors, just, sad, sad, sad. 🤯😱😭😭😭
Great place for a mega haunted house. Js
As far as the food court goes, there was a Subway to the far left nearest the doors, then a long corridor to restrooms, after that there is the old Sonic location with the yellow and red tiles, then if my memory serves me correctly, the lineup should be a Chick-fl-a after that, then a Chinese takeout place that would constantly offer free samples to people walking by (a great way to get free grub as a child with no money lol) and then a self serve frozen yogurt place which was abandoned shortly after 2014. Across the aisle they had a cheese stake place, a pizza place, and an Asian sort of grill, I never ventured over to that side of the food court, but I would constantly go and beg my parents to take me, so I have distinct memories from there. Hardly any of the food court restaurants would convert to anything else after they closed, so you can see the Subway and Sonic being completely abandoned and left in the state that they lie in today, years after they closed, nobody bothering at all to block it off or convert it into anything new. I myself live in the area, and explored many times the back areas of the abandoned restaurants (this is probs not legal but truthfully they haven't had a lick of security in years) and have found a few documents and old advertisements up to the year 2016, so I am going to assume that's when they closed or close to it? It's just a shame to have watched the death of this mall in real time over the course of my life, and not a single person is wanting to try and really renovate and use this massive property to it's potential. Too busy building worthless niche chain restaurants and single-purpose stores in the area to focus on something cool like fixing Ridgmar.
Golden triangle still going hard
I believe the anchor space with the decorative rails and ramps was a Nieman Marcus good to see JCP still open
4:58 Black and white storefront on your right was Victoria's Secret.
W
Also the only thing keeping this place alive is the sea quest.
There's a great war museum there
JUST LET THE HISPANICS TAKE OVER AND WATCH IT SPRING BACK TO LIFE.... IT WAS DONE WITH TOWN CENTER NOW CALLED LA GRAN PLAZA.
🔥🔥🔥💪💪💪🇲🇽🇲🇽🇲🇽🌯🌯🌯🌮🌮🌮🗣️🗣️🗣️
This is true. La Gran Plaza is awesome
Man I remember how it was before they upgraded it.
You should go to Southwest Center mall (Red bird Mall) in Dallas that mall has no one in it too just like this one !
It's a high crime area .
looked dead when i went like 6 years ago
This is so sad…. I loved Ridgemar mall. When Carswell shut down- the mall went to shite.
Tbh Kane pixel should have put u in his vid for u to get the money too
Rave cenema was open in 1999, saw the matrix there
Why is the electricity still running? Nvm people still come here?
Dude I just went today and there is like 3 stores…
Ahh, home
The music should be Elton John's Funeral for a Friend.
Sad to see. It was more alive 30 years ago.
It was alive as recently as 2013 lol
That is sears in middle in a mall
Hm, you should have more views than this. You definitely deserve them.
Worked security from 2005 to 2016.
Grand Prairie lost 2 malls.
Also… looked very dirty…
The economy is shitty.😮
These malls started to be abandoned LONG before the economy started to go south.