On March 31, 2023, Marna bore witness to the Day of Wrath at Lakeforest Mall's final day in operation. Alfred the Umbrella Tree from the Sears Courtyard now lives in my living room and it's thriving, and the geese in heat with nuclear cloacas nearly massacred Ace and I. Just a normal day at the mall, whatever. Subscribe or the tree will cry.

@TheUluxian

Жыл бұрын

Well I've been subscribed for a long time, so I can't do that, but I WILL give you a "LIKE" if you promise never to bring up the image of "Nuclear Geese Cloacas" ever again...

@ericlee6495

11 ай бұрын

I’m here with you sal don’t cry I love you ❤️ 😊 and I did subscribe to your channel 😊❤

@NicholasShade-eq1ts

6 ай бұрын

I don't want the tree to cry. 🌲 😭 So, I'm subscribing.🐼

@charlestonpinballarcade

11 күн бұрын

Sal! It took another watch of this one year later to catch Tayne! Happy Flarhgunnstow to you! 😂

This is a fabulous video. The mayhem inside on the last day was unreal to watch. I should've gone with you. Great work, Sal. You put A LOT of effort into this and it shows. Congrats!

@sal

Жыл бұрын

Thanks Dan ❤️

@rwdplz1

Жыл бұрын

Sal, Dan, and Ace cross-over episode would be epic.

As I face turning 50... this is absolute childhood nostalgia. Thanks Sal.

I am SUPER delighted that you stole/rescued Alfred the Umbrella Tree! In fact, that whole section where all the mall patrons were just going feral and walking off with stuff was a JOY.

You did an absolutely amazing job at capturing this mall. Especially the chaos of it's last few hours. It was great being able to hang out with you there twice. Thank you for making this.

@sal

Жыл бұрын

You were a fantastic co-host in this episode! I'm always fond of the time we get to spend together, and everyone needs to follow y'all on Instagram: @neonandrustproductions

Alas, poor Lakeforest, we knew ye well. For the last few years, it had a reputation for being a place where groups of teens were not to be trusted, where storefronts were almost always boarded up, where word was that you took your life in your hands just entering the property, where shopping involved long walks between operating stores while trying to remember what stores had been in all the closed storefronts. My niece is adopted from China and for the last 3 years we went there exactly ONE time each year for the big Chinese Neew Year celebrations -- and then only because she was one of the performers. The last time I remember actually going to Lakeforest Mall for *shopping* was pre-pandemimonium.

@mikefobfan101

2 ай бұрын

It definitely was a little nerve-racking going to Lake Forest. I would always have to go pretty early in the day when kids were in school in the later years. Just because I was nervous to be there late.

Lol I made a cameo at 51:40. In the purple shirt. I ended up staying 30 minutes past closing and got locked in lol. I think I was the last one out. Great video as always, Sal! EDIT: It's nice to know security still patrols the inside. We definitely don't want another Century III situation...

@angelaa1611

Жыл бұрын

Forgive my ignorance but as someone from the Pittsburgh area, I have to ask...what Century III situation?? I just moved back to the area after a 23 year long hiatus in LA. Was shocked to hear that C3 is gone.

@EternalSand

Жыл бұрын

@@angelaa1611 A few people recently broke into C3 a few weeks ago if i remember hearing correctly, it was on KDKA

@ECFE

Жыл бұрын

@@angelaa1611Century III has been/is regularly broken into, and is severely vandalized and decayed. Someone set it on fire a few months ago, and just a month ago some kid fell through the roof.

@A-RonHubbard

11 ай бұрын

They still patrol for the time being...that will change as the property decays.

Sal, you are really incredible at Mall documentation. I love your history presentation of each mall as much as the visuals themselves. Thanks for doing these.

I am a Bicentennial turning 50 in 2 years and many malls opened and thrived in our childhood and teen years. My mall was Jamestown in St. Louis. This mall is gorgeous and it's a darn shame what's happening. Sal, you rock this series.

This was my mall. I was there for its golden age. I was there for the 1994 Christmas holiday season that was shown here. My mom still has the picture of me and my brother visiting Santa at that same mall. I even remember the Cable TV Montgomery commercials when there was still competition in that space. But now just like everything else that has changed in Montgomery County, this mall is another memory of the past I will never forget or witness again.

Amazing video. I'm born and raised in Montgomery County, and Lakeforest was a great place to shop, hang out, etc. I had great times going to the movies with my friends and shopping for a new outfit. I even bought my first car battery at Sears. I could tell you some stories that will blow your mind. Also, I can't forget Ruby Tuesday where everyone knows your name. Lakeforest will truly be missed😢. The tree looks fabulous!

Bravo Sal! I worked at Lakeforest from 1985-87 at the Hecht Co. in Display/Visual Merchandising. Such memories and many stories. Walking the mall everyday, lunch in the center pit with my colleagues. The sights and smells of what it was like then. My colleagues and I created the atmosphere in those department stores in that era. It's a job/art form that people know very little about. It was a wonderful time to be part of those malls. So grateful that you returned and documented this wonderful mall from my past. Thank you.

"Nuclear cloaca's." A phrase, I suspect, that has never been heard in any extant dead mall vids -- or ANY vid ever MADE, for that matter. Congrats, Sal, on raising that particular lexicon bar way up into the stratosphere. You rock, man...

These geometric, 70's DeBartolo style malls were the ones I grew up with in the 80's and 90's. My favorites! Great video Sal.

@NicholasShade-eq1ts

6 ай бұрын

🌈

Thank you for doing this mall justice. This along with White Flint were my childhood malls and I remember walking through this mall with my parents as we did my back to school shopping. I returned to the area around 2017 when I worked for an auto parts store in the area and got close to the Sears Auto Center staff before they closed. Thank for the nostalgia trip! I've shared this with all my friends who grew up/lived in the area before this mall's demise.

Honestly, what I'm happiest about is seeing that Alfred got a second chance! May he thrive on in your living room!

Long time fan, love to see you still at it. I’m so fascinated with the eery nostalgia of the malls we see dying or the ones that have already passed. I think our morbid obsession comes from the fact we all know our fate will be similar to these once thriving places. Keep at it!

Thank you for doing this, Sal. This was my mall. I will never forget it.

@NicholasShade-eq1ts

6 ай бұрын

🌈

Sal, I just discovered this video tribute to the Lakeforest Mall, as it had been mentioned in other comments about my local Taubman mall, Lakeside of Sterling Heights, Michigan. Great job on this Requiem. As others have noted, it does appear that Lakeside and Lakeforest are near twins of each other. Same tile floor. Same sunken seating areas. Same dark brown fake-rock dividers, same plants, sculpture, escalators, center glass elevator. However, since Lakeside opened a couple years earlier, in 1976, I have to nit-pick your claim that Lakeforest had the first indoor ice rink at a mall, as Lakeside had theirs operating the year it opened. I skated on the rink with my family as a 10 year old that spring.... there was also a 4 screen movie theater at that time. At the time, I thought that Lakeside was the most amazing public building that I had ever seen; it was better than the airport in Detroit to me. Lakeside is closing for good; its last day open to the public is June 30, 2024. I encourage all fans of dead malls and Taubman malls in particular to visit Lakeside before it's too late.

Great video I am 58 years old and I lived through the great mall era and your videos bring back a lot of memories from in my 20s keep up the good work can't wait to see the next one

Omg...the actual backrooms! EDIT: Sal, please keep saving the trees like this in every last-day mall adventure. Same for sculpture/art rescues (just like that elephant you saved from that mall from a while back.) I can't help but feel sad over every piece of art & plant that is left to die in an abandoned property.

Born in 2000, I learned just today that lakeforest mall had been closed since march (also the gaithersburg chuck e cheese in june 2020). Total staple of my childhood, common visit near where my grandparents lived, I remember the frogland playplace that my family went to when I was super young, where they later put a conversation pit/fountain that you mentioned got tiled over, and I remember the weird elevator next to it and the seats under the escalator to the sears. I remember the foodcourt, the sbarro and cajun grill and grill kabob I never went to (picky mcdonald's kid), also the central newstand, there was also a dippin dots at the far end, and I got a few teriyaki chicken bowls with potatoes close to the chicken place you went to (left of the "cafes in the forest" sign), always sitting down and watching the TVs in the food court. If I'm not mistaken, the hot topic there was where I got some of my first metal t-shirts. I remember the place where you could still smell the cologne, think it was an abercrombie and fitch store, think I got jeans there once. So many memories of when my family went shopping, never thought I'd at all value the memory of waiting for mom at sears and macy's and JCpenny, will think about that whenever "mundane" stuff is boring me, hell I'm thinking about all the auntie annies I ate at FSK mall too. Even knowing that times change and these things happen, it's still kind of chilling to see all these memories and know that it's being demolished and that I will never walk those halls again. Thanks a ton for the closure and the nostalgia trip, great history lesson and pretty funny watching the place get ransacked

@jasonstone2870

Ай бұрын

I’m in the same boat as you (99’ born) I left Gaithersburg and moved to Chicago IL back in 2014 so my memory’s of lake forest mall are only up until I moved. I remembered going to EB games to get new video games or just go to the food court and only eat Mcds as a kid 😂😂

Such a sad video for me as I grew up hanging out and working in Lakeforest. I first worked at Sunshine House in 1985 through 1988 , then at Natural Wonders in 1992 then mall security in 1993 through 5/1994. I've been a teen hanging out with friends and worked retail, eaten at every food establishment during my time there, and been through every nook, crannie, back hall, loading dock, and the entire roof. Walking the empty mall during midnights doing key rounds was so peaceful. Skateboarding every loading dock was great as a teen. Smoking cigarettes and walking around simply as social time meeting friends on the weekends is a great memory. The "Bones Brigade" Powell Peralta skateboarding crew did a tour and visited the mall in 87 or 88 and man was that line long to get autographs from those guys which included Tony Hawk! Yeah I got to hang out with the best skaters in the world in Lakeforest Mall. Dealing with fight calls as security, usually from the theater main, was common. Avoiding geese non- stop in the security truck.... What a pain they were but their babies are cute. Waiting in line outside overnight to purchase concert tickets in the 80's was fun. We had the best viewing area for Gaithersburg fairground 4th of July fireworks..... The mall roof! 😂 The end of the video of the man speaking into the intercom..... That's the mall security office.... I've sat at that desk so many times when I was assigned dispatch. When you went into the back hallway in D main.... First hallway there was a door down on the right at the end, which is not in the video. The door must have been moved,. It was the back door from the surf shop. Follow that all the way around to the loading dock by Ruby's. That's fun on a skateboard and a fast way to take out trash! So many memories! I know I was all over the place but these memories just pop in my head so I wrote them as they did. I appreciate your extensive video... It makes me remember so many good times. The people, music, food smell, noise, center court shenanigans, the malls were the social media and in many ways I miss that.

The 90s holiday and etc footage!!!! Just wow!!!

I thought I was the only one who genuinely cared that the plants and trees left behind would suffer, wither, and die off. I found myself literally mourning the foliage in these dead mall videos, I was shocked that no one cared enough to rescue the trees and plants in these buildings, they deserve to live on and most are very easy to care for with minimal effort and bring life into your space. Save the plants and trees from these buildings when they're shuttered, but you may want to contact building management and security via email that way you have records proving you were granted the ability to rescue greenery and keep from getting in hot water. Thanks fir all you do, keep up the good work, my friend. Looking forward to more new content in the future. 😉👍Say hi to Myrna for me, I absolutely love her announcements. ❤

Grew up in this Mall! Sad to see it go. Thanks for the video!

Great, Great video Sal and Anthony (ACE)!!! 🤗❤️🤗❤️🤗❤️ Totally agree with you about we are not going to malls anymore and it just makes me sad to so many of them closing now. Definitely love studying up and just exploring learning about abandoned dead malls and researching suff about them. I love the plant too!!! 🤗🌱❤

Haven't watched yet but I'm so glad you captured this one. This was my childhood mall and I visited for the first time in years a few weeks before it closed. It's still absolutely surreal seeing the pictures I took of it, I think my childhood self still hasn't accepted that it's not the way it was in the late 90s when I first remember it.

My favorite mall I ever lived by and only lived in Gaithersburg for 4 years in the 90s. You never forget the mall from your teenage years. I wish I lived closer I would have been there for sure on the last day.

I wish malls still looked like this. Your a great man Sal, keep up the good work and God Bless you. I pray that you stay safe on all your trips! Greetings from the Mississippi Gulf Coast!

Just catching up on the Ex-logs and wow!!!! That opening shot man, that wide angle fly over with that sleepy morning feel was just amazing! I love the outside aesthetic to this mall with water and such. Here in Texas we get boring green hedges.

There are a variety of vlogs that cover the same theme of the dead mall. Increasingly abandoned shopping centers exist all over the US. I watched another vid about the mall (20 miles east of LA) where exterior shots of the 1980's classic "Back to the Future" was filmed. That one too apparently will see in the future (pun unintended) the wrecking ball. Same trends are striking other parts of the nation's real estate/economy, culture, politics. Call it the San-Francisco-izing (formerly Detroit-izing) of America.

Our store opened there in late 2019 part time and continued to operate there on weekends until the mall closed. (You could see us open in the distance in your 2022 footage.) We were the only store able to move to nearby Montgomery Mall and are operating there now full time. The space was perfect for retail startups, as they offered you absolutely cheap rent in the middle one of the wealthiest counties in the country. You just had to bring your own customer base through advertising and what not, which is what we did. So the money you save on rent, you just spend it on advertising, which means rent and advertising are functionally equivalent, something few people understand. And nobody ever worried about crime there because a) as usual the victims alway knew the perpetrators, and b) EVERY shopping center in the area (and country) had increased crime anyways, so it's not like there were any safer shopping centers.

I left Gaithersburg and moved to chicago IL back in 2014 so my memory’s of lake forest mall are only up until I moved. Hearing about how bad it got over the last few years before it closed came as a shock to me because I never witnessed anything crazy when I used to go there. I must have been very oblivious back then. I remembered going to EB games to get new video games or just go to the food court and JCPenney with my mom when she wanted to go shopping. This place was my childhood so it’s kinda sad for me to find out things turned like this after I left.

Excited, been checking for a new upload and here it is😊😊😊

Amazing, I love these long expedition logs. And all the interactions, great stuff!!!

I've been waiting to see the drone footage since the live stream you had a couple of weeks ago! Great as always!

I used to mock malls, I remember even saying “you can’t fight (the) city mall when we’d discuss dress code and Walkmans and what to do about them at the school I taught at. I certainly spent my fair share of time at them. My sons were young in the 90s and we went a lot. By the time my daughter was around in the late aughts, they were in decline. I’ve come to the conclusion that all this was sort of inevitable.

I’m just glad that kid found you guys

I was there just a few years ago to visit the food court. I think I got something at the Cajun Grill. I worked in Gaithersburg until the pandemic hit.

One of the best, and love that there was a bunch of you there...kinda brought a new flavour to the bittersweet “last day of school...ever” vibes. Thanks again chief, your work is fantastic

I worked in Fairfax, VA for a couple of years and visited the Fair Oaks Mall in Fairfax County, that mall was a mirror to this one and it is weird how this was is empty and Fair Oaks was near capacity when the last time I was there in 2021.

@DWNicolo

Жыл бұрын

I worked as a janitor at Fair Oaks for five 1/2 years. I’ve been back to Fair Oaks a few times since then. Hasn’t changed much.

I am a big fan of all your ExLogs, but this one was amazing!!!!!! Thanks for all you do!

@sal

Жыл бұрын

Thank you!!

Holy crap dude you've outdone yourself on this one. Bravo.

Sal, EX Log 117 is a noble testament to a now passed venue which demonstrated your passion for these lost places which otherwise would’ve passed without mention.Bravo on saving the ficus.

Incredible footage.

@sal

Жыл бұрын

Thank you so much!

Nice Save with the plant and what great video it is sad to see a place I loved the mall that is !

Good work Salazar!

Nice clip. And i love all the history and your knowledge with all u do👍. The best..

I walked The Lake Forrest Mall before it was said to have closed and I did not see decay or shoddy workmanship nor neglect. That shopping mall appeared then to be structurally sound. I want The Lake Forrest Mall to be saved and mothballed until the economy of America really begins to accelerate. When that happens, when, America is going to build new and better shopping malls. I would run that shopping mall right now if I could and I would not fail. There is more to the closing of The Lake Forrest Mall and other shopping malls within America than is being spoken of publicly. Thankyou for making this and other such videos. I do not think that children born into the future will look back at these videos and laugh at what has been done to America in our day. America is not going to be like this forever. This is not as good as it gets for America. My Regards Mr. Dominic James Austin.

White Flint Mall, Lakeforest Mall -- if you couldn't get to Montgomery or Wheaton Plaza, you'd come here. Glad you got some souvenirs.

Wooo special appearance from Ace! Very cool! 🫶🏻📹

Great job Sal. ✨💞🎥

@sal

Жыл бұрын

Thanks Ma ❤️

This is some of your best footage that you have ever shown. The sound in the background makes the place sound haunted.

Great work, Sal!

Sal. You are a True Word Smith!!!

Mr Taubman (Alfred) was a nice gentleman. Used to see him a lot in my old building, I worked for a RE company in the area and we worked with Taubman over the years. I won't go into too much detail. You sure know your stuff, Sal! 😊

What a great job 👍👍 thank you,, im always enjoy it😊😊

many shopping malls are drying thank you for another new uploaded video

Awesome 👍

I'm so proud to be the 1,000th Like on this video. Excellent work Sal!

Thank you thank you for making these videos. It really does feel on par or even better than Dan Bell’s series, which is nice because I was looking for more of that content

Great video. Thanks.

Thanks for covering the mall. I use to visit the mall when I was in town there for sporting events, loved the fountain they had before it was gutted out. I last visited there the fall of 2019 and really wished I could have seen it one last time before it closed.

Fantastic log!!! You really put amazing effort to your work and it shows. I am sure that Alfred Junior will grow to be a beautiful mall plant, I mean house plant...

23:40. Regarding the history of the mall's movie theatre, it opened in the summer of 1984 with three movies on its five screens - Star Trek 3, Ghostbusters and The Neverending Story.

13:40 People selling us on LED lights insisted they would be more reliable and durable than CFL's or incandescents, but that hasn't jibed with my experience. I finally got this video viewed during lunch, today. Nice job as usual, Salvatore!

I love your videos! Keep them going

I’m new to the area and passed this abandoned mall and immediately wondered if there was any dead mall videos on it and wasn’t disappointed!.It’s crazy this mall Couldn’t survive in a city with so many people, shops, housing, and restaurants,The Costco is the new mall now i guess.. The place is as busy as the old malls used to be.

Google saids it’s only “temporarily closed” lol. Great video as always 🤘🏼

Love how he becomes a full out food critic at lunch! 😂 I never heard of this mall before today, but after watching this video feel like I know everything about it, and I was actually sad when it closed! Amazing video skills Sal, keep it up!

We have a mall (also dead) just like Lakeforest in Sterling Heights, Michigan called Lakeside. It looks exactly like Lakeforest. There was a fountain in the middle of the mall that people threw coins in. The last time I was there, probably around 2010, it was full of coins. Lakeforest probabaly had the same thing. They were probabaly both Taubman malls.

Holy crap thank you for unlocking a core memory! I grew up in Iowa and Nebraska and I'm fairly certain we had a similar yo yo demonstration in our center court when I was about 5 or 6. 😮😢

I love that you showed the weird makeout pit around 53:18. This was my childhood mall and that pit was where high schoolers went to make out back in the 80s and 90s. I worked in that Express store between semesters of college in the late 90s.

Wonderful video :)

This completely underplays the chaos that occurred when it closed. There were people passing around cups of urine and drinking them, there were people doing rails of cocaine off of the floor, there was one instance of cannibalism, a self-immolation, and a flock of live chickens were released. There was also a sudden spike in pregnancies shortly after.

Makes me sad to see another mall die. At least you got that tree! I managed to get a chunk of facade from my local mall when it was torn down, so I can't blame people for trying to get a memento. Never trust those Canadian geese, they're mean!

My favorite part of this was the random chicken sandwich review in the middle of the dead mall video. Lol

Used to come here a lot back in the day. Gonna miss it.

Same floor plan as another Taubman mall in the Detroit area, Fairlane Town Center in Dearborn, MI. After Lord and Taylor closed, Ford Motor Company renovated the store into office space. Last year the mall was bought by Cohen. Because of the Ford office space, there is still some life left in this mall, still several booths open in the food court. We will see if Cohen destroys this mall like all others he touches, in spite of Ford's presence.

Awesome video

I lived in the area from 1984-1995. This takes me back! so many good memories. I used to work at the Cingular wireless store, hang out at the Jerrys, get my monthly chocolate from Godiva, have breakfast at the Silver diner ride the glass elevator over the whishing pond and listen to all the new CD's at Sam Goodies. Feed the crazy geese outside. oh and sing Karaoke at the Chi Chi's upstairs bar :)

That break area was my favorite part

So painful to watch! I grew up in G-burg, and visited the Mall shortly after it opened. It never replaced the Columbia Mall as our go-to date place, but it was very impressive none-the-less. We moved out of the area in 1979, and even though we returned to the area many times we never got around to visiting Lake Forest again. It came as a real shock when we heard it was closing down. A couple of months ago I dropped in on the Mall in Columbia just to see how it was doing. It was great to see that at least one mall is still alive and doing well!

Glad i found your channel this is primo liminal space content

Target cart lady is working smarter, not harder. Also those plantains looked delicious.

"no-clipped into another dimension", or perhaps passed through a portal into a Silent Hill-esque otherworld. I've had at least one dream like that set in a mall.

This mall is locked in my memory from over 23 years ago. The last time I visited it was in the late 1990 before my divorce and I moved back to the Baltimore area. When I spoke to a friend who lived that was a few years ago about the mall, she told me it is a place you don't want to go to in the dark due to shady things that have happened there. And when it closed, I told my friend who lives in Pittsburgh and she was shocked as that was the nice mall to go to when you lived in Frederick.

Alfred is awesome! Can i get a start? Im glad you do this. The malls are a dying breed. 😢 Another part of our childhood gone.

Oh my, I can't wait! I can already tell this is going to be an awesome episode! I love the thumbnail drone shot too!

The B&W shot with the purple reflection on the sunglasses? Beautiful cinematography!

My childhood mall.. bro zbouncer was awesome my parents used to take me there all the time back then

The opening jam always sets the mood. Now grab that glass of fierce Gatorade, sit down and enjoy the show!

I used to walk there all the time from my apartment nearby in the early 2000's. At 23:15 you can see the chess players along the right side that used to informally meet on Saturdays. Just show up and play with someone.

Just saw an article today-Concord Mall in Elkhart, IN last day of operation 10/31.

Man I remember that place. Even living in that area in the mid-'00s we called it the Ghetto Mall. Lotta stabbings. I always really liked that food court though. I'm honestly surprised it lasted as long as it did, but it's still sad to see it gone.

I remember going to this mall a few times. My Dad and late step-mom lived in Germantown. The last time I was there was probably the early 2000's. And remember the food court.

plant looks Good👍

Great video! My 13 year old actually put down his tablet for once to watch it with me!

Another great job Sal. Our local mall, around for 35 years, was just purchased by a company from California. They bought it with the blessing of the township council. The Mayor said the company will save it so it can be around for another 30 years. The company is known for mixed use properties and told a resident on their social media they bought it without a plan but wanted public input. Essentially the mall I grew up with will likely be turned into yet more housing. People in the area are ticked off. BTW, was that Paul Rudd in the one commercial?