I visited Marley today to try and re-create some scenes - I'm not very good at it but tried my best to frame them the same. I have added credit to the "before" shots whenever possible. This was a lot of fun - I want to see if I can do this again.
Enjoy!
This before-and-after treatment is really valuable and well appreciated.
Losing American Eagle seems to be a universal sign that your mall is done for.
Nah, it's when Bath & Body Works or LensCrafters call it quits LOL (coughs in Vista Ridge and Willow Bend)
I can’t bear to look at the empty Christmas displays.
I mean, it was taken on a Monday and Santa isn't there.
Santa was there actually - I tried to keep him out of my photos since I hadn’t asked him permission to photograph him and wanted to be courteous (also so I don’t end up on the naughty list!). The whole time I was there he was hanging out talking with the photographer. It was right at opening time (11am on a Monday) so wasn’t too surprising.
I can’t imagine they don’t get people visiting Santa - it’s a very well done setup, and Santa is so authentic. I feel like there would have to be enough revenue there to warrant having him there on a Monday weeks before Christmas.
Santa is in the first shot, zoom in on the sign that says santa and he's talking to the photo guy
I missed him!
Yeah it's like Where's Waldo haha
I used to go there as a kid and always remember it being busy. Anyone know what happened to it?
I used to go there 88-92. Is is still open?
Yes it’s still open - two anchors (Macys and JCP), a Golds Gym, theatre, and a handful of interior tenants (mostly mom and pop but a couple nationals remain, like Bath and Body, Pandora, and Sbarro)
I took my pictures of it a month ago.
Malls made Main Street stores shut down, now Amazon is making malls shut down.
I had good time way local malls too, but I’m not mourning them.
It's not just Amazon. Big box and strip malls would have been a detriment enough. Not to mention there were simply too many malls in some areas they essentially cannibalized themselves.
I like to say that malls were simply a fad whose era has now passed.
Wonderful pics, OP. Heartbreaking.
Thank you Sal. That means lot coming from you. I had made this visit today because of the recent visit you and Dan made.
We had such a great time! I'm editing the video as we speak :)
I can’t wait!! I’d also love to do a visit with you guys some time. I live right down Ritchie in SP. My daughter loves going to visit and take pictures of the neon :)
I hope you took her to the train exhibition too! That is a gem.
Oh absolutely! The Train Garden has been an annual tradition 🚂
Very sad. This was THE place to be in the 90s around here....
This is amazing thank you. I miss this mall, and still enjoy going to it once a month to just walk around and reminisce.
Happy to join you sometime. I go here about once a month with my daughter, who shares my fascination with Marley. Send me a DM some time and we can reminisce!
I see that Taubman was still putting those sculptures in malls in the late 1980s. (Lakeforest Mall had some of those odd geometric sculptures too.)
oof, that third pair really hits. Nice post!
Thank you! I’m actually proudest of that one. Not the most visually arresting - but the most lined up!
It's when a real advertisement is replaced by a PSA that says that the mall has lost its value, if no one is willing to pay to advertise there anymore.
God I'd love to do this for Willow Bend (another Taubman mall), but pictures of Willow Bend back in the 2000s/early 2010s (when it was still doing fine enough) are just so scarce to come by.
Some Taubman malls are just cursed istg
Taubman malls are some of the most photogenic - and sometimes iconic - malls from that era. I’m sure you could find a few photos.
In fact, I’m going to try and help. The Wayback Machine was really helpful (searching for Taubman’s site, taubman[dot]com). Facebook was helpful as well, as was YouTube.
Try some of those - and I’ll try them as well tomorrow - and maybe we can make this happen 🤜🏼🤛🏼
Maybe, maybe. I do remember finding a lot of old pictures on Foursquare and another site, including pictures of a closing Bakers/Yankee Candle and even one of when Macy's was still Foley's.
I do appreciate the help!
Ok found a couple.
From the Wayback Machine:
https://web.archive.org/web/20120204193933/http://www.taubman.com/images/willowbend/propertyphoto.jpg
https://web.archive.org/web/20010208141212/http://taubman.com/shopcen/frmsets/800/html/800frm.htm
https://web.archive.org/web/20131231035754/http://www.shopwillowbend.com/asset_cache/13091979371276106403willow_04.jpg
And on Reddit:
https://www.reddit.com/r/plano/s/86aPuQsvWs
(There might be some overlap there)
Awesome! Thanks so much!
Taubman malls in particular seem to have terrible luck. In the last 30 years, you have Marley Station, Columbus City Center, Tuttle Crossing, MacArthur Center, Willow Bend, Northlake, Partridge Creek, Wellington Green, and Stony Point. Yikes.
Plus Lakeforest and Lakeside
Those are a bit older than the era i'm referencing.
Surreal seeing Dan Bell videos now being used as reference points and historical footage. But I suppose that's why they were made in the first place.
The reference photos are from a video that's near its 10th birthday!
It happens to all of us. The current documentation one day becomes historical reference material tomorrow. Much like the way that people have commented about my photos of Staunton Mall that I took right before the mall closed.
I love seeing these before and afters so much, thank you for sharing :")
What is the reason why they put christmas deco everywhere, when the mall is already dead? Looks good, but who will see it?And why is it still open, usually it just creates costs which you cannot cover?!?
See my reply above - it doesn’t answer your question directly but does touch on my assumptions about this:
https://www.reddit.com/r/deadmalls/s/LnxDmfbfxn
Crazy how different it looks once you take all the people and stores out.
I'd love to see more of these. This is excellent.
I love these comparison photos. Fascinating and eery at the same time.
Poor mall.
Why did they ever build such a mall as this in Glen Burnie? It’s a very lower-middle class community surrounded by other similar communities. Or did it used to be a place with more wealth?
My guess is the location along 100 and 10 (and on 2) making it an easy trip from the surrounding area. It was a regional mall, serving a pretty wide area with various income levels.
Wooooow