King of Prussia 1993
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- Опубликовано: 6 июл 2016
- Video taping walk thru of King of Prussia Mall, Montgomery County Pennsylvania. At last seconds of video you hear mall security guard say "excuse me" or something for me to stop taping. I nearly argued there is NOT ONE warning or sign stating I couldnt video tape. Gaurd got on radio with mall security and said I could walk thru mall but not tape and mall said they dont need a sign tell me not to video tape.
Do you have ANY idea how insanely important this video is???? You sir are a legend without knowing it!! I grew up in Gulph Mills (born in 70) ...this is like traveling back in time....THANK YOU!!
Y'know the crazy part too? For how huge and famous this mall is, I GUARANTEE YOU there's other footage like this out there somewhere. I mean, maybe not. But I could easily see a tourist with a VHS camera filming something like this. I'd LOVE to see footage of the Court building and of the food court. He passes by it here, with the old green pillars, but he doesn't walk through. Absolutely astounding to see though. Especially considering you can barely even find any picture of it online.
Thanks for this. To me this is gold as it's like a window into my childhood. Every Saturday night my parents would take us to dinner at the nearby Denny's, then we'd go over to the mall for some shopping. I'd hang out at the SpacePort mostly but would also hit Sam Goody, Wee Three and Wall to Wall before meeting up with my parents at that pet store. My friend's family owned the Jade Garden.
I'm so glad you took the time to preserve images of the mall in this form and to present it here. Thanks again!
Thanks for posting. While the KOP Mall has undergone extensive renovations over the years, the layout of the mall at the beginning of the video is virtually identical to today. The only thing that's changed are the storefronts and lack of payphones (lol). But the escalators and that weird ramp next to Sam Goody's (now a Pholicious) are still in the same spot. That Sterling Optical store is now a Visionworks. And I totally forgot about the TGI Friday's. That was there for YEARS. (It's now a Bonefish Grill).
This takes me back to my youth . I was 16 at the time. Thank you 🙏
Wow! What a time warp. I remember my dad would park outside the Arby’s and we go in through there because they had an outer door. Also going through the little door at Buster Brown Shoes. Oh, and Kiddie City too.
Hah, i was revisiting this vid, and was also thinking how we would use the Arby's entrance; it just seemed easiest!
I was manager of Spaceport when this was shot. So many great games.
Later, it was called Time Out.
This is so cool. Thanks for preserving history. I had fun calling out the shops just before you’d pan by the front of them. This was during a really major renovation period at the plaza to make the mall more cohesive. Foot traffic was being routed around the zones being worked on. The drywall corridors with the repeating red and blue canon border really stick out in my mind. Thanks so much for sharing it!
Now this is my hometown!!! Thank you for the nostalgia, I really miss the good old days.
Both absolutely amazing and incredibly depressing! Thanks for uploading this! :)
This is absolute gold. Born in 71' and went to King of Prussia and Exton mall my whole childhood. Thank you!
Thank you! I remember some of this but it's hard to picture how the mall was laid out before all the huge expansions. This brought back memories for sure!
I got my first pair of glasses at LensCrafters there when I was 10. And just down that escalator next to it I bought Final Fantasy 2 for the Super Nintendo at the small kiosk video game store they have there. And just next to that is the Friendly's I always used to go to with my mother and have sundays. Thanks so much for uploading this and letting me see it.
Edit: I'm 38 and left Philly in 1991 for Florida. Knowing how gargantuan that mall has become, it was nice to see this vid showing what happened to it when I was gone and before it blew up.
So nostalgic for the K.O.P. of about 1985 - 2005. Dad and I both worked in the area at some points, and this was the mall for Christmas shopping. Wondering if anyone remembers the “Arcade” (not video game arcade) area with sort of brick arches and flags (?), where Herder’s Cutlery sold Swiss Army Knives. Early 1980’s...
Yes, still have my Herders cooking knives!
I remember the Continental Arcade - all the way back to 1974-75 era. It was like a mall within the mall. I believe the single landing stairs (right before where the old ramp up to Wanamaker) are near where the arcade was located.
I just remember the arcade that was close to the food court. I believe it is a sports store right now next to hang and daz. I was always so dark inside of course like a movie atmosphere. I don't think I was really big on the arcades but definitely played a few times.
@@GT-bz9nc Awesome! That's right- Continental Arcade. They had all of those flags hanging up!
@@joshstabler3438 absolutely! Was a really cool part of he mall to walk around in. Great memory Josh.
I worked at the St.Davids Sears store from 1978 - 1984 when the store moved to KoP. I worked at the KoP Sears from 1984 -1988. Thanks SO much for posting this video. Brings back so many memories for me from the later 80s.
I lived in Plymouth Meeting, KOP, Norristown, then KOP again and then Bridgeport all throughout my childhood. Primarily KOP raised and if I had the choice I'd be back in KOP or at least Bridgeport in a heartbeat. This brings back memories (I would have been in sixth grade). Ah, Jade Garden...
OH MY GOD!!!
Thank you for this!
I was a senior at Upper Merion at that time! That was the regular hangout! I worked at Attivo & Merry-Go-Round & Suncaost back then as well! Holy shit, the memories!
I miss this time warp. I miss some of the great department stores like Sears, John Wanamaker, Gimbels/Sterns, and JCPenney (rumors saying they'll be back). A lot of great stores are now gone.--------------------
This must have been when they were renovating to add Nordstrom, L&T and Neiman Marcus.
Could not love this any more than I already do!!!! Thanks for the memories!!!!
It's interesting to see what the King of Prussia Mall (in this case the Plaza at King of Prussia) looked like back in 1993. Back then, the King of Prussia Mall was actually two separate malls: The Plaza at King of Prussia (the original mall) and The Court at King of Prussia (which was opened sometime in the mid-1980s). The two malls were separated by a walkway between Macy's (at the Court) and the Mall Entrance at the Plaza. Sometime in 2016, Simon Properties connected the two malls and filled the connector with high-end stores. The Plaza has been remodeled to match the look of the connector. I haven't been inside the Court recently, so I am not sure what that looks like today. Now renamed "King of Prussia", this mall is the third-largest mall in the U.S. behind the Mall of America (Minnesota) and American Dream Mall in Rutherford, NJ. King of Prussia was #2 on the list but dropped to #3 after the recent closures of J.C. Penney and Lord & Taylor. KOP now has 4 anchors instead of the maximum 6 anchors. It is really interesting to see the Plaza as it looked in 1993. I remember my parents taking me to the Plaza back in the late 1970s. I remember going up an escalator to the Korvette's store, which had a number of flags on the wall. Sadly, those flags are no longer there.
That's interesting. There's a picture floating around on the web of the Plaza area as it existed before they put a roof over everything and apparently the mall had a very mid-century modern/colonial revival style to it, including canons outside, and a bunch of flags. I believe there were supposed to be 13 for the original 13 colonies. I wonder if those were the flags in E.J. Korvette's?
Thank you for this trip back in time!
wow I remember this when the renovations where happening, I grew up in this mall and loved it until the expansion in 2016, It is just too much now, I used to go weekly but now I go a handful of times a year now. I miss places like Rock Bottom Brewery and Champps up by the movies now every thing super fancy.
rock bottom was mad underrated
Yeah, I agree- the height of the mall’s layout was probably the few years before the last major expansion. There’s definitely an over-scaled, “too much” vibe to it now.
Grew up in philly and KOP mall looks nothing like that now I'm surprised to see so few people nowadays that mall is considered one of the last up and running mega malls and has huge crowds til this day it's the biggest mall on the east coast
Mike Lowry biggest in the US by leasable floor area. Mall of America is biggest but only 5th in leasable area.
Depends on when you go. The mall stays pretty busy.
I am so happy that you recorded this my friend
Thanks so much for the trip down memory lane. I was a senior in college at the time. KOP used to be my old stomping grounds. Now my daughter's in college near KOP...wow time flies.
Same, but I was a senior in high school when this was filmed.
7:40 Space Port - You can see Mortal Kombat 1 in the center of screen. Even at 11am people were crowded around that machine.
Fun fact: the Electronics Boutique shown at 7:29 (which I believe is still there in that same spot today as a GameStop) was the FIRST Electronics Boutique EVER.
Its still there. Since Gamestop bought them out, its technically all the same. I worked there in 98.
was it undergoing renovations at the time?
I remember Korvette's, Woolworth (with the Snack Shack outside of it), the Acme (!) where Lord and Taylor is now, the movie theater, a place called Fluff n' Stuff, Gene's books, Kiddie City.....so many. Nothing like it is today.
lin2theZ remember the escalator to get down there? And it had that Confederate snake that you would always see chopped up on the wall?
My mom used to work at the Modern Dental!
When a mall was a mall back then.
This is probably about 6 months or so after I became a mall rat there... I remember walking around this mall, with the ugly brown tiles and fountains everywhere... I kinda miss that mall... the food court remained the same long after the rest of the mall was remodeled, so the food court became kind of a nostalgic spot for us mall rats that predated the renovation... it was the last remaining part of "our" mall...
Heh, if you hung out at this mall between the time this video was shot, and about 2003, we've probably met and hung out quite a few times... I knew everyone who hung out there, and even those I didn't know knew me... Hell, even the Bloodhound Gang somehow knew me, because when their album "One Fierce Beet Coaster" first came out, they were running around the mall handing out beer coasters, and called out to me by name, ran up to me, and insisted on giving me a coaster. lol.
+100 points if anyone can guess who I am, lol.
Hint: I'm not "Acid Adam".
Damnit, I really wish you were Acid Adam, lol.
Wait, what the hell? My name isn't El Durango, im Dr.Slippyfist. whose damn RUclips am I logged onto??
Oh, the food court, where the mirrored ceiling was retained in place for years after this.
You goto UM?
@@AZ-rg3rf Yup. Until they shipped me off to an alternative school an hour away halfway through ninth grade…
I worked at Klassy Kites right outside Jc Penny. I was there for 5-6 years and was also a permanent fixture as a mall rat.
Well if this isn't a literal trip down memory lane! I'm trying to remember what it looked like in the 80s and 90s, there were these sections with arch windows. It changed a lot and I haven't been there in years
Also lived in Gulph Mills (the towers) 92-93 after college, and this is a flashback for sure. Many a beer at TGIF’s after shopping.
Awesome video. I was ten when this was filmed. I only vaguely remember KOP before its super upscale yuppie renovation. Went there about a year ago and just got depressed, it was like I was some peon unworthy to be there.
I hope people watching this realize what a big effing deal it was to shoot a video like this. It wasn't a little cell phone, but a big ass recorder that would've made this person look like a news reporter and stand out like a sore thumb.
When life was simpler back then
It’s cool to see what my hometown used to look like
Dude!!! That was King of Prussia Mall back in the early 1990s? WOW!!! That place looks totally different now than it did back then! Anyway... Is the last part of the video record in the court or the plaza?
Nathan Andrew Davis Well, I think it was recorded in the south of the Plaza. (Where Thrift Drugs and ACME Markets used to be)
This was the plaza
I always used to get confused between the two court and plaza. I always thought that the food court was in the court but I think it was actually in the plaza. Just figured that the court would be in the court 😂 obviously the food court was my favorite place in the mall lol
0:44 Wow had no idea tgi fridays was a thing even back then! This was before I was born (born 1994) and when my family lived in Philadelphia, so it's nice to see what the mall looked like back then. Wish there was footage of Oaks PA from the early 90s too.
Space Port!!
Ha, that was the highlight of the video. I originally couldn't tell if that was Mortal Kombat 1 or 2 being the game in the from but according to Wiki Mortal Kombat 2 came out 2 months after this video was shot.
THE SPACE PORT!!!
i think that Haagan Daas might be the only thing thats still there in the same location
Macy’s would have been in the same spot then, and now. The walkway outside was the place to park, to be able to hit the Court and Plaza easily.
EB/Gamestop outside the foodcourt.
wow the mall was empty back then
It wasn't, just this is when they started turning into the madness of is today
Bro the video was at 11am
it's private property so they can stop you from videotaping if they want.
Does anyone remember a medieval style “steak” restaurant in Kop or maybe Plymouth meeting mall? I think it would have been there in the mid 80’s to early 90’s? It’s the only place as a kid I ever went out to dinner as a kid, was for my 12 th birthday with my parents.
How about that food court that was below level?!?!
And Space Port!
Amazing!
Only store never changed is Häagen-Dazs lol
The mall had sort of two halves...where you see it boarded up in front of JC Penney used to have 2 escalators in a big room that I remember having a giant british flag (or flags?) that went downstairs to a tunnel. You see them going through the tunnel when they look into Kiddie City. On the other side of the mall was where Woolworths used to be.
Stupid me went with there with my sister once becuase she wanted to meet Richard Simmons. Stupid (then young) me walks up to the line eating a candy bar...my first near death experience I think!
They added a LOT as part of that rennovation (and sadly really took away a lot of its charm).
There were a bunch of colonial-era flags (like the "don't tread on me" snake). I've spent the last couple hours searching the web for a photo or video of that wall of flags.
Yes! The tunnel! I keep trying to describe to people that weird indoor/outdoor tunnel that passed Kiddie City and a few other places.
I’ve been LOOKING for that picture, too!! I believe that area of the mall was called the “Arcade” (nothing to do with video games), and there was a store called Herder’s Cutlery, where they sold what seemed like every Victorinox Swiss Army knife made.
I live near there so crazy but ye to see it
Good ole days
SEARS OMG
maybe they didn't want you taping cause this was the day after the world trade center bombing. other than that I couldn't see why they wouldn't want you to film, besides maybe making people feel uncomfortable.
I really can never understand how people feel uncomfortable about being filmed or having their picture taken. It's like they hate the way they look. So why not just not go in public then? I get that all the time from higher up people in places like this asking me or telling me not to film. It's annoying.
Mall in Pennsylvania where 8 out of 10 people are shoplifting
how you know that?
@@AZ-rg3rfHe doesn't, cause its not true.
@@AZ-rg3rf he was one of them
@@vlcheish damn 😳
Forgot about the Jade Garden!!!