In my 50 years on the planet I of course remember the mall in its golden age. It’s pretty hard to see it’s decline over the years to its current state. I especially remember all the Christmas’s growing up. Jordan Creek Mall drove the last & final nail in the coffin of Merle Hay Mall. Sears, Younkers Montgomery Wards JCPenny’s etc etc being gone is amazing to have seen. Also a side note Merle Hay and Valley West and South Ridge all had a hand in killing off all the stores that I mentioned in downtown Des Moines as well. Downtown is not even remotely the same as it was in the 1970’s but it was the beginning of the end then for retail on that scale even back then for Downtown shopping. Cool videos. 👍👍
I currently work at the Merle hay mall down in the bowling alley it’s a fun place to work but I won’t deny that there are creepy stories from coworkers as well as video of an abandoned lower part of the mall and a network of rooms and hallways we call “the basement” where dolls apparently follow you around and mannequins will move around on their own. The mall isn’t usually that empty btw it’s usually pretty busy but In 2020 obviously nobody will be there in massive numbers. Flooding is a usual thing around the mall as well. Also the security guards are either dogshit or super chill in the mall I think currently (October 2021) there’s three guards one is super chill, one Is a chick and the other is a tiny Asian dude
That lower levelvis where mcdonalds was in the mall. I think they sealed off that lower area 10 years ago. Where the children's play area is there were escalators that went down to mcdonalds, a couple other shops, and the bowling alley. Even in the 1990s though that area was super sketchy because it was dark and out of the way.
Wow Great video. This mall was my childhood , we drove around back of the Sears to the loading dock to pick up are first color tv when I was 5 in 1975. The Yonkers fire was so devastating because it had no windows or Fire escapes. No fire sprinklers it wasn’t a law yet. Not just the people who died where hurt many got burned and the chemical stink from all the smoke made many sick. Firemen got hurt fighting that fire. It caused many laws to be changed. It was years before the candles and flowers stopped getting put by the front of the Yonkers entrance. Sad...and yet, so many other great memories Christmas shopping, the pet store. It was safe to run off on are own and meet back at the big fountain in the middle at a certain time. Kinda weird to see it empty, It would make a cool apartment or skatepark? I can’t see why they don’t get turned into retirement villages or something. Where do the kids hangout if not at the mall? Cool videos ✌️see you in the comments...
We didn't get to Des Moines very often but when we did we always stopped here - I remember buying a copy of Final Fantasy 7 in that Gamestop, which was a Software Etc. back then. Whenever somebody made it to All-State for speech competition we'd always stop here afterwards with a bunch of high school dorks - it was rare to have that level of freedom in "civilization" for a bunch of kids from a small town in nowhere Iowa. Back when it was harder to find things and information was more restricted it was so much fun to walk around and discover things you had no idea were available. There was a lazer tag/arcade place just off that food court that I remember having a lot of fun at. The place had a lot more charm before it was remodeled, from what it looks like. Always loved the "double-decker" design of the place.
I love the palm trees in neon at the first.🩷 🌴 I love the colors right after it. 🤎🌈 I'm so glad I found this upload.😊 I was tailspinning for a little bit, just trying to find something to watch. ⌚ I was looking at pythons and anacondas for a little bit. ⛎ 🐍 Anyway, I have to file my unemployment in a little while. 🗃️ Thanks for the upload.🤎
@@NorthCdogg22 www.desmoinesregister.com/story/life/2014/02/20/merle-hay-malls-naked-angel-on-tricycle-sculpture-landed-on-thompson-avenue/5653807/ Apparently the mall manager was looking to get rid of it and someone who'd worked there took it off her hands! Pretty straightforward, really
The picture you showed at 7:00 was actually taken roughly what you showed at 12:00. The 1st and 2nd Younkers were located where Target is now. Younkers moved to where Montgomery Ward was, then that Younkers was torn down and replaced by Target. So what you showed actually would’ve been where the north parking lot was. That’s why they look so different, they’re not the same location.
This is a good video I was going to also correct about the second location of Yonkers. when I was young I actually worked for them and help do the big move from store to store overnight.
It's funny; you can't help but think of the 80's and 90's when it comes to malls. The dates on these keep surprising me. That somebody envisioned and built this in the 50's is mind boggling.
Back in the late 70s,this mall was hopping! I think this is so sad that the mall is dying. Mall closings has been happening a lot in America the last couple decades.
I worked at Younker’s before and after the fire in Young Men’s. The fire was horrible. I was supposed to be there that morning, but was late due to partying too much up in Ames the night before. It was horrible when I drove up and saw the store in fire...my department was right there across from Bishops Buffett and a few days before the fire, my manager had me stacking piles of Levi jeans in the back stairwell, not a stockroom. You can see from the picture that that’s where the fire burned hottest. Got my first ear piercing at Spencer Gifts in 1977! Bought all my records at The Record Shop. Totally terrorized shoppers with out punk rock looks! LOL!
Those sound like pretty incredible memories lol! And that’s buzzard that you were a part of the fire and saw it go down, absolutely crazy! Thanks for commenting
I remember walking out the south door of Sears into the open air. To the right was the north entrance to the movie theater - where I saw first run movies (The Love Bug (1968) the Million Dollar Duck (1971) and the Legend of Boggy Creek (1972)) - and a few steps due south of Sears was the north door to the mall. I remember when Montgomery Wards was built as well as the bridge court. When the statue was installed it was very controversial. I left Iowa in 1980 so thank you for this video. Go Ankeny Hawks!
I remember Christmas shopping, as a kid, in the open air version of Merle Hay mall. Absolutely packed, wall-to-wall people. Getting a table at Bishops Buffet took twenty minutes of waiting. I guess when anchor stores go bankrupt, malls die.
You're getting better using past photos, great idea using an actual picture of the fire and paying tribute to the 11 people who died. You're definitely my second favorite videographer. Maybe better than Dan Bell who started this whole thing in the first place.
Really love that you captured the mall in this state. Merle Hay is still currently struggling. This Sears building was demolished in the last year and some of the land was used for a new Kohls store. Merle Hay is supposed to be getting a Hockey arena in the old Younkers building. Last I read it was on hold and may not happen which has really hurt the food courts local business' with reduced foot traffic.
Crazy! I used to work at the Old Navy in the early/mid 2000s during high school.. place was bustling back then. Hot Topic, which is still there today, was a go-to for so much of my music back then. I recall Software Etc. that someone also mentioned in the comments! The pizza place you were looking at in the food court was Sbarro, I ordered from there a few times on my lunch break. I still go to the food court from time to time just to visit Vietnam Cafe, their pho is really good! I remember the lazer tag place off the side in one of the halls.. and also the bowling alley downstairs when I was younger, I think there was also a McDonalds there if I remember right.. everytime you had to use the restroom in the bowling alley you'd have to go into a small hole in the wall bar area that was next to the alley.. kinda creepy but made you feel adventurous. The smell of allowed indoor smoking back then is very nostalgic to me, wish I remembered the name of the place! The upstairs to the larger building areas always fascinated my curiosity.. from the parking lot you could see some large chandelier-like filler decorations through the windows, I always wanted to go exploring up there. Hope you can capture more, thanks for the upload & flood of memories! :)
Used to work at the Sears there. It's being torn down now and they are renovating the entire mall. It's gonna house about 7 or so rinks. I could tell you a lot about that mall and the behind the scenes like the underground that they just boarded up and closed off on both ends of the mall.
You should revisit Merle Hay Mall soon. They've recently moved the Kohl's, bulldozed the Sears building, and were going to turn the old Montomery Ward/Younkers building into a hockey stadium for the Des Moines Buccaneers but that might not happen now.
Legitimately solid memories of going in through Yonkers when we lived in WDM to then go shop the mall. Mom and me listened to “Can’t Get You Out of My Head by Kylie Minogue in the middle of it snowing in like 2003 and when we got inside it was immediately Christmas music 😔. It’s worse today to see it this bad
That old Sears is a gem. Someone needs to fix the building up and reopen it. A call center or crypto mining facility would be some good uses for that building.
I was a little kid when the younkers home store closed. My parents would take me there and I’d be super bored. The younkers home store was in a separate building in the parking lot. Kohls moved into that building after it closed and then kohls moved in to the space shown in the video around 2010. The original younkers home store had been torn down.
Another mall I spent a ton of time in during the 80s. A few comments: Honestly I don't think the Younkers fire hurt the rep of the mall much, as it flourished during the 80s. Those pics of the bridge area in 1986 you showed is EXACTLY how I remember that mall. I always thought it had a very strange, incoherent layout, especially when you got back to where the Younkers was. Back in the 80s that was a Monkey Wards store, and Younkers was where Target is today. Younkers moved to the Wards space after it closed (just a small correction from your video). Just seemed like a huge mall back then, although now I live near the MOA lol.
Thanks for the interesting history! Great music! I miss Bishops! And that Sears was amazing in the day! Surprising how dead this mall is :( Watch out for those mall cops!
The Target was not Montgomery Wards...it was the original 3 Story Younkers , younkers moved to the west end and the old store was torn down and Target was built
A mall called Merle Hay mall needs to be pronounced like a southerner would say “Merle Haggard” with a southern drawl. 🤣 I don’t think anyone has named their kid Merle since before the television was invented.
Some of the store locations you’re a bit off. The Target was the original site for the Yonkers location. Montgomery Wards was down by the anchor location that Yonkers eventually moved to. Right before you turn right towards the food court. By the silver statue.
Actually, the Montgomery Ward was where Younkers was. Younkers took that building after Famous Barr left in 2004. Famous Barr took the vacant Montgomery Ward. Otherwise your history is pretty good. I liked this mall best when it had Famous Barr and the bridge court.
@@elevdsm Thank you for letting me know. That is definitely sad. Schindler MT's, if it is the ones I am thinking of, is one of my favorites besides Otis series 1's(Which is basically my childhood elevator along with the Dover Impulse.
As you're doing these videos, you may want to modify your language and inflections in consideration of the locals. I understand you have no attachment to this Mall, but I live here, and I don't like how dismissive you are about it. Please be kind.
Yeah this is one of my oldest videos.. I wasn’t really trying back when I made this. I will definitely have to redo this mall, because I feel I do these places justice in my more recent vids!
A quick correction! The black and white photo of the bridge court that I said was taken in 1959 was actually taken in 1982.
In my 50 years on the planet I of course remember the mall in its golden age. It’s pretty hard to see it’s decline over the years to its current state. I especially remember all the Christmas’s growing up. Jordan Creek Mall drove the last & final nail in the coffin of Merle Hay Mall. Sears, Younkers Montgomery Wards JCPenny’s etc etc being gone is amazing to have seen.
Also a side note Merle Hay and Valley West and South Ridge all had a hand in killing off all the stores that I mentioned in downtown Des Moines as well. Downtown is not even remotely the same as it was in the 1970’s but it was the beginning of the end then for retail on that scale even back then for Downtown shopping.
Cool videos. 👍👍
I have many memories of going to that mall with my Grandma in the early 2000s.
That’s awesome to have good memories of this mall!
I currently work at the Merle hay mall down in the bowling alley it’s a fun place to work but I won’t deny that there are creepy stories from coworkers as well as video of an abandoned lower part of the mall and a network of rooms and hallways we call “the basement” where dolls apparently follow you around and mannequins will move around on their own. The mall isn’t usually that empty btw it’s usually pretty busy but In 2020 obviously nobody will be there in massive numbers. Flooding is a usual thing around the mall as well. Also the security guards are either dogshit or super chill in the mall I think currently (October 2021) there’s three guards one is super chill, one Is a chick and the other is a tiny Asian dude
That lower levelvis where mcdonalds was in the mall. I think they sealed off that lower area 10 years ago. Where the children's play area is there were escalators that went down to mcdonalds, a couple other shops, and the bowling alley. Even in the 1990s though that area was super sketchy because it was dark and out of the way.
Interesting, there's a video of the basement on RUclips now, that's why I got recommended this one.
Wow Great video. This mall was my childhood , we drove around back of the Sears to the loading dock to pick up are first color tv when I was 5 in 1975. The Yonkers fire was so devastating because it had no windows or Fire escapes. No fire sprinklers it wasn’t a law yet. Not just the people who died where hurt many got burned and the chemical stink from all the smoke made many sick. Firemen got hurt fighting that fire. It caused many laws to be changed. It was years before the candles and flowers stopped getting put by the front of the Yonkers entrance. Sad...and yet, so many other great memories Christmas shopping, the pet store. It was safe to run off on are own and meet back at the big fountain in the middle at a certain time. Kinda weird to see it empty, It would make a cool apartment or skatepark? I can’t see why they don’t get turned into retirement villages or something. Where do the kids hangout if not at the mall? Cool videos ✌️see you in the comments...
Those memories sound amazing! Thank you for commenting!
We didn't get to Des Moines very often but when we did we always stopped here - I remember buying a copy of Final Fantasy 7 in that Gamestop, which was a Software Etc. back then. Whenever somebody made it to All-State for speech competition we'd always stop here afterwards with a bunch of high school dorks - it was rare to have that level of freedom in "civilization" for a bunch of kids from a small town in nowhere Iowa. Back when it was harder to find things and information was more restricted it was so much fun to walk around and discover things you had no idea were available. There was a lazer tag/arcade place just off that food court that I remember having a lot of fun at. The place had a lot more charm before it was remodeled, from what it looks like. Always loved the "double-decker" design of the place.
I love the palm trees in neon at the first.🩷 🌴 I love the colors right after it. 🤎🌈 I'm so glad I found this upload.😊 I was tailspinning for a little bit, just trying to find something to watch. ⌚ I was looking at pythons and anacondas for a little bit. ⛎ 🐍 Anyway, I have to file my unemployment in a little while. 🗃️ Thanks for the upload.🤎
It’s popular again
If I recall correctly, that statue of the naked winged guy on a tricycle ended up in someone's back yard.
Lmao! I’m curious as to how the happened
@@NorthCdogg22 www.desmoinesregister.com/story/life/2014/02/20/merle-hay-malls-naked-angel-on-tricycle-sculpture-landed-on-thompson-avenue/5653807/
Apparently the mall manager was looking to get rid of it and someone who'd worked there took it off her hands! Pretty straightforward, really
Glop Demon thank you for sharing this!😊
The picture you showed at 7:00 was actually taken roughly what you showed at 12:00. The 1st and 2nd Younkers were located where Target is now. Younkers moved to where Montgomery Ward was, then that Younkers was torn down and replaced by Target. So what you showed actually would’ve been where the north parking lot was. That’s why they look so different, they’re not the same location.
Very interesting! I had no clue Younkers was originally at that location. Thank you for the correction!
I was gonna say, something wasn’t adding up there. As a kid there was for sure something there. But I do not remember MW.
This is a good video I was going to also correct about the second location of Yonkers. when I was young I actually worked for them and help do the big move from store to store overnight.
Younkers was where target is. Montgomery ward was where younkers relocated, the old younkers was demolished.
Went school clothes shopping there...tons of great stores.
It's funny; you can't help but think of the 80's and 90's when it comes to malls. The dates on these keep surprising me. That somebody envisioned and built this in the 50's is mind boggling.
Merle hay reminds alot of Northpark Mall here in davenport, iowa, with the layout. As well as the fact thats its not a busy mall but not a dead one
Back in the late 70s,this mall was hopping! I think this is so sad that the mall is dying. Mall closings has been happening a lot in America the last couple decades.
I worked at Younker’s before and after the fire in Young Men’s. The fire was horrible. I was supposed to be there that morning, but was late due to partying too much up in Ames the night before. It was horrible when I drove up and saw the store in fire...my department was right there across from Bishops Buffett and a few days before the fire, my manager had me stacking piles of Levi jeans in the back stairwell, not a stockroom. You can see from the picture that that’s where the fire burned hottest.
Got my first ear piercing at Spencer Gifts in 1977! Bought all my records at The Record Shop. Totally terrorized shoppers with out punk rock looks! LOL!
Those sound like pretty incredible memories lol! And that’s buzzard that you were a part of the fire and saw it go down, absolutely crazy! Thanks for commenting
I remember walking out the south door of Sears into the open air. To the right was the north entrance to the movie theater - where I saw first run movies (The Love Bug (1968) the Million Dollar Duck (1971) and the Legend of Boggy Creek (1972)) - and a few steps due south of Sears was the north door to the mall.
I remember when Montgomery Wards was built as well as the bridge court. When the statue was installed it was very controversial.
I left Iowa in 1980 so thank you for this video. Go Ankeny Hawks!
I remember Christmas shopping, as a kid, in the open air version of Merle Hay mall. Absolutely packed, wall-to-wall people. Getting a table at Bishops Buffet took twenty minutes of waiting. I guess when anchor stores go bankrupt, malls die.
You're getting better using past photos, great idea using an actual picture of the fire and paying tribute to the 11 people who died. You're definitely my second favorite videographer. Maybe better than Dan Bell who started this whole thing in the first place.
Thank you so much! Each video I try to do new things and improve on my videography skills
Really love that you captured the mall in this state. Merle Hay is still currently struggling. This Sears building was demolished in the last year and some of the land was used for a new Kohls store. Merle Hay is supposed to be getting a Hockey arena in the old Younkers building. Last I read it was on hold and may not happen which has really hurt the food courts local business' with reduced foot traffic.
If only the south ridge mall was still the same 😔
Crazy! I used to work at the Old Navy in the early/mid 2000s during high school.. place was bustling back then. Hot Topic, which is still there today, was a go-to for so much of my music back then. I recall Software Etc. that someone also mentioned in the comments! The pizza place you were looking at in the food court was Sbarro, I ordered from there a few times on my lunch break. I still go to the food court from time to time just to visit Vietnam Cafe, their pho is really good! I remember the lazer tag place off the side in one of the halls.. and also the bowling alley downstairs when I was younger, I think there was also a McDonalds there if I remember right.. everytime you had to use the restroom in the bowling alley you'd have to go into a small hole in the wall bar area that was next to the alley.. kinda creepy but made you feel adventurous. The smell of allowed indoor smoking back then is very nostalgic to me, wish I remembered the name of the place! The upstairs to the larger building areas always fascinated my curiosity.. from the parking lot you could see some large chandelier-like filler decorations through the windows, I always wanted to go exploring up there. Hope you can capture more, thanks for the upload & flood of memories! :)
Used to work at the Sears there. It's being torn down now and they are renovating the entire mall. It's gonna house about 7 or so rinks. I could tell you a lot about that mall and the behind the scenes like the underground that they just boarded up and closed off on both ends of the mall.
You should revisit Merle Hay Mall soon. They've recently moved the Kohl's, bulldozed the Sears building, and were going to turn the old Montomery Ward/Younkers building into a hockey stadium for the Des Moines Buccaneers but that might not happen now.
Legitimately solid memories of going in through Yonkers when we lived in WDM to then go shop the mall.
Mom and me listened to “Can’t Get You Out of My Head by Kylie Minogue in the middle of it snowing in like 2003 and when we got inside it was immediately Christmas music 😔.
It’s worse today to see it this bad
I remember by the Yonkers they always put up a Christmas tree but ever since Yonkers closed they stopped putting it up
That old Sears is a gem. Someone needs to fix the building up and reopen it. A call center or crypto mining facility would be some good uses for that building.
I wish they would’ve but they just recently tore it down..
I was a little kid when the younkers home store closed. My parents would take me there and I’d be super bored. The younkers home store was in a separate building in the parking lot. Kohls moved into that building after it closed and then kohls moved in to the space shown in the video around 2010. The original younkers home store had been torn down.
I worked at this mall at Wag's Restaurant in the late 70s... I was in the mall during the Younkers fire. So sorry to see this....
Went to this mall as kids in the late 1960s. It was one of the biggest attractions in Des Moines.
Another comment. Merle Hay is buried at the cemetery you can see at 14:32, hence the road and mall being named after him.
Really? I never knew that, thanks for the info!
Another mall I spent a ton of time in during the 80s. A few comments: Honestly I don't think the Younkers fire hurt the rep of the mall much, as it flourished during the 80s. Those pics of the bridge area in 1986 you showed is EXACTLY how I remember that mall. I always thought it had a very strange, incoherent layout, especially when you got back to where the Younkers was. Back in the 80s that was a Monkey Wards store, and Younkers was where Target is today. Younkers moved to the Wards space after it closed (just a small correction from your video).
Just seemed like a huge mall back then, although now I live near the MOA lol.
There was once a huge 2-level Bally's Alladin's Castle back by the food court/Wards (now Younkers) area. Spent a lot of quarters in there.
Great video!
I was sorry to hear about the tragic 1978 fire. Such a loss for those people.
Thanks for the interesting history! Great music! I miss Bishops! And that Sears was amazing in the day! Surprising how dead this mall is :( Watch out for those mall cops!
Thank you for your support! And yes, the mall cops were everywhere!
The Target was not Montgomery Wards...it was the original 3 Story Younkers , younkers moved to the west end and the old store was torn down and Target was built
A mall called Merle Hay mall needs to be pronounced like a southerner would say “Merle Haggard” with a southern drawl. 🤣
I don’t think anyone has named their kid Merle since before the television was invented.
Some of the store locations you’re a bit off. The Target was the original site for the Yonkers location. Montgomery Wards was down by the anchor location that Yonkers eventually moved to. Right before you turn right towards the food court. By the silver statue.
“Any little thing like that will absolutely devastate a mall.....” so 11 killed store employees and $20M in damage is little?
When I said little I meant anything that can happen to a mall. Anything that devastates reputation for a mall, not necessarily the fire.
Actually, the Montgomery Ward was where Younkers was. Younkers took that building after Famous Barr left in 2004. Famous Barr took the vacant Montgomery Ward. Otherwise your history is pretty good.
I liked this mall best when it had Famous Barr and the bridge court.
Great video
Thank you!
Was that an elevator beside the stair case to the left at that Sears Store?
Yes, it's a Schindler MT, i live by here and come here a lot. Sadly, its been torn out
@@elevdsm Thank you for letting me know. That is definitely sad. Schindler MT's, if it is the ones I am thinking of, is one of my favorites besides Otis series 1's(Which is basically my childhood elevator along with the Dover Impulse.
Fun Fact: I got stuck in the elevator by Flix :)
I hate elevators because of stuff like that lol
i remember going there damn time flys
Back in the day, this place was jumping.
It’s dead because we’re in the middle of a pandemic and everyone is in quarantine
More plants than stores
Lol😂
When demographic changes, things eventually turn to sh*t
It’s doing good again don’t worry
Terrible mall. Management is really bad. This Sears store closed before bankruptcy because the mall is so bad.
Hawkeyes Win Yeah because there weren’t hundreds of other Sears stores that closed before the bankruptcy. Highly disagree. One of my favorites.
As you're doing these videos, you may want to modify your language and inflections in consideration of the locals. I understand you have no attachment to this Mall, but I live here, and I don't like how dismissive you are about it. Please be kind.
Yeah this is one of my oldest videos.. I wasn’t really trying back when I made this. I will definitely have to redo this mall, because I feel I do these places justice in my more recent vids!
As a maga Trump supporter,,, thank you for saying riots and not just protests and recognizing how much nothing was safe.
Great video
Thank you very much!