Dead Mall, Crossroads of Oklahoma City
HTML-код
- Опубликовано: 13 окт 2017
- Crossroads Mall in Oklahoma City opened on Feb 17th, 1974 and is set to close permanently on Oct 31st 2017.
It was one of the largest and most modern indoor malls in the U.S. at the time of its opening, and was one of the most popular shopping destinations in central Oklahoma from 1974 until the mid 1990s
The area it occupied became overdeveloped and fell on hard times by the early 2000s.
Crime and gang activity increased in the area surrounding the mall and violence in the mall itself caused stores and customers to leave in droves. The 4 anchors all vacated between 2001 and 2008.
After 2008 Crossroads changed hands and was renamed Plaza Mayor. The Plaza continued in a skeletal capacity with only a handful of small local shops until it was announced in October 2017 that the mall would be closing permanently.
RIP Crossroads!
PS: This is just a test upload. I will be adding some narration and text to the video and re-upoading it soon.
Comments and info are always welcome and appreciated, but please keep it polite and civil. Thank you!
Thank you guys so much for checking it out! ;) 
Авто/Мото
We just went to the final day of Crossroads. The halls were dark, and it was almost surreal. We shot a casual walk through with our cell phones and will be uploading that in a few days.
Thank you guys so much for watching!
Tim Moses great job tim ! Im 53 , first day here was 1974, last 2000, met my first wife here , first job here (quick test) got prom tux here, won the music master contest 89 , heard the theme from Arthur first time shopping at tops and trowsers, too many more memories to mention. THANK YOU
I get teary thinking about all the memories at Le Mans, the hobby shop, garfields, and my grandmother taking me for Chick-fil-A when it was the only one in OKC.
they had a GREAT hobby shop.
I lived in Stillwater, and back in the 80's, Crossroads and Quail Springs malls were THE places to do our Christmas shopping. It was great since both malls also had a Toys R Us hard by. It looks like Quail Springs has fared much better, though.
Helori Pascal
This is true. Although even Quail Springs doesn’t quite have the traffic it used to. Several stores have closed in recent years and the old John A Brown/Macy’s anchor was just demolished at that mall.
Regardless, QS is definitely in a much better area that has continued to grow, so as you said it has fared much better. ;)
Quail Springs was always the "rich mall." All us middle-class kids went to Crossroads or Shephard.
Another part of my childhood gone for good...
Sniffs and wipes his nose saying: My box of Kleenex here is still half full. Help yourself, buddy...
'But, we did have fun. :D
Born in 73, grew up near 59th and Penn. Crossroads Mall and the skating rink were the hangout spots for me and my friends for the entire 1980s. Blowing through a bag of quarters in Le Mans, sipping an Orange Julius at the food courts, chatting up girls from other schools, no way for parents to check on you constantly.
Good times. Simpler times.
Used to spend all of my spare time here as an Airman stationed at Tinker. So weird because I remember how busy Crossroads was in the mid-eighties.
Amazing job Tim!
The old footage from 1974 really set the tone and feel for a mid western mall. 43 years was a damn good run. That drone footage was perfect. You Sir, have a new subscriber. 👍😁
BaldMaxx
Thank you very much! It's greatly appreciated! :)
Too Long, Didn't read version: Tim, great job! The nostalgia I have for this place, and it's nice to see I am not alone. Lived in Shawnee, and this was THE PLACE to be any chance we could, and the 35 mile drive seemed like FOREVER at 55 mph with Dad hotboxing the car with the smoke of salem menthol's. First memories: that arcade, and my dear grandpa taking me on those bumper cars. I can still smell the steel, electricity, and ozone from that track! Magical! Later: pestering my poor parents for all those toys from Kay Bee, and later, the knife store for some Ninja weapons or some military models from that hobby store. I can remember getting dressed up just a little in the days after a great thanksgiving, and heading to the mall, where it seems likes the Army-Navy football game was playing on every television and the energy from the holiday crowd was contagious! My uncle owned Sam's Crossroads Optical, and I admit, my brother and I really thought we were something getting to hang out there with our Orange Juliuses. Later I would buy my first vinyl from the likes of the Adam and the Ants, Split Enz, then Black Flag and others, and moving on to RUSH. Every stage of life from 4 years old to 14 when I moved away seemed to center around this place. I seem to remember starting to chase girls here, and coincidentally, I have recently discovered that the girl I plan to marry spent the same years here during her summers. Pretty sure that's when I started chasing her!
Depressing but great video. Love the old footage.
Robert Smith
I agree, it's a little depressing.
Thank you guys for your great comments! I’ve had a few setbacks with a spike in work (at my day job) and hospital time with a back injury, but I’m getting back on track. Thanks again, and hope you all are having a great holiday season!
I remember when Penn Square opened in the early 60s. It wasn't enclosed until years later. It was The Place for those of us in high school to hang out on the weekends. I have shopped at Crossroads, Quail Creek and Shepherd's Mall. I haven't lived in OKC for many years. Good memories!
Thanks for sharing this. I went to Crossroads mall many times as a teenager in the 70's and the 80's. I loved the LeMans Speedway at 4:33 with its bumper car track and huge arcade full of pinball machines and video games. It's just really sad what has happened to South OKC and retail in general.
wildbilltexas
You’re quite welcome!
Agreed, it was such a fresh growth area at the time. You’d never know it now.
Sad story of the neighborhoods getting too old, original owners moving out and it becoming a low rent area. Also when Quail Springs Mall was built in northeast OKC in the 80's, that mall took a lot of business away from Crossroads.
Great video! You have a few old pics that I've never seen and I love the drone footage that you have.
RhettyforFun
Thank you!
A bittersweet project, but was fun to put together. ;)
I went here when I was a kid. I clearly remember going to the theater to see Star Wars and Return of the Jedi. Wow, the video caught a picture of Lemans, which was a small chain of arcades that were all over Oklahoma. The video game giant Bally's eventually bought out the brand.
This makes me sad. My home state haven't been back since 2010, but when I left I knew the mall was kind of empty in 2004. Thanks for sharing.
Wow, we used to drive up from Lawton to shop here. It was always so busy. I hate to see it this way, so many great memories. Thanks for the video.
It was a gang shooting in front of Garfields Restaurant that was the beginning of the end. Happened on a saturday afternoon and within a few weeks, stores began to shudder. In short, mall security and police, did NOT do their job.
They removed the carpet and the fountains so sad but typical....
N E
I know what you mean.
The remodels on this place really ripped the cool style out of it, making it look more like a warehouse.
This is quite sad, I can remember the excitement when that mall opened up.
In 2017 my dad and I stayed at one of the hotels right next to this mall, while making our way from Florida to New Mexico. I’m a daily runner, and I can remember getting up early and running around the perimeter road of this mall a handful of times for my route. I have zero history with the area, and this was my first time passing through Oklahoma City. But I was oddly fascinated by this huge mall, that already looked abandoned at the time, but also looked like it really used to be something cool.
This place was packed in the 90s. I remember it as a kid. Moved back in 2008 and it was a shell of it's former self and was on life support. Stopped going there in 2015.
The piano selection in the middle was beautiful ♥️
Man thanks so much for posting this this really takes me back! I just didn't want to see what the future held for this place such fond memories. Really thank you for creating this video and posting this is all I have left to remember (her) by😪
Cool video, even without narration. Awesome camera work!
Well, with all the research I have done about the demise of the old Crossroads Mall, there is one conclusion that I have thus far. It is not actually dead but asleep in a coma. The proof being that there still is a charter school in the section of the building where the old Montgomery Ward's was. Also other parts of the building were sold to other investors before it became Plaza Mayor, and those small sections seem to still be in use today. We will just have to see if anyone is going to bring the old mall out of this coma or if they would rather pull the plug on the life support of the old building, with the charter school and other small warehousing companies suddenly leaving.
4:20 from my days of visiting the mall since it's been dead I can't believe they never took the time to take care of the entrance ceilings where the lights are hanging before it started dying as a mall. Chipping paint and old ugly light fixtures could be enough to turn people away
so sad, this was the place to hang out and go when I was younger, we would go each weekend and it would be PACKED its completely shut down now, also a man was shot and killed her inside by the old arcade last time I went it was almost completely shut down everywhere was dark, even the famous dollar movie across the street is shut down this whole area is going down hill and it breaks my heart. the mall went downhill quick because their was a lot of gang activity, then it sold and it became LA plaza I believe (unsure) but it o my had a few shops open. very beautiful inside, so heart breaking to see it go away for good
Sydney Norton
I remember it that way too. It’s a shame and a bit of a shock to live to see fresh new development areas go wrong years later. That seems to be the #1 factor for dead malls. #2 being changing shopping habits.
I have seen the shooting footage from about 15 years ago (?) and it is pretty crazy!
This was a mall where we were allowed to run around free as kids. ;)
Crossroads Mall is forever immortalized in my mind as the place where, in June 2001, my desperate year-long search to obtain a copy of Mario Party 1 for my Nintendo 64 finally came to an end. From 2000-2001, I had checked dozens of video game retailers, and none of them had Mario Party 1.... I was SO relieved when I walked into Babbage's to find 1 copy available for purchase. What a day that was......
Crossroads 8 is where I saw The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King for my 4th time............. before getting the Special Extended DVD Edition Collector's DVD Gift Set.
Love how you transition to the present with the aerials and shifting tone in music. Another childhood mall of mine, Fiesta Mall here in Mesa, AZ, is closing next year. Sears is closing in January. The mall was sold and will undergo a transformation into a health and for-profit education campus. There should also be mixed use on the property as well.
Very nostalgic, perfectly edited!💙👍
Want another time stamp? Ash trays conveniently located.
The kind of place you could film "Logan's Run" in.
Some late teen friends and I put bubble bath in the fountain, but, it didn't disperse effectively.
Thanks for the upload. I speant so much of my youth at this mall.
Love the background music and pictures! Really great video (and description) overall.
Kaotic Drew
Thank you!!
Sad. Not completely dead but close. There are a few cars parked there. It is nice to see what they used to look like in their heyday
How sad. I was a teen in the seventies. I remember all the excitement and hoopla surrounding the opening of Crossroads. We would drive for an hour to get there and spend the day shopping with our cousins and friends. It was The place to go. Thank you for shooting the video even if it did give me an eerie vibe.
I went there as a kid more than 40 years ago..it was always PACKED!
I remember going to the movie theater. It always had a long line to the ticket windows back in the early 80s.
I live in okc as kid when I first came to this mall I was really Young had never been to a mall so big when I look now how times have changed and malls are dieing off so much it breaks my heart but as it was said out with the old in with the new
This video hit me right in the feels. I remember going there all the time when I was younger (I'm currently 20) and it was always full of life. The arcade, merry go round, and the food was always a good time. Last time I've seen it busy was during Christmas last year and I worked at a hat store for the holidays.
I remember going there in the 80s when I was in my teens. This was the place to go. Now it's just depressing. I remember a couple of people I know that worked there.
Excellent job , thank you.
I remember when I first came to Oklahoma as a kid got so excited when I went there.... Now it all feels deserted..kinda sad about it, hopefully the new owners will turn it into something good!.
Stumbled into this mall once not knowing what it was. It was my first dead mall experience and it was surreal. Cool to see what it looked like
thank you gang members for ruining this mall
100% due to gang activity. All other malls in Oklahoma are doing great.
Awesome video!!
Great vid bud... Hope you're doing well...
Hi Jay, thank you so much! Be safe out there! 😉
Will never forget great times here as a kid
Remember that place opening , spent Many hours there. Ohch my heart
Great video 😎 Thanks Amazon for closing malls where people could walk and talk to people shop too. Now we must have everything delivered to my house so it can get stolen off my porch cause I’m at Work 😢🙄 And now no one talks to anyone in person God Help Us
SurferJoe71 you can have delivered to a locker or work. Amazon didn’t totally kill the mall. Poorly run brick & mortar anchors who haven’t changed since the 80’s did. This is just circle of life. Malls killed mom & pop shops and eventually; something else will take the place of internet shopping.
Ted Czinski ( sp) the Unibomber wrote about this in his letters, he took it one step too far but he had the general idea right, technology is a two headed sword
It was not Amazon It was all the Blacks and Mexican gangs fighting ,shoplifting ect It became unsafe to shop here Thats what happen lets stop all the PC bullshit
@AstronomyToday That's a great idea, but there is a limit to the size of the package the post office or mail store will accept (limited capacity). You want to order something large like a 65" flat screen TV or a small piece furniture? Good luck with that...
@@randywatts7085 Exactly, no more PC and let's start policing our streets and neighborhoods better by running the rif raf out of town, once and for all!
GrEat Job on this video, so sad to see yet another mall dying
Its a Rome thing everyday
Thank you! It seems to be an epidemic these past few years.
When they lost the anchor stores I knew it was over.
Yeah, that and when the GM plant closed, that was pretty much the straw that broke the camel's back...:(
My childhood place I loved cross roads Mal I will miss it😢😢
I took my family back to this mall in 2002 after being away for years. Several smart aleck kids hassled us as we came in and went out and we never went back.
That’s what shut its Doors way to many Loafers hanging around not buying nothing just Staying cool or warm and Stealing everything that wasn’t Tied down the Mall off Reno ain’t bad not a bunch of Punks hanging around
so many good memories especially from the very early to mid 80s. i always looked forward to going to the hobby shop in there in my tweens.
i dont know who Danny Williams is but i thought it was Buck Owens at first.
Great video man, honestly it works so well even without the narration. Gotta commend the camera work and ambience, and the use of old pictures and footage.
I hope Dan Bell or somebody can get into there after a while to document the aftermath. I don't think it will be demolished anytime soon. If they haven't knocked-down Heritage Park yet they sure-as-Hell won't touch Crossroads.
Chemical_E
Thank you so much sir!
Yes, parts of the building are still being used, at least for now. I hope they find a way to redevelop it.
Heritage Park was in such a sad state that I was surprised to read that work was being done to refurbish it to its original state in hopes of reopening it as a “retro” mall. Don’t know how that’s going to go, but I commend them on the spirit and effort!
It would be cool if Dan would hit these malls in one of his travels. ;)
😭😭😭😭😭I miss that place
Where did you find the dannys day video?
When we were Young we would go to the skating rink in Midwest City, or Crossroads Mall and have a total ball!!!🤗
Thanks for the ❤️
After the shooting it kinda fell off i happened to be there that day
Used to go there as a young star and buy cds at eargasm music store. Rip mall. Can’t even remember last time I went to a mall. Everything online.
Does anyone know why the tarps/canvases were put in the ceiling around the skylight? I always thought that was how it was built till I recently saw old pics of when the building was still new
I’m not sure why, perhaps leaks or too much sun, but I remember that it was all open! ;)
That was the mall to go to back in the day wish they fix it up and reopen it.
😭😭😭😭I'm going to miss that place I work carousel I been 4 years in 2014
I was born in 1993. My sister and I spent a ton of time at this mall. I'm only 28 but I feel like a vaguely remember Montgomery ward
I remember going there all the time back in the early 80s when I was a kid.
Sad to see the place died..
Good video good times
bet, might go there. since its literally like 3 miles away
this mall reminds me the one from one of the first Zombie movies. Well let the magic happen...one has to call Paramount.
When they first opened the mall, they had such grand plans for it.
I remember, it was originally planned to be four times as big as it ever got.
What happened? Lack of interest? Lack of money?
I’ll never know.
Can still smell the ozone pouring out of Le Mans - never got tired of that.
I advise everyone to take pics of the malls in their city. In about 20 years you can share your images of the mall because it will be closed.
Part of the space could be leased for a Homeless shelter or Day shelter instead of sitting empty.
I remember when I was a kid going to crossroads and buying my first dog at the pet shop
My 1st job was at crossroads mall at Montgomery Ward's department store
I will miss this mall rip
Wow Awesome
Wow that's sad.
The pictures and the piano really got to me.
I don't know this mall.
I saw the caption and I thought it was Cross Roads Mall here in Roanoke Va.
Our mall was demolished in January of this year and it was sad seeing it being torn down.
If anyone is interested just Google Cross Roads Mall Roanoke Va or RUclips it.
Thank you.
Nick Hill I think I've seen a video or two on that one.
We are expecting this one to eventually be a tear down as well. It's just a dead area.
@@VolkswagenNut1969
We had lots of fun times at there. It was more than a mall , it was a place to hangout meet friends , family and neighbors.
Just like the old Blockbuster Video was.
Going there was always an event and exciting.
I worked there in the late 90s and early 2000s. I watched it die.
PEOPLE IN OKLAHMA CITY THE BEST, CLASSY ! I just worry they will not like these new AMAZON GO STORES VERY EXPENSIVE BUT NO LINE UPS GOING OUT JUST GOING IN WITH THE ORANGE BAG GO FIGURE...LOL
My dad was there the day it opened
What's the name of the music? I really enjoy the soundtrack. 0:44 - 2:16
The Rejekstan
That was actually taken from a long upload of original commercial background Muzak from the 1970s. I believe it’s from the Seeburg music library. ;)
Often those would ape popular songs of the period but this one doesn’t sound familiar to me.
Tim Moses I meant after the Dannysday advert. Not the beginning
The Rejekstan
Yes, that’s the section I’m talking about. :)
Here’s a link to someone who uploaded this library to RUclips ruclips.net/video/gdJWZxPW45c/видео.html
Don't feel bad, they are testing all the once nice malls down and replacing them with outdoor town (Mayberry) type
whats the beautiful song called 0:46
Aaron Tr
Hi Aaron, to be honest, I’m not sure. It was taken from an old archive of 1970s era shopping muzak. ;)
These were usually generic re-recordings based on popular songs, but unfortunately I don’t recognize that one.
Hung out there in the 80’s. Bought our wedding rings there. Sad
I am going to miss this mall I wasn't born in the 80s or 90s but I would always love the Chinese food there.
Love the song
Alex Truong
Dig your avatar! Showbiz, another childhood place that’s long gone.
Tim this is me Alex im a kid and i can't explore but i love watching old places
Aaron Tr
That’s cool, I’m sure you’ll be out exploring in the near future. It’s a great way to learn recent history. ;)
Went there in early 1999 place was busy orange Julius anyone 😢😢
Danny Williams once stayed at what is now the Biltmore on Meridian back in 1992 when I was working there while in college. Real asshole! Security asked me to call him and ask him to turn his TV down, and he told me to “fuck off”
The egos that broadcasters have are rather funny considering they don’t make much money. I’m now a CFO for a company making a six figure salary.
Actually, the mall is still in relatively good shape.
It was always a mystery to me why this mall was so popular. It was in a bad and marginally populated area of town and one where the people wanting to go to it had to travel to it. It also had few out parcels and supporting big box stores.
It definitely had a remodel at some point. I like the original much better. I always preferred the design of malls that were made in the 70s and early 80s over what came later. 90s and early 2000s designs were too much like a white purgatory. Way too much of a sterile look to me.
Excellent video. I used to go there as a youngster.
Love the brutalist architecture 70's malls had. It looks like a playhouse with those new colors though
So many memories in that place
Sad. I used to love going there when I was a kid.
gone and now another toothpick
OMG the 70s were sad 👀
They were awesome. What's sad is now.
I remember when it was shiny and new and exciting.
Ah demographics. bye bye Miss American Pie and most of us know why.
ms. american pie doesn't have to be white