Loved the footage of the Copper Country Mall. She's in great shape. Just one note, Houghton is pronounced Ho - ton like how Santa Claus says Ho, not Who - ton. Can't believe you came to the Copper Country and never even listened to any local radio station to figure out how the name of the town is pronounced. The local radio stations are the best for Copper Country Cruising.
I feel like a lot of these tiny small town malls have a good shot at being repurposed, especially if they were kept up decently. The behomoth malls like Forest Fair or Century III really are often just too big to fill up with alternative use tenants.
I was in Houghton in the late 80's and went to that mall about once a month, and seemed to be pretty hopping back then. Very eerie now, thanks for sharing this video.
Even a small Kohl's or a smaller version of a Target would be good there. For a small mall like this a general retailer where you can get a lot of things in one location is what I think people will want and need here. That centre court with the exposed roof looks awesome. Maybe some small renovations to the ceilings elsewhere - get rid of the ceiling tiles, and make the centre court a food court-type area to draw people into the mall, and it'll come back to life. Also, ya can't have a mall without a name - no signage above the front door makes it look shut.
I traveled a lot for my old job. I visited a dead mall somewhere in west Alabama in the middle of nowhere. It was in good shape and clean inside. It maybe only had 2 or 3 businesses running. The bathrooms were pristine. No music. It was absolutely silent. It was like if people just disappeared. It was strange also because it was the only structure in the area except for a gas station I discovered just in time a few miles down the road. If only iPhones existed then. I wish I knew the story of it and I wish I could remember where exactly it was.
Developers Diversified Realty built a ton of malls just like this in rural parts of Minnesota. They were copying Ainbinder, a Texas company that built similar small-town malls in Texas and the Dakotas. All of them had Kmart, a really small JCPenney, and a local junior anchor.
Didn't think I'd ever see this mall given the proper dead mall treatment! I went a couple times when I was going to Michigan Tech back around 2006-2008. I was usually the only person in there, looks exactly the same. The theater was open when I was there, but wasn't showing any current movies. It's definitely unique. The town name is pronounced "ho tun"
UPDATE on the mall… a local elderly resident just posted a walkthrough video that randomly popped on my feed. The mall looks to be in the same status overall, but has lost Sears Hometown and gained Harbor Freight. A nail salon, a laser tag place and an Amazon bin sale type store have also moved in. It looks like the cinema is also still open and showing first run movies. This place is awesome! I would love to see it in person.
I have really fond memories of the Copper Country Mall from when I was a tween and teenager attending the summer youth program at Michigan Tech, it's kind of weird to hear it described as a small town, because I started going to the programs when my family still lived in Hale, so Houghton seemed like a city to me. Kids from places like Okemos would talk sh*t about Copper Country Mall but for me and other kids from small towns in the 80's it was a real treat to go to ANY enclosed mall. I remember getting this weird green pop that you could only get in the UP, and there was a jewelry store that I bought my favorite ever earrings at that was perennially having a two for one sale, they were fake quartz crystals, and much to my dismay, real ones are far too heavy to make practical earrings from. I wasn't able to identify the jewelry store, but I did spot the storefront where I bought an amazing 80's sweater for $8 because it was summer. It was black with silver sparkles and pink, teal, and yellow geometric shapes on it.
For some reason seeing this gave me nostalgia of old late 90's skateboarding videos. Its mostly like because of the industrial lights and the preferred use of Yellow metal cieling (Gotta love it) It would be awesome to see this mall get stores like gamestop, chick fil a, etc, would be a great place for kids to hang out like in the 90's
I, remember the Copper Country Mall in the 1990's. The, last time that I was in the Copper Country Mall in 1995. I, remember when J.C.PENNEY and Kmart as anchors at the Mall. I, also remember the 2 screen theater 🎥 at the Copper Country Mall. I, remember the Marquette Mall in Marquette,Michigan. Is, the Marquette Mall still in Marquette?
I went into that walmart around 11 PM one night and there was a decent sized bat flittering about. The nice thing about a small town mall in the non dead mall phase is you' d almost always run into someone you knew , either as a customer or a worker in a retailer.
Interesting mall. Well-maintained but empty, producing a sort of timeless quality. I do enjoy the abundance of sitting areas, particularly that area at the 4:00 minute mark. I think the ultimate issue is just the hollowing out of the population in many rural, small-town areas of America. If there's a population, stores will come but if there's no population, they'll stay away. And with a Walmart always nearby handling the household essentials, it'll probably have to be some kind of niche store leasing these spaces and those never really bring in bustling crowds. Nor do they usually require the vast space left behind by large anchor stores. At 4:55 I see there's a "Mall Office" sign. I always kind of wonder who's in charge of places like this and what their job entails and how they feel about it. Like imagine going to work everyday to this place. Nothing but time and silence on your hands maybe the occasional inquiry or upkeep issue. On a side note, I found the VR Arcade and functioning cinema interesting. I checked out the cinema's website and it's showing the latest Marvel movie. The juxtaposition of current technology and movies with the older space around them drives home the notion that the place isn't totally dead yet. Thanks for this videos, always enjoy them.
This one has a shot. I like how the Kmart building and mall entrance still look like they did when Kmart was open. There needs to be a little bit more inside to draw people in.
Aren’t the Sears Hometown stores franchises? Doesn’t that mean even if coroporte sears went under there is a chance some of the franchises could survive on without them even keeping the name?
I believe the Sears Hometown stores do operate as franchises in essence, yes. And as I remember, the Sears Outlet stores now operate(since a few year back) under some new name, that I forget.
There was a lot of experiments with malls back in the 70s and 80s, obviously and it sounds like this one served it purpose for the area. Just really came to comment on the anchor stores like K-Mart. K-Mart is not or should not be an anchor to really even strip malls. They stand alone and need easy parking
The one that use to be near us in a mall had a loading dock so if you ordered a big item they could get it to your car easily. Kmart wasn’t long for this world unfortunately though.
Good video. I really liked the planter/seating areas in this mall. I remember sitting in those type of areas in between shopping when I was young. It was relaxing.
I used to think Houghton and Hancock never really changed that much... but seeing this makes me realize how much it has. I remember when Dunhams was a video store 😮 Still love this mall - hope it never closes. Appreciate u doing this... even tho u called it H-o-ton 😊
I wonder if the Sears Home is still open. Otherwise a nearby Super Walmart isn't help this mall much. A local mall has now developed a rather large part of the mall to senior housing. Don't know if this is the answer to saving the mall, but time will tell. I expect this are isn't growing in population, like the deep south is. Thanks for the great video Doomie, you did a great video coverage of a mall as you usually do.
If you're around when classes are in session you may have a chance to experience living proof of the second law of thermodynamics, the cream of the keweenaw, and the pride of pasty land.
I can tell by the light bleeding out of the edges of the fluorescents on the ceiling that you didn't wipe the lens of this camera off and it has some kind of fingerprint or something on it. :D
I love malls that are Frozen in Time I wish my malls stated the way it did in the '80s by the way I'm sorry about Meadowbrook Mall I found a picture of it when it used to have its fountain in the ceiling was freaking awesome and sadly it's just exposed boring ceiling on but I know fair share of a little bit of it by my mom even though she hardly never went to the mall and he went to Middletown Mall in Fairmont before now it's an outlet mall. The anchor that used to be where Target is used to be a Montgomery wards' I made a story about a fiction Mall cranberry Mall would you like to hear it.
cranberry Mall broke ground in 1978 and opened in 1980 open its doors music played across the Halls '80s neon lights lining the ceiling with mirrors shining down on you with the sound of a fountain statue of modern statues for the '80s with the water of the fountain with red tiles stores lining the walls big anchors like JCPenney Sears Macy's even in a movie theater had a good old classic stores at KB Toys radio shack I'm all even had a food court the smaller is a great mall it didn't even hurt family businesses and the small town at the mall is built not far from still kept living the beautiful town that the smallest built at while you walk down the mall hallways repeat you look up in the ceiling you see yourself reflection of yourself on the ceiling squares that was a ceiling it's ceiling goes up and then back down with cutouts for lights that you can't see well the neon lights of blue and pink line entirely the whole mall where you go down and sit right next to the fountain in the food court listening to the water right here people talking while the grand opening of the mall commits of 1980 but everything comes to an end eventually the mall closed the late 2010s the closing its doors permanently in 2022 in time and very good condition in a good way while all anchors are starting to close like Sears JCPenney's there's even talks of people wanting to reopen them all but time's gone by and the mall still sits there never to be reopened the most slowly decays while still frozen in time in the '80s in a very good way slowly decaying with mold grass broken glass in vandalized but very minimal vandalism because the town everybody knew their shutter everybody was nice everybody was accepting but everybody was sad that the mall has closed why would you be sad about a mall closing malls are closing around the world and no one cares because that town love them all that's where everybody goes even though the small town still had a lot of its stores and never closed because the owners of the mall never want to hurt the small town it's not a very small town this is a small City but while the future kept coming the mall will never see its future again. Some people still say the music still plays in the ghostly abandoned Halls of the mall
The main reason brick and mortar retail is dying, specially malls is simple..people are lazy. If they don't have to leave their house to buy something, they don't. You can order just about anything online now.
UPDATE: Just call me the grim reaper, cause everytime I find a Sears store, it closes shortly after.
Loved the footage of the Copper Country Mall. She's in great shape. Just one note, Houghton is pronounced Ho - ton like how Santa Claus says Ho, not Who - ton. Can't believe you came to the Copper Country and never even listened to any local radio station to figure out how the name of the town is pronounced. The local radio stations are the best for Copper Country Cruising.
I feel like a lot of these tiny small town malls have a good shot at being repurposed, especially if they were kept up decently. The behomoth malls like Forest Fair or Century III really are often just too big to fill up with alternative use tenants.
I love the look of this mall! So nice to see a mall with the brown aesthetic that is still well maintained. Very comforting.
I was in Houghton in the late 80's and went to that mall about once a month, and seemed to be pretty hopping back then. Very eerie now, thanks for sharing this video.
Even a small Kohl's or a smaller version of a Target would be good there. For a small mall like this a general retailer where you can get a lot of things in one location is what I think people will want and need here. That centre court with the exposed roof looks awesome. Maybe some small renovations to the ceilings elsewhere - get rid of the ceiling tiles, and make the centre court a food court-type area to draw people into the mall, and it'll come back to life. Also, ya can't have a mall without a name - no signage above the front door makes it look shut.
You should check out reidsville mall in reidsville North Carolina. It’s still open but basically abandoned. Is almost straight out of the 1960s.
I traveled a lot for my old job. I visited a dead mall somewhere in west Alabama in the middle of nowhere. It was in good shape and clean inside. It maybe only had 2 or 3 businesses running. The bathrooms were pristine. No music. It was absolutely silent. It was like if people just disappeared. It was strange also because it was the only structure in the area except for a gas station I discovered just in time a few miles down the road. If only iPhones existed then. I wish I knew the story of it and I wish I could remember where exactly it was.
Developers Diversified Realty built a ton of malls just like this in rural parts of Minnesota. They were copying Ainbinder, a Texas company that built similar small-town malls in Texas and the Dakotas. All of them had Kmart, a really small JCPenney, and a local junior anchor.
What a time capsule. I love it
Didn't think I'd ever see this mall given the proper dead mall treatment! I went a couple times when I was going to Michigan Tech back around 2006-2008. I was usually the only person in there, looks exactly the same. The theater was open when I was there, but wasn't showing any current movies. It's definitely unique. The town name is pronounced "ho tun"
I used to work in a clothing store in the Mall in the late 90s. I will let you know that you said Houghton *really* wrong. It's "hoe-ton".
UPDATE on the mall… a local elderly resident just posted a walkthrough video that randomly popped on my feed. The mall looks to be in the same status overall, but has lost Sears Hometown and gained Harbor Freight. A nail salon, a laser tag place and an Amazon bin sale type store have also moved in. It looks like the cinema is also still open and showing first run movies.
This place is awesome! I would love to see it in person.
Your videos keep getting better. You tell the story, play some music and it’s fun. Great work!
I like it! Any mall that is clean and preferably no carpet is ok with me! I hope it resurrects then they could throw in a couple of skylights! 🤞
I have really fond memories of the Copper Country Mall from when I was a tween and teenager attending the summer youth program at Michigan Tech, it's kind of weird to hear it described as a small town, because I started going to the programs when my family still lived in Hale, so Houghton seemed like a city to me. Kids from places like Okemos would talk sh*t about Copper Country Mall but for me and other kids from small towns in the 80's it was a real treat to go to ANY enclosed mall. I remember getting this weird green pop that you could only get in the UP, and there was a jewelry store that I bought my favorite ever earrings at that was perennially having a two for one sale, they were fake quartz crystals, and much to my dismay, real ones are far too heavy to make practical earrings from. I wasn't able to identify the jewelry store, but I did spot the storefront where I bought an amazing 80's sweater for $8 because it was summer. It was black with silver sparkles and pink, teal, and yellow geometric shapes on it.
For some reason seeing this gave me nostalgia of old late 90's skateboarding videos. Its mostly like because of the industrial lights and the preferred use of Yellow metal cieling (Gotta love it) It would be awesome to see this mall get stores like gamestop, chick fil a, etc, would be a great place for kids to hang out like in the 90's
I, remember the Copper Country Mall in the 1990's. The, last time that I was in the Copper Country Mall in 1995. I, remember when J.C.PENNEY and Kmart as anchors at the Mall. I, also remember the 2 screen theater 🎥 at the Copper Country Mall. I, remember the Marquette Mall in Marquette,Michigan. Is, the Marquette Mall still in Marquette?
So retro! Reminds me of my youth.
I went into that walmart around 11 PM one night and there was a decent sized bat flittering about. The nice thing about a small town mall in the non dead mall phase is you' d almost always run into someone you knew , either as a customer or a worker in a retailer.
Interesting mall. Well-maintained but empty, producing a sort of timeless quality. I do enjoy the abundance of sitting areas, particularly that area at the 4:00 minute mark. I think the ultimate issue is just the hollowing out of the population in many rural, small-town areas of America. If there's a population, stores will come but if there's no population, they'll stay away. And with a Walmart always nearby handling the household essentials, it'll probably have to be some kind of niche store leasing these spaces and those never really bring in bustling crowds. Nor do they usually require the vast space left behind by large anchor stores.
At 4:55 I see there's a "Mall Office" sign. I always kind of wonder who's in charge of places like this and what their job entails and how they feel about it. Like imagine going to work everyday to this place. Nothing but time and silence on your hands maybe the occasional inquiry or upkeep issue.
On a side note, I found the VR Arcade and functioning cinema interesting. I checked out the cinema's website and it's showing the latest Marvel movie. The juxtaposition of current technology and movies with the older space around them drives home the notion that the place isn't totally dead yet.
Thanks for this videos, always enjoy them.
This one has a shot. I like how the Kmart building and mall entrance still look like they did when Kmart was open. There needs to be a little bit more inside to draw people in.
Aren’t the Sears Hometown stores franchises? Doesn’t that mean even if coroporte sears went under there is a chance some of the franchises could survive on without them even keeping the name?
I believe the Sears Hometown stores do operate as franchises in essence, yes. And as I remember, the Sears Outlet stores now operate(since a few year back) under some new name, that I forget.
There was a lot of experiments with malls back in the 70s and 80s, obviously and it sounds like this one served it purpose for the area. Just really came to comment on the anchor stores like K-Mart. K-Mart is not or should not be an anchor to really even strip malls. They stand alone and need easy parking
The one that use to be near us in a mall had a loading dock so if you ordered a big item they could get it to your car easily. Kmart wasn’t long for this world unfortunately though.
I remember this particular K mart having both a parking lot opening and a mall opening.
The interior is really nice and pleasing, hopefully they can bring in more tenants.
Good video. I really liked the planter/seating areas in this mall. I remember sitting in those type of areas in between shopping when I was young. It was relaxing.
Love that sunken living room quad area!!!
Awesome geometric planters and seating!
I'm happy you make content like this
Yikes! I worked at that Sam Goody back in the 90's. The place looks weird even emptier than it was back then! 🙂
I used to think Houghton and Hancock never really changed that much... but seeing this makes me realize how much it has. I remember when Dunhams was a video store 😮 Still love this mall - hope it never closes. Appreciate u doing this... even tho u called it H-o-ton 😊
This mall is very interesting architecturally. Nice video, Doomie.
It reminds me of LAX before its big renovation
I wonder if the Sears Home is still open. Otherwise a nearby Super Walmart isn't help this mall much. A local mall has now developed a rather large part of the mall to senior housing. Don't know if this is the answer to saving the mall, but time will tell. I expect this are isn't growing in population, like the deep south is. Thanks for the great video Doomie, you did a great video coverage of a mall as you usually do.
this popped up in my feed. good job. would've been better if you'd have mentioned city and state specifically early on. thx. 🎉
Nice video, but I wish you showed us more of the VR arcade. You don't usually see those types of places in small town malls.
If you're around when classes are in session you may have a chance to experience living proof of the second law of thermodynamics, the cream of the keweenaw, and the pride of pasty land.
Did you visit any Malls in northern Wisconsin My home State? If you did, I can't wait to see those Videos!!!!!! Corey
As it just so happens, I did get a couple in Wisconsin. You might see em later this year.
Dunham’s runs the show in these small malls. God bless Dunham’s.
I have to believe a small mall in a small college town always has a chance. Those kooky college kids always want something.
Good video and nice little mall. Also Houghton is pronouced HOAT-IN.
I can tell by the light bleeding out of the edges of the fluorescents on the ceiling that you didn't wipe the lens of this camera off and it has some kind of fingerprint or something on it. :D
Other than one or two people in the Dunham's I saw literally no one.
They should male some of these malls into some of the best indoor skate parks and activity centers
Rent ate up all profits driving the business owned out . Tear that building down .
Visit Dort Mall on Dort Highway in Flint Michigan!
This town is called, HO TON.
I've definitely been watching too many Backrooms videos. All I could think about. "It looks so real!"
Great vid! I used to love going to this mall in the 80s & 90s. Was the VHS rental place near K-Mart named the "TapeDeck"??
I love malls that are Frozen in Time I wish my malls stated the way it did in the '80s by the way I'm sorry about Meadowbrook Mall I found a picture of it when it used to have its fountain in the ceiling was freaking awesome and sadly it's just exposed boring ceiling on but I know fair share of a little bit of it by my mom even though she hardly never went to the mall and he went to Middletown Mall in Fairmont before now it's an outlet mall. The anchor that used to be where Target is used to be a Montgomery wards' I made a story about a fiction Mall cranberry Mall would you like to hear it.
got me into malls was rolling acres Mall May rest in peace as a boring Amazon building.
cranberry Mall broke ground in 1978 and opened in 1980 open its doors music played across the Halls '80s neon lights lining the ceiling with mirrors shining down on you with the sound of a fountain statue of modern statues for the '80s with the water of the fountain with red tiles stores lining the walls big anchors like JCPenney Sears Macy's even in a movie theater had a good old classic stores at KB Toys radio shack I'm all even had a food court the smaller is a great mall it didn't even hurt family businesses and the small town at the mall is built not far from still kept living the beautiful town that the smallest built at while you walk down the mall hallways repeat you look up in the ceiling you see yourself reflection of yourself on the ceiling squares that was a ceiling it's ceiling goes up and then back down with cutouts for lights that you can't see well the neon lights of blue and pink line entirely the whole mall where you go down and sit right next to the fountain in the food court listening to the water right here people talking while the grand opening of the mall commits of 1980 but everything comes to an end eventually the mall closed the late 2010s the closing its doors permanently in 2022 in time and very good condition in a good way while all anchors are starting to close like Sears JCPenney's there's even talks of people wanting to reopen them all but time's gone by and the mall still sits there never to be reopened the most slowly decays while still frozen in time in the '80s in a very good way slowly decaying with mold grass broken glass in vandalized but very minimal vandalism because the town everybody knew their shutter everybody was nice everybody was accepting but everybody was sad that the mall has closed why would you be sad about a mall closing malls are closing around the world and no one cares because that town love them all that's where everybody goes even though the small town still had a lot of its stores and never closed because the owners of the mall never want to hurt the small town it's not a very small town this is a small City but while the future kept coming the mall will never see its future again. Some people still say the music still plays in the ghostly abandoned Halls of the mall
The main reason brick and mortar retail is dying, specially malls is simple..people are lazy. If they don't have to leave their house to buy something, they don't. You can order just about anything online now.
Only a Cinema 1-2-3-4-5??? Come on people!!! Let’s get out of here and go to Cinema 1-2-3-4-5-6.
Nice video
You have your story mostly wrong the mall was open in the 70's I can remember when it was hard to find a parking spot
Looks pretty dead to me