Abandoned Locations: Eastgate Mall/Fairfield Commons

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Yelp reviews- www.yelp.com/biz/fairfield-co...

[@ThePodCastDojo]

Something I want to add. Yes I know Azalea Mall is defunct and has been for over 20 years. So a mistake on my part for not mentioning it being defunct. Either way it has to be talked about with it being so close to Eastgate/Fairfield Mall

[@calebdouglas7622]

ThePodCastDojo I’m not sure if you have ever done golf courses before or have thought about doing some but I did have request. The place is Matanzas Golf Club in Palm Coast, Florida. Thank you and have a wonderful day sir

[@ThePodCastDojo]

Thank you! You as well! I will definitely take a look into it and see what I can find

[@calebdouglas7622]

ThePodCastDojo Glad I could help

[@RobRVA]

I remember the day Eastgate opened in the late sixties (I was a kid) ..it was a big deal. We sat in traffic backed way up Laburnum to go to the opening. The mall had (rented I guess) big Hollywood type search lights opening night so we could see them in the sky while waiting. It was all very exciting for those times. Later around 1981 to 1983 I worked there at B.Dalton Books. At that time Eastgate was still a pretty busy place. My sister worked in the Thalheimers there around the same time.

[@igboamaka6142]

Man, this is so nostalgic. I spent my youth here in the early 90s. Now that I think about it, it was only 6 years I believe. I loved the small town feeling of highland springs. I had moved away by the late 90s and now I've lived the majority of my life in Europe. Virginia in the 90s...man...❤...if only i could go back

[@homeoffice1274]

I grew up in eastern Hanover County (Black Creek / Old Church) and my grandmother lived in Highland Springs. Every Saturday my mother and I would go get grandma and go shopping at Eastgate Mall. I, like Michael Kechler also got my haircuts from Majors Barber Shop from a fellow named "Gallagher" while my mother and grandmother would go shopping at LaVogue and Thalhimers. There was a little store just outside of Thalhimers and across from Buster Brown Shoes called "Paraphernalia" which was the 70's version of "Claire's" They sold trendy costume jewelry and my teen age cousins used to love to shop in there. There was a hallway that ran down beside "Paraphernalia" that led you past an F&M Bank branch and then to either a single person door that exited the mall or you could turn left and enter the waiting area to Shoneys. We used to eat there often and I loved their spaghetti. I recall at some point Shoneys added one of those sunroom type eating areas and it made the place feel so modern. I too shopped at Gary's records and tapes.. but usually for t-shirts. The kind where you would pick from about a hundred styles of iron ons displayed on the overhead wall with designs ranging from Trans Ams to cute kittens sitting in a bed of daisies.. usually with a lot of glitter in the design. I usually was asking for something Dukes of Hazzard related. Hofeimer's was a popular shoe store on the Thalheimers side of the mall that always had a large selection of Etienne Aigner purses, leather coats and accessories. Etienne Aigner was the Gucci of the 1970's and early 80's. At least to Richmond, Va anyway. I bought my Garfield Comic books at B. Dalton Books and my big metal tonka toy trucks at the TruValue Hardware store in the mall. My first Radio Flyer wagon with the wood sides also came from there. I remember I loved the toy department in the G.C. Murpheys and also liked to pick up Calligraphy pens ( a short lived phase) from the Peoples Drug Store down on the Sears end of the mall. This was also THE place for my mother and grandmother to pick up wrapping paper, name tags and bows at Christmas. I actually still have a large selection of holiday gift tags from the closing of my grandmothers house with Peoples Drugs and G.C. Murphys price tags on them. We loved to go in Mayberry's Ice Cream at the main entrance to the mall and I would get a "Strawberry Sassy Soda". Across from Mayberrys was the A&N Store and beside A&N was the pet store; which another reader identified as "Pet Love" but I believe that may have been an older name to the store. I believe the original name was Something "Pets" . Past Mayberry and Majors Barber Shop was Thom McAnn shoes which was at the corner of the main strip of the mall. I do not recall any fountain in the mall... perhaps M.K. was thinking of Azalea Mall... but there was a stage surrounded by a white wrought iron fence in the center of the mall, just in front of Murphy's. I remember they would often have talent shows or plays or santa villages set up on the stage. Although this mall did live for 48 years... its creation in 1964 really saw its heydays in the 1970's when the area was very middle class and was teaming with families who's bread winners worked for good companies like Phillip Morris, Reynolds Aluminum, AT&T, and the like. It always had a great feel to me and I loved the mall.

[@gwarrichmond6232]

I hear ya on all them memories, I'm from Old Church / Mechanicsville.....as a kid I couldn't wait to go to Mayberrys ice cream or the shoneys . Hell that was the closest mall come Christmas time. Lol 😂 👍🏼

[@retreatsyndrome8478]

That stage in front of G.C. Murphy's WAS the fountain...not sure of the year in which they "re-purposed" it...but in the early 70's there was definitely a fountain there.

[@GASHUBOY]

Great video mate! Very nicely researched. I was born in 72 so I remember this place well. My family and I used to go there all the time. It was never a "great mall" but it was ours and it was sad to see it go downhill like it did. Still, I have to say that I'm glad we have a Walmart there now and the area is restored and useful. Now if only they'd demolish Fairfield Middle School. Salt the earth there and build something GOOD. Sorry...bad memories. LOL

[@ThePodCastDojo]

No problem! Happy you enjoyed the video. No worries there. I went to Carver Middle School in chester. That place is so bad I'm surprised they haven't been sued

[@GASHUBOY]

@@ThePodCastDojo LOL...I feel ya!

[@wvbrian]

Great video and commentary. I grew up on Colwyck Drive behind the mall in the 70's and early 80's, I used to go to Eastgate Mall all the time. Great memories. Thanks!

[@ThePodCastDojo]

Thanks! I'm glad you enjoyed it! Any Cool stories about going there?

[@westendlolo3313]

It’s wild this place is a Walmart now

[@michaelkeckler8434]

Hello again. I've commented a few times previously on this video because Eastgate Mall is a warmly remembered part of my early childhood. I wanted to mention some things about the original structure. In the video, the only photograph of the original building was of the entrance to Thalhimers (notice the ashtrays on both sides of the doors; a reminder of a different era : )) All the other photographs in the video were taken after the 90's remodel. The original mall had no skylights. It was a bland T shaped box with a brown tile floor. The stores seemed bright and the mall seemed dim. The fountain was the centerpiece, it was always full of pennies. In 1973 - at some point, a temporary plastic pool replaced the fountain, and they had a porpoise show in the mall. Yes, a porpoise show like at SeaWorld! It drew a huge crowd. I'm adding a link about The now defunct Bergen Mall in Fort Lee, New Jersey. I never went there, but the video captures a mall literally frozen in the 1970's. The video is fun to watch, and the style of the Bergen Mall will give you a good idea of what Eastgate looked like in the early 70's. Thanks for reading my comments everyone. kzbin.info/www/bejne/fZXZg6xrr8djrJI

[@ThePodCastDojo]

Wow a porpoise show at the mall!? That’s incredible. I’m going to check out the video link you posted below. Thanks for all your information it was a great addition to the video. I’m going to pin them to the top. I will check out the mall you mentioned near fort Lee in New Jersey. I’m glad you enjoyed the video

[@hustiene2801]

Great vid J

[@WhittyPics]

You do a good job researching these Justin. There was another mall that looked about half empty when I was there in 2009-10. I can't remember the name right off hand I am wondering if it is doing any better or getting worse. Seems like it was more towards the south side of Richmond or even Chesterfield. I don't remember visiting any malls around Mechanicsville. I don't know what it is but when I have visited places I always seem to check the malls out.

[@ThePodCastDojo]

Thanks Dennis! Maybe you’re thinking of cloverleaf? That closed its doors in early 2009 and that was in the south side of Richmond

[@davinp]

Allot of malls, in the country, that were built in the '60s and '70s have failed

[@michaelkeckler8434]

I grew up in the east end of Richmond in the early 1970's. My mom and I shopped at this mall every week. The first time I saw Santa was at Eastgate Mall! As you walked from Thalhimers towards Sears I can remember many of the original stores -There was a Shoney's restaurant, La Vogue, Jule's hair salon, Florsheim Shoes, Buster Brown Shoes - There was a beautiful fountain in the center of the mall in front of GC Murphy's, and a great pet shop called Pet Luv (I was really into tropical fish as a child) An Ice cream shop and lunch counter called Mayberry's - We are about halfway towards Sears at this point - There was a bank of pay phones on the wall just past the fountain - Gary's Record shop with LP's, cassettes, and 8 Track tapes, a fabric shop, a Peoples Drug store, and Sears of course. There were also lots of smaller clothing stores that I don't remember too well. I didn't enjoy shopping for clothes when I was little, I mostly wanted to get Ice cream and go to the pet store! I also got my hair cut at a barber shop called Majors Hair Salon. I remember how luxurious Thalhimers seemed at the time, it had a lovely tile floor at the main entrance to the mall, and the cosmetic area smelled so nice. It also had a small candy counter that also sold baked goods and cookies. Mom would always buy me a wax sleeve of butter mints to keep me busy while she shopped ... The businesses around the mall were also nice and the area was safe and respectable. Oh, and I just remembered, I bought my very first cassette tape at Gary's Records. It was KC and the Sunshine band : ))

[@ThePodCastDojo]

Thank you for sharing your story! I’m glad you had such great memories at the mall. I too was big into tropical fish. My mall was South Park Mall and they had Petland so like you, I always wanted to go there. Petland sold dogs. Did PetLuv sell them as well?

[@michaelkeckler8434]

Hi Justin, yes, Pet Luv did sell dogs. There was a glass wall and you could see all the puppies in their cages. Birds, reptiles and rodents too! I wanted to mention that I was about 4 years old when my memories of Eastgate started to form, and this was our main mall throughout my childhood. When Regency Square opened in 76, it became the place to go! I actually worked at The Gap at Regency from 1989 to 1993. The mall was beautiful and vibrant back then, and I have lots of good memories of my time there. It's sad to see it today.

[@ThePodCastDojo]

It is. I plan on doing a video talking about not being abandoned but what happened and what it’s future could be

[@tiffaneyallen7112]

I used to love going to Mayberry's

[@TheJamesMalik]

Many memories of this mall. my dad used to be the manager of the Footaction all threw the 90s and the early part of the 2000s

[@ThePodCastDojo]

Awesome! I always love hearing stories like that. Always curious to find more information about this place. If you two would ever be up for an interview about the mall, I would love to have you two on. If interested, you can email m at [e-mail]

[@ricdimarco1499]

I have a couple cool stories about this place. I remember when they were running the renaming contest for Eastgate Mall and you had to drop your suggestions in a little box in the mall. I remember my school chorus doing Christmas concerts here. I remember having a buddy who worked at Sam Goody, here. I also remember there being a pro wrestling school in this mall for a little while. Oh yeah, and there used to be a restaurant here called "Ghetto Burger", which I did eat at once. Despite all that, unlike Virginia Center Commons, I wasn't sad to see this one go.

[@ThePodCastDojo]

I remember hearing about Ghetto Burger on the radio when I was a kid. I didn't realize it was part of the mall. that's pretty cool that they held a renaming contest for the mall? Why were you not sad to see this mall go?

[@ricdimarco1499]

ThePodCastDojo ghetto burger was actually “Send A Chef” which became locally famous for a short time for being home OF the “ghetto burger”. Originally it was across the street but it did for a time occupy the old Shoney’s location out front in the mall. As far as not being sad to see it go...I didn’t hang out here. VCC was the mall to go to by the time I was old enough to be doing that (96, 97ish). By that time this mall had already started its decline and by the time they finally razed it, it was a good 10-15 years overdue, I think. The shops that are there now are more relevant for the neighborhood. It was good for it to go, I think. Now when VCC is finally condemned, I’ll probably cry.

[@ThePodCastDojo]

I never even went to VCC for the first time until 2010. I didnt know it existed because the only malls I went to as a kid were South Park and Chesterfield Towne Center. Based on what I read about East Gate Mall, I was really impressed it lasted until around 2015 especially as old as the mall was since most 1960s malls didnt survive past the 80s or 90s. I was born in 1987 so I missed the heyday for a lot of these malls

[@ricdimarco1499]

@@ThePodCastDojo See and I'm the opposite...I'm from the East End of Henrico (about 5 minutes from Fairfield Commons) and I think I went to South Park Mall maybe once (?) and Chesterfield Towne Center like probably 5-10 times in my whole life. Regency Mall in the West End of Henrico was probably a nicer mall than VCC, but it was on the "other" side of town. I did end up working at both of those malls, though. Now there's Short Pump, which is the outside, upscale type of place that has survived. To me though, it doesn't feel like "the mall" the way these 80s and 90s-style places did/do. It's sad to see them going away.

[@tiffaneyallen7112]

@@ricdimarco1499 Im from that area as well, Sandston. We usually went to Eastgate every weekend up until probably 1994 then started going to VCC

[@racheldianeames3729]

PLEASE do more abandoned locations vids

[@ThePodCastDojo]

Absolutely, I have more planned coming your way!