UPDATE for anyone watching in 2024-25 centruy 3 mall is currently being demolished. All of the outside has been destroyed and most of the inside is currently beign demolished in December 2024. The mall most likely will be completely gone by end of 2025.

Man... it is not often I have a personal attachment to a youtube video, but this one is my whole life. This was my local mall, I lived 10 minutes away. My mom took me to sit on Santa's lap at this mall, the first time I played Street Fighter II in an arcade was this mall, the first time I saw the Mortal Kombat II arcade cabinet, and saw an older kid do Liu Kang's dragon fatality for the first time. As a teenager my friend who had his license would drive us out there, and we'd smoke cigarettes in the food court. The Italian Village Pizza in the food court made my mom's (and mine) favorite hoagies, provolone cheese hoagies with their special italian dressing. All the school shopping I ever did was at Century 3, every year all through grade school and high school I bought my clothes there. This mall is entwined with my whole life. I still drive by it every now and then, there's a huge Walmart right near there, a Burlington coat factory, and the most comfortable movie theater I've ever been to, right next to its' decaying husk, and my heart aches when I see it empty and abandoned. This really was an amazing mall, I'm sorry it's owners didn't think of it like I did.

Now I understand how my grandma felt when we passed boarded up businesses that she used to frequent in her youth.

A little update. In 2023, a fire broke out in the subfloor and the top floor resultin in numerous fire departments to respond and took about 7 hours to clear out, I was among the fire fighters who responded. The interior of the building was covered in water and mold, graffiti was on just about everywall. About a month or two later, someone fell through a skylight of the old Macys and was injured. The mall was slated for demolition soon after and is currently in the process of being torn down to redevelop the property into a shopping plaza.

Its so sad because I used to go to Century III as a little kid every week. I remember riding that double-decker carousel. They had a bungie-jumping set at one time where I learned how to do flips. The French Fry Factory was my family's favorite place to sit at the food court and eat amazing fries with cheese and ketchup. On the third floor there was a comic book store that my dad took my brother and I to on occasion before they moved to the bottom floor for more room. My mom even grew up going to this mall in the 80's and she misses it. I miss it a lot too because I made many good memories there with my dad, who had passed on in 2013, and going to the mall reminded me of him. Now that is gone and I want to cry.

You know your mall is outdated when a show set in the 70s is being shot there

"Hmm how do we bring people back to this mall?"

Moonbeam: C A R O U S E L!

Hard to imagine I've seen the rise and fall of the American Mall within my lifetime.

Imagine converting this to one of the coolest skate park, paintball, airsoft, or laser tag locations out there.

As someone who enjoys visiting malls, I remember years ago when I began to notice the slow decline with more & more stores closing & nothing replacing them in that retail space. At first I thought it was just a temporary thing but now I watch these & realize that part of consumer culture might be gone. It's bittersweet in a way but that's how the market goes.

I feel like the death toll for retail is when a water feature is converted to a planter....

Abandoned malls now feel a bit like the abandoned main streets and 1950-1960’s pre-mall shopping centers of yesteryear

I know the death of malls like this is just part of the natural progression of things, but it's still kind of sad. That late '80s/early '90s interior and décor is beautiful in a way.

I really love the “Abandoned” series. I have such a strange addiction of learning history from traveling through malls that are barely stable or left to be demolished or renovated. Seeing this is keeping me addicted.

I went to Century III quite frequently during my childhood and all the way to my adulthood. This was heartbreaking to watch. The last time I walked through the mall was about 6 or 7 years ago. It was quiet and empty. By then, most of the stores were gone. The entire food court was closed. It was like a ghost town.
I’m not really sure how long malls around the country are going to last. Pretty much every store has online shopping, not to mention Amazon, Ebay and etc.☹️

Century 3 Mall - “The ‘Rolling Acres’ of Pennsylvania.”

EDIT: Holy cow!! Thanks for all the likes.

i’m from pittsburgh and let me tell you how weird it was watching this mall decay. personally, i’ve never been. but i’ve driven past tons of times and heard the notorious chevrolet jingle on the radio since i can remember. however, that jingle soon haunted to mention the mall, and i think that’s when everyone realized the state of the mall. strange stuff man.

Mall episodes are always a treat.

Thanks for digging into the financials of the mall's parent company. The numbers are no surprise. Of course they had plenty of money.

This is even more interesting to me because I remember my older family members and others complaining that these malls killed previous shopping and gathering areas, leaving things like dead downtowns, and it definitely seemed true. When I was a young adult, that made old, half-dead city centers “cool”.