Explored massive abandoned mall today. River Roads - no pics

[Chris]

My damn memory card went to hell sometime between leaving the mall and coming home and all my pics are gone. Every time I tried to access the card when it was plugged into my computer, my whole computer would just jam up and quit. When I tried to look at the pics on my camera, the camera said the card had to be reformatted. What a crock 'o shit!

It's a shame, too, because River Roads is cool and it's going to be replaced with a new mall soon. We entered in one of the main 'anchor stores' which was a Styx, Baer, and Fuller. The main floor is pretty huge and is in decent shape. Three big chandeliers hang from the ceiling. The escalators going up lead to another big floor, this one with heavy, moist air and squishy, soggy carpet. The next floor up is a disaster. The air is really heavy and most of the ceiling is on the floor and rotting away. It makes you feel sick to be there, so we soon left.

We then walked down the main mall area. Some of the stores still have signs, but most don't. One of the larger stores must have caught on fire at one time. There's a small clock tower in the middle of the main hall. The ceiling is covered in mildew and the floor is littered with broken glass and some mannequin parts.

We saw a bowling alley and walked down the stairs to it. The lanes are in decent shape but the pin setters are gone. Bowling pins and balls are everywhere. On one side the pin setter area had 3" of water in it, on the other side, it was dry. We took a back door out of the dry side and came to a drive through tunnel under the mall where trucks came and unloaded stock into the stores. The tunnel had about 3" of water in it. The little room where the fitted balls and stuff was still there.

We then walked down to the other anchor store, JC Pennies. The we noticed a large area in the middle of the store was walled off where the escalators would have been. We went in many of the side rooms, most of which had electrical panels and little watch towers in them for security people. In one of the side rooms we found the service elevator, in another, the service stairs to the upper floor and the basement. On the upper floor, we found that the escalators were where we thought the were, and that for some reason they had indeed been walled off.

We continued up another flight of stairs into a big room full of huge HVAC equipment. There was a single electric light still working in there. The HUGE transformers still hummed. A single motor on a space heater hanging from the ceiling was also running. It's belt had fallen off a long time ago, but the motor just kept running. We saw three gigantic squirrel cage style fans.

We then went down into the basement. Again we heard the humming of an electrical panel and the obvious warm light of an electric light. There was a single bank of flourecent lights left on. We opened the door from where the electric humming came from and found a room full of HUGE transformers and electrical panels. It was very warm in there because they were still running and had no ventilation.

We then went upstairs and found the torn up remains of a resturant.

I really wish my memory card would've worked, the pictures really bring this place to life. It's a pretty decent size mall and it's easy to get lost if you don't pay attention to where you came from.

[inubis22]

That sounds awsome dude. Where is this place located? I'd like to check this place out. Well keep tryin' to get the pics, I'd like to see them.

[Chris]

Unfortunatly, the pics are gone. I'll just have to go back and get more.

It's at the intersection of Jennings Sta. Road and Old Halls Ferry.

I parked in a subdivision off of Ada Wortley Ave.

[inubis22]

Thanks for the info. When do you plan on going back, or do you? Maybe I could tag along if you dont mind.

[Chris]

Yeah, probably some time. I don't mind others coming along.

[inubis22]

Well awsome. I guess just let me know when you are going to head there next and we can meet up. Also what is the plan as far as meeting up next week? -mark

[White Rabbit]

Awesome as usual, Chris.

[memory_machine]

If you guys would like to see some pics of River Roads (Since Chris's camera is communist), I visited yesterday and posted pics on my blog.

www.irrationalecstasy.blogspot.com

I just started doing this whole "blog" thing, so please don't be too hard on me. I did just get "Blog of the Week" in the Riverfront Times, though, so that's cool.

[Chris]

Did you go by yourself?.....Oh never mind...just read the blog. Nic job! Great pics, too. My pics of the bowling alley didn't turn out anyway...too dark. Did you go into the big mechanical room on the top floor? I thought that was pretty cool.

[redox]

Bump...is this place still around?

[Chris]

I honestly don't know.

They started tearing it down, don't know if they're done yet.

[memory_machine]

No, it's way gone now. I was there as they were tearing it down about a year ago.