Abandoned - Century III Mall

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.

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.

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.

"Hmm how do we bring people back to this mall?" Moonbeam: C A R O U S E L!

You know your mall is outdated when a show set in the 70s is being shot there

This video awoke memories from my childhood I had completely forgotten. I had always wondered where my memories of a three-storied mall with suspended fake balloons and stars came from, and now I finally know. It had an amazing toy store inside I absolutely loved. I am elated to know what this place is, but extremely sad to know it is gone.

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.☹️

Mall episodes are always a treat.

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 love 1970 malls decoration interiors, so vintage and classy

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

I grew up going to this mall on an almost weekly basis... i worked at the pet store there. I delivered bread to the Italian Village Pizza in the food court with my father often... it was a magical place and surreal to experience it’s slow but steady decline. Weirdly, It’ll always be a part of who I am as a Pittsburgher. Happy to see it enshrined with such lore though!

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.

There is a store in the UK called MetroCentre, built at a similar time to C3, it was 300 stores and 2m sq ft of space, and 10k parking spaces. It has stayed open by reinventing itself, investing in run down areas to include a 12 screen cinema, a huge range of food places, bowling and leisure. Just shows it can be done with the right investment.

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.

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

This mans content hasn’t changed in like 6 years and i love it

My grandparents live literally right across the street, and my stepdad’s first job was at the Italian Village Pizza at Century 3… crazy to see this. last time I was there was back in the mid 2000s since we lived in the north hills right by ross park mall so we never had to go shopping out there… just insane

I grew up in this area and have a multitude of memories spent at C3. It was, and still is, depressing to watch such a lively place decline into a shell of what it once was. There were times, as an adult (I'm 45 now btw), that I would go to C3 just to spend time with my son, get away from the large crowds that the Waterfront and other malls had/have. I even had my son's, as well as my own, first Santa photo there. Man, I miss that mall!