Looking to create a website about the Middletown Mall. (Morgantown: real estate, leases)

[Kommunica]

Hello, it's great to find a message board dedicated to the state that's not strictly a hillbilly bashing board!

Anyway, I'm interested in creating a website dedicated to the history of the Middletown Mall. I have a strong interest in abandoned (or in this case, almost abandoned) structures that once flourished with people. The mall was part of my childhood and I'm looking for people who remember the mall fondly as I did. If anyone has pictures, articles, lists of stores throughout it's history, please contact me at chainsawfacelift@gmail.com or simply reply on this board.

Once again, thanks to everyone. I look forward to spending time here,.

[LilyLaLa]

Oooh, I love your project. I'm also moved by abandoned or ruined buildings, and one of my hobbies is taking their portraits. We have tons of them around here; our new houses live among a sort of ghost-landscape of the ones that went before, all remembered in half-fallen stone. There's a poem in there somewhere, but alas that's not my forte.

Also, welcome!!

Also, how on earth did you come up with your e-mail address?? Sounds like a story I want to hear!!
C'mon....

[David Kennedy]

Actually the Middletown Mall in Fairmont is doing quite well. It's adapted to a new time and style.
Will only be a few years and it will be a big Strip Mall with new store fronts on the outside instead of the inside...
Wish I owned that 10 acres...New hospital/clinic, several resturants, including Me Pueblo which I love...great Marriot Motel...banks...couple of hundred townhouses going up on the adjacient land...Great future in store for that old Mall..
At one time was the biggest thing in Wv...

[LilyLaLa]

How's Fairmont doing then? --from this and other posts, it seems to be doing quite well, but I've spent months on Realtor.com seeing Fairmont houses at the lowest end of the price range, which makes it seem like a sort of ghost town, from the outside. If you were investing in Fairmont, which would you do (anyone) ---buy an older house in town, or buy land just outside the city limit, in expectation/hope of expansion?

K, have you contacted any local papers about your project? Writing up a simple press release that outlines your project and appeals for photos might turn up a wealth of info.

Another idea---I Googled "Middletown Mall Fairmont WV", then clicked on "Images", and found a pile of photos listed there--you could click through ones you like to their websites, and ask the individual webmasters for permission to use their photo or link: as well as asking for any other photos and information they have.

Hope that helps!

[David Kennedy]

Middleton Mall is located in the town of Whitehall...a tax refuge for everyone excaping the high taxation, fees, corruption, general malaise and lack of service in Fairmont...Fairmont is dead...but will ressurect as the MoJo Waterfront Casino and Entertainment Emporium...

Could have had a 500 million dollar training center built by CSX, an addition to the town and a great financial push for the college, but threw it all away for the gaming scumnasium...its a system of priorities...low priorities...

Definitely buy outside the city, preferrably on the north side of town...Rivesville or on Rt 73...'the old Morgantown road'...these areas are safe from annexation...Fairmont pulled every Mr.Moneyhand trick in the book to annex Whitehall..good lawyers kept them in their place. Annexed the Industrial Park with the public water line service...called it an unbroken connector.

Monongaila County and Morgantown have not stooped to such things...much bettter management...

[Kommunica]

It seems that personal interests get in the way of any progress made here in Fairmont.

[citybilly]

I don't quite get what's going on in Fairmont, but I also have been looking at the real estate for a while. Seems like a lot of developments going up, outside of town. The lower end houses seem hard to sell because there probably isnt much of a market for them. Seems like a risky investment. Around the college, it's a little rough, and there seems to be too many shootings. The area by FHS, is full of nice older houses, and there are signs of life with remodels and tear-downs, but it also has creeping blight so which way will it go? That is the question. A lot of those low end houses are close to the corridor where the new interchange is going in. The whole neighborhood is full of abandoned houses scheduled for demolition. It's really fugly.

[harborlady]

Originally Posted by David Kennedy

Middleton Mall is located in the town of Whitehall...a tax refuge for everyone excaping the high taxation, fees, corruption, general malaise and lack of service in Fairmont...Fairmont is dead...but will ressurect as the MoJo Waterfront Casino and Entertainment Emporium...

Could have had a 500 million dollar training center built by CSX, an addition to the town and a great financial push for the college, but threw it all away for the gaming scumnasium...its a system of priorities...low priorities...

Definitely buy outside the city, preferrably on the north side of town...Rivesville or on Rt 73...'the old Morgantown road'...these areas are safe from annexation...Fairmont pulled every Mr.Moneyhand trick in the book to annex Whitehall..good lawyers kept them in their place. Annexed the Industrial Park with the public water line service...called it an unbroken connector.

Monongaila County and Morgantown have not stooped to such things...much bettter management...

as distasteful as I find gambling, it's important to remember that diversity of income sources for the state is best for fiscal health. that means coal wont be the only game in town. WVU is an ace for education, tourism tends to be seasonally driven, morgantown and huntington are having a boom, what about everyone else and other sectors of the market?

I think the gambling in fairmont area is hoping to capture some alternative traffic heading toward branson, and maybe even Va people who'd rather not drive to atlantic city. They've likely done market research to capture people traveling past fairmont to gamble elsewhere.

[Threerun]

I thought a good portion of the mall was occupied by GSA leases?

Everone here in my office refers to the place as the 'dead mall'. Meadowbrook is not too far off either..

[AmericanRoadGirl]

Kommunica, I have great memories of the place, too. My best friend and another gal pal were marketing managers and asst. there back in the day... If you would like, you can DM me your phone number and I will pass it along to best friend. She has a WEALTH of info in her head about the mall. It is always fun to play "Name the Stores that were at Middletown Mall" with other folks from the area. Spent so-o-o-o much time there... as a child, as a teenager, while in college. Where does one start??? I still have some boxes and bags from a few of the stores.

I know I will forget a bunch but here goes...

Clothes Horse (had to be my fave).
Reunion
Chess King
Parson-Sauders
Jones'
Workingman's Store
Watson's
Teek's
Brooke's
Carriage Shop (if I am remembering correctly, or I may have the name mixed up with the shop that was on Locust Ave.)
McCrory's
Gee Bee
Maunz's (spelling?)

Sweet William's restaurant
Scotto's pizza
Bressler's 33 flavors ice cream
Leed's candy store
Orange Julius
The place beside Scotto's that sold the zebra ice cream cones

Middletown Nat'l Bank

The arcade! Spent many a teenage afternoon playing air hockey there.

The fountain!

They held the Miss WV pageant there for a few years.

When the mall still allowed soliciting, me and two of my best friends went around collecting money for the Marion County Humane Society. We were "Puppettes". I was probably only about 7 years old. First time my picture was in the paper, outside of baby birthday photos.

I remember when they brought in Paul Shannon and Joe Negri from Pittsburgh. Back then Paul Shannon and Joe were big celebrities to local kids, due to the popularity of the Pittsburgh show Paul Shannon's Adventuretime. That day was so special. I LOVED Paul Shannon.

Thanks for stirring up some great, great memories.