Westgate Mall | A Baby-Mall in PA (dead mall) | Phase IV Mallway Vignette #1 | ExLog 65

Baby-Mall? Mallway? sMall? Whatever, this place is adorable.

I'm a tile setter by trade, its fascinating to see the tile of the time in these malls. Thousands of sq ft laid. I imagine the workers who took pride in doing those styles and also how much money those mall tile jobs cost. I imagine mostly union tile setters, coming from all around to stay a few months in hotels to work on those malls, and off to the next one. Thanks for the mall videos, you do great work.

Back in the late 70's my Dad bought one of those big electronic organs with all the switches and stuff here. I got a free flute and annoyed him all the way home with it. lmao

At 10:07 you can see Martin Tower, the high rise in the distance. It was imploded on 19 May 2019.

Thank you for this video. We have been running our little shop in this Mall since 1973! and even though it's a corny Mall with it's weird layout, It has the best location in the Lehigh Valley. Also it appears they have been working on the 'new' Weiss Market location too. Can't wait to see the new store. Hopefully we'll be able to hang in there, and be apart of the "upgrade". Only time will tell.

Just a little info for you...the decline of the Westgate Mall actually started when the Lehigh Valley Mall was built. Westgate survived for quite awhile afterwards, but it was very slowly declining because more of the surrounding community preferred the much larger Lehigh Valley and Whitehall Malls located in Whitehall, PA.

The Mall actually used to be packed in the late 70's / early 80's and was there before bigger malls opened up. I worked at a few places in Westgate (Miscellaneous Bullshirt - A t-shirt kiosk that was in the center of the mall by Subway (which was the Picadilly then), Cardinal Camera (which had a main store up above the supermarket and a kiosk in the center) and Record City (on occasion). The mall used to have interesting stuff, the owner at that time was an ass, but it worked for the time. Since the late 8-'s things slacked off there. Record City closed, but a bigger better record store (Sound & Vision) replaced it. But the owners asked too much for rent and went for the 60-80 crowd instead of the crowd with $, thus the huge decline! I've seen dead malls in other countries get completely revitalized by lowering ren and having smaller stores that were open to young entrepreneurs Selling their own clothing brands, collectibles, imports, etc. Wish Westgate would've gotten a clue and did something similar instead of turning half the mall into a trampoline place that attracts no one. Yeah well.

I live 2 blocks from this mall, my whole life. There was a fire in 77. This.mall.was filled with cool stores. I met every cool 80s rock band in this mall at the record store, or later up stairs at WZZOs orgional.location. Including Ozzy and Randy. Phil Hawk is still there, and some of the other stores.

Cool. I used to go to the Art & Drafting supply store (the big vacant unit along the front). It's just up the road from Bethlehem Steel's HQ which I watched get imploded. They used to have a McCrory's which had the last pay-toilet in the Lehigh Valley. Westgate Pizza is one of the best pizza places in the area. That place is very odd but the interior is unique. I used to stop there for dinner when I drove for mass transit, and some days I'd sit in the middle of the mall and have the entire place to myself.

I owned a nail salon, Luminous Nails, in the "creepy" upper level office suites for 27 years, closing in 2018. The guy you ran into coming out of the bathroom was my client's husband, Brian. LOL 😅 the businesses upstairs were Weight Watchers, the mall offices, a real estate school, a computer parts store, and the public bathrooms you found. At one time the local rock radio station WZZO used to be up there, as well as a daycare, a travel agent and a massage place called Quiet Waters. When John McCain was running against Barack Obama in 2008, he actually had his campaign headquaters in that mall and he stopped by. I got to meet him and shake his hand. Nice guy..mich shorter than I realized. I will never forget the day they were shooting a commercial with him talking to a mom that was shopping at Weis with her child as he chatted with him and they filmed. The whole thing was an act. She and the kid were actors. I ran into them when they were getting their makeup done in those upstairs bathrooms. So many stories and good memories of that mall. Thanks for covering it. Today, the bottom half of the mall is closed off and scheduled for demolition. They kicked out everything from the Chinese restaurant down to the old Bon Ton (now a Weis Market). No more Amateur Athlete, or Subway, or.Payless, or Hawk Music or jewelry store..all gone to make room for a new Starbucks with a drive through, Qdoba Mexican Eatery and something else. The whole back of the mall is coming off and there will be no inside corridor anymore. They also changed the upper section a bit and finally completed the unfinished upper part that said "temporary entrance". It is looking nice.

"Well they're closing all the factories down- Out in bethlehem they're killing time- Filling out forms- Standing in line.."

Will baby malls have miniature escalators? 😁

Thank you for doing my hometown mall!!

This is pure art Sal and you have risen to the top of all Mall Explorers and Vlogumentarians on the Tube! I can't even watch guys like Dan Bell anymore Keep up the magic!

I grew up near this mall. It should be mentioned that there was a large fire in the late 70s that destroyed a large part of this mall. Never was a great mall, kind of quirky. The much larger Lehigh Valley Mall was built in the late 70s and became the focal point for mall shopping at the time. Lots of great memories in Westgate Mall. Westgate Pizza is still great.

Ameteur Athlete is a great skate shop!

this is my hometown mall, i live a 5 minute walk away! it's so weird seeing footage with both an open Bon Ton and Martin Tower in the background :')

I worked at Hawk's Music very briefly last year as a teacher and I have many friends who have worked as music teachers there as well. Phil Hawk is a really cool guy who can talk to you for hours about music gear, and I'm happy he's kept his little outlet alive because every once in a while you find a really cool rare guitar in there or something, likely sold to him from one of us haha.

This is pretty fascinating. I worked at Hess’s Westgate in high school and then again after college. I was part of the team that transitioned the store to The BonTon. The Westgate Mall has had a lot of businesses in and out over the years. Now it’s just a shell. There is nothing there. I could never figure out why they couldn’t put something lasting there. It’s such a good location.

I worked here for several years while the Bonton was still open. I still live 5 minutes away. The kay jewelers is gone, Payless is gone, I've seen no external construction on Bonton, the outside sign is still up. Not sure if the Weiss is still planning to move or not. I never go to the bonton end anymore. Occassionally I run to the liquor store, but once the hallmark closed I generally go elsewhere for everything. With wegmans and giant close by, that Weiss cant hold a flame!