A tribute to Long Ridge Mall with interior photos!!!

[MrBluefreako]

My brother and I would hang out at this mall all day in the early 70s. Used to love playing pinball and air hockey at Timeout. Moved to Tennessee in 1974 and have not been back since.My sister revisited a few years ago and said Rochester had changed alot since then.

[hondolespaul]

@MrBluefreako Rochester is a dying city now.  Nobody wants to face reality, but it's true.

[acer3573]

I also remember Greece Towne Mall and Long Ridge Mall before they were "merged."

[lizfrog62]

Awesome. Proof the "Contemplation Area" existed [0:38 sec]. I was pretty stoned at the time. And we hung out at the Mitchell household, the white house in the background of the "Long Ridge Mall" sign at the beginning. Great memories, great footage.

[lizfrog62]

Awesome. Proof the "Contemplation Area" existed.  I was pretty stoned at the time.

[hondolespaul]

@lizfrog62 I've heard from a couple of ex-stoners who used to hang out at Long Ridge Mall.

[meowsy11]

Brings back goog memories.

[Firewizard23]

Seriously, I used to play on those foam cubes.

[queenvc100]

I know it's been a while since this was posted, but I just stumbled on it and am so happy! This brings back such memories. What fantastic photos. I scanned through the posts and it looked like maybe you were going to post some more photos, menus, etc. Did you ever do so? I would love to see them all. This is such great stuff. I have been trying to reconstruct all the storefronts in my mind (it helps me with insomnia!) - but there are many blanks. Have you ever come across a 70s store list?

[525junk]

Thank you so much for these shots. Haven't seen the old mall in sooo  long. Need to see the Greece town mall footage next. :^)

[hondolespaul]

@525junk The Greece Towne Mall footage is in the making.

[YouTuber2006]

Sad to see what the mall is today. A whole bunch of small kiosks for cell phone chargers and fake jewelry. I remember my parents leaving me at the kinetic marble thing for hours when I was younger. They also had those concave mirrors that would change the size of your reflection. Also had that piping where if you placed your hand over it, the monitor above it would dance around like a static charge.  Ahhh memories.

[hondolespaul]

@YouTuber2006 I guess that's why they call it Ghetto Ridge Mall nowadays. When I was walking through Greece Ridge in 2008, some guy at a cell phone kiosk actually had the balls to get in my face. Regardless, I wasn't going to buy a phone from him. I was glad when I finally got away from the suburbs and that mall. I'm shocked at the amount of people who still remember Long Ridge.

[AGC1141988]

@hondolespaul i am probably about that far from there, i don't go there often, it makes me depressed seeing how plain and boring the old long ridge is now.

[hondolespaul]

@AGC1141988 Honestly, I was never happy about the whole two mall connection concept. Long Ridge was truly one of a kind and there will never be another mall quite like it.

[AGC1141988]

@hondolespaul i totally agree. it was so unique, was always fun to just go there, i am not a fan of todays malls, but if it were still there i would definatley spend time there that's for sure.

[hondolespaul]

@AGC1141988 There's a lot of people who run Google searches for Long Ridge Mall. When I offered to let Wilmorite display the Electric Ball Circus where it used to be near Sears, they didn't like that idea. Maybe because it would have actually brought people back to Greece Ridge who are afraid of going there now.

[AGC1141988]

@hondolespaul i was thinking about that myself ,that maybe if the things that were there were back, more people would go there, more people means more money, how can they not see that?

[hondolespaul]

@AGC1141988 Locating every single art sculpture that was originally inside of Long Ridge would be almost impossible. I got very lucky with the Electric Ball Circus and that's because a guy pulled it out of a dumpster in poor condition in 1993. Who knows, Wilmorite is probably pissed off because I bought something that their contractors tossed out as garbage.

[AGC1141988]

@hondolespaul do you remember that swirly thing in the display area? i'm trying to figure out what that was called. it looked like a colored version of the white swirl on the long ridge sign

[hondolespaul]

@AGC1141988 There's a picture of that on my website. For some reason, I don't remember a whole lot about Long Ridge. Even the Electric Ball Circus is still a blur and I probably saw it a handful of times when I was little.

[AGC1141988]

@hondolespaul i had forgotten about a lot of the things in there until i watched this actuually, then once i got to thinking i remembered a lot more. i had always remembered climbing on those foam blocks, the mirror thing by woolworth, and the jc penney ball fountain. i have a picture that was taken there when i was little that was with me holding a baby tiger, i think that was down by mc curdys..

[hondolespaul]

@AGC1141988 Yeah, that works for some people. I trick or treated at Long Ridge with an old friend of mine when I was little. I don't think we stopped to look at anything though. My Dad was with us and there were a ton of people in the mall. It's hard to remember what happened almost 20 years ago. Must be a sign of getting older. If you want, I'd love it if you submitted your photo to my website.

[AGC1141988]

@hondolespaul yeah i hear ya there, it is hard to remember some of it, sometimes it just comes to me as i think back. the tiger picture was taken in a tent but i could definatley upload it. i may also have other photos from back in the day inside the mall as well, i will have to look through my pictures. i think my grandmother may have taken a photo of me by the bee tree outside or the long ridge sign. i have a picture with santa also and that may have been at long ridge.

[hondolespaul]

@AGC1141988 I will look forward to seeing your photos!

[AGC1141988]

@hondolespaul very cool, i will take a picture of the mc curdys place menu that i found and upload that too. i do have a tag from hills too, although that was in greece towne. i want to try to find this cactus figurine that has a woolworth price tag still on it.

[hondolespaul]

@AGC1141988 I would like to see that menu.

[AGC1141988]

@hondolespaul i will take a pic and i want to find that cactus from woolworth

[hondolespaul]

@AGC1141988 Ok, cool.

[AGC1141988]

i loved that mall! i wish i was a little older when it was around so i could have enjoyed it more, a friend and i were there today and i was looking around and it saddened me to see how different it is after looking back and seeing this. the greece towne side hasn't changed much, just no more trees and very few stores, still sad. i miss woolworth and that mirror thing outside of there that you would see yourself upside down in. i wish i could find some of this stuff, if it's around somewhere.

[hondolespaul]

@AGC1141988 I remember eating at Woolworth with my mother and grandmother when I was really little. I made a remark that the Greece Towne side of Greece Ridge was dead on Wilmorite's Facebook page and their marketing director at Greece Ridge removed my comment. Nice, huh? There is a picture of Woolworth and the mirrored dish thing on Flickr. That photo technically belongs to Wilmorite, but I uploaded it to piss them off.

[AGC1141988]

@hondolespaul i seen that photo of woolworth and all i could rember is looking at myself in it upside down as a little kid.i don't know why they would remove the comment, maybe they are in denial? lol. i actually used to go there all the time with my grandmother and great grandmother and we also used to go to mc curdys and eat too. i remember at christmas time they had the train going around the ball fountain outside jc penney. i had some good memories at that mall.

[hondolespaul]

@AGC1141988 Well that's cool. Wilmorite is probably afraid that negative comments will deter people from shopping at Greece Ridge. So McCurdy's did have a cafeteria? The old train from Long Ridge Mall was where it used to be last year during the holidays. Some idiot putting up Christmas decorations wouldn't let me take a picture of it. What is Wilmorite afraid of?

[AGC1141988]

@hondolespaul yes, the mc curdys one was on the upstairs part. i don't know what they could be afraid of, a picture is a picture, could they be afraid people are going to try and sell them or something stupid like that? haha

[hondolespaul]

@AGC1141988 That's what I thought. Honestly, who wants to buy a picture of the Ghetto Ridge Mall?

[AGC1141988]

@hondolespaul yeah i hear ya there, seems like it's just a hang out now for teenagers

[hondolespaul]

@AGC1141988 I retract my response. I went to Greece Ridge back in July to register a vehicle at the DMV.

[gweijai]

Ah yes.....the foam.

This was back before lawsuits were invented.

l am quite sure l ripped a few chunks out of that cube in the middle.

l just walked thru the whole damn place and besides sears there are 2 shops that are in the same place as 30 years ago....friendlys and on the greece towne side, in a huge upset, barbers 6. It's hard to imagine it as it was even when you are there and l must have spent a couple thousand hours in those 2 malls growing up.

[hondolespaul]

@gweijai I went to the old Greece Towne Mall a couple of weeks ago. I had to register my second car at the DMV over there. I saw quite a few security guards walking around. I also noticed that the jewelry store where Kay Jewelers used to be finally closed up. The old Long Ridge Mall looks a lot different than it did 18 years ago.

[pandurate]

Wow... It's cliche to say so, but this brings back memories. I recognize just about everything in this video. Makes me sad. :(

[hondolespaul]

@pandurate I was never a big fan of Wilmorite connecting Greece Towne and Long Ridge Mall with an updated connector mall. It seemed like one day the two malls were there and all of a sudden, they were being renovated to match Wilmorite's connector mall. I regret not spending more time at Long Ridge, but who would have thought that its interior would eventually disappear?

[TangledWebFilms]

Wasn't there a 'pit' kind of area with sculpted walls that you could hang out in?

[hondolespaul]

@TangledWebFilms Yes, it was called a Contemplation Area.

[CaviMike]

I can understand that they got rid of the big wooden horse and foam blocks for insurance reasons but I don't know why they got rid of all of the cool fountains and the rolling-ball machine. And remember the pipes that you spoke into which made the TV screens make designs? Why get rid of that? I miss the way things were.

[hondolespaul]

I can't understand why the big wooden horse, cool fountains and rolling ball machine weren't either auctioned off or donated to an art gallery. Unfortunately, I don't remember the TV screens that you could talk into. Some of this stuff might still be around, just not in mint condition.

[pandurate]

@CaviMike Oh god I remember that wooden horse... When I was finally big enough to slide off its head... Sucks.

[towser2112]

Thank you so much for these!! I always thought of calling Greece Ridge to see if they had pictures of the interiors of the malls from the seventies/eighties!! Me and my best friend try name stores from back in the day!

[hondolespaul]

You're welcome! The Mall at Greece Ridge has a Facebook fan page with photos of Greece Towne and Long Ridge Mall on it. I don't particularly care for the owner of Greece Ridge, but these are nice pictures.

[towser2112]

Great. Thanks for the heads up.

[hondolespaul]

You're welcome.

[MDJarv]

Seeing these pictures really brings back a flood of memories from my childhood. I have never been a big fan of malls, but the contrast when compared to today's lifeless, sterile-looking malls is staggering. At least back in those days there was some rustic warmth and charm to these places, which you just don't have today.

Thanks for posting this!

[hondolespaul]

You´re welcome and I agree with you.

[tehlamay]

Great photos! That really brings back memories. I was very young when that mall was a normal stop for my parents but the mall was so trippy it definitely left a permanent impression on me. I spent hours staring a the Electric Ball Circus. Weren't there two different ball sculptures there? Or am I totally confused!

[hondolespaul]

Thanks! I received most of those photos from George Rhoads. He created the Electric Ball Circus for Long Ridge Mall. There may have been more than one ball sculpture at Long Ridge. If you would like to see other pictures of this mall in its heyday, please feel free to visit my website.

[hondolespaul]

Do you by any chance remember how the Electric Ball Circus once ran?

[pepp7141]

Total nostalgia! Thank you. Any pics of Buckman's Bakery?

[hondolespaul]

You´re welcome. I have 2006 photos of Buckman´s that includes the old sign out front. A friend of mine also sent me 2007 pictures of Buckman´s.

[hondolespaul]

The Greece Historical Society has a lot of artifacts from Buckman´s. I went there last Sunday and it was fun seeing some of these items again.

[marbletiger10]

Brings back memories. I remember all of that. I used to climb on those foam blocks. I can't remember why they were fun.

[avoidantconsumer]

awesome! haven't seen the interior of old long ridge in so many years... memories!

[hondolespaul]

Thanks! Do you remember the Electric Ball Circus? Its creator actually had interior photos of Long Ridge Mall and he was nice enough to share them with us. Of course, one of my website visitors asked him if he had any pictures of Long Ridge. Those interior shots are from the fall of 1981! Wilmorite really did a number on this mall. You would think that Gil McCurdy´s children would have hung on to it.