Ahhh, the mall. It means something different to everyone. Maybe it's a place you remember fondly as a teenage hangout spot. Maybe you and your book club members were mall walkers. Maybe you just know your local mall as a creepy abandoned building.

The fact is, change in consumer behavior over the last 10-15 years has led to a startling number of shopping mall closures across the United States. But one mall in Upstate New York has been holding steady... for over 170 years!

PADDOCK ARCADE • WATERTOWN, NEW YORK

The Paddock Arcade is the nation's oldest continuously operating (covered) shopping mall, opening all the way back in 1850! Located at 1 Public Square in Watertown, it earned a designation on the National Register of Historic Places back in 1976.

Paddock Arcade in 1909 and 2019
(Wikipedia / We Love Downtown Watertown via Facebook)

From Wikipedia:

...the arcade remains the benchmark structure in Watertown's historic downtown district. The structure runs perpendicular to the adjoining Paddock Building. The arcade was built in the Gothic style, topped with a glass roof that allowed daylight to filter through. The Paddock Building contains a 19th-century Italianate façade.

If you find yourself in Watertown, you can still walk these historic halls and do a little shopping at a range of stores, including an antiques and variety store, a café, a beauty salon and a tavern.

Google Maps

A mall that's over 170 years old? Pretty impressive. But I can't help but wonder... what do you think the Hot Topics looked like back in 1850? There were no bands to make t-shirts for. Do you think they had Edgar Allan Poe and Karl Marx t-shirts on the wall?

Inside the Abandoned Great Northern Mall in Syracuse

As of now, the plan is still to transform the Great Northern Mall into a "lifestyle center," but before that happens, we're able to take a virtual walk through its empty halls.