In August 2021, I went on a family trip which was jokingly referred to as the "Five Places That Might Not Exist in Five Years" tour. Well, it's been just about 5 years now, so I wanted to recap the trip and the locations. Most are still open, though maybe not for much longer.
Lebanon Valley Mall was stop #1, and it maybe has the best future prospects of any of the locations. It's a small mall in Lebanon, PA. It's owned by Boscov's, which is also the premier tenant at the mall. It's no longer the traditional retail hub that it was designed to be, but with Boscov's financial stability, a manageable size, and a collection of oddball stores taking up mall space, LVM is likely to persist for a good while.
Colonial Park Mall was 2nd on the trip. At the time it was one of three malls in the Harrisburg, PA area - now it is one of two. The closure of the neaeby Harrisburg Mall brought a few new stores over to Colonial Park, but the overall occupancy of the mall has dropped dramatically over the past five years. It was actually the site of the last full-sized Sears in PA when I visited, bur of course that closed not long after I visited. The mall is still open, but I doubt it'll last much longer. The place is almost empty save for Boscov's.
Stop #3 was Lakemont Park. Lakemont Park was a community amusement park in Altoona, home to the world's oldest operating rollercoaster, Leap the Dips. Unfortunately, all of the amusement rides have sat unused since 2024. Though the amusement park is now closed, there is still some activity on-site including a casino, mini golf, and batting cages.
Stop #4 was the legendary Indiana Mall outside of Pittsburgh, a real 70's gem. The interior of the mall had a lot of vacancies in 2021 and likely has even more today, but actually the mall has gained new anchor tenants Dunham's Sports and Rural King to replace The Bon-Ton and Kmart. With that being said, the mall probably isn't in danger of closing anytime too soon.
And the ultimate destination was Conneaut Lake Park, an ailing community amusement park in northwestern PA. It is known for the Devil's Den, a rare Pretzel Amusement dark ride. It was previously known for its classic rollercoaster, Blue Streak, as well as one of the last known operating Tumble Bug rides in the world. Unfortunately, both fell out of repair even before we were there. In the past 5 years, word is that most of the park has been closed, sold off, or destroyed. However, Devil's Den and a precious few other rides continue to operate seasonally, for now. The main attraction on site now seems to be boating on the lake and the historic Conneaut Lake Hotel.
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