Holy shit I just realized:
Tomorrow (July 4th, 2026) is the 10 year anniversary of the-crepes-of-wrath's comment, which:
Predates the 2020 spike in interest by four years
Predates the original backrooms post, and the the creation of r/liminalspaces by three years
Predates the earliest mention that KnowYourMeme attributes to Twitter by two years
I'm pretty sure this is the moment the term "liminal spaces" was attached to this sort of imagery, and it's TEN YEARS OLD TOMORROW!
LIMINAL SPACES TURN TEN TOMORROW! CELEBRATE BY GETTING LOST IN AN ABANDONED MALL!