Hell, earlier today, I just found out my grandparents had a hidden room in their house for God knows how long as neither my mom or aunt have any memory of the room being a thing in thier childhoods, and my grandparents don't remember why they eventually blocked it off. Weirdly enough, now that we know it's there, it's almost like "no shit there was an extra room."
That said, as bad as this might sound. I'd love to turn it into a little office or something (emphasis on little) after they pass. Especially if I can manage to keep it's hidden door frame.
When I was younger, I knew a mall manager and my band and I rented out basically an old KMart in a mall. We were supposed to just stay in that one store/area, but the mall was closed entirely. We would razor scooter all over that place!
It was just unadulterated fun. No drugs or booze - just fun. I feel like it was a bit of the same for these guys; F-U-N.
Oh man, that feeling you can never forget. I also watched my best friends dad come home from work, try to bunny hop the scooter and break his ankle in 3 places lol.
For men, I feel like there’s a certain age (and honestly, women too - but I’ll speak from my pov) where innocence is gone. And it’s not a sexual thing or a age thing, but it’s just a thing that happens.
I look fondly on the mall days because they were before the end of innocence. It was vivid and clear and man, I can feel that feeling today. I’ll never be there again, but I was there once.
I like your outlook. I have similar feelings about certain past eras in my life - instead of feeling letdown it’s over, I’m thankful I actually had them when I did.
Rhode Island will likely never legalize gambling since MA already as it (even though their commercial casinos suck compared to Mohegan or Foxwoods). Stupid, because that'd give them a reason why to keep any other mall in the state besides Providence Place (which is amazing, or at least was until I moved out of NE in 2015) open.
My dad met Buddy at least once while working with Providence PD. Apparently he had a really odd feeling about the man, and was not surprised when it all went down...
I mean I also am the same age as you and made the comment. You do sound like someone coming to grips that we are getting old.
But I more so said that because the title and comment I replied to made it seem this happen last week. It did not.
In my high school there was a secret room in the auditorium. It was supposed to be storage for equipment for the catwalk but it was turned into a spot to chill and ditch class. We had a fridge up there, TV, PlayStation the whole bit. Even had roof access from there. It was badass. We used to hang out there for hours.
My band room had a back door to a private stairwell to the (then) brand-new, state-of-the-art performing arts center. One flight, backstage. Two flights, catwalk / riggings. Three flights, roof. The stairwell was inaccessible and isolated from anywhere else in the school. I had access to that at least four hours a day.
When I was in private school, the last two floors used to be for another school back in the day and were abandoned. The last floor had access to the roof top through a smashed window and we would skip class there and smoke cigs we would steal from our rabbi lol throw snow balls at classmates from up there too
Schools can be great fun to explore if you have the freedom.
My high school had ‘extra’ spaces for the theater, band/concert hall (two lofts), wiring closets, abandoned storage rooms, and an unexpected doorless closet. I ran ethernet cable in the ceilings regularly and found things like 20+yr old magazines stashed in the drop ceiling.
Universities can be even crazier. Hidden passageways, 500+sq ft back rooms, discrete building exits that look like a window…. Utility rooms and ‘pipe spaces’ can always be interesting. I briefly worked in a building where an entire floor was a pipe space which made for an interesting mid-day walk.
> Schools can be great fun to explore if you have the freedom.
Some friends found an unlocked door that led into the band room of my old middle school a few years after I was out of it. It was in the summer, and the custodians were on their 2 week shut-down. We could have raided the entire school, but we used the time to rollerblade around inside in the dark. Some of the most fun I've ever had. 30+ years later, I still remember realizing how damn dark it got inside some of the hallways.
Same. Large stage that was a separate building. Rarely used. Had to climb a ladder to get to the ceiling storage area. Just a bunch of old junk up there. We may or may not have done illegal thing up there.
We had the same thing in our high school. On one side there was a room for the theater technicians above the fly rail which led to the catwalk to adjust the stage lights. Then beyond the catwalk there was a series of planks that led to an identical room on the other side of the theater.
When I was in HS in the mid 80’s, there was a kid who lived up there during the week until one night he was caught making a late night run to the bathroom. Most theater kids had the run of the theater until 10pm, but this guy was caught when Sonotrol went off.
5 years later when I worked for the HS after college, myself and one of the janitors were tasked with removing the old bed and junk in the room, then creating a new access similar to the other side. They also added Sonotrol all over the catwalks.
Yeah my Private Catholic High School in the main building on the Top/6th floor was once a living/sleeping quarters which had a seperate locked main door and emergency exit door to the floor for the elderly priests and nuns who taught at the school decades ago.
Eventually the Diocese for the few left made arrangements with the nice Senior living facility in the neighborhood to take the few left because they wanted to covert the All Boys school to Coed and needed to renovate the top floor to accommodate the additional students.
There was a bunch of Red Tape which stalled the renovation indefinitely. So my buddies and I found stole the Janitor’s master keys and made copies, did detective work and figured out unless it was a B-Ball, Wrestling or Volleyball/Weekend School Event… The Janitorial Staff never cleaned other than the Auditorium/Gym/Cafeteria on weekends, the old security guard they had on staff for weekends never checked the top 2 floors and his shifts was 6am-Noon and 6pm-9pm (Fridays nights too) and sounds never travelled from the floors..
So we made it our hangout spot for our last 18 months of HS and that summer after and it was awesome. They removed all the religious stuff but the furniture (which was all comfortable) and beds was still there except the TV, still had power/internet and gas. We brought an Old Widescreen HDTV a buddy had because his father got a new TV, had an XBOX, we had group dinners and used the sleep quarters for our dates/study space.
We kept a strict code of rules including allowable hours, limit of people, sound etc. Other than one “close call” at the beginning, never sweated once.
We bequeathed the spot to a group of younger guys in our social when we went to college. Those idiots got caught within the month we told them about the spot but to there credit they never ratted us out and took the heat.
The school changed all of the locks and finally began renovations a few months later
I read a book when I was a kid about another kid who found a space hidden under a subway platform and decided to live there. Sold newspapers people left on the train to feed himself. Thought that was the coolest thing ever. So I looove this.
Thank you! So much. Was going through stuff at that age and I wasn’t sure that I had actually read it or made it up as some sort of coping mechanism. Big relief. And now I get to revisit. Fuck yes.
I remember that, too.
It was definitely in the parking garage though, seems like they're sort of downplaying that even in this article cause it's a lot more exciting to say "in the mall" instead of "in an unused utility closet in a mall parking garage."
I remember this too. Pretty sure the channel had “coffee” in its name. Had several animated documentary videos
Edit: I was thinking of the channel “Brew” their video is about a robber who lived in a toys r us
I read that book cover to cover. There was apparently a sequel. If you want very similar vibes, try Hatchet by Gary Paulsen it’s a book for grade schoolers but it is fantastic
Providence Place Mall is giant- this really doesn't surprise me at all that they got away with it for so long
It's also notable that even though the article talks about the mall struggling, it's actually still busy every time I go (theater has a pretty nice imax set up). The garage, as well, is really reasonable parking for Providence and always busy with excess traffic from events like concerts and Waterfire.
Probably struggling due to the profit projections put out by the developers being based on the Mall running at a 120% utility rate. Which the rents would have been pegged against.\
So even when it’s busy as hell, it’s just not busy enough to pull on the revenue levels the land lords now need to keep covering large rents.
This happens in the book Strange Angels by Lili St Crow, lol. Think Supernatural but it's a teen girl hunting monsters instead of two adult brothers. The guy she likes has a secret barricaded room in a mall where he's living because his home life is unstable.
Right before a huge local mall in my town was demolished we explored the whole thing and found so many old stores and spaces that no one had been in like 10+ years, I bet we could have set up an apartment in there haha
Damn, used to go to that mall all the time right when it got built. That was kind of right at the tail-end of the “mall era,” and Providence Place was the newest and nicest mall in that SE Mass and Rhode Island area.
I imagine the why was ‘money’ and the how was probably one or more of the 8 friends worked on the malls construction or remodel. Boom just recapped the whole doc without seeing it.
I love this. Being a kid and having a secret hideout is one of life’s great experiences.
Im an adult and i still want this. Good for them
If you own your house, consider putting in a secret room, there's a whole sub dedicated to it... r/hiddenrooms
Immediately subbed. Thanks!
Ever since King of the Hill, I’ve always wanted to be like Chuck Mangione.
Deep cut
I go apeshit for Chuck Mangione
This feels like a deeper cut than the KoTH reference lol
That song lives in my head rent free
Dang’ol’megla’mart’go’boom
Pour a little out for Boomhauer.
It feels so good.
But their were rat droppings everywhere
Hank didn’t need to ask Dale to exterminate the grocery store where Mangione lived. He could have just propane bombed it like he did the Mega-Lo-Mart.
Hell, earlier today, I just found out my grandparents had a hidden room in their house for God knows how long as neither my mom or aunt have any memory of the room being a thing in thier childhoods, and my grandparents don't remember why they eventually blocked it off. Weirdly enough, now that we know it's there, it's almost like "no shit there was an extra room." That said, as bad as this might sound. I'd love to turn it into a little office or something (emphasis on little) after they pass. Especially if I can manage to keep it's hidden door frame.
Oh that's where the ghost lives.
OP *had* an uncle bobby once.
Sex dungeon.
Masterbation Manor
Jack shack
Grow room
Masturbatorium
Skeet and retreat
For some inspiration: r/hiddenrooms
These were adults but yeah I’d want to have this now.
When I was younger, I knew a mall manager and my band and I rented out basically an old KMart in a mall. We were supposed to just stay in that one store/area, but the mall was closed entirely. We would razor scooter all over that place! It was just unadulterated fun. No drugs or booze - just fun. I feel like it was a bit of the same for these guys; F-U-N.
Rarely am I jealous of people... but this sounds so damn fun
Full tilt on a razor scooter, hair blown in the wind. Ah those were the days!
They really were the days. Until the razor swung back and clocked your ankle :( decades later I can still feel it haha
I’d take 1 shin-hit for an hour of 00’s bliss.
Oh man me too. Burning cd's, msn messenger all afternoon, crappy radio songs on repeat, great movies.
The radio. The radio.
No, limewire…
Good ol’ giver of computer AIDS
We had Napster is 2000
Oh man, that feeling you can never forget. I also watched my best friends dad come home from work, try to bunny hop the scooter and break his ankle in 3 places lol.
I bet hide and seek would be awesome there
We did that, for suuure. Honestly being such a big place, any sound makes a BIG sound.
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For men, I feel like there’s a certain age (and honestly, women too - but I’ll speak from my pov) where innocence is gone. And it’s not a sexual thing or a age thing, but it’s just a thing that happens. I look fondly on the mall days because they were before the end of innocence. It was vivid and clear and man, I can feel that feeling today. I’ll never be there again, but I was there once.
I like your outlook. I have similar feelings about certain past eras in my life - instead of feeling letdown it’s over, I’m thankful I actually had them when I did.
For me it was after a few years of working at a mall as a store manager. Was still fun prior to being in charge
Responsibility is highly overrated.
They didn’t have cameras and security at night?
Nope. Safe area. No need. Probably a car outside, but we never saw them.
I want to roller skate in empty malls SO MUCH.
Closed Malls should have you sign a waiver, and charge you $20 for all you can skate thru the mall.
I would pay it!!!
M-O-O-N
99% Invisible has a great podcast about these guys. “The Accidental Room”
[https://99percentinvisible.org/episode/the-accidental-room/](https://99percentinvisible.org/episode/the-accidental-room/) One of my favorites.
Thanks for the tip! Listening to it right now 👌
Thank you!! I was trying so hard to remember where I heard about this!!
Me too. Really old news
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That Mall’s got the juice
There are casinos, but they are on native american land. Just like connecticut.
There is some crazy awesome podcast about buddy cianci. Can’t remember the name
Crimetown did a season on Providence.
Crimetown Season 1
I remember when he died.
Have you ever been to Lincoln…?
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Then how did you miss the huge casino right there at Twin River…?
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Just a fellow Rhode Islander giving you a hard time. I’ll send ya a Dels.
Send him a cabinet -- chocolate! :-D
Oh! I didn’t know that! And I always thought it was weird for a mall to have carpeting throughout! LoL
Rhode Island will likely never legalize gambling since MA already as it (even though their commercial casinos suck compared to Mohegan or Foxwoods). Stupid, because that'd give them a reason why to keep any other mall in the state besides Providence Place (which is amazing, or at least was until I moved out of NE in 2015) open. My dad met Buddy at least once while working with Providence PD. Apparently he had a really odd feeling about the man, and was not surprised when it all went down...
Rhode Island has two casinos in it. One has over 100 table games lol
Indian, not commercial.
Those aren’t tribal casinos
Mall is still weirdly good despite malls dying across the country. Parking somehow got worse.
Why? Because the rents are too damned high!
This is super old and has had movies done about it already. This was like back during the 08 housing crisis I believe.
Well there you have it folks…2008 is super old…I graduated university that year. I’m not even 40…
30 years ago was 1970 and everybody else can suck my dick!
What the man said! ☝️
You can’t agree with this comment AND use emojis on Reddit, you heathen.
Xennials pioneered the use of emojis. You can stop gatekeeping.
I’m older than you , but at least I’m retired.
Rub it in you old geezer.
And the government is paying my way.
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What’s delight to meet such a gentleman. Did your parents raise you to talk that way to your elders ? Or were you just hatched evil?
Damn, I'm just tired
Uh we can but we won’t!
*applause*
The 90s? A mere ten years ago.
Sorry in advance for this everyone… 1970 is closer to 1917 than it is to today.
Basic math… thanks for the shocking news!
I mean I also am the same age as you and made the comment. You do sound like someone coming to grips that we are getting old. But I more so said that because the title and comment I replied to made it seem this happen last week. It did not.
List a few? Sounds like something I would like
In my high school there was a secret room in the auditorium. It was supposed to be storage for equipment for the catwalk but it was turned into a spot to chill and ditch class. We had a fridge up there, TV, PlayStation the whole bit. Even had roof access from there. It was badass. We used to hang out there for hours.
Oh man, core memory unlocked. We found a secret loft above the storage closet of our band hall and would hang out there.
Does every school have a secret loft above the band room? lol I used to take girls up there to hook up.
My band room had a back door to a private stairwell to the (then) brand-new, state-of-the-art performing arts center. One flight, backstage. Two flights, catwalk / riggings. Three flights, roof. The stairwell was inaccessible and isolated from anywhere else in the school. I had access to that at least four hours a day.
Ours wasn’t a loft, it was one of the practice rooms- “the tuba room”. Couch, fridge, tv, xmas lights. Stack of Bloom County books.
When I was in private school, the last two floors used to be for another school back in the day and were abandoned. The last floor had access to the roof top through a smashed window and we would skip class there and smoke cigs we would steal from our rabbi lol throw snow balls at classmates from up there too
Schools can be great fun to explore if you have the freedom. My high school had ‘extra’ spaces for the theater, band/concert hall (two lofts), wiring closets, abandoned storage rooms, and an unexpected doorless closet. I ran ethernet cable in the ceilings regularly and found things like 20+yr old magazines stashed in the drop ceiling. Universities can be even crazier. Hidden passageways, 500+sq ft back rooms, discrete building exits that look like a window…. Utility rooms and ‘pipe spaces’ can always be interesting. I briefly worked in a building where an entire floor was a pipe space which made for an interesting mid-day walk.
> Schools can be great fun to explore if you have the freedom. Some friends found an unlocked door that led into the band room of my old middle school a few years after I was out of it. It was in the summer, and the custodians were on their 2 week shut-down. We could have raided the entire school, but we used the time to rollerblade around inside in the dark. Some of the most fun I've ever had. 30+ years later, I still remember realizing how damn dark it got inside some of the hallways.
Same. Large stage that was a separate building. Rarely used. Had to climb a ladder to get to the ceiling storage area. Just a bunch of old junk up there. We may or may not have done illegal thing up there.
We had to take a ladder to this spot as well!
I think I know where you went to school
You just might! The internet can be a wild place
Cleveland High in Portland Oregon had this, right down to the PlayStation.
My school also had one pretty much exact same as yours. Yhe people who made it sold shirts after being found out
We had the same thing in our high school. On one side there was a room for the theater technicians above the fly rail which led to the catwalk to adjust the stage lights. Then beyond the catwalk there was a series of planks that led to an identical room on the other side of the theater. When I was in HS in the mid 80’s, there was a kid who lived up there during the week until one night he was caught making a late night run to the bathroom. Most theater kids had the run of the theater until 10pm, but this guy was caught when Sonotrol went off. 5 years later when I worked for the HS after college, myself and one of the janitors were tasked with removing the old bed and junk in the room, then creating a new access similar to the other side. They also added Sonotrol all over the catwalks.
Yeah my Private Catholic High School in the main building on the Top/6th floor was once a living/sleeping quarters which had a seperate locked main door and emergency exit door to the floor for the elderly priests and nuns who taught at the school decades ago. Eventually the Diocese for the few left made arrangements with the nice Senior living facility in the neighborhood to take the few left because they wanted to covert the All Boys school to Coed and needed to renovate the top floor to accommodate the additional students. There was a bunch of Red Tape which stalled the renovation indefinitely. So my buddies and I found stole the Janitor’s master keys and made copies, did detective work and figured out unless it was a B-Ball, Wrestling or Volleyball/Weekend School Event… The Janitorial Staff never cleaned other than the Auditorium/Gym/Cafeteria on weekends, the old security guard they had on staff for weekends never checked the top 2 floors and his shifts was 6am-Noon and 6pm-9pm (Fridays nights too) and sounds never travelled from the floors.. So we made it our hangout spot for our last 18 months of HS and that summer after and it was awesome. They removed all the religious stuff but the furniture (which was all comfortable) and beds was still there except the TV, still had power/internet and gas. We brought an Old Widescreen HDTV a buddy had because his father got a new TV, had an XBOX, we had group dinners and used the sleep quarters for our dates/study space. We kept a strict code of rules including allowable hours, limit of people, sound etc. Other than one “close call” at the beginning, never sweated once. We bequeathed the spot to a group of younger guys in our social when we went to college. Those idiots got caught within the month we told them about the spot but to there credit they never ratted us out and took the heat. The school changed all of the locks and finally began renovations a few months later
Curiosity piqued
Seriously! Where can we watch the documentary?
I read a book when I was a kid about another kid who found a space hidden under a subway platform and decided to live there. Sold newspapers people left on the train to feed himself. Thought that was the coolest thing ever. So I looove this.
Slake's Limbo
Thank you! So much. Was going through stuff at that age and I wasn’t sure that I had actually read it or made it up as some sort of coping mechanism. Big relief. And now I get to revisit. Fuck yes.
This sounds like an old movie I saw when I was a kid with Gary Coleman https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/On_the_Right_Track
Wow that’s a memory I had fully deleted
I wanna say I’ve seen a YouTube video of their process/documentation.
I remember that, too. It was definitely in the parking garage though, seems like they're sort of downplaying that even in this article cause it's a lot more exciting to say "in the mall" instead of "in an unused utility closet in a mall parking garage."
I’m pretty sure I saw that too but I cannot remember who made it.
same, it was animated if I remember
I remember this too. Pretty sure the channel had “coffee” in its name. Had several animated documentary videos Edit: I was thinking of the channel “Brew” their video is about a robber who lived in a toys r us
Anyone remember “My side of the mountain?”
I read that book cover to cover. There was apparently a sequel. If you want very similar vibes, try Hatchet by Gary Paulsen it’s a book for grade schoolers but it is fantastic
The fabled back rooms
Oh I’m watching the fuck out of this.
I’ve always wanted to do something like this.
I’m kind of jealous. This sounds pretty cool
I am 43 and all I’ve come to desire is a cool clubhouse to hang out with my friends.
Providence Place Mall is giant- this really doesn't surprise me at all that they got away with it for so long It's also notable that even though the article talks about the mall struggling, it's actually still busy every time I go (theater has a pretty nice imax set up). The garage, as well, is really reasonable parking for Providence and always busy with excess traffic from events like concerts and Waterfire.
Probably struggling due to the profit projections put out by the developers being based on the Mall running at a 120% utility rate. Which the rents would have been pegged against.\ So even when it’s busy as hell, it’s just not busy enough to pull on the revenue levels the land lords now need to keep covering large rents.
Providence is the perfect place for this to happen.
You might say it's... providential.
I remember when this went viral! Definitely Looking forward to seeing the documentary!
Love this story. Have known about it since before they got evicted (I’m old)
This is so cool! Why didn’t I think of this when I was a teenager?! 🤣
I remember hearing about this in an old Good Mythical Morning episode, cool I guess
The title is “[Secret Mall Apartment.](https://variety.com/t/secret-mall-apartment/)”
Made me think of Gleaming The Cube
Very cool. Reminds me of the story about a dude who lived inside a statue in manhattan for several years.
This happens in the book Strange Angels by Lili St Crow, lol. Think Supernatural but it's a teen girl hunting monsters instead of two adult brothers. The guy she likes has a secret barricaded room in a mall where he's living because his home life is unstable.
Right before a huge local mall in my town was demolished we explored the whole thing and found so many old stores and spaces that no one had been in like 10+ years, I bet we could have set up an apartment in there haha
The story sounds awesome, but I don't know if I can handle Jesse Eisenberg narrating a documentary.
What do you mean “and why”? The why is flipping obvious.
Barefoot Contessa vibes
This was in my state and I e never heard of the story
This is the dream of literally every boy
No toilet though, I’m curious how that worked out
So what the movie title?
Almost as cool as IKEA heights https://youtu.be/DscIhisUgn0?si=1kdxEMxTt1rPKsiD
These days this is just a Mr beast video
Sick. Every teenagers dream
So, the original Dawn of the Dead?
I remember this story. :-D I'm local to the place!
Sounds awesome and pretty smart.
It was in the Providence Place Shopping Mall. in Rhode Island. Providence is a strange place...
Guys just wanna have fun
I wonder how common things like this are.
Damn, used to go to that mall all the time right when it got built. That was kind of right at the tail-end of the “mall era,” and Providence Place was the newest and nicest mall in that SE Mass and Rhode Island area.
“You guys wanna watch Top Gun?”
Episode of “Friends?”
I imagine the why was ‘money’ and the how was probably one or more of the 8 friends worked on the malls construction or remodel. Boom just recapped the whole doc without seeing it.