We have a really awesome dead mall experience to share. This is one visit from the archives that was really special. Here is the Midway Mall in Sherman Texas. This once bustling mall is currently undergoing renovations to turn most of the former retail space into warehouses and storage units. As of my visit in the Spring of 2021, the mall was completely open to walk the corridors. It was certainly an experience to see this mall that was stuck in time before it changed. We spent nearly an hour exploring the mall with two trips around the mall. The bonus part of this trip was the fact that the entire mall was open to walk around. Since at least late 2018, the corridor from Dillard's, to the food court to Sears, was closed, but not in April 2021. Later that year, the mall was auctioned off to the current ownership that is redeveloping the mall.
Midway Mall is about an hour North of Dallas in the city of Sherman Texas. Midway Mall is over 600,000 square feet of retail sapce, but feels larger. Midway Mall had Sears, JCPenney, Goody's, Bealls, Mervyn's and Dillard's as anchors. Currently only Dillard's and Burlington which replaced Mervyn's are open as retail anchors. Only the mall corridor between the former JCPenney and Burlington remain open with Dillard's holding on without any mall access. I visited this mall in April of 2021 and met up with Jeff from Retail Mix USA during this trip. Jeff has a lot of videos from this mall and so many more to check out here.
Midway Mall opened in 1986 and was preceded by the Sher-Den Mall which closed in 1999. Sherman Town Center and the surrounding area along US 75 and US 82, have steadily taken away business from the mall. Midway Mall is along the lesser travelled Texoma Parkway.
Here is the mall entrance that is still open as of the publishing of this post. This section of the mall will remain open as retail space with renovations to update the look. The rest of the mall past MishMash is sealed off to the public.
The entryway with mirrored tiles.
A look into the first vacant store as we enter the mall.
Now for our first look into the mall. These were the doors we entered into the mall.
Looking down the corridor to one of the former JCPenney entrances. JCPenney moved out to a new shopping center in 2007.
The tent roofs were great to see and were in good condition for the age of the mall. The mall was built with these areas in anticipation of adding a second floor to the mall.
A classic GNC that appeared to have recently closed.
Inside of the former GNC.
A vacant candy store.
One of the few businesses operating on this visit, Taz Jewelers.
The train was out of service on this visit. We will find the train later behind the gates of a closed store.
MishMash, another retailer that has a variety of items for sale.
Former American Eagle.
Inside of the former American Eagle.
Looking back to the main mall entrance. As of late 2021, there is a wall at this spot blocking off access to the rest of the mall.
Old Suncoast?
Inside of that store.
Old Claires?
Here is the inside of that store.
Former Bealls, this space was being used as a community center at the time.
The Bealls court.
Everything left behind at this business.
Entrance to the former Bealls.
Another view of the Bealls court.
The old Sears.
Not sure what this store was near the old Sears.
Inside of that store.
This business appeared to be recently closed.
There was this note left on the door.
One of the display cases at the mall. Pretty sad looking indeed.
Now we head off to the bulk of the mall space. From here on out, there are no more open stores with mall access. Only Dillard's remains open in this whole side of the mall.
Or was this the Claire's?
Inside of the above store.
Another empty store that had the name Miss Mango.
Very few of the lights were on, mostly natural light to break the darkness. As you can see, parts of the mall were very dark and some were very bright.
The recently closed Buckle.
Another sad display case.
Former Old Navy on the right side of the mall.
An advertisement for the MishMash store we passed earlier.
Bath and Body Works recently closed. Videos from 2020 showed this store to still be open.
Old wood storefront.
Inside of the above store.
Completely empty corridor from Dillard's to the center of the mall.
Empty store near Dillard's.
This cinema was long gone. We will see it in just a bit.
Looking from the Dillard's corridor to the food court. This spot had been blocked off up until recently. Videos from 2019 and 2020 showed a large chunk of the mall blocked off. Thankfully, all of those sections were removed and the entire mall was open to walk.
Dillard's court
We found the train, way back on the other side of the mall.
Plants were taken care of.
The restrooms were open and had running water. I was surprised since this corridor had been closed off until recently.
Funny sign, I guess they had a lot of mischief on the golf cart.
Check out the old-school customer service window.
Here is the first look at a mall map. As you can see, this mall has a very unusual shape. The corridor South of Dillard's all the way up to the center court had been blocked off for a while. We got lucky that it was open to see the whole mall on our visit.
Another view of the customer service window and mall management office.
Now for the best part of the mall. The empty food court.
Lots of natural light here.
We will see more of the food court in just a bit.
The floor in this section of the mall was partially torn up. If I remember correctly, this part of the mall was going to be renovated several years ago before prior ownership gave up on the property.
Looking towards the second entrance of the former Sears.
Some of the skylights had been fixed up over the years.
A view of the center court tent. These were really cool to see in person.
A view of the other side of the mall that was closed off until recently. Sears to the left, food court to the right at the end of this corridor.
The huge center court of the mall.
You can see how healthy the trees were.
The former Buckle store that we took a closer look at in the bottom right corner of this photo.
Former Victoria's Secret.
Not a good hiding spot if needed with the door padlocked closed.
The second former JCPenney entrance.
Inside of the former JCPenney.
The former Victoria's Secret mall entrance. This store appeared to be open up until recently as well.
Cactus River, another closed off business.
Back to the center court. This palm tree was running out of room to grow.
Another look at the former Victoria's Secret.
Looking back down the Dillard's corridor. Former Old Navy on the left and former Bath and Body Works on the far right.
The store in the middle looks a bit familiar.
Former Pacsun
Why yes, this store is a former.......
Waldenbooks!
I had not seen a Waldenbooks like this in many years. Behind the plastic covering, was this beauty.
Simply awesome, too bad the gate wasn't open to explore further.
You can kind of see the labelscar.
A full view of the former Waldenbooks store front.
Another look at the former Old Navy.
Former Bath and Body Works.
Now here are a few stores that I did not recognize.
We saw this closed up store front earlier in the trip near Bealls.
One of the negative things about the mall was the putrid smell in this area of the mall. Either something had gotten into the carpet or one of the plants had something rotting inside, but it was a nasty smell.
More views of the mall stores.
The Dillard's mall entrance. Mall access was no longer available from Dillard's.
The carpet was in really poor shape, especially in this area of the mall.
Another store that looks to have recently closed near Dillard's.
More views of the dead corridor near Dillard's.
And once again the entrance to Dillard's.
You can see the train behind the closed off store front. The rides were not plugged in by the way.
Another look at the Dillard's mall entrance.
Old advertisements
Back to the food court.
Former Chik-Fil-A.
Inside of the former Chik-Fil-A
A former Sushi Bar.
Look at the former Corn Dog 7 right in the middle. The spot on the right looked to have been a Cookie shop.
The former Old Navy backed up to the food court. You can see the distinctive ovals where the Old Navy logos were at.
One of the cool features of the food court was the mirrors surrounding the upper parts of the food outlets.
Another really healthy palm tree.
Now for a look at the former cinema. I wish that the neons were on to see how cool this place looked.
Even the inside of the cinema had ample neon.
Follow the rules!
The view from the cinema and food court mall entrance.
Now this was something new for me. Take a good look at the doors, yes they were screwed shut. Not sure if that was allowed per the fire code, but this done here.
Back to the cinema we go.
Pretty sure this was a former Tilt arcade.
More views of the food court.
Ancient mall candy. The only food items left in the food court.
Looking back towards the former Sears mall entrance.
More old advertising.
An old Sears advertisement in the food court area as well.
The ceilings in this area were falling apart.
More views of the torn-up floor near the food court and Sears.
A better view of the former Sears entrance.
A covered-up storefront near Sears. Is that an old phone booth on the right side?
So much emptiness!
The former Goody's
Inside of the former Goody's.
More of the covered up store-front near Sears. You can also see the floor tiles were removed and floor painted in this area.
Another view of the hallway in between Sears and the food court.
Former DEB store.
Inside of the former DEB.
Even the parts of the floor that were under renovation were in poor shape. Once again, very surprising that this section of the mall had been opened up with the floors in such bad shape.
More views of the mall as we head back to the center court and back to the main entrance.
Former Cookie store kiosk. Not sure what brand this was.
Miss Mango store again.
Rogers Jewelers
Mall directional signage possibly to the food court.
Another view of the center court.
A very outdated mall directory.
Back to the Bealls/Sears court.
Another unknown store from the past.
Former Foot Locker.
Inside of the former Foot Locker.
Looking back towards the center court from the Bealls/Sears court.
Former Finish Line.
The Taz Jeweler store front again.
The JCPenney/ Burlington court.
Old arcade machines were being stored in this empty store front. Earlier this Summer, these were some of the items auctioned off from the mall.
The entertainment place Jump N Land which was closed on my visit.
The Burington corridor has some cool old store-fronts as well.
Should I try some?
More random store fronts in the Burlington corridor.
I wonder how this corridor is going to look once renovations are complete. I was unable to find anything recent on the mall redevelopment showing photos of the new design. I do think this part of the mall looks the best with ample skylights and less wear and tear than the parts of the mall with carpet.
The Burlington mall entrance which was actually open on my visit. This was a former Mervyn's.
Coke gave up on this place. This was the second empty machine I saw on this visit.
More of the Burlington corridor.
Another outdated directory.
Even more views of the mall from the Burlington/Sears/ JCPenney/Bealls section of the mall.
Pretty sure this was an old Gadzooks.
Bealls and Sears.
I wonder what the Secret Door was, an escape room maybe.
Definitely a former Journey's.
Bealls
Sears and the mall candy I finally tried out. The sour candies were actually pretty good, even though they were probably at least 10 years old.
More of the mall as we finish up this trip.
Kiosk for rent $499 a month, should be $499 for a whole year. The sign also says, "let me be yours for the holiday shopping season", lol.
One last view of the tent ceiling.
Now for a drive around the mall.
Burlington/former Mervyn's. Currently open.
Former Sears
Great labelscar.
Former Goody's/Expo Hall
Closed off food court/cinema entrance. This was the one with the doors screwed shut. This was also the last entrance with the old school mall signage.
Dillard's, which is currently open.
Former JCPenney
One last view of the mall and Burington.
