Wayne Hills Mall Santa Reprises Role At NYC Exhibit

WAYNE, NJ – The man who played Santa Claus each year at Wayne Hills Mall has reprised his role.

David Conley, a Bergen County resident who worked as Santa for nearly a decade, donned the red suit again this weekend at a photo exhibit in New York City that focus on the now-demolished shopping mall.

According to the Front Room Gallery, Santa will be back on Dec. 14 to meet and greet visitors from 1 to 4 p.m.

Photographer Phillip Buehler recently unveiled his images capturing the death of Wayne Hills Mall in an exhibition at the Front Room Gallery. Admission is free and the gallery is located at 48 Hester Street.

“Mallrat to Snapchat: the End of the Third Place” includes 21 photographs, as well as “artifacts from the mall and its opening year, 1973.” For instance, below a picture of a “desolate” Sam Goody, there’s a bin filled with nearly 100 albums from that year, that visitors can flip through and play on a vintage record player at the gallery.

His photographs capture "ghost signs" of bankrupt retailers, such as Sam Goody, Waldenbooks, Payless Shoes, looking desolate and almost apocalyptic.

In Oct. 2019 issue of Weird NJ magazine, Buehler wrote about his adventures.

“I’m always on the lookout for more abandoned places to explore, photograph and research, so when I heard about the Wayne Hills Mall from…two fellow ruins explorers, I was thrilled,” wrote Buehler, also a Bergen County native.

Buehler said he made the first of a half-dozen trips to the mall in February 2019 just before it was demolished.

Buehler, who is known for taking pictures of deteriorated landmarks, aimed to show how one of the most popular places for teens to hang out, family activities and shopping has now become a thing of the past.

"Malls were once a central part of our culture, even settings for movies beginning with Fast Times at Ridgemont High and Dawn of the Dead and more recently with the Netflix series, Stranger Things. Throughout the '70s and '80s, malls replaced Main Streets as our community gathering places," he wrote.

Though the last stores at Wayne Hills Mall closed ten years ago, Buehler said the building itself had been "slowly dying for years."

"About five years ago the large AC units on the roof as well as much of the flashing covering the roof seams was removed and water came in, which brought down the drop ceilings and created a post-apocalyptic scene that was very different that other empty malls, which are usually just vacant," he wrote.

The mall was razed earlier this year to make room for a new ShopRite and other retail stores.