By Kevin Williams
I could almost still smell the hot pretzels, warm from the oven.
"That's where it used to be," I told Aster.
"Where what used to be?" Aster asked.
"It was a pretzel store called Hot Sam, that's where we went to get soft pretzels in the days before Auntie Anne's"
And I point out where the Chik-fil-A used to be, the Waldenbooks, the Camelot Music Store, the Kay-Bee Toy Store, The Gap. Man, that is when you knew your mall had made it when you had a Gap. And that's when you knew your mall was tanking when the Gap left. Except I'm not sure many of us realized it at the time. Stores slowly leave the mall and you think "well, something else will come along to fill the spot." But then it never does and one by one the mall grows dark. Even the Radio Shack is long gone. They held on longer than almost anyone.
The Bath & Body Works gets the award for hanging on the longest,but they are finally on their way out. The developers have tried their best. New people bought the mall several years ago and gussied up the name from The Towne Mall to The Towne Mall Galleria. But they weren't really fooling anyone. To their credit, they did succeeding in bringing in a Burlington Coat Factory and a Planet Fitness, both are busy. But they couldn't fight off larger macroeconomic forces like Sears closing. Or Elder-Beerman/Bon-Ton pulling out.
But people can still be drawn into this mall. Aster, Bea, and I were in the center of the mall in what once used to be a bustling, airy atrium. Empty now. The fountains taken out, the plants gone. But we heard clapping, and cheering, and voices drifting from an empty wing of the mall. At first, I thought I was imagining something. But it continued.And soon we saw a small mall store filled with people, perhaps 50 or 60 souls. Only it wasn't a store, the name of the place was DIAMOND JUBILEE CHORUS. And they had managed to do what few others have succeeded doing: bringing people into the mall. A barbershop quarter of sorts was singing and everyone in the audience was cheering and clapping. It was eerie to see such a happy, contented scene in any otherwise deserted mall.
Another once busy eatery, it's last sandwich served long ago...
I came thinking the girls and I might explore on a cold, cloudy day and perhaps find a very cheap food court lunch...but there was no food court...(I eventually just took them over to my parents nearby house and scrambled them some eggs). Yanni's Gyros hung on longer than, there's nothing left of what once was a vibrant "food row"
Once was once a busy central atrium is now just an empty shell....
The store-front for the Diamond Jubilee Chorus......
If only the rest of the store-fronts in the mall could be as successful....
Here is a short video clip of us wandering around this deserted mall.
The stores won't come back, you can stick a fork in this mall...once shopping habits shift it's very tough, if not impossible, to get them back....
Xaviere
I have never been to that mall before. I live on the west side of Cincinnati, and we have seen a shift in the closest mall (Northgate, Colerain) where shops are closing. Kenwood seems to be doing fine though. Have you checked out the Liberty Town Center?
Kevin
Ah, a west sider! Northgate is holding on OK, isn't it? Forest Fair used to be amazing but, geez, I don't even know if that is still there anymore. Yes, Liberty Town Center is our 'go to' mall, it's nice, but it's also sort of a "hybrid", a small traditional mall combined with a "streets" segment...
Gail Plaskiewicz
I haven't been to the mall in years but I remember going and having a ball! I loved the mall! Our nearest mall is 30 min. or so away. They say now that mall has a lot of gangs and kids who think nothing about harassing the grownups. It's no where near as safe as it used to be. There is another one we used to go to about an hour away but I hear the same about it. They both still have a good food court and other fast food places to eat but Home Town Buffet closed and I loved to eat there! We used to go on my birthday. The world sure has changed, hasn't it? When the whole mall closes up, what do that do with this huge empty building? I just heard Clare's is filing for bankruptcy and we have one in our mall. I used to also love Clare's.
Kevin
SIGH, yep, you and I have similar mall memories....Too bad to see their demise, I never disliked them as much as a lot of people...I never really had the $$$ to do serious shopping at the mall, but it was always a pleasant place to hang out!