Rich in Vacancy: A Last Look at Richmond Town Square

“Just another dead mall in Ohio that the Mall Maniac is covering.” Well in my defense there are/were A LOT, and this one is an especially epic special posthumous release.

This mall saw the light, and wasn’t afraid.

Prologue:

It was exactly five years ago from the day I write this that I visited the “mezza morta” Richmond Town Square in the eastern suburb of Cleveland, Ohio, Richmond Heights. Not planned, did not come across any memories on my phone, just pure coincidence. I think seeing all this snow on the ground in Cincinnati reminded me of this voyage I took up north. I wish I had made this blog back when I ventured through it but I got busy and then made other blogs and unfortunately never got around to it… until now. Bear with me as I attempt to recollect my half-a-decade-ago visit, and there’s a lot of pictures so if you’re a granddaddy, have those reading glasses on hand. I want to share all of them because I know there will be people who come across this who used to shop, or work, or bring their kids there, and so on, and hopefully I’m able to spark some memories for you. If I’m wrong about anything, feel free to leave a comment. I didn’t grow up going here and I’m curious to learn more, best tool I’ve got at my disposal is wikipedia. So join me as we take one last look at a mall that at the time of my visit was not rich in options, but rich in vacancy.

History:

Let’s rewind to 1966, September 22nd to be exact. Developer Edward J. DeBartolo Sr.’s Richmond Mall opened to the public. Upon researching the developer, I come to find that he bought the San Francisco 49ers back in 1977, gifted them to his son, and then his team went on to terrorize my Cincinnati Bengals twice in the ‘80s. Back to retail though… The mall was anchored by Sears, JCPenney, Woolworths, and also featured a Loews Theater. At its peak, the mall had over 75 stores spanning across its 1+ million square feet of retail space. It underwent a significant renovation in 1998 following an ownership merger which led to the mall’s surname becoming “Town Square.” Through the years stores changed, renovations felt dated quickly, and the mall began to enter a serious decline in the 2010s. I explored it in February of 2021 amidst the Covid-19 Pandemic, and it officially shut its doors just a few months later in may of that year. For more than two years the mall sat fully abandoned until it was torn down in fall of 2023. The site is currently being redeveloped into a modern “Lifestyle center.” YUCK!

Here are a few pictures I found on Facebook that showcase what the mall looked like pre-reno in 1995. Just perfect department store logos.

Photo credits to Dave Makatura and Pleasant Family Shopping on Facebook.

Tour:

Exterior photos of a bleak Richmond Town Square. Sidewalks hardly shoveled, parking lot hardly plowed.

Bet it looked a lot cooler before the renovations. The saving grace is the Regal Cinemas with its red tinted glass atrium.

Onto the interior.

I hope you all enjoyed taking a trip down memory lane, or discovering a place you think was cool through these photos. I only saw a few people on my tour, one of them being a security guard who I believe was yelling to himself.

Conclusion:

While there are still a few successful enclosed shopping malls in Northeast Ohio e.g. South Park Mall (Strongsville), Great Northern Mall (North Olmsted), Richmond Town Square suffered the same fate as the vast majority of them, with a decline in the 2010s and a closure shortly after the Covid-19 Pandemic e.g. Chapel Hill Mall (Akron), Midway Mall (Elyria.) I’m sure this was a wonderful place to take your family for a whole day from shopping, to grabbing lunch, and seeing a movie, but it’s a different kind of world we live in today.

Mall Maniac Rating:

Shopping: 1/10 – like 2 stores??
Food: 1/10 – literally one place.
Architecture: 5/10 – a few cool things but much of what I would have found really cool was changed in the ’98 renovation.
Overall Dead Mall Experience: 6.5/10 – Still sweet to walk around a place that should be filled with people but is not. This mall was VERY dead, but cooler architecture, crazier history, and maybe something genuinely scary would have resulted in a higher score.

So long Richmond… May you have found Sears or some other stores who want to sign leases with you in dead mall heaven.