Farewell, Richmond Mall

Like many locals I have numerous memories of Richmond Mall.

The first was from not long after my family moved to the area in the early 1970s. My father and I went to Woolworth, which was near the center of the mall. I wanted to explore the toy area. My dad consented but warned me to stay there while he went to get whatever he was looking for. Soon I became bored and wandered Woolworth looking for my dad. Failing to see him there, I stepped outside the store and saw him, with his back to me, talking with someone else. I walked over to him and grabbed his hand. He turned around and asked me “How can I help you, little boy?” It was NOT my dad. I screamed bloody murder.  My dad, who had been looking for me, heard my scream and retrieved me.

Despite my misadventure, I made regular trips to the mall, with my parents or sister at first, and later on my own with my high school friends. Richmond Mall seemed to have everything. A small second level near the mall’s center included a magic shop which I found fascinating.  I saw King Kong at the theater there - the mural outside the theater was more memorable than the movie. My grandmother and I frequently dined at a fancy restaurant there. I bought my first suit at Diamond’s men’s store. Shortly before graduating high school, I got a job at the Waldenbooks there.

The central fountain at Richmond Mall

Until I was about ten, there were two local malls: Severance Center and Richmond Mall. They were separate and distinct entities with different stores, restaurants, and cinemas. Initially, Severance was the more upscale of the two, boasting Higbee’s and Halle’s as anchors, while Richmond Mall had Sears and JCPenney.  Severance was my mother’s mall of choice, Richmond Mall was my father’s preference.

The Geranium room at Halle's

From Severance I remember Halle’s, which had a restaurant called the Geranium Room where my mother would buy me lunch as a reward for not misbehaving as she did her clothes shopping. There was also a small deli near the mall’s center, where my mom would get us sandwiches, and we would sit near the fountain and watch the water show as we enjoyed our food. When I was ten, I saw Star Wars three times at one of the two theaters at Severance. After graduating from high school, I worked at The Music Box - a classical and jazz record store recently relocated from Shaker Square.  I left Cleveland shortly thereafter.  Returning in the mid-1990s, I was struck by the deterioration both at Severance and Richmond Mall.

The west entrance to Richmond Mall.  

This striking architectural feature was removed 

when Macy's was added as a third anchor in the 1990s.

Richmond Mall underwent a major remodel in the late 1990s, being rebranded as Richmond Town Square.  But the traffic never returned to the levels it enjoyed during its heyday of the 1960s and 70s and the stores became increasingly generic.  Mall rents were simply too high for the independent retailers that were there before.  Once the Barnes & Noble there closed, I had little reason to goto Richmond Mall.  B&N became a Planet Fitness which Daniel went to until a new branch opened at Cedar Center.  

Shortly before the turn of the millennium, Severance was essentially turned inside out and reopened as Severance Town Center, with entirely new stores: Borders, Home Depot, Walmart, a grocery store, a Bally’s gym.  Again, generic stuff you could find anywhere else.  Borders died during the Great Recession and the Bally’s location became another gym.  Walmart moved to Oakwood Commons in 2013.  Severance Town Center suffers from low occupancy, with some of the outlying buildings, including the former IHOP, shuttered.  Somehow, it continues to limp along despite poorly maintained and nearly empty parking areas.

A certain type of person will blame the demise of Richmond Mall as the result of “urban” culture ruining the shopping experience. Others will blame online shopping.  I won’t wallow in nostalgia for an era that was not objectively “better.”  Both Richmond and Severance both started going downhill after Randall Park Mall (claimed to be the world’s largest shopping mall when opened, now torn down and replaced by an Amazon warehouse) and Beachwood Place opened. By the 1980s, I noticed the carpeting along Richmond Mall’s long corridors was looking frayed.  This was, obviously, long before online shopping became an option.  Truth be told, there are only so many shopping centers that can be supported in an area with a declining population.

This begs the question: should older, out of date shopping centers like Severance and Richmond Mall be somehow protected when newer and arguably better shopping centers like Legacy Village and Pinecrest are serving the area’s consumers?  I believe not.

As Terence Mann (played by James Earl Jones) said in Field of Dreams: “America has rolled by like an army of steamrollers. It has been erased like a blackboard, rebuilt and erased again.”  That is what is happening near the northeast corner of Richmond and Wilson Mills Roads.  The new development, Belle Oaks, is arguably the best use for this parcel of land.  After years of delays, I look forward to seeing the finished product. 

 

*Photos courtesy Cleveland Historical Society and Cleveland Memory