Demolition of the former Rolling Acres Mall began a few days ago and readers have been eager to share their memories of the once-flourishing mall in Akron.
The city became the owner of the interior of the mall on Romig Road and about 50 acres around it in June after Summit County foreclosed on the mall owner after eight years of legal maneuvering.
The inside of Rolling Acres closed in 2008 when electricity was about to be turned off for nonpayment. A man was electrocuted in 2011 when he attempted to steal copper wiring.
The mall had been in decline for years before it closed.
But when the mall opened on Aug. 6, 1975, it was the place to be.
‘Wonderland’
To Cheryle Robinson, who grew up in Cuyahoga Falls, Chapel Hill was the mall closer to her house in the 1970s.
“However, once in a while, we would venture to Rolling Acres. To a kid, that mall was a wonderland. It was so big! It had two stories! It had a food court! Chapel Hill had none of that. On those special shopping trips, my mom, younger brother and sister, my grandma and I would spend the day prowling. I loved Waldenbooks, Claire’s and Spencer Gifts (home of naughty gifts, snicker). Our day was always capped with the treat of an ice cream cone from Baskin Robbins,” recalled Robinson, now 51 and a Columbus resident.
She spent time as a teen at Chapel Hill, but once she got her license, she headed back to Rolling Acres.
“I did a lot of Christmas shopping there, and I still remember the huge, colorful decorations in the center of the mall. Compared to Chapel Hill, Rolling Acres was larger, nicer and seemed a bit more sophisticated.”
Robinson was dismayed to hear and eventually see online what had become of her beloved mall.
“It’s true what they say — you can never go home again,” she said.
‘I was hooked’
Richard Holik, 52, remembers reading Beacon Journal stories about the soon-to-open mall as a child, about 9 or 10 years old.
“I remember being so excited when my older brother and his wife offered to let me tag along with them to the new mall a day or two after it first opened. I was hooked. It was a rare glimpse into a sparkling, clean, bright, happy and sunlit place for a blue-collar kid growing up in the ’70s in Barberton,” Holik said.
During his teen years, “Rolling Acres was the prime hangout spot for me and my friends. I remember being mortified one time when I bumped my rear into the glass elevator emergency button, setting off the alarm bells and causing what seemed like the entire mall to stop and gawk at us behind the glass.”
When Holik was home on leave from the military during the mid-1980s, he took some photos of the mall. “I just wanted to capture a little slice of home at one point,” he said “I wish I’d taken more.”
Holik shared a few of his photos with the Beacon Journal.
As a young parent, he said he would take his toddler son to the mall, “sitting on a bench by the fountain, sensing what was by then the mall’s obvious decline, and knowing that the place was not long for this world, not likely to be a site of many shared experiences for us.”
“For those of us at a certain age, the mall was our downtown, filled with happy and cherished memories,” he said. “I think this is in large part responsible for the fascination surrounding dead malls. As opposed to all the photos and videos of decay and ruin, I’m more interested in seeing images of the mall at its prime.” Holik, now of Wadsworth, was featured in a documentary about the dead mall.
Lost in the mall
For Christine Curry and her siblings, the first visit to the mall didn’t quite turn out as they thought it would.
Curry, whose maiden name is Taormina, and her two sisters persuaded their parents to take them and their younger brother from Firestone Park to the brand-new Rolling Acres Mall after Sunday Mass. It was the weekend after the mall opened.
“We were extremely happy and got to go to the mall in our Sunday best. My sisters and I were 13, 12, and 11 and our baby brother had just turned 4. Mom and Dad agreed to letting us walk around the mall for one hour without them. We synchronized our watches and agreed to keep an eye on ‘the baby’… our little brother, Frankie, and went on our way,” recalled Curry, the city of Akron’s director of communications.
“It was so exciting. We went up and down the escalator first, and then we went back up to the main floor in the glass elevator with smiles on our faces. It was so beautiful! Our exploration of the mall was going well until we realized we lost the baby and we only had 15 minutes before we were to meet our parents in front of J.C. Penney. In a panic, we ran down to Sears to see if he was down there. We went to the food court. No Frankie.
“We met our parents and let them know we lost Frankie. I was shaking, my sisters were crying. Mom took Dee and Lynn; and I went with Dad. I remember calling for my brother and looking in every store. My dad was furious.
“We came to a men’s store just across from the glass elevator and through the window I saw my brother vacuuming. It was a relief and also funny. My dad walks in and looks at Frankie, who gives him a big grin and keeps on running the vacuum. The sales clerk, a young man, came over to my dad and told him that he knew my brother was lost and thought it would be good to have him vacuum in front of the window so his parents could find him. All I can say to that young man today, 41 years later — well done! That was great thinking.
“The ride home was quiet and we three girls knew to toe the line the rest of the day. Needless to say, our next big adventure at Rolling Acres Mall did not involve us roaming on our own.”
Fountains and lights
Xavier Himes, who grew up in the Akron area and now lives in Harrisburg, N.C., emailed with what he calls his vivid memories of the mall.
“In the former Court of the Twelve Trees, there was a beautiful stainless-steel fountain on top of orange tiles. Rolling Acres was filled with plenty of natural light from the geometric skylights. I loved the waterfall chandelier that was in front of the former O’Neil’s, Kaufmann’s and Macy’s,” Himes said.
Facebook memories
Several readers also shared their memories via Facebook. Here are a few:
• Susan Carpenter: “My ex-husband purchased my diamond engagement/wedding rings from the LeRoy’s in the center of the mall. The marriage didn’t last as long as the mall did, but it was a beautiful ring.”
• Michelle Ferrell: “I remember selling Girl Scout cookies near the fountains down by Sears. It was so packed ... we ran out of our stock. I literally grew up in that mall. So sad.”
• Charles Dokes Jr.: “I can remember going to see Rocky IV there in ’85 with my dad and brother. The movie was so good that at the end everyone stood up and started clapping. I will never forget Kopper Popper and Aladdin’s Arcade, going there every Saturday night with my best friends in high school in the mid to late ’90s. I will always miss the mall.”
Nearing the end
The mall in recent years has been a far cry from the retail mecca of its heyday.
In his first tour of the closed mall in June, full of glass, debris and mold, Akron Mayor Dan Horrigan said it was clear the mall with the “apocalyptic feel” needed to be demolished.
Glass shards littered the entire mall. The railings were gone. The escalators had debris. The lower level was filled with trees and litter, including a tire.
Demolition began on Thursday.
But don’t expect any dramatic use of wrecking balls or dynamite for the demolition. Work will be slow and excavators will pick away at the structure, starting with the inside of the mall, said Brad Beckert, city development engineering manager in the mayor’s office of economic development.
Asbestos has already been removed. The demolition itself will probably take three weeks, but Beckert anticipates it will take eight to 10 weeks to finish the job.
There are still four former department stores now owned privately with businesses occupying the space that need to be preserved. The former J.C. Penney building has been donated to the city by the retailer and will be demolished. Crews will cut those free-standing structures away from the interior of the mall, Beckert said.
The former mall owner is still trying some legal wrangling to void the county foreclosure. But a bankruptcy judge in California threw out a recent filing, calling it in bad faith. The involved parties have 30 days from Oct. 11 to appeal. Summit County and city of Akron officials say as far as they are concerned, there is no question that the city owns the mall and the property.
While a few readers on Facebook blamed the mall’s demise on crime and bad security, several were just sad.
“Heartbreaking,” Janice Pertee wrote.
Betty Lin-Fisher can be reached at 330-996-3724 or blinfisher@thebeaconjournal.com. Follow her @blinfisherABJ on Twitter or www.facebook.com/BettyLinFisherABJ and see all her stories at www.ohio.com/betty.