I've been doing some research on the two malls that I am photographing, so here is a short history on each of them
Randall Park:
The idea for Randall Park originally started in the mid 1960s by the famous mall developer Edward J. DeBartolo. At the time, there was another mall developer who was planning on building a super mall in Garfield heights, but due to Cleveland's fantastic zoning (sarcasm), they let DeBartolo build the mall in Randall anyway, which caused the Garfield project to be scaled down. Debartolo placed it in North Randall. it is only six minutes from Beachwood, and yet nobody hears about it today. The only notable parts of the town are the Ohio Horse Derby and the fact that it is situated between two interstate highways. The plan was to create a mall that would attract visitors from out of the area as well as people going to see the Ohio Derby. There were already hotels close to the proposed site, so it would be easy to attract shoppers.
DeBartolo was rather flamboyant. He would get to Randall park by flying there in a helicopter. He wanted to build the biggest mall ever created, so it was done. Randall held that title for a short period of time. When it first opened in 1976, Randall Park mall employed 5,000 people. The town itself only had 1,500. The mall had five major department stores inside the complex.
Two years later, Beachwood Place opened up (the one next to Legacy). Beachwood place pretty much stole most of Randall's customers. Randall was just so large that it was difficult to keep it in good shape. Locals began to call Randall Park "Vandal Dark" after a few high profile crimes (including a murder).
Ever since then, it had been in decline. A few of the major department stores left in the 90s, but by the mid 200s, pretty much all had left. The final attraction, a rundown movie theater, closed in 2009. After that, the city shut of Randall's electricity. Now it is a heap of junk
Euclid Square Mall:
Euclid Square Mall started in 1977 and was build on a lot that used to house a factory. The mall originally had 92 different stores, and it was pretty successful until the late 90s. By then, the retail bubble had burst, and some of the tenants decided to close their stores. The biggest tenant, Kauffman's, decided to relocate to Richmond Mall, which unsurprisingly, was not that far away from Euclid Square Mall (yay Cleveland zoning again!). That space got turned into an Outlets USA, which was a discount furniture and appliance store. That store closed in 2006 when the mall owner kicked Outlets out for pretty much being a bunch of jerks. And now it is a church mall.
Randall Park:
The idea for Randall Park originally started in the mid 1960s by the famous mall developer Edward J. DeBartolo. At the time, there was another mall developer who was planning on building a super mall in Garfield heights, but due to Cleveland's fantastic zoning (sarcasm), they let DeBartolo build the mall in Randall anyway, which caused the Garfield project to be scaled down. Debartolo placed it in North Randall. it is only six minutes from Beachwood, and yet nobody hears about it today. The only notable parts of the town are the Ohio Horse Derby and the fact that it is situated between two interstate highways. The plan was to create a mall that would attract visitors from out of the area as well as people going to see the Ohio Derby. There were already hotels close to the proposed site, so it would be easy to attract shoppers.
DeBartolo was rather flamboyant. He would get to Randall park by flying there in a helicopter. He wanted to build the biggest mall ever created, so it was done. Randall held that title for a short period of time. When it first opened in 1976, Randall Park mall employed 5,000 people. The town itself only had 1,500. The mall had five major department stores inside the complex.
Two years later, Beachwood Place opened up (the one next to Legacy). Beachwood place pretty much stole most of Randall's customers. Randall was just so large that it was difficult to keep it in good shape. Locals began to call Randall Park "Vandal Dark" after a few high profile crimes (including a murder).
Ever since then, it had been in decline. A few of the major department stores left in the 90s, but by the mid 200s, pretty much all had left. The final attraction, a rundown movie theater, closed in 2009. After that, the city shut of Randall's electricity. Now it is a heap of junk
Euclid Square Mall:
Euclid Square Mall started in 1977 and was build on a lot that used to house a factory. The mall originally had 92 different stores, and it was pretty successful until the late 90s. By then, the retail bubble had burst, and some of the tenants decided to close their stores. The biggest tenant, Kauffman's, decided to relocate to Richmond Mall, which unsurprisingly, was not that far away from Euclid Square Mall (yay Cleveland zoning again!). That space got turned into an Outlets USA, which was a discount furniture and appliance store. That store closed in 2006 when the mall owner kicked Outlets out for pretty much being a bunch of jerks. And now it is a church mall.
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