I’m not a native of Marion, but as a store manager for the now defunct Nobil Shoe Company, I was transferred in to run the Nobil’s here. I was there for two years, 1980-1982. The mall was in its hey day then, with no vacancies as I recall. Our store was center mall, with the fountain right in front of us. Thinking back to my time there, I recall how the mall, and specifically that big center fountain, seemed to be everyone’s meeting place. On a Friday night or Saturday, it seemed almost everyone in town would turn up there. It was packed. Seeing this video makes me nostalgic and a little sad, but you did a great job. Your research on the history and background is the best I’ve seen done on this mall. Thanks for the trip down memory lane.
The eatery with the tile was home to several different mom and pop pizza/Italian restaurants throughout the years. None have lasted more than a year since the original closed.
I live in Marion! Been here many times when it was open and full of stores and now abandoned for the most part. I'd love to see it get some new life...
That mall was really nice and in great shape. To bad its dead. Next time i take a trip north, i need to stop in some of these malls. The song you played at the end is always calm and soothing. Thanks. Have a good weekend.
Great video! We were there in early August 2024, looking for that coffee shop, and a lot had already changed. The coffee shop is gone, sadly. But the game stores and art store are still going strong, and there's a clothing store too. I think that popcorn and ice cream place is still open, with the tables and yellow chairs in front. And there's a tobacco store using the drive thru where the bank used to be located. But the Bath & Body Works and Joann Fabrics left very recently, and those have really hurt. The restaurant with the white, green, and red tile was a pizza place that probably closed 15-20 years ago. Will be interesting to see if and for how long this mall hangs on.
My father moved to Marion in the early 90s and he lived just south of this mall. Back then, circa 1993-1996, the area was still rural-ish and his house was part of a new development that only had a few homes on the street (but is now firmly suburban). My stepbrother and I used to dress up like Power Rangers and climb the big mounds of dirt from where they were dumping the earth removed from all the new houses being constructed. There was even a gigantic hole in the backyard that is now a nice genteel lake, but back then was just a huge muddy pit. We would spent quite a bit of time in this mall when I visited. In Fall 1994 (I was around 7), he took me to K.B. Toys and told me I could get anything I wanted if I could beat him at Mortal Kombat in the arcade. I had my eye on a big pile of stuffed animals that was near the front of the store, so challenge accepted. I won (or was allowed to win) and I chose a stuffed tiger out of the bin. That tiger became my constant childhood companion, and I still have it in a little net full of stuffed animals in my room. Another visit, probably about a year later but I'm not sure, I remember we were there around lunchtime and I wanted to get some food from "Hot Dogs & More", a storefront food place similar in format to Auntie Anne's that I really liked for some reason. Anyway, my dad gives me the money to go get a hot dog and I got in line but the guy at the counter refused to take my order and kept jumping people past me in line despite me showing him I had money. I went and found my dad and was pretty upset, and he came and just completely reamed the poor dude out (retrospectively, it was probably just a teenager, but they seemed old to me). Most of my other memories here are just glimpses of neon signs or people sitting in the one full store restaurant. As a kid, the mall felt huge and endless, but seeing it again as an adult, it really is just a dumpy little hallway with stores on each side. When my dad moved to Medina in 1996, our new mall became the South Park Mall in Strongsville, a much bigger and better mall in every way that I also have fond memories of.
@@QuintusAntonious those sound like some great memories, thanks for sharing! It may have been a small mall but as you’ve proved, it was special to many!
@@NorthCdogg22 I'm pretty sure "The Hotdog Stand" in the video is the old "Hot Dogs & More" from my story too. The counter set up and location in the mall seems right! And of course, the K.B. Toys is pretty much still exactly as it was when I was 7, minus being empty and closed of course.
Kind of ironic that the little stores that malls put out of business decades ago are the only type of little stores that are keeping the malls on life support now.
I’m from Marion, and the original pizza joint in the white, red, & green tiled place was called Cassano’s in the early ‘70s. Southland was a happening place through the ‘80s. There was even a luxury store there called Sutton & Lightner, owned by a local family. It was top notch! The mall also had Uhlman’s, The Union (for not long though), and Elder-Beerman for nice department stores for clothing and shoes. Musicland was the best place to go for records & albums. We just drove by it on 8/17/24, and I saw no signs of life. The movie theater has been gone for years now. The front of the old mall facing 423 is so sad. Marion has changed greatly since its heyday, and the mall was a casualty of that, just like in other small cities that lost good-paying manufacturing jobs. 😢
We moved to Marion in 1969 before the mall was covered. This was the place to be in th 80s. I heard that every time a store left the owners raised the rent. Word has it that the latest owners had no intention of drawing more customers. They just wanted it for a tax loss or something like that.
Marion Local Here.... It used to be an old Pizza Joint ( cant remember the name but it wasnt a chain brand). JoAnn Fabircs is now closed as well.... As far as I know, the Nail Salon and the Cinema are the only things that are still open. The Storefront at timestamp 10:45 used to be an Electronics Store Called Rex Electronics which went out of business and then it became a Sears Hometown shortly after Sears Closed its Doors.
@@SuperBuickregal that’s one I wanna see so badly!! Hoping to make a special trip out to see it soon, thanks for watching and thank you so much for the dono!!🙏🙏
Former resident of Marion and patron of southland. The green tile was a hair salon, the red, black and white cycled through a couple of lives typically as an Italian/pizza place
I went to that mall as early as 1993 but I never remember that community space being a store front. It may have been at one point but it was not Maurice's
Seeing this place with all its familar millenium style storefronts really takes you back to your own mall and its memories before it died. Its like seeing the characteristics of an old long-gone friend in someone new. Also it got me curious, do you know if the storefront at 7:15 was a vintage Kay or Gordons Jewlers? I've seen that store front many times but cant put my finger on which brand it was lol. Nice exploration as always though! 😁
I feel a small inline sbarro vibe from that red and green themed space. If it were a Subway, it'd probably have the wallpaper that tells us the history of the name.
@@PinkAgaricus i definitely get those vibes too! From what I heard it was a pop up pizza place in its final few years, so perhaps it was a Sbarros before then?
I am pretty sure Bath and Body Works would survive a nuclear blast and have 5 employees working with business as usual. If it is long since closed here then you know this mall is super dead.
I’m not a native of Marion, but as a store manager for the now defunct Nobil Shoe Company, I was transferred in to run the Nobil’s here. I was there for two years, 1980-1982. The mall was in its hey day then, with no vacancies as I recall. Our store was center mall, with the fountain right in front of us. Thinking back to my time there, I recall how the mall, and specifically that big center fountain, seemed to be everyone’s meeting place. On a Friday night or Saturday, it seemed almost everyone in town would turn up there. It was packed. Seeing this video makes me nostalgic and a little sad, but you did a great job. Your research on the history and background is the best I’ve seen done on this mall. Thanks for the trip down memory lane.
this episodes take me back in time and make me feel like everything is going to be ok, at least for a magical moment.
The eatery with the tile was home to several different mom and pop pizza/Italian restaurants throughout the years. None have lasted more than a year since the original closed.
I live in Marion! Been here many times when it was open and full of stores and now abandoned for the most part. I'd love to see it get some new life...
At 13:25... Cafaro must have loved those crazy hanging skylights. They used similar designs in the Ohio Valley Mall in St. Clairsville, OH.
Such a beautiful mall! Even being practically abandoned, it still looked clean.
The warm, inviting kind of malls I used to know and love. Thanks for sharing brother.
Thanks for watching!!
That mall was really nice and in great shape. To bad its dead. Next time i take a trip north, i need to stop in some of these malls. The song you played at the end is always calm and soothing. Thanks. Have a good weekend.
Great video! We were there in early August 2024, looking for that coffee shop, and a lot had already changed. The coffee shop is gone, sadly. But the game stores and art store are still going strong, and there's a clothing store too. I think that popcorn and ice cream place is still open, with the tables and yellow chairs in front. And there's a tobacco store using the drive thru where the bank used to be located. But the Bath & Body Works and Joann Fabrics left very recently, and those have really hurt. The restaurant with the white, green, and red tile was a pizza place that probably closed 15-20 years ago. Will be interesting to see if and for how long this mall hangs on.
Thanks for watching!! I really do hope this little mall is able to make it, it’s good to hear that some new business has since moved in!
My father moved to Marion in the early 90s and he lived just south of this mall. Back then, circa 1993-1996, the area was still rural-ish and his house was part of a new development that only had a few homes on the street (but is now firmly suburban). My stepbrother and I used to dress up like Power Rangers and climb the big mounds of dirt from where they were dumping the earth removed from all the new houses being constructed. There was even a gigantic hole in the backyard that is now a nice genteel lake, but back then was just a huge muddy pit.
We would spent quite a bit of time in this mall when I visited. In Fall 1994 (I was around 7), he took me to K.B. Toys and told me I could get anything I wanted if I could beat him at Mortal Kombat in the arcade. I had my eye on a big pile of stuffed animals that was near the front of the store, so challenge accepted. I won (or was allowed to win) and I chose a stuffed tiger out of the bin. That tiger became my constant childhood companion, and I still have it in a little net full of stuffed animals in my room.
Another visit, probably about a year later but I'm not sure, I remember we were there around lunchtime and I wanted to get some food from "Hot Dogs & More", a storefront food place similar in format to Auntie Anne's that I really liked for some reason. Anyway, my dad gives me the money to go get a hot dog and I got in line but the guy at the counter refused to take my order and kept jumping people past me in line despite me showing him I had money. I went and found my dad and was pretty upset, and he came and just completely reamed the poor dude out (retrospectively, it was probably just a teenager, but they seemed old to me).
Most of my other memories here are just glimpses of neon signs or people sitting in the one full store restaurant. As a kid, the mall felt huge and endless, but seeing it again as an adult, it really is just a dumpy little hallway with stores on each side. When my dad moved to Medina in 1996, our new mall became the South Park Mall in Strongsville, a much bigger and better mall in every way that I also have fond memories of.
@@QuintusAntonious those sound like some great memories, thanks for sharing! It may have been a small mall but as you’ve proved, it was special to many!
@@NorthCdogg22 I'm pretty sure "The Hotdog Stand" in the video is the old "Hot Dogs & More" from my story too. The counter set up and location in the mall seems right! And of course, the K.B. Toys is pretty much still exactly as it was when I was 7, minus being empty and closed of course.
Kind of ironic that the little stores that malls put out of business decades ago are the only type of little stores that are keeping the malls on life support now.
Idk why I but I love instrumental mall music with an echo
Me too!! It soothes the ears😌
you should check the music choices from his video Forest Fair Mall that he did it really soothes the ears
I’m from Marion, and the original pizza joint in the white, red, & green tiled place was called Cassano’s in the early ‘70s. Southland was a happening place through the ‘80s. There was even a luxury store there called Sutton & Lightner, owned by a local family. It was top notch! The mall also had Uhlman’s, The Union (for not long though), and Elder-Beerman for nice department stores for clothing and shoes. Musicland was the best place to go for records & albums. We just drove by it on 8/17/24, and I saw no signs of life. The movie theater has been gone for years now. The front of the old mall facing 423 is so sad. Marion has changed greatly since its heyday, and the mall was a casualty of that, just like in other small cities that lost good-paying manufacturing jobs. 😢
Great video! Are you going to Midway next? That is my absolute favorite dead mall! That Higbee's 😍
We moved to Marion in 1969 before the mall was covered. This was the place to be in th 80s. I heard that every time a store left the owners raised the rent. Word has it that the latest owners had no intention of drawing more customers. They just wanted it for a tax loss or something like that.
These videos are my therapy
Wild and eerie when theaters close and the “now showing” posters give a snap shot of when it closed by showing the releases at that time
Marion Local Here.... It used to be an old Pizza Joint ( cant remember the name but it wasnt a chain brand). JoAnn Fabircs is now closed as well.... As far as I know, the Nail Salon and the Cinema are the only things that are still open. The Storefront at timestamp 10:45 used to be an Electronics Store Called Rex Electronics which went out of business and then it became a Sears Hometown shortly after Sears Closed its Doors.
Timestamp 11:53 , you are Correct... formerly Maurices- Moved out to McMahan Blvd on the East Side of Town Right off US-23 @ Ohio SR-95
Thanks and Keep em Rolling! Ashtabula Towne Square that will be the next one.
@@SuperBuickregal that’s one I wanna see so badly!! Hoping to make a special trip out to see it soon, thanks for watching and thank you so much for the dono!!🙏🙏
@@NorthCdogg22 Thanks for the reply, so then I will say it is the Midway Mall unless you know of any others besides the Cleveland Malls/Arcades.
I love this mall. I need to make another visit to this mall. Great video north. Sad they turned the Sears into storage. What a waste.
Former resident of Marion and patron of southland. The green tile was a hair salon, the red, black and white cycled through a couple of lives typically as an Italian/pizza place
I went to that mall as early as 1993 but I never remember that community space being a store front. It may have been at one point but it was not Maurice's
Mall didn't really die until the mid 2000s when the jc Penney was shuttered by mistake
@@emmasedam thanks for the insight!
Seeing this place with all its familar millenium style storefronts really takes you back to your own mall and its memories before it died. Its like seeing the characteristics of an old long-gone friend in someone new. Also it got me curious, do you know if the storefront at 7:15 was a vintage Kay or Gordons Jewlers? I've seen that store front many times but cant put my finger on which brand it was lol. Nice exploration as always though! 😁
I think you’re right! It was an old Kay! Thanks for watching!
Marion is also home to a popular railfanning spot and museum--I will have to check out the mall if I'm ever in the area for the day
They should turn these places into apartments
I agree. Or maybe a nature preserve. The world needs more trees.
I feel a small inline sbarro vibe from that red and green themed space. If it were a Subway, it'd probably have the wallpaper that tells us the history of the name.
@@PinkAgaricus i definitely get those vibes too! From what I heard it was a pop up pizza place in its final few years, so perhaps it was a Sbarros before then?
Great music, as usual. 🙂
@@KB0101 thanks KB!
I find it intrusive.
@@gilessteve not for everyone🤷♂️
North -
Interesting video. Did enjoy the KB Toys labelscar. I was hoping we could find a good mall to do via livestream. Hoping for good suggestions.
I’m thinking Valley West! But we’ll see!
@@NorthCdogg22: Hoping this is true. It's my birthday close to the live stream. I know it would be a present for me to see a midwestern mall.
So does the mall own the display shelves? I'm always confused of why store owners leave those behind, as they are expensive.
I am pretty sure Bath and Body Works would survive a nuclear blast and have 5 employees working with business as usual. If it is long since closed here then you know this mall is super dead.
teletubbies bc why not
Millcreek Mall?
20 year lease is wild!!!!
I can see why it closed down, they can't even spell center right.
@@allentoyokawa9068 😂😂
where is everyone doing their shopping now? walmart/target? amazon?
@@papamoneyph where it’s cheapest and most convenient I suppose🤷♂️ malls just lost the convenience appeal..
The old restaurant looks like a Sbarro's
I never would go to this mall. You heard there was alot of crime. I stayed away
its not milcreek mall
Is the next video Midway Mall in Elyria, Ohio?
@@endeavourist5287indeed it is!
Hi