EUCLID SQUARE MALL: EUCLID, OH
Daniel Peck's Commentary
(User submitted April 2006)
*Update* 3/8/05 The Outlets USA concept did open in September of 2004,
and the Dillards, which was closed and locked when I originally took these
pictures was in fact open. Outlets doesn't qualify as a flea market, according
to its owner, because the merchandise the individual vendors sell is new. That
makes it a bazaar, located on the first floor of a former Kauffmans. The new
owners have a lot of enthusiasm. I wouldn't be so optimistic.
During Christmas, 2004, the mall was open, and you could walk the central
drag, though none of the side entrances were open, from the Dillards closeout
store (which had closeout clothing and shoes for both genders, and kids, albeit
only on the first floor) to Outlets USA. There were some additional vendors (I
recall one making wedding cakes and a small store selling ice cream) clustered
near the Outlets USA.
As Euclid Square is a straight line mall, you needed a jacket as you reached
the middle of the corridor. With no stores to speak of, the heat was turned down
to 61 degrees. Coupled with a chilly December day in Cleveland. It served as a
motivator to get to Outlets USA quickly. But there was marginal foot traffic, so
that must count for something.
The owners are trying but, for now, this mall remains dead. I don't consider
a bazaar and a warehouse closeout Dillard's to be quality anchors and, with no
national chains to speak of in the middle, it qualifies as one of the five worst
functioning malls I've visited. It's somewhat reminiscent of the last days of
Hillcrest Mall in Spartanburg, SC. It has functioning anchors, but little else.
7/5/04 I stumbled across this mall while looking to buy a replacement shirt
on a lunch hour one afternoon. At the time, only Dillards was open, and was a
closeout store for women's clothing, so no luck on the shirt, and the remainder
of the mall was closed off. There is a Euclid Senior Citizens Center at
one end of the mall, which is apparently temporary, but the remainder of
the mall was roped off and locked up.
It Opened March 1st, 1977 with Higbee's (later Dillard's) and May Company
(later Kauffman's) as anchors. A complete store listing, courtesy a poster on
the Ohio Grocery discussion group on MSN (thank you Toby, whomever you are), is
listed below.
By accounts, the mall, which has a fairly decent location off of I-90 near
Ohio Route 2, was doing well until Kauffman's pulled out in 1998. No investment
was made by the ownership group and, without a replacement tenant, smaller
stores drifted away.
Original Tennants:
Opened March 1st 1977.
Department Stores: Higbee's, May Company
Jewelry: J. B. Robinson Jewelers, Rogers Jewelry
Ladies and Misses Apparel and Accessories: Alcove, Casual Corner,
Frederick's of Hollywood, Jean Nicole, The Limited, Merry-Go-Round, Motherhood
Maternity Shop, Paul Harris, Petrie's, Small Stuff, Susie's Casuals,
Winkelman's
Men's and Boy's Apparel and Accessories: Allan Warren, The Bottom Half,
Chess King, The Gap, Gingiss Formalwear, Jeans West, Richman Brothers, J.
Riggings, The Rivet, Silverman's
Restaurants and Snack Bars: Beef Corral, Bresler's 33 Flavors Ice Cream,
Burger King, Captain Chips Potato Ship, Carousel Hot Dogs, Helen Hutchley
Candy and Ice Cream, Higbee's restaurant, Karmelkorn Shoppe, May Company
restaurant, Orange Julius, York Steak House
Shoes: Butler's Shoes, Cole's, Faflik Shoes, Father & Son Shoes,
Florsheim Shoes, Kinney Shoes, Naturalizer, Nobil Shoes, Regal Shoes, Stride
Rite, Thom McAn
Specialty Shops: E. B. Brown Optical, Craft Showcase, Family Book
Stores, Flowerama, Foxmoor, The Gallery, General Nutrition Center, Hickory
Farms, Homemaker Shop, Kay-Bee Toy and Hobby Shop, Memory Lane, Musicland,
Pearle Vision Center, Radio Shack, Recordland, So-Fro Fabrics, Spencer Gifts,
Sumwalt Keyboard Music, Things Remembered, Tiffany Bakery, The Tinder Box,
Waldenbooks, World Bazaar
Banks: Euclid National Bank
The outlot merchants at the time included a Fazio's supermarket, a Revco
drugstore, a Euclid National Bank auto teller, and a Red Lobster
restaurant. Toys R Us opened in 1985.
Internal Pictures:
http://groups.msn.com/OhioGrocery/deadmallseucldsquare.msnw
Stories on the mall's new owner, and hopes for revitalization:
http://www.sunnews.com/news/2004/part1/0325/EMALL.htm
http://www.cleveland.com/news/plaindealer/index.ssf?/base/cuyahoga/1080210983105310.xml
External Pictures:
When I went to take photos, the mall was closed and locked, with the
exception of the Senior Citizen's Center. The above link has internal pictures
of the mall from when it was still open in 2002.
The Dillard's, east entrance.
A close-up of the architecture of the entrance dates the mall design to the
late 1970s.
The north side main entrance to the mall.
The entrance to the Senior Center area includes only the Senior Center
itself, and the mall offices. The large stop sign gets the point across.
Barely visible in the rear left is a sculpture located near the entrance to
the former Kauffman's property.
Lights in the ceiling, typical of 70s mall architecture.
The former Kauffman's anchor. This was the first portion of the mall
purchased by it's new owner. Outlets USA will be a "series of vendors who
are purveyor's of high quality merchandise at wholesale prices." A very
nice way of saying "bazaar". According to security personnel, the
Outlets USA concept is scheduled to open in mid-August, 2004. It actually opened
in mid September.
Time was clearly not on the side of the Super K-Mart, located across the
street, either.
The former Toys 'R Us store, opened in an outlot in the mid 1980s. This
location was poor, as the store was hemmed in between the mall and a set of
railroad tracks on the mall service drive, with no access to either entrance.
The former Euclid National Bank Auto Teller has also seen better days. It is
located near the Toys 'R Us, with railroad tracks in the rear.
Through it all, the Euclid Square Mall sign still stands.
Toby Radloff's Commentary
Posted January 8, 2006 (user submitted)
Euclid Square Mall opened in March of 1977, on a former industrial site.
The mall was anchored by May Company and Higbee's, and had almost 100 stores.
The mall did well up until the mid-1990's, when tenants started moving out. The
main competition for Euclid Square Mall was Great Lakes Mall in Mentor, about
10 miles east of Euclid Square, and Richmond Mall (later renamed Richmond Town
Square) in Richmond Heights, about 4 miles south. Euclid Square Mall had the
usual mix of mall tenants, including Walden Books, Kay Bee Toys, Record Town,
shoe stores, clothing stores, etc. There was no food court, but food tenants,
including Burger King, Arby's, York Steak House, etc. were all over the mall.
There was also the "Euclidian Room", which was used for meetings and community
events. Euclid Square Mall started dying when Kaufmann's (formerly May
Company) closed its store in 1998, shortly after they opened a new store at the
newly remodeled (and renamed) Richmond Town Square, itself a once-dying mall
that Debartolo never put much money into, but Simon extensively remodeled.)
Euclid Square Mall was once owned by Jacobs, Visconsi, and Jacobs, then was
sold to Heywood Whichard once the mall started losing tenants big time.
Dillard's (formerly Higbee's) became an outlet store, and is still open.
Otherwise, by the beginning of 2003, the mall pretty much closed. Tenants on
outlets included a Fazio's supermarket (closed as a Rini Rego Stop-N-Shop in
the early 1990's), and a Toys R Us (opened 1985 and closed 2002). In late
2004, Euclid Square Mall reopened as "Outlets USA", which is basically the
former May Company/Kaufmann's store reopened as a discount furniture store as
well as other businesses selling things such as clothing, tools, housewares,
and art. Other Outlets USA tenants that later left the mall included a vendor
selling single serve slices of wedding cake, and a vendor selling used DVD's
and VHS tapes. A hot dog stand reopened, and an Italian restaurant opened in
the former Rogers Jewelers. Most of the Outlets USA activity is centered at
the former Kaufmann's and the storefronts adjacent. The Euclidian Room is
still in use today for meetings. The operators of Outlets USA purchased Euclid
Square Mall from Whichard in early 2004. Whether this format will save Euclid
Square Mall remains to be seen in the long term, but I am glad that it is
there, giving local businesses a way to get started.
Years ago, I submitted photographs of Euclid Square Mall (taken when Whichard
still owned it) to deadmalls.com, then I later posted the same photos to my
"Ohio Grocery" MSN group. However, after Outlets USA took over, I was asked to
remove the photos. Rather than risk possible legal action, I took the photos
down.
Links
News Herald - As of 2011, mall is now home to many Churches and used for the community
deadeuclid.blogspot.com - put together by a Euclid, OH woman who took well over 140 photos of Euclid Square Mall and its abandoned out lot buildings.
ffgeeks.net/malls/Euclid/euclid.htm - ffgeeks.net summary on the mall
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Toby D Radloff’s Commentary:
User submitted in 2020Now the site of an Amazon distribution center.