Surrey Square: Norwood, Ohio on DeadMalls.com

SURREY SQUARE: NORWOOD, OH

Mike Koller's Commentary

Posted January 28, 2006 (user submitted)

I do not know the complete history of Surrey Square on the corner of Smith and Montgomery Rd. in Norwood, Ohio, but remember the mall from childhood visits to relatives in the 1980's who lived down the street. Norwood is a small incorporated city surrounded completely by Cincinnati.

I was in Cincinnati last summer and visited the mall. The enclosed portion of the mall connects the Media Play to a Kroger grocery store (which used to be a Thriftway). The inside of the mall was designed to resemble a street in "old London towne" with faux brick floors, a "big ben" style clock and antique street lamps. The mall is very quiet now with a Dollar General and a local candy store that as been there for more than twenty years. There never was a lot of space for speciality shops, but most are now gone.

At one time there was a Radio Shack and pet store. I heard recently that the Media Play went out of business, so now there is only the Krogers for an anchor. Interestingly, there is/was a McDonald's attached to the Media Play, so at one time you could walk from Krogers through the mall and Media Play to access the McDonald's.

The mall property was still fairly busy with fast food restaurants on the pad and also a Blockbuster Video. There are also some shops attached to the outside of the building but they have no mall access. I think it will survive in some form, but Rockwood Commons built in the 1990's is a beautiful strip mall one mile away with many high end retailers and restaurants that probably stopped any expansion or update plans for Surrey Square dead in it's tracks. 25 years after my first visit the mall still has the same color exterior with no remodeling having ever been done to my knowledge.

Teresa Hardy’s Commentary:

User submitted in 2021

Took my kids there Christmas 1990. For a tree lighting, Santa Claus and a Larry Smith puppet show. My mom died from cancer in June that year. When Santa asked my two year old what he wanted for Christmas he said for him to bring his grandma back. He made Santa and his elf both cry. Beautiful mall never really had anyth much in it

John Kelly’s Commentary:

User submitted in 2021

This, I don't think, ever took off as a thriving mall. It seemed as if there was always more vacant space than shops, even in the 1980's. I think the end of GM at the end of the 1980's hurt this area economically.

Lisa Howison’s Commentary:

User submitted Aug 2008

This mall was something of a fixture in my childhood. My parents, probably desperate to get out of the house, knew that the mall could provide relatively cheap entertainment for the five of us kids. On Wednesdays, after story time at the local library, my mother would take us there for Pizza Hut's affordable lunch buffet. Oh, the gluttony.

Johnny's Toys was the highlight of the place. Each year on your birthday, you could go into the "birthday room" - basically a dark closet - and pick out a present. These were generally plastic bits o' crap, but who cared? I'm pretty sure my first bike came from Johnny's - Huffy brand; American-made. As a tween, I spent my allowance amassing every Littlest Pet Shop set they carried.

The candy store was great, too, but by then I'd spent all my money. There was plenty to see at the pet store, though. I think it was an independent place - looking back, it was somewhat basic and grim. The centerpiece was the ancient iguana in his built-in terrarium. I don't know if he was actually for sale. After obligatory "ews" at the mealworms and crickets, we'd head to the back where the rabbits, kittens, and puppies were kept. They were probably the output of a breeding mill, but to my six-year-old self, they were the hope that today my father would give into my pleading and I could take one of the little buggers home.

Alas, it was not to be. Much like the mall's success, apparently.

Jon’s Commentary:

User submitted Apr 2007

This mall has been in decline for some time, but things have taken another turn for the worst. Once Media Play closed, things began to dwindle. Then, in 2006, there was a fatal shooting in the parking lot of Surrey Square. Now Dollar General has closed and pulled out (several DG's in the Cincinnati area have recently closed and this was one of them.) So now there is very little left in the mall and one anchor is an empty site while the only really significant remaining store other than Kroger is also gone/unoccupied. The "guts" of the mall (
i.e. - the old-style streets, buildings and street lamps, etc...dont' appear to be in very bad shape, but it seems this mall's time has come and gone and it will take a major renovation for it to thrive again.

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