Dead Malls

Far and away the most popular subject of the "dead mall" stories featured here over the years.

Start from the beginning or check out the individual stories:

Portrait of a Dead Mall

Black Friday in Retail Purgatory

Checking in on an Old Friend

The (Un)solved Solved Ball Sculpture Mystery

I’ve written about several “dead malls” before, but I didn’t personally know Middletown’s.

Tyler and Jordan did, though.

…for the most part.

These stores weren’t always filled with banners displaying slogans like “everything must go” and “entire store on sale.” In fact, the idea of a Blockbuster Video location closing was probably once thought to be preposterous.

A song by Springsteen, a shout-out to “sandwich artists,” and the toddler who rejected a dog, but grew up to become a decorated Hot Topic employee.

When a “lifestyle center” lacks “life.”

I had heard about it for years, occasionally seen photographs, but to see it in person. I was taken aback.

Often mistaken for a skatepark on the quiet end of downtown Cincinnati, this curious piece of public art adjoining a new mall was created by a local who wanted it to be “more of a place than a thing.”

I posed a question on Twitter: “If you could time travel to any location/point in history, where and when would you travel to?” Not a single soul said that they’d travel to the Cincinnati Skywalk system in December of 2008.

If you've ever seen the 1978 horror classic Dawn of the Dead, then you'll feel right at home in Tower Place Mall.

A rabbit hole leads to a story about the death of department stores.

"Pogue's garage" in Cincinnati ran along 4th St. between Race and Elm. Its demolition is another sign of the changing times and development in the city's urban core.

Aren't we all asking this question in the middle of the night?