Article in Paper

News Herald Article

One fleeting glimpse of Albert caught on camera

I thought this was an empty shot of the Mall until I looked closely at it.

Another example of change

The interior of the Mall has slowly been coming back to life especially on the weekends. This seating area has been cleaned up enough to support a support meeting for the male members of The Crown of Life Ministries. Elder C.J. Clinkscales (first on left) leads the group and the Church which I had the pleasure of attending both a service and a Bible study.

Changes don't take long

In just a few months the interior of the Mall has been changing. This is The Way of Life Gospel Church space which has transformed the space since last November when the space was vacant.  The inspiring doorway steadies some cement board which will enter to continue to improve the Church.
I hope to talk with Pastor Jeffrey Charles Jackson about his Church someday soon.

A few exteriors

The Mall is a sprawling complex which has a minimal facade and structure common in the style of the 1970s. The buildings enormity is only enhanced by the absence of cars and people during the week. The details of the building that have worn over the years are seem to drop away when it is viewed from certain angles. Its prestigious design still speaks out toward a society and future that seems to have simply vanished or chosen a different path than the reality we exist in. Although the exterior is static and stoic; the interior is beging to speak out and redefine what the exterior has said to the world for the last thirty years. Each day the mall is changng and being purposed to house a few stores and an ever expanding number of Churches. There are about twenty spaces that have been atlered to allow the retail stores to become places of public assembly and worship. The Churches all exists along side each other and the empty stores. The empty stores are in the majority but it doesn't seem unlikely that that will change.

Realty Marketing Associates and Security

Entering the mall on the office side

The Office door

Rosemary Luksic looking lovely and smiling because she is about to get some rest from my questions

The keys to all the spaces in the mall office

The Mall Sound System which hasn't been switched on in years.

Realty Marketing Associates is the company that manages the mall. The company is helmed by Kevin F. Cooney and anchored by the day to day operations manager Rosemary Luksic. Their offices are in the North West entrance to the mall across from the Euclidian Room. It is more of a hall which they rent out for weddings, Cichlid Society gatherings, and an annual K-9 cop event. The office functions as the nerve center of operations. The Security offices, interior and exterior maintenance crews, and space rentals all emanate from this small and Spartan office. It is hard to find a day when the office is not bustling with activity unless, of course, everyone is out onsite fixing a a problem or simply maintaining the mall. The total mall staff is never much more than five people dealing very effectively with everything. Rosemary spends her time working closely with the tenants, showing spaces to the ever expanding number of Churches, renting the Euclidian Room, and bringing in events to utilize the vast parking lots. The moment she begins to speak you realize she is a living and breathing history of Euclid Square Mall and one of its great history makers. She has introduced and walked me through corners of the mall that most never see or hear. The Security staff is constantly addressing issues that arise from this strange landscape they monitor. One of the guards, Albert seems to have the ability to appear and vanish and reappear instantly inside or outside all over the mall grounds.  Albert stopped my sister and me from photographing on our first Sunday in the mall. He politely ask me to refrain from what I was doing unless I had clearance from the Realty Marketing Offices. He walked me down to the Juanita Watkins Community Center and introduced me to them suggesting I simply talk with the people renting spaces until I could get clearance to document the mall. It is extraordinary that a solitary human can move so quickly and calmly manage such a Herculean task especially on Sundays when the mall is full of life and worship. Unfortunately, he moves with such stealth that it has been hard to capture him on camera.

A brief history of the Mall

Euclid Square Mall was built in 1977 on land that once housed Chase Brass & Copper. It was a prefab mall meaning that the walls where shipped in and raised on site. The mall originally housed two anchor department stores and ninety or more stores. The way an indoor mall works is to rent space to stores and maintain and light the interior pedestrian space. The tenants are responsible for heating and cooling their spaces. The stores heat or cool the main common space of the mall because of the bleed out from their large entrances. The Mall flourished throughout the eighties and nineties. At the end of the century the mall lost one of it's anchor stores and changed ownership several times. Some of the small stores began closing as the makeup of the mall and the financial climate altered the way people shop. Large interior space malls could not compete with the coming one stop superstores. The mall management began looking at solutions to keep the mall open. There was Outlets USA, plans to convert it to house all of Euclid City Schools, a resort community, and many more. During this time the mall Manager Rosemary Luksic was contacted by a small church(NAME OF CHURCH?) needing a place of worship. They rented one of the abandoned stores for a short period of time. The changes that were happening in and around the mall caused the original church to move out. After another stretch of inactivity; the management company reached out to the religious community again. The original church had found another space but they suggested The Abundant Life Christian Center lead by Pastor Larry James II. The general makeup and function of the mall and tenants had to change as the churches moved in. A church is a place of public assembly and alterations have to occur so that the space can safely support it. One of the basic changes is that doors have to be build in the large open entrances to the mall. This is to reduce sound bleed and because of the small number of tenants cannot support the heating and cooling of the interior space. The churches are thriving and several congregations have sprung from the original spaces expanding enough to support a Community Center for larger functions in the mall. (Within the last two years?) 20 churches have rented space in the mall and share their space with several stores that are not directly associated with the churches like Design Inspirations Hair Salon, World of Shirts, MargAndreyah Dress Shop, Public Auctions, and a design firm Eye of Solomon. I hope to document the people, churches, stores who are breathing life back into this amazing landscape space by space and person by person.

Entrance on Babbitt Road

The Entrance to the Mall on Babbitt Rd and St. Clair. This entrance opens on to the parking lots and has less growth around the signage. The signs in the tree lawn appear to be the best indication that activity is still present within the mall. This signage changes with the events that are staged in the parking lot. This photo was taken between the Hoop It Up 3 on 3 event and the Soul Circus Family which both are staged in the west parking lot.

Entrance on 260th

This is the entrance to the mall on 260th st. There are several buildings that are vacant as you enter Euclid Square Mall Drive on the left and right, one appears to have been a Red Lobster. The aging signage being slowly absorbed by the foliage of the tree lawn gives the feeling of an abandoned place being taken back by nature. The trees and grass are rather well maintained though so that a strange feeling begins to occur. The general absence of people and the occasional maintenance of others illustrates a struggle between decay, life and rebirth that is happening inside the mall as well as around it.

Around the outside

The outside of the Mall is a space which will be the focus of several events the next few days. Here are some shots of the parking lot, loading area, and a free standing store on the property. The store has the markings of having been a Toy R Us at one time. The building appears to not be in use but I was assured there is a tenant in the space. There are several buildings surrounding the main building of the mall which appear to be in minimal use or for rent. A few of them are managed by the same realty company that handles the interior spaces.

The visit from the "Phony" Villian

 The above article appeared on my birthday.

This caught my eye as an amusing anecdote in the history of the mall. Who would have thought that the galaxy, far, far away would wield such a force that a "fake" Vader would be denied a fan club and girls in hot pants. It was probably best to not project that image since nobody suspected he was a dad back then.

The Scrapbook

I spent the day in the Euclid Square Mall office conference room with this scrapbook. It documents the building, opening and advertising of the mall from press clippings. The book begins around 1977 and ends around 1989 when the clippings fill the last pages. There are some entertaining stories contained within. The first clipping posted expresses the concern that the mall will vacate the stores in downtown Euclid. The mall would suffer that very fate and stand virtually empty until a few years ago. The May Co. signed a 35 year lease on a department store sized space sometime in the Eighties. Dillard's purchased the May Co. and still maintains an outlet store in the mall. The mall has been experiencing a rebirth in the last few years that involve several small businesses and a multitude of Churches. This is my attempt to document of the past, present, and future of the Euclid Square Mall. I hope to listen to the people and witness the events that are transforming this one time Cathedral of Capitalism into a new and different kind of place.

An article that speaks of a problem that carried over to the Mall