Back in January, I received an interesting email from Michael Brown. Michael is a former Lorain Countian who has done very well for himself. He grew up in Grafton
in the 1960s, went to Ohio State in the late 1970s and is now President of BarrickGold USA, the nation’s largest gold mining company.
From Nevada, Michael reads my blog to connect with his Lorain County roots. He shared some thoughts regarding the coming of Midway Mall
to Lorain County in the 1960s, as well as its effect on the downtowns of Lorain
and Elyria. He also sent me some newspaper articles, as well as some images to
supplement some of my previous posts.
Here’s one from the June 8, 1964 Chronicle-Telegram
announcing the multi-million dollar mall project.
“The announcement of the Mall was not only front page above
the fold, but was above the CT’s banner!” observed Michael. “It was interesting
how the Mall was designed to replace a downtown. At the opening, it had a
community room, a barbershop, a stockbroker, a drug store, pet shop, etc. I
don’t remember the community room being used much (it was in the original south
mall area) and I think became a storage room. The Mall had an apartment
where the manager resided. I found the rarely mentioned coffee shop at JC
Penny to be the best place for Mall workers for lunch or dinner.
Sears store at Midway Mall circa Sept. 1970 (Cleveland Press photo currently on Ebay) |
Another article from the January 1, 1965 C-T reported, “Another
all-time record for employment may be in store for Lorain County in 1965.”
According to Michael, this was another distraction that kept city officials
from noticing that their downtowns would soon be suffering because of the mall.
“Look at the
number of people hired and the taxes paid,” observed Michael. “Booming
communities always assume the boom will go on forever.”
Next: More Midway Mall reminisces including the story behind the dripping wires
1 comment:
Great article!!
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