Southwyck Shopping Center - Toledo, Ohio
Southwyck was the second major mall in Toledo, opening in 1972. I'm making assumptions (because it wasn't my part of town) that Lion Store, and Montgomery Ward were two of the three original anchors.
When I first came to the mall in 1997, Montgomery Ward, Lion Store, and Lion For the Home were it's anchors. The mall was roughly 80 percent leased. It also featured a nine screen theater, with six screens in one area and three in another, a CVS Drug Store, a Red Baron arcade, and a bevy of national mall chains, including a Disney Store, Babbage's, a full complement of Foot Locker's, and Victoria's Secret
Like every other Montgomery Ward, the Southwyck location closed when Ward's filed for bankruptcy in 2001. The Montgomery Ward wing, the mall's largest, experienced a slow decline in tennants, but has more or less held it's own.
In early 2003, Dillard's (which had purchased the Lion Store) announced that it was closing it's home stores in the Toledo area, reducing Southwyck to just one anchor, Dillards, which will close in 2005.
The main problem with Southwyck is it's owner, Sherman Dreiseszun. He's either cheap, using Southwyck for a tax write-off, or both. Southwyck, despite it's dated look, is in a terrific location. The outlots for the mall continue to thrive, and second level businesses inhabit the office buildings that surround the park, Southwyck is in a moderate to high income area, and it's a shame that the mall is being left to rot.
There are other parts to the Southwyck story, better summarized by the Toledo Blade than I could. Here are some links:
Pictures
An external shot of the former Montgomery Ward anchor, with the sign still up.
Looking down the Montgomery Ward wing from Wards toward center court. There are some business open along this stretch (Notably, Victoria's Secret). The kites are a recent addition to an otherwise dated looking space.
The food court. A closed Sabarro's is near left. Dooming the food court was it's location. Rather than a centralized food court, this food court was located near one of the front entrances by Montgomery Ward. Not a particularly intelligent design, as the foot traffic in this area was very low.
Like most Montgomery Ward stores, you could have your car serviced while you shopped. Unlike the Northtowne Square Mall Ward's, the garage was detached from the main store.
Southwyck Shopping Center is designed as a Y-shaped mall, with a very short "base". At the base of the mall was, most recently a Lion For the Home store, shown above. This anchor is closed....
as is every store leading to it in this wing.
The centerpiece of Southwyck has always been it's carousel, shown here. It still runs, is still staffed, and kids still ride it. A carousel horse appears on all the mall signage.
A dome covers over center court. Note the difference in tint in the replacement glass, a sign that this place is being maintained on the cheap.
A shot from one of the mall's side entrances, of which there are many. Unfortunately, only one side entrance, facing the main road, by Dillard's, has any tenants. All of the rest have nothing but vacancies.
Southwyck's theaters had an unusual arrangement where six screens were accessible from within the mall, and three were accessible externally. When AMC closed the six screens in 1998, it kept open the external theater as an art theater until 2001. This is a shot of the box office, located near the main entrance.
Diamond's Men's Shop is special because it's the only original tenant left in the mall from it's opening in 1972. It's also worth noting because it has never remodeled, either. Note the lamps on the ceiling at near left. To the left of Diamond's is an open Christmas store. This is notable because this photo was taken on July 16th. (Christmas stores in July?)
Dillard's, open, for now, at the mall's north end. Dillard's will depart next year for a new mall in suburban Toledo. Note the gold on the ceiling as an example of early 70s architecture.
Dillard's, for now, as seen from the West side of the mall.
Thank you for shopping Southwyck Shopping Center (for now).