Dead Malls Season 6 Episode 15 - Marion Centre Mall

Marion Centre Mall
Or as locals might know it,, Southland Mall. Might surprise some, as it is actually one of the older shopping centers in the state of Ohio. And still relatively unheard of.. Built and opened in 1969, Southland like many of the other malls around the area was built to scale for its growing city of Marion. Originally an open air complex anchored by Sears, and JCPenney. Southland Mall would be fully enclosed and renovated in 1978, and given its 3rd anchor, Elder Beerman. Throughout the 80s into the 90s the mall would soldier on as THE shopping destination in the area. But like every old ill positioned mall, it was not built for the freeway.. Marion’s retail push just like Woodland Mall left Southland, and instead began to focus more on the cities east side near the new freeway. And Southland, in an age of anchor rot, old tenant rot, bankruptcies, changing demographics and trends, and online shopping. Stood no chance.. Today, the mall sits with a new name, lifeless and empty. The theater being the only thing keeping it open… While here I wanted to be sure that I was able to capture ALL of its dead, liminal sights.

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[eiguajardo]

this episodes take me back in time and make me feel like everything is going to be ok, at least for a magical moment.

[williamrussell]

The eatery with the tile was home to several different mom and pop pizza/Italian restaurants throughout the years. None have lasted more than a year since the original closed.

[PsychicDetective-lyri]

Such a beautiful mall! Even being practically abandoned, it still looked clean.

[mlbashanti]

I used to love the mall as a teen! Friends stores and movies it was a blast! I took my wife today to show her after we just moved back to my hometown and she literally said it was the saddest thing she's ever seen lol

[williamwike]

I’m not a native of Marion, but as a store manager for the now defunct Nobil Shoe Company, I was transferred in to run the Nobil’s here. I was there for two years, 1980-1982. The mall was in its hey day then, with no vacancies as I recall. Our store was center mall, with the fountain right in front of us. Thinking back to my time there, I recall how the mall, and specifically that big center fountain, seemed to be everyone’s meeting place. On a Friday night or Saturday, it seemed almost everyone in town would turn up there. It was packed. Seeing this video makes me nostalgic and a little sad, but you did a great job. Your research on the history and background is the best I’ve seen done on this mall. Thanks for the trip down memory lane.

[fteenyears]

Hi, Canadian here - I am incredibly jealous of the dead malls of your country. While I am warmed by the fact that retail is not dead up here in the North, I am simultaneously enthralled with the landscape of retail death that lies just south of the border.
Granted, the Province of New Brunswick certainly has an appreciable amount of dead malls compared to my native Ontario but still--

Thanks for this! <3

[seabee]

That mall was really nice and in great shape. To bad its dead. Next time i take a trip north, i need to stop in some of these malls. The song you played at the end is always calm and soothing. Thanks. Have a good weekend.

[luketenley]

At 13:25... Cafaro must have loved those crazy hanging skylights. They used similar designs in the Ohio Valley Mall in St. Clairsville, OH.

[danjohnson]

I live in Marion! Been here many times when it was open and full of stores and now abandoned for the most part. I'd love to see it get some new life...

[QuintusAntonious]

My father moved to Marion in the early 90s and he lived just south of this mall. Back then, circa 1993-1996, the area was still rural-ish and his house was part of a new development that only had a few homes on the street (but is now firmly suburban). My stepbrother and I used to dress up like Power Rangers and climb the big mounds of dirt from where they were dumping the earth removed from all the new houses being constructed. There was even a gigantic hole in the backyard that is now a nice genteel lake, but back then was just a huge muddy pit.

We would spent quite a bit of time in this mall when I visited. In Fall 1994 (I was around 7), he took me to K.B. Toys and told me I could get anything I wanted if I could beat him at Mortal Kombat in the arcade. I had my eye on a big pile of stuffed animals that was near the front of the store, so challenge accepted. I won (or was allowed to win) and I chose a stuffed tiger out of the bin. That tiger became my constant childhood companion, and I still have it in a little net full of stuffed animals in my room.

Another visit, probably about a year later but I'm not sure, I remember we were there around lunchtime and I wanted to get some food from "Hot Dogs & More", a storefront food place similar in format to Auntie Anne's that I really liked for some reason. Anyway, my dad gives me the money to go get a hot dog and I got in line but the guy at the counter refused to take my order and kept jumping people past me in line despite me showing him I had money. I went and found my dad and was pretty upset, and he came and just completely reamed the poor dude out (retrospectively, it was probably just a teenager, but they seemed old to me).

Most of my other memories here are just glimpses of neon signs or people sitting in the one full store restaurant. As a kid, the mall felt huge and endless, but seeing it again as an adult, it really is just a dumpy little hallway with stores on each side. When my dad moved to Medina in 1996, our new mall became the South Park Mall in Strongsville, a much bigger and better mall in every way that I also have fond memories of.

[josephpostell]

Great video! We were there in early August 2024, looking for that coffee shop, and a lot had already changed. The coffee shop is gone, sadly. But the game stores and art store are still going strong, and there's a clothing store too. I think that popcorn and ice cream place is still open, with the tables and yellow chairs in front. And there's a tobacco store using the drive thru where the bank used to be located. But the Bath & Body Works and Joann Fabrics left very recently, and those have really hurt. The restaurant with the white, green, and red tile was a pizza place that probably closed 15-20 years ago. Will be interesting to see if and for how long this mall hangs on.

[Hypermarketed]

The warm, inviting kind of malls I used to know and love. Thanks for sharing brother.

[thetruth]

Idk why I but I love instrumental mall music with an echo

[baykonator]

Marion Local Here.... It used to be an old Pizza Joint ( cant remember the name but it wasnt a chain brand). JoAnn Fabircs is now closed as well.... As far as I know, the Nail Salon and the Cinema are the only things that are still open. The Storefront at timestamp 10:45 used to be an Electronics Store Called Rex Electronics which went out of business and then it became a Sears Hometown shortly after Sears Closed its Doors.

[robinturner]

We moved to Marion in 1969 before the mall was covered. This was the place to be in th 80s. I heard that every time a store left the owners raised the rent. Word has it that the latest owners had no intention of drawing more customers. They just wanted it for a tax loss or something like that.

[mflorida]

I grew up in Marion not too far from the mall. I remember it being enclosed but I thought it was early 70s not 77/78. We hung out there as teenagers 80-84. Saw a lot of movies there. Across from it was Musicland right next to Radio Shack. Was fitted for a suit there when I graduated college. Bought lots of supplies at the pet store.

[TheMightyMet-.fm]

Thanks and Keep em Rolling! Ashtabula Towne Square that will be the next one.

[Steve.Cutler]

Kind of ironic that the little stores that malls put out of business decades ago are the only type of little stores that are keeping the malls on life support now.

[jgb]

Great video! Are you going to Midway next? That is my absolute favorite dead mall! That Higbee's 😍

[SHADOSTRYKR]

Wild and eerie when theaters close and the “now showing” posters give a snap shot of when it closed by showing the releases at that time