MIDWAY MALL: ELYRIA, OH
Brian Robinson's Commentary
PostedMay 30, 2008 (user submitted)
Midway Mall, built back in 1965 was one of the area's first enclosed shopping malls. The mall opened with three anchors...Sears, JCPenny, and Higbee's. The mall also had Woolworth's as a junior anchor.
In 1990, the entire mall was renovated and an additional wing was added including a food court and another anchor, May Company. May Company later was renamed to Kaufmans, now Macy's. Two years later, Higbee's was renamed to Dillard's. This will be the last time the mall would be remodeled.
In 1994 Woolworth's closed with the rest of the chain. Woolworth's space was now occupied by Best Buy, but only operated with an exterior entrance. Customers would have to leave the mall to enter up until about 2 years ago.
From the mid 90's on...one by one the national chains began to leave the mall and were replaced with mom and pop type of shops. The mall struggled to complete with newer more modern malls like Great Northern and Crocker Park.
In March of 2007, Dillards announced it would close the store due to lacking sales and that the store would close in May. The store later closed in August of 2007 after briefly selling clearance only merchandise.
About the same time Dillard's closed, the mall owners Centro Watt said that there are plans to redevelop the mall, however the mall still has yet to see any new life. One can only wonder how long some of the remaining anchors will hold on as the foot traffic in the mall has decreased.