How long should a shopping mall exist? 20-years? 50-years? Maybe 75-years? Rolling Acres Mall in Akron, Ohio had a life span of only 44-years. Opened in 1975, it would see it's final year in 2019 when the wrecking ball brought down what was left of it.

Like the other malls in Akron, Rolling Acres showed a lot of promise in the 1970s. Built as one of the largest shopping malls in the area, it drew large crowds of people from near and far. It celebrated the holidays in style. At it's peak, over 140 stores and shops graced it's hallways and isles. And the stores were huge. What happens to a mall to make it fail? Well, for Rolling Acres, I believe, a lot to do with it was it's location. In the late 1980s and through the 1990s, crime took over. In those days, before the internet shopping craze began, the malls were a place for teenagers to gather. At first it was calm and, as they "hung out" at the mall, at least they spent money in the shops, food court and the theater. But as time went on, the craziness began. Fights brought out between black youths, damage was done, not only to the building, but also to vehicles in the parking lots. People were robbed outside around the mall and there were deaths involved in a few incidents. Other malls in the city were safer such as Summit Mall in Fairlawn and Chapel Hill Mall in the Chapel Hill area. So many shoppers decided to go to the other malls instead.

Case in point: A friend of mine by the name of Earl went to Rolling Acres one day back in the 1990s in his Ford Ranger truck. He had only had the truck for a few months and he had bought it new. He did his shopping and came out to find the side rear view mirrors both hanging from their wires. He looked around and saw that many other cars around that area had the same fate. It seemed that someone had gone through the lot with possibly a baseball bat and had broken off all the side mirrors of a lot of cars. Back then stores and malls did not have parking lot cameras. Earl ended up paying for the repairs. He never returned to the mall.

Personally, I remember Rolling Acres very well. The Sears store there had a Sears Dental office where I had my teeth pulled and was fitted with dentures. They did a great job and the experience was not bad at all. The wife and I shopped at the mall only a few times as Chapel Hill Mall was much closer to us at that time. But I remember that Rolling Acres was a really nice mall.

By the 1990s, too much shoplifting and not enough paying customers was taking over the stores and, one by one, they began closing their doors and moving away. Bad management was also a problem there. The mall sat empty for over a decade and began falling apart. Vandals got in and destroyed much of the mall building. Of course they broke any glass they could reach. The skylights came tumbling down and this allowed the rain and snow to enter the building. There were plans to remodel the mall several times but those plans always fell through. It just simply sat there for years and crumbled. Finally, the mall was demolished in the late 2010s.

Amazon bought the property and have opened a distribution center on it. It's so strange that one of the businesses that drove nails into the live shopping experience and would drive so many malls out of business would finally take over the property. I guess it's a good example of the new taking over the old.

At this writing, Summit and Chapel Hill Malls are both still doing well. Rolling Acres, however, is just a memory. And the memory is fading as the years go on. The area still has a lot of stores and businesses. But it's anchor business is now long gone.

This blog has more pictures of the old mall than you will probably see anywhere. It covers the mall from beginning to end. When the first wall was constructed until the last wall came down by the wrecking crew. So, if you remember Rolling Acres Mall, you should enjoy seeing it in it's heyday. And if you have never been there, then you will see what happens to a mall when it's left to fall down. Be sure to check out the Photo Gallery after the text.