Tower City Center - Cleveland, OH | dead mall & younger sibling to Rolling Acres | ExLog 93 

I work in Tower City! They have already started renovations and are planning to make things beautiful again. Such a beautiful building.

Such a beautiful looking mall. It is a shame what is happening to them now. The 80' s and 90's were the best. Thank you for the awesome footage!

This place was quite something in the mid-late 90s. Really stunning and grandiose. Used to go there all the time and often just took the rapid train into the station below it and walked up into it. It was bustling and quite popular.

I’ve lived in Cleveland for 6 years now and I would often go to Tower City Mall during my lunch break. Pre-pandemic, there were decent crowds during the lunch hours with folks who work downtown. I don’t think as many folks are back to working downtown, so that is certainly not helping a suffering mall. Cleveland is an understated city with so much to offer. Thanks for bringing attention to one part of our history :)

I love that your “sponsors” are old ads! They make me smile every time!

My sister lives in downtown Cleveland and shops at Tower City all the time. Apparently, revitalization is well underway. I am happy about that. I remember the days when this was Cleveland's main railroad terminal. It's a gorgeous and historic complex.

They should turn these old abandoned malls, into apartments! ...I would totally live there!

I went to school in Cleveland in the early 2000's. I was through Tower City pretty regularly, either for the mall itself, the food court, or to cut through from the Rapid station in the basement to Public Square and the rest of downtown out front. I saw each of the Lord of the Rings movies in the movie theater there after finishing my fall semester finals before going home for Christmas. It's sad to see it as such a ghost town. I'm at least glad to see the building is still in good shape, at least for now, and hope that some sort of recovery can be made. Fiun fact: The scene in The Avengers where Loki attempts to charm the public in Germany was shot right outside the mall's front door on Public Square.

Great work as always. Sad when Sea World and Geauga Lake closed. It was a quick road trip from Pittsburgh and closer than Cedar Point. Geauga Lake was a park style like Kennywood, not a blob of asphalt and concrete with rides. Way back when I worked my last corporate job I had a group under me in the Halle Building in Cleveland, great old building. But, what was interesting was our parking was in an old department store across the street. The only real update they did to make it parking was the interior ramps between levels. We used to park amongst plaster walls, ceilings and pillars when I had to visit on site. I'm the odd duck Pittsburgher who actually likes Cleveland. The cities and people are so very much the same.

Crime was also a factor. There was a sign at Starbucks about wearing shoes…that was for the many homeless people who would sit in front of the main entrance. Man, this mall was thriving during the 90’s and early 2000’s! After 2004ish it really started dying. Everyone thought that the Horseshoe Casio would turn it all around, but it did nothing. 🙄 The Jack has lasted longer, but still the mall continued to die. COVID was only the final nail in the coffin. Thanks for sharing this mall with everyone. It was one of the malls my family visited the most. I really miss the WB store and the HUGE Disney store…

This is just absolutely insane to see the state of Tower City Center, pandemic or not. It looks to be in great shape cosmetically but the dead areas are astounding to me. I lived in Cleveland for 7 years on and off and used to work at Chase and J Crew back in the early 2000's. This place was packed from end to end - I remember it was nearly impossible to sit down in the food courts because of all the traffic. The International Film Festival was held in the massive theatres there. I certainly hope that this wonderful building gets a revival worth its true weight. Cleveland is an amazing place and this is such a focal point when you jaunt into town whether by foot or vehicle...

Still loving the old commercials cut-into the main content - keep it coming.

I remember The Tower City Center mall in it's heyday, mid 1990s. They had a Warner Brothers store there and I purchased some Tiny Toons stuffed animals.. Thanksgiving season 1993. I was 12 at the time.

In many ways I hated malls. At the same time, I have many fond memories of malls. Content like this always reminds me of those fond memories.

It's sad to see Tower City like this. I don't know it very well personally, but it's a beautiful building that deserves to have more life in it still. Also, if you're ever back in Cleveland, you gotta check out the Arcades - they're some of the oldest indoor shopping malls in the country and they have beautifully preserved late 1800s architecture inside. Plus, they still have some stores left in them!

I love my city and it’s sad what happened to Tower City smh I’ve had so many dates in that building had so many lunch meals and purchased so much from here smh so sad 🤦🏽‍♂️

Watching this brings back so many memories of my teenaged days. I envision myself eating at the food court and hanging out with friends before taking the escalator down to catch the rapid. So sad that the mall age has come and went. I hate technology. 😕

This was our everything in the early 00’s all of us would meet up and go to the movies and shop

What a gorgeous mall! I love “those old buildings” that this is was built-upon. I hope the future pans are successful, and are carried out with good conservation of historic portions.

This mall is absolutely stunning!

I don't shed a tear for abandoned malls generally but this one looks amazing. What a shame it's so empty.

Forest City created some really amazing malls. And I loved the drone footage.

I watch these dead mall videos, in part, because they demonstrate that culture evolves, sometimes drastically, and when it does, it can leave entire swathes of cultural artifact behind in its wake. - The notion of mall culture is an artifact born of post WW2 evolution, flourishing from the 1960s, to the 1980s and 1990s, with its cultural wear already showing as of the 2000s. - Along with the malls themselves, came the "chain store" concept, with its the national corporate retail annihilation of most things local, the creation of all the chains that are household names, some of which were born, lived, and have now died. Consider the short life of Forever21, which was amazing until it collapsed beneath its own weight. - It is not just dead malls. Along with the fascination are seeing scenes like the - Easttown Theater - in east Detroit, which rock music Mecca around 1970, but is now a literally rotting ruin, or even Detroit as a whole, which a century ago was one of the crown jewels of the early 20th century American industrialization. where once opulent buildings are now extraordinarily sad ruins.

I was hoping you'd bring up the fact that part of Captain America: Winter Soldier was filmed in this mall!

I go way back. My childhood was late 40’s - late 60’s. I remember the big steam locomotives pulling the passenger trains into the terminal depot. Arrival and departure schedules were written in chalk on big blackboards. We’d walk down steep stairs to where the trains came in roaring and letting off all that steam. Riding trains were the glory days of transportation. None of these crazy passengers on airplanes getting into fistfights over masks. People today are so rude and ill bred. They apparently have been raised by a generation of parents focused way more on rights than on responsibility. The terminal was made into a beautiful mall. Sad that crime and changing attitudes have caused its demise. I went through the Shaker Hts schools with the Forest City boys, the Ratner family. They were a class act. So thankful to have lived during the time of Cleveland’s downtown shopping heyday. RIP Higbees, Halles, Mays, Sterling Linder.

I always remember visiting that awesome mall when I visit my family in Cleveland. It’s always a stop for me to explore when I come by from Florida! Live the fountains!! Wish the dancing ones still worked

My brother always called AOL assholes online..... LOL. This is such a stunning piece of architecture, I hope it somehow can survive.

Tower City was magical in it's heyday. It was always a favorite family trip at Christmas. Always packed to the brim with happy holiday goers, with Santa's setup over the fountain. Not even Hard Rock Cafe could save it. The true death nail was when Higbee's (Dillard's) left. Truly sad. I did have to chuckle at Jan Jones' Geauga Lake ad. She was all over NE Ohio TV in those days.

I'll never forget being 7 years old in 2001 and coming down that massive escalator. My mom had won an entry onto Cash Explosion which used to be filmed in Cleveland. They put us all up at the Renaissance Inn and we ventured down into the Tower City Center. It was truly something back then. I hope that the revitalization project goes well. I visited a few years ago and it was NOTHING like how I remembered it.

OMG the front façade of that building is breath taking.

I have seen a lot of dead mall videos and it never ceases to amaze me how places like these are still open. Like, people are still able to go inside, there's electricity, there must be someone cleaning those facilities every day. Edit: wow I don't think I had ever seen a closed off Starbucks. 29:25: that ceiling, tho!!!

Lawsons commercial gave me a huge flashback. I watch your videos over and over, lately. Thanks Sal

OH THIS IS MY MALL OMG!! So glad you got to see one of our two buildings, according to Mike Polk. XD Tower City is actually kind of famous now. The square in front of it was in The Avengers. I'm a horrible Clevelander. I've actually never seen A Christmas Story.

Hopefully things down there get better. Cleveland is my home town thanks for the video its amazing.

As a young child in the 90s Tower City was magical and alluring. Now it is almost abandoned, but at the same time most people I know don't even spend much time downtown except for sporting events.

Cleveland native here. I remember when FYE was there. I always passed through Tower City when I caught the 1 from the east side to connect to Hopkins Airport, where I worked for years, via the red line. There was a Japanese BBQ place I used to hit up every week! Tower City used to be _the_ place to be. They are supposedly renovating it now. Time will tell.

My guy needs to be presenting these on Nat Geo seriously. Great work on these documentaries

You've done a absolutely marvellous job Sal making this video. Tower city centre absolutely amazing building but I hope things look more promising further down in the future.

I think you did a GREAT job! You put a lot of effort into this vid and you should be commended. Tower City, during the 90's would take your breath away when you would come up the escalator from the parking garage. Full of life, the fountains, food court... what a place. Sad to see it empty.

Grew up in Cleveland and I’ve been there many times, I loved going to the Warner Bros. Studio store, sad to see what it is now.

ive lived in Cleveland since 2013 and tower city is amazing! i do hope to see it alive again...i want those fountains to go off again when music plays.

So many memories here as a kid, riding the train down there to walk around before going to the cinema. So sad, I haven’t been there in years, since moving to Columbus, I didn’t even know it was closed. Another great video❤️

Thank you thank you for making these videos! They feel on par or even better than Dan’s series, which is great because I’ve been looking for more of that content.

Sal, having grown up in Northeast Ohio, I have to say that this is the best video you’ve ever put out. Hearing ‘The Avenue’ jingle at the beginning totally brought me back to four year old me, and begging my mom to take me to the Hard Rock Cafe there so I could get the T-Shirt. This video totally made my day.

I remember shopping at big shopping malls in the 1980s, when they were always teaming with thousands of people as the cash registers as the chain stores inside them rang up purchases continuously. The Burlington Mall in Massachusetts. The Pheasant Lane Mall in New Hampshire. The Troy mall in Michigan. All those places are mere shells of their 1980s existence.

Well done. A fascinating history. Your final comments on Amazon were on point as well. Amazon didn't kill the mall. They stepped in created a better mouse trap. As did Walmart and Home Depot.

I could see this place turning into a high school or a community college. It’s a really nice place.

That mall is beautiful 😍

Great video. I went through this area many times during all stages of its life having ridden the rapid to Indians or Browns games or working downtown. The one piece of the story that you may not be aware of was the efforts to build the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in the area between the back of the mall and the river. I don't recall the details but seem to recall it being a pretty contentious fight.

This mall reminds me of the old Grand Avenue Mall that was here in Milwaukee, and recently has been redeveloped.

The drone footage intro is very symmetrically pleasing. Top notch Sal!

I walked through the Tower every weekday during the 60s. There was nothing like it, with hand painted murals, chandeliers, and beautiful dark wood everywhere. Like being in a 1940s movie.

I was there on opening day!! It was absolutely amazing. That jumping water fountain was so incredibly cool... and to see it here in CLEVELAND... WOW!!! My 2 favorite stores were the Warner Brothers Store and the Disney Store! Both of those were so incredible! I loved to look at all the animation cells in the WB store... and it had a lifesized batman statue in the store front window!! On opening day, there were a ton of balloons and Disney characters walking all around the mall. It was such a fun time!!!

Your description of the Ritz Carlton! Like dude, now I feel like I’m IN the Ritz Carlton! 😂

It must have been very exciting to traverse the terminal when the train service was active. The Fellas partnering up for the PSA are hysterical, where did you find them. Such a mammoth, glorious project. Architectural features are stunning, particularly the ceilings. I hope a plan to use the space will materialize, it’s sad to see something so stunning desolate. Another wonderful film. I’m so proud of you. Great job Sweetie🥰💃🦇🕷🕸

I saw the sad stories of the Randall Park and Rolling Acres Malls. One of the biggest hits to Ohio, in recent years, was outsourcing manufacturing jobs to foreign countries. Demise of the rail industry was a theme in the 1960s. The airlines have been a boom or bust industry since then.

I knew when they removed all tables and chairs from the walkways, around the main fountain, the mall would become a whisper of it's former self.

I can’t thank you enough for the time and effort you put into these videos. I live near Youngstown so these places mean a lot to me. Also, LOVE the Geauga Lake commercial. I spent a lot of my childhood there. Stay safe and thank you!

I've started working downtown in May this year. Tower City is a far cry from what it used to be. I'm old enough (24) to remember the Mcdonald's, Quiznos, etc.😄

What a shame. Absolutely gorgeous. Poor Cleveland -

This mall looks absolutely beautiful during the holidays

I LOVE THOSE INTERCOM ANNOUNCEMENTS!!! SOOOO FUNNY!!

Love Tower City. I went through there last Saturday on my way to the Guardians game at Progressive Field and was so sad and disheartened to see it in such a sad state. I have so many happy memories there. So sad to see it dying off

The 90s was the best time when I was in high school, use to love going down there use to be so fun. Have not been in there since but still look pretty. I ride past sometimes.

Good description on the demise of Tower City Center. I enjoy yoour videos.

I ate lunch here on a high school field trip to see the Cleveland orchestra!

I love your videos, you really research these malls, I love the extra touch of your videos with those portions of retro videos. Thumbs up!!!

Good Video Tower City is a beautiful elaborate made mall hopefully it will come back in a different way because it Great location good Video

The fact that it was so busy and with the "luxurious" before hand is crazy "FRENCH TICKLER BOY" LMAO The over com bits are the best

I was last at Tower City, Christmas time of 2019. It was still halfway lively.

Wow. Looks like a great upscale but not sterile place to hang out. "Malls as a more upscale place to spend time, than your own crappy 1BR apartment" is an under-rated aspect of them. I knew as soon as I saw the Union Station style facade (it's unmistakeable to a railfan!) that this was a repurposed railway station, and that the odds were 90% that the exodus from downtowns and public transport during COVID did this mall in. I really liked this episode, and think it's sad that this mall didn't make it to the other side of COVID, because it is just so well done, and has been kept in great condition. Great theming with the Geauga Lake commercial, too. And AOL, ROTFL! Half the time I watch these, it feels like another in a series of wakes for an era that many of us valued and enjoyed, that is disappearing and will likely never be seen again. It came and went *so* quickly! I grew up as a mall tween, dumped off to wander the mall by myself, try on clothes, browse bookstores, play video games, maybe see a movie, and get a soft pretzel or two for HOURS on a weekend day once or twice a month. I visited the shops so frequently that I even learned the pattern of their sale cycles and knew when to beg Mom for $20 to try to get a shirt or skirt I liked that would probably be on sale that weekend! Later, I went to my local malls in other states most weekends, and no business trip was ever complete without an exhaustive survey of at least one local mall. Still later, I used a local mall's food court as my lounge after work nearly every day. That fewer people have the opportunity to do these things today is sad. On another note, about that Ritz-Carlton tea and cucumber sandwiches. Feeling "peckish"????? Does ANYONE in America *EVER* feel peckish? I'd never even heard the word until I visited Australia. And indeed, until I deduced from sufficient context that it meant "hungry" my first interpretation was "not very hungry", as in "pecks selectively at food".

I went on April 20 2023. I watched this beforehand. Things seemed to have improved substantially since these bleak scenes during the pandemic. A huge indoor garden with a wooden patio and a music stage have been added to the central area beneath the skylight, and between 11 and 12:30, there was an okay amount of foot traffic. I went to a Claire's, a jewelry store, a boutique, a parfume store and the food court, but I saw several other shops of note, even if there were still a lot of vacant ones. The lesser fountain remains off.

wow ....im cryin ...didn't know it got like this ... I went there in the 70s before the reno...was there for the grand opening...worked there in the early 90's ....the memories I have of that place and higbees I hope I never forget....Well done sal ....thanks for the hard work ...and making me cry ...lol

I shopped at that mall many times, when I traveled to Cleveland for baseball games. The fountain was very cool. So sad to see it in such a state.

Sal, what a great job with this. Of course I would’t expect anything else. What a nice looking place. I just love your videos. The video quality is incredible! Keep up the great work.

Such a beautiful mall. I could tell it had 2 beautiful water fountains even though it is no longer running. Too bad!

Our malls are the same. They were such an iconic place growing up for alot of reasons, not just shopping alot more socially really.

The background music adds to the eeriness to the commentary, BUT in a great way. I am just totally immersed in it. I can not tell you how MANY TIMES I've been to Tower City through the years. I remembered taking my sons to see the toy soldier, I remembered the train, decorations, Disney store, Fudruckers, ice cream shop and MANY MANY other stores and I've been to them all. To see it look the way it looks now is devastating. Thanks for this history story on Tower City.

So many good memories of visiting this place over the years. From the early years when occupancy was near full with high end shops (Nature Company was my fav), to the the amazing holiday decorations all over the place (really was something magical). So easy to get to via RTA (public transport) we could get there by bus and train all the way from the Cuyahoga/Lorain county line. And yes, the decline was sad to witness. I would still take the Red Line train to Tower City to get to Progressive Field for ballgames, but a quick walk through the Avenue to the pedestrian tunnel to the ballpark showed the sad state of things. Not to mention when the casino opened up, day and night the sidewalk in front of the whole complex on Public Square was nothing but panhandlers and homeless. Haven't been back to downtown Cleveland in almost 5 years, don't really have a reason to go anymore. Doesn't feel safe. BUT, great in depth video. You've earned my sub.

And thanks for mentioning the Christmas Story connection!

I remember the tower city mall, I was in a basketball pep band and we had a parade in there in March of 2003. The mid American conference basketball tournament would be held in Cleveland, and much of the pregame festivities would be held in the mall. imagine a flash mob matching band and TV crew.

At one point I used to loved that mall tower city was the go to after school and the movies that’s so sad the casino came and everything stopped

Lifelong 44 year old Clevelander here, born and raised in Old Brooklyn and work at one of the 3 major hospital systems in Cleveland today. I remember as a kid seeing the remains of the old Union Station before they started construction of Tower City. My great Aunt used to take me downtown and for lunch at the Silver Grille on my birthday. I have used that RTA walkway countless times for every Indians (will ALWAYS be the Indians and the Jake) and Cavs game I’ve been to and so many concerts at the GundQRock. Tower City needed an update and remodel 15 years ago. It hadn’t kept up with the times for such a major metropolitan shopping mall. Thank you for taking us down this path. Hopefully they can do something to revitalize it long term. I haven’t been inside since the last Cavs playoff game I went to and the last time they were in the playoffs was 2018.

31:19 "Ouch!" 😖 Those dagum doors...

I was an outside courier business working for Forest City Enterprise . During the redevelopment of Tower City I was carrying Legal documents ,Blue prints , and food at night to workers.rushing to completion .

It's so sad to hear the Hard Rock Cafe closed that was such a great place🥺❤️❤️

This is nuts. It was full of life and stores last time I was there in Sept 2016.

A well researched, well presented story.

What a beautiful view thanks for remembrance

I remember going there with my parents in the early 60's to pick up relatives from CT. coming in on the N.Y.C.

I wonder if that food place "Its Greek to You" is still open. They used to be in Great Lakes Mall too, same owner, I used to get food from them all the time I was sad when they left great lakes mall, and havent made it to tower city in years to visit them again. Loved their food.

I live a mile from what was Rolling acres since 1989. In high school that place was packed an I would occasionally go to chapel hill and I could see from one end to the other with not one person to be seen. In the 90’s I would make the trip to tower city from time to time an it was impressive. I do believe the internet had a small percentage in the downfall of malls an box stores.

Crazy that casino opened the same month as Hollywood Casino in Toledo. I visited Cleveland in 2017, I didn't have time to go inside Tower City but I did a quick drive by. Hopefully I'll have another chance soon.

"sercurity" was a problem is an understatement

Minus the pandemic & online shopping ,what's next Air travel.. Oh yeah, ocean liners too. Stay healthy Sal💙

I really enjoy the shots close to the handrails. The plants are beautiful. My neck would hurt from looking up and around if I ever get to visit.

Such a gorgeous building with so much potential. I hope they really can get it repurposed and back on it's feet again.

These videos make you look at the past and face the future. Thank you 😊

All these years in cleveland and ive never seen a visual of tower city that highlighted its structure that beautiful. Tower city brings so many childhood memories. It would be sad for it to not be a mall anymore. It has the best view of cleveland if you go all the way to the top floor.