I saw an spooky sight today in one of the local papers and looked it up after getting home from work tonight. This was a much talked about mall in its day, now it is just an abandoned shell:

http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation-now/2015/02/10/snow-fills-abandoned-rolling-acres-mall/23163025/

I never got to go there, but I find myself feeling a mixed sense of irony and sadness looking at these pictures. The irony comes from the fact that it was these type of places that killed off the old downtowns and now most of them are fading away. The sadness comes from knowing that these places were a lot of fun for my generation. This was where you went for just about everything. Our mall down here was small, but I have several great memories from it and even the larger mall that replaced it in 1989. Pictures like these really remind you just how temporary our modern world is. The old department stores of days past in the downtowns often stood and functioned for decades until the malls really hit in the 50's and 60's. I've read articles and have heard that the average life-span of a shopping center today is around 15 years, that's it! Even the great town killer, Wal-Mart seems to be starting to falter as it becomes a victim of its own practices and sites like Amazon (yes I use it too!) will only me more demises in the future.

Even though I am into historic buildings, I still see this as a major waste. How much land was bulldozed to build this place? How many resources were used to build it and its expansions through the years? Now it is nothing but a rotting hulk on the west side of Akron, OH.