It very quickly became the place to go for everyone from age 12 to 70 years of age living in a six-county area in East Ohio and the northern panhandle in West Virginia. IT was the mall, and IT was all under ginormous one roof with flashy new stores, popular fast food, a long row of movie theatres, and giant-sized department stores never seen ‘round-here before.
Local residents had heard of the coming concept and how it was the next-best consumer trend that emptied small-town, downtown districts of stores like J.C. Penney and Sears. The residents of Wheeling voted down a different kind of mall concept in the mid-1960s because it was a proposal presented by an Urban Renewal initiative and included roofed sidewalks only.
The Ohio Valley Mall was a game changer for the young and old because it evolved where the region’s residents spent their paychecks and why. Once you entered the 1.2 million-square-foot building, each store’s front door was wide open and welcoming, and it seemed as if a portal to the modern world opened for our convenience.
“I grew up in the 1970s and 80s, the youngest of four, and we spent our summers outside riding bikes, playing ball, climbing trees and helping around the house and my dad’s garage,” recalled Wheeling resident Tammy Kruse. “My mom did the shopping without the four kids. She bought our school clothes and would take us shopping only for school shoes.
“But then came the mall and it was the place to hang out to see your friends and other kids from school. (We) maybe would go to a movie or get a bag of candy from K-Mart, or just walk around for hours. It was a safe place to hang out.”
Before the Cafaro Company began constructing the mall in 1976, the property was a strip-mine wasteland along Interstate 70 in Belmont County. The first store to operate was Sears, and when the shopping and social supercenter opened in 1978, more than 100 shops, restaurants, and anchor stores were available. A few years later, Carmike Cinemas opened, the Merry-Go-Round closed, and Hills Department Store was located across the street.
The mall’s long hallways had benches, kiosk businesses, and large, silver and circular ashtrays in the middle, and during the colder months a parade of letterman jackets and high school colors paraded up and down like a procession of Who’s Who.
“We would giggle when we walked past someone we had a crush on, and we’d talk about that moment for the next hour,” Kruse recalled. “I can’t remember anything but positive memories up to and including my recent experiences.
“It became the only place to shop, and it’s been a staple around for a long time,” she said. “I’m proud to see how it has stayed relevant throughout the decades.”
Belmont County Sheriff James Zusack remembers his teen years when the Ohio Valley Mall was a very popular for people of all ages.
“The Ohio Valley Mall was THE place when I was growing up,” said Zusack, a Republican candidate to become Belmont County’s next sheriff. “Once it opened, it was the only place to go to shop or see a movie, but mostly it was about going to see who else was there because it seemed like everyone was there. If it was raining outside on a weekend, all you had to do was go to the mall for something to do.
“You could find anything there because there were stores like Sears and Kmart, and that was the only place to go to see movies when I was a teenager and young adult,” he said. “It was everything when I was a kid, and there’s a lot of activity at the mall these days, too.”
Great great story! Remember Dipomodoro Italian restaurant, York Steakhouse, Ponderosa? All had long lines on Saturday night!
When I worked for The Times Leader in the mid-1970s, I covered many county commissioners’ meetings where plans were discussed for building of the mall. Fond memories of those days !!! By the time the mall had opened, I was working as sports editor at the Cambridge Daily Jeffersonian. Now living in northeast Ohio, I still make an annual weekend trip to St Clairsville and have visited the mall several times. I even watched a movie at the theater there about 4 years ago !!
Alladin’s Castle was by the theatres, not the mall offices
That’s inaccurrate, John.
There was an Aladdin’s Castle next to the movie theatres in the 90s where Tilt was later located. It may have had an earlier location, but it’s your caption that is inaccurate.
Thanks, John, for the information, but the caption is correct in respect to the article. Love the history!
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