The Day The Sky Fell

It was a normal day, not unlike so many others during Ohio’s chilled winter months. The wind blew forcefully, sweeping snow dust across a barren parking lot, resembling somewhat of an urban arctic tundra. The sun was blinding as it reflected brightly from Akron’s snow-coated city streets. Though being the average day as it seemed, there was one thing tucked away from the ordinary, not making a sound. Following the passing of a large white out just hours before, a friend and I decided to check out one of our favorite, somewhat local abandonments – the Rolling Acres Mall.

Abandoned Rolling Acres Mall Akron Ohio
Abandoned Rolling Acres Mall Akron Ohio
Abandoned Rolling Acres Mall Akron Ohio
Abandoned Rolling Acres Mall Akron Ohio

As I mentioned, it was no different than most winter days for Ohio, but when you’re paying attention to that which is normally neglected you can find some incredibly surreal scenery. A once lively hub for the community, previously filled with music, laughter, fun and excitement, now sits deteriorating to nothing – what happened to this part of the American dream? They would have never imagined 40 years ago that this could be a possible sight. This space is now regularly occupied only by the crumbling and cracking walls of numerous storefronts, but on this day it became something entirely different, as fantasy became reality.

Abandoned Rolling Acres Mall Akron Ohio
Abandoned Rolling Acres Mall Akron Ohio
Abandoned Rolling Acres Mall Akron Ohio
Abandoned Rolling Acres Mall Akron Ohio
Abandoned Rolling Acres Mall Akron Ohio
Abandoned Rolling Acres Mall Akron Ohio
Abandoned Rolling Acres Mall Akron Ohio
Abandoned Rolling Acres Mall Akron Ohio

Upon entering the abandoned Rolling Acres Mall, I was taken away by the enchanting scene that welcomed me. You could call it a winter wonderland, though I feel that would not be doing it proper justice; it was much more than that. Constantly shifting weight from so much snow after years of neglect had weakened the glass of skylights above, causing ceilings to bust open overhead. It was as if clouds had fallen from the sky, filling this normally dark and desolate destruction with a brand new, much brighter life. The sky had fallen, crushing structures and causing destruction, but left us here to observe its unbelievable beauty as it lay in silence before us. I could breathe the atmosphere and feel as though the whole world around me was empty.

Abandoned Rolling Acres Mall Akron Ohio
Abandoned Rolling Acres Mall Akron Ohio
Abandoned Rolling Acres Mall Akron Ohio
Abandoned Rolling Acres Mall Akron Ohio
Abandoned Rolling Acres Mall Akron Ohio
Abandoned Rolling Acres Mall Akron Ohio
Abandoned Rolling Acres Mall Akron Ohio
Abandoned Rolling Acres Mall Akron Ohio

As a community, we will someday have to explain to future generations that this was once part of a big dream, but that was as far as it ever got; a dream. For some reason we changed our minds, eventually abandoning them for a lifestyle where we find ourselves stuck inside our computer screens, leaving it all behind, with no redirection. And now, reflected in the shattered glass of shop windows are fading memories of a fragile human connection being slowly forgotten, further lost as dirt fogs their reflection. We’re swept away from what grounds us, while we watch as everything we once believed in becomes dissolved by the unforgiving waters of time.

Abandoned Rolling Acres Mall Akron Ohio
Abandoned Rolling Acres Mall Akron Ohio
Abandoned Rolling Acres Mall Akron Ohio
Abandoned Rolling Acres Mall Akron Ohio
Abandoned Rolling Acres Mall Akron Ohio
Abandoned Rolling Acres Mall Akron Ohio
Abandoned Rolling Acres Mall Akron Ohio
Abandoned Rolling Acres Mall Akron Ohio
Abandoned Rolling Acres Mall Akron Ohio
Abandoned Rolling Acres Mall Akron Ohio
Abandoned Rolling Acres Mall Akron Ohio
Abandoned Rolling Acres Mall Akron Ohio
Abandoned Rolling Acres Mall Akron Ohio
Abandoned Rolling Acres Mall Akron Ohio

View my video of this mall here –

0 comments on “The Day The Sky Fell

  1. Such a sad photo.. and poignant all the same. My local mall appears headed for such a closure soon, most of the stores are gone and it actually looks very similar in appearance to the mall in this article..

      1. What do you think it would take for malls to survive and modernize? I have some ideas but they all may be too lofty and idealistic

  2. more people are shopping on line, more are watching ‘on demand’ movies at home on 75″ flatscreens, and you can’t pull a teenager off their phones long enough to even go to the mall let alone hang out there for any period of time … massive malls are part of a dying era

  3. Really sad. I had a first hand view of the demise of Randall Park Mall which has also been documented. I miss the days of hanging out at the mall with real friends not people on social media you will never meet.

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