On a Saturday afternoon in the early 1980s, the mall is busy from end to end. The movie theater is open. The music store near the entrance has a crowd. The restaurants are serving a steady stream of customers.
People are browsing the shelves in the bookstore. You can buy shoes, clothes, snacks, or a movie ticket without ever stepping outside. The mall stood along the U.S. 68 corridor near Springfield, Ohio.
It was an enclosed shopping center, built on the edge of the city for the car-travel era. Department stores anchored the ends of the building, and chain stores filled the space between them…