April 15, 1969. Thirty-six stores opened their doors in a brand-new enclosed mall in Northwood, Ohio, and people came. J.C. Penney opened the next day formally. LaSalle’s followed on August 4.
Sears held its dedication on October 15. Two years before any of that, the spot had been 90 acres of mostly empty land on the east bank of the Maumee River, about 6 miles southeast of downtown.
The Edward J. DeBartolo Corporation broke ground in May 1967. The logic was straightforward: Northwood and the east-side suburbs were growing, and there was no enclosed mall on Toledo’s east side of the Maumee…