Groceteria.com

Anyone know what this Hobby Lobby in the Cassinelli Square shopping center in Cincinnati used to be?

http://maps.live.com/#JnE9eXAuMTEzODArU ... g5MDYyNQ==

It looks kind of like it could have been a Zayre or Hills.

If anyone else has any other info on the Cassinelli Square, that'd be nice too. It seems to have been "demalled" in 1991.

Most Zayre stores I've seen were more rectangular: wider and not so deep. You say there was once a mall there? Could it have been a Woolco? They often had small malls attached, and something about the indentations in the facade looks a little Woolcoesque to me.

Hmmm. I don't think I very much like the idea of "Woolcoesque" becoming a regularly-sued term.

Groceteria wrote:Most Zayre stores I've seen were more rectangular: wider and not so deep. You say there was once a mall there? Could it have been a Woolco? They often had small malls attached, and something about the indentations in the facade looks a little Woolcoesque to me.

It could very well have been a Woolco in the past; I have at least found through further digging that the building was a Home Quarters into the 1990s. The half to the left (north) of the Hobby Lobby entrance is still vacant. It was evidently a very small mall running from Service Merchandise (now Haverty's Furniture) on the north to the HQ space on the south.

This mall was demalled around 1995 from what I can find, with the former mall space mostly being divided among Toys (backward "R") Us, Office Depot, and Big Lots (there might have also been a Linens 'n Things originally). Big Lots is still there, but both Office Depot and TRU are closed.

Groceteria wrote:Hmmm. I don't think I very much like the idea of "Woolcoesque" becoming a regularly-sued term.

Heh... now THAT was funny.

Zayre had a store in the area, but in a different location. Woolco was in Columbus & Toledo, but not in Cincinnati. Among stores that emerged in the mall era, Gold Circle would have been a likely candidate. I don't think I ever saw a Rink's in a mall. Ontario would have been even less likely.

I remember this location. It originally had a Service Merchandise on the other end, and I remember the HQ. I believe that it was built specifically for the HQ.