Columbus Ohio real estate

Graceland Shopping Center - 2010

Graceland Shopping CenterGraceland sign 2010

Today at Graceland Shopping Center there is a

  • Kroger Marketplace
  • Target 
  • Two fitness centers
  • Qdoba
  • Applebees
  • Sears Appliance & Hardware
  • OfficeMax

and way, way more...

A home owner near Graceland Shopping Center said of the shopping area earlier this decade:

"Graceland Shopping Center had an 80% vacancy rate and was in disrepair. There was no Target, or Kroger, or other shopping facilities, but only empty eyesore buildings." 

I believe that the home owner was referring to 2001 or 2002.

In the 70s or 80's HER Realtors (now Real Living HER... brokerage I am affiliated with)  had a Graceland office! In the shopping center?  Or just nearby?  I suppose I could ask, at least one of the agents in my office started out in the HER Realtors, Graceland office .

There was a movie theater at Graceland!

Target Graceland 2010I remember discovering Graceland in the early 1990s.  I worked in Worthington... lived west of the Olentangy River but  I loved the J.C. Penny furniture store that was at Graceland.  There was a large sporting goods store?  Jack's Pets and Aquarium??

In the beginning Graceland Shopping Center 

I love Don O'Brien's pictures from the year before  was built.  George Campbell's site has some great photos of Graceland over the years!

Nearby residential neighborhoods include  Beechwold, Chaseland, Delawanda Park, Old Beechwold, Sharon Heights, Tremont Gardens, Zooland and more... I have friends in Worthington who shop at the Graceland Kroger rather than the Worthington Mall Kroger (the Worthington Mall store is a very nice store, recently remodeled.)

 

Edit September 2011 to add the tag "Graceland" so I can find this post!

 

 

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This post provided by Maureen McCabe of Real Living HER

Contact 614.388.8249

Website: MaureenMcCabe.com

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email: MaureenatMaureenMcCabe.com   @

Information is deemed to be accurate but should be verified to your satisfaction.  Information provided herein is supplied by several sources and is subject to change without notice.  Opinions expressed are solely those of Maureen McCabe.

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10 comments • Maureen McCabe Columbus Ohio real estate • September 07 2010 07:35AM

Graceland Shopping Center

Graceland Shopping Center Columbus Ohio 43214 -  Map

Graceland Shopping Center

 

The picture of the remains of an old house and a sign proclaiming Graceland Shopping Center is part of Don O'Brien (DOK1's)  photostream on Flickr.

Actually the sign calls it Graceland Shoppers Mart.  I wonder if Graceland was called that at first? 

The sign promising the shopping area for Christmas 1954 says the shopping area developed by Don M. Casto Jr. would  be "ONE OF THE NATIONS FINEST SHOPPING CENTERS."

More 1953 Graceland Shopping Center photos from Don O'Brien:

Future Graceland Shopping Center Site: 1953

December 1953 Graceland Signs.

On the photo of the remains of the house, O'Brien quotes the Graceland site of George Campbell about Graceland Shopping Center history:

"Graceland was built on a former horse farm, named "Graceland", that was co-owned by a Columbus Bookmaker and his wife, a Madam. When the property came up for sale, the Casto and Gibson families purchased it for $100,000. The center opened in 1954, and had a good run through the 1980's."

I'd remembered the bookie and the Madam for some reason.  I must have read that on Campbell's site.

The map at the top shows where the Graceland Shopping Center is in north Columbus just south of Worthington.  I wonder if the Graceland area was annexed into the City of Columbus in the 1950's or if it was in an unincorporated area of Franklin County, Sharon Township. 

The Graceland area is part of the Clintonville Beechwold area today. The Columbus Chaseland neighborhood was nearly annexed to Worthington in 1954.

Where does Clinonville begin or end?

Anyone who reads my Worthington Old and News site knows I love Don O'Brien's historic pictures of Worthington.  O'Brien grew up just north of Worthington on W. Wilson Bridge Rd.  W. Wilson Bridge Road was in Sharon Township in the 1930s and 1940s. Assuming the Graceland Shoppin Center is in the City of Columbus, a few streets in the area are or were until quite recently still in Sharon Township, not annexed to the City of Columbus.

Don O'Brien took this photo for the Worthington News, the newspaper in Worthington back in the day.

O'Brien added some great old Christmas photos while I was doing my 2009 Christmas shopping, if you like old photos be sure and visit his Flickr Photostream.

 

 

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

This post provided by Maureen McCabe of Real Living HER

Contact 614.388.8249

Website: MaureenMcCabe.com

Search Central Ohio homes Online


email: MaureenatMaureenMcCabe.com   @

Information is deemed to be accurate but should be verified to your satisfaction.  Information provided herein is supplied by several sources and is subject to change without notice.  Opinions expressed are solely those of Maureen McCabe.

Non Member comments closed due to heavy spam! 


 

0 comments • Maureen McCabe Columbus Ohio real estate • December 30 2009 12:38AM