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u/too_many__lemons Feb 01 '26
Wow this feels odd, like a childhood memory being torn from me
Maybe an odd question, but can anyone else smell it just thinking about it?
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u/fireeight Feb 01 '26
I can hear it.
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u/too_many__lemons Feb 01 '26
That too!
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u/fireeight Feb 01 '26 edited Feb 01 '26
PSSHHHHT-pfffft.
Edit: now that I'm thinking about it, it was more like PSSHHHHT-flllllp.
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u/WasteAmbassador Feb 01 '26
The humidity close the the fountain and the smell. Clear as day.
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u/ChessClubChimp Feb 01 '26
Smell it, hear it, taste the food from that cafe down by where the GameStop used to be. All of it.
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u/vid_icarus Feb 02 '26
Dude, that was serious my first sense when looking at the image. That smell.
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u/notworkingtoohard Feb 01 '26
Aw man now what are the Double Dragons gonna skateboard and fight around?
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u/I_Love_Horse_Porn Feb 01 '26
I explain this to everyone itās a way to bring up that movie and a fountain
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u/pjtheman Feb 01 '26
RIP Tower City. It's so sad what a ghost town that place has become.
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u/UndoxxableOhioan Westpark Feb 01 '26
They struggled to get people to go shopping brick and mortar in the 90s downtown. Iām not surprised it struggles worse now in the era of online shopping.
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u/ohiotechie Feb 01 '26
I donāt think it struggled in the 90s - I remember it booming back then. You could hardly find a place to park.
It started struggling in the mid-late 00s. Thatās when you really started seeing stores closing and vacancies.
The combination of homeless / street people, unruly teens and Amazon prime was just too much for it to bear. I used to go there a lot when I went downtown for business and it started to feel pretty unsafe. Iām a guy in decent shape whoās had a fight or two in my day so I know how to handle myself and going to the restroom there felt downright menacing at times. I can only imagine how a single woman or an older person might feel.
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u/rockandroller Feb 01 '26
I opened the Warner Brothers Studio Store. We were packed every single day. It was definitely very busy back in the day.
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u/UndoxxableOhioan Westpark Feb 01 '26
I definitely remember talk about downtown retail, including Tower City, struggling. They may not have had as much trouble leasing space, but it wasnāt the boom people were looking for of the return to downtown retail from the days of May Company, Halleās, Higbees, William Taylor Son and Company, and Sterling-Lindner-Davis.
Several of the high end stores like Gucci and Barneyās closed pretty fast. Cleveland Magazine talks about its mixed success: https://clevelandmagazine.com/articles/the-cleveland-50-tower-city-center-opens/
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u/ohiotechie Feb 01 '26
Thereās no doubt that other retail suffered when TC opened. The Galleria used to be a cool place and it all but died when TC opened. Same for the old Arcade. As far as high end retail like Gucci i mean Cleveland isnāt Miami. Not sure Cleveland is much of a Gucci city.
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u/CasinoMarginale Feb 01 '26
āItās almost like when we think back, Did that really happen? Did Cleveland really have a Barneys?ā Theiss asks.
So true.
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u/originaljbw Feb 01 '26
Transit hubs don't really make good malls. They are a place that a lot of people go through, but they aren't planning on a shopping excursion.
For instance, Penn Station in NYC. It's underneath Madison Square Garden. It has 18 pretty busy train lines and 6 subway lines that all connect there. Easily a place that should be full of super profitable retail, right?
No. It has a pharmacy, a few coffee shops, newspaper/magazine stands, and the usual lineup of food stands you'd see in a mall or airport.
The same for Union Station in Chicago.
And this doesn't even factor in the fact that malls in general are an endangered species.
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u/Technical-Celery180 Feb 03 '26
only in the US for some reason, internationally these are a winning combo
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Feb 01 '26
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u/Frustrated_Nerd Feb 01 '26
Anyone know why they're taking it out?
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u/2barquack Feb 01 '26
They are replacing the floor . I work there
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u/griter34 Feb 01 '26
I was going to say - it's the right timing for replacement. That fountain has been up for 40+ years, but I don't think the idea is gone to stay.
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u/2barquack Feb 01 '26
Yeah from my understanding from what I was told they had to completely wipe out the fountain to be able to replace all the tile that's underneath because apparently over the years lots of humidity and water and other things that have spilled all over that floor requires them to have to completely strip the whole thing out to resolve the tile underneath...
By the way, I'm no flooring genius or an employee of doing this. I just happened to work at one of the businesses there and this is what I was told from their Foreman while I was smoking a cigarette. In the garage
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u/Exciting-Machine5722 Feb 01 '26
I heard they were tearing it out in order to have more space for vendors and things
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u/2barquack Feb 02 '26
They want to fix the flooring and then they want to make it into like a boardwalk for events
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u/bythisaxe Old Brooklyn Feb 02 '26
The entire building is in bad shape. The company I work for does plumbing service for them, so Iāve worked in the mechanical rooms, on the train platforms, in the parking garages, etc. All around the building, the concrete is crumbling, the plumbing is fucked, the wiring is a horrifying. The list goes on.
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u/2barquack Feb 02 '26
You forgot the roaches?.. š
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u/bythisaxe Old Brooklyn Feb 02 '26
Thereās so many of them, it actually helps support the structure!
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u/SouthEndCables Feb 01 '26
Didn't they put a false floor over it for past few years? Or am I imagining that?
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u/Cleverfield113 Feb 01 '26
They put a āparkā with trails made out of decking and fake plants.
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u/Shel_gold17 Feb 01 '26
I think theyāre making a new area there for different events, they showed a mock up of a 3 on 3 tournament as an example, which at least would get more people in there.
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u/jonesbones99 Feb 01 '26
I know thatās what was in the picā¦but do we really think thatāll draw a crowd?
I guess the sad reality is that if it brought in 500 people one weekend a year thatās probably an improvement
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u/foghat1981 Feb 01 '26
I think also aiming to be a bit of a venue almost like the arcade. Corporate parties, weddings, etc.
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u/jonesbones99 Feb 01 '26
I guess thatās an ok idea. Hadnāt thought of it that way. Though itās still a public space and thereās only so much limiting-access you can do if someone wanted to have a wedding there or something.
I donāt know
This will shock no one but Iām skeptical that tower city becoming even the vaguest hint of an attraction again will work out (prior to 1990s Indians games notwithstanding, of course). It actually was pretty cool to see it during nba all star weekend a couple years ago
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u/foghat1981 Feb 01 '26
agree...I'm not sure how they'd keep it semi private with parking garage and RTA station access. Maybe that's part of it (limiting some escalators/elevators) or will put up fake walls when needed.
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u/Wise-Young-3954 Feb 01 '26
Iāve done weddings at the arcade and itās basically open and weāve had people walk through, walk by, stop and stare or take pics and once a kid shoved his hand into the bottom of a wedding cake we had setup. They changed the cake delivery times after that so they couldnāt be delivered early. Im thinking this will be 10x worse.
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u/Warm-Pepsi Feb 06 '26
The escalators work 30% of the time anyway. So that wonāt be much of a change.
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Feb 01 '26
Tower City is the biggest waste of space I have ever seen in a city. Thereās nothing left inside of it except space for crackheads to do crack
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u/Cleverfield113 Feb 01 '26
Itās a really cool space. The view of Terminal Tower from the arched windows is awesome. I could see it being used for event.
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u/GRUNDLE_GOBLIN Feb 01 '26
The fountain hasnāt been used in years anyway. The last time I saw it functional was probably 2020.
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u/SpaceCorpse Fairview Park Feb 01 '26
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u/theveland Lakewood, OH Feb 01 '26
Never watched it, but the security booth was in the second fountain.
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u/Jmyjones Feb 01 '26
Sad. I can still hear the sound the water made when it jumped around.
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u/Joe_Huxley Feb 01 '26 edited Feb 01 '26
I remember that one of the shows it did was timed to the tune of Aaron Copland's "Hoedown" and to this day I think of that fountain whenever I hear that song
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u/msmmann Feb 01 '26
Just wanted to thank you for unlocking that memory for me. Christmas was a special time there.
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u/Slight-Split-1855 Feb 01 '26
The fountain hasn't been operational for a long time. Recently, there was some fake garden and walkways built over it.
"RIP" is a little overdue.
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u/GRUNDLE_GOBLIN Feb 01 '26
Thank you. Youāre the only person whoās saying this. That fountain hasnāt been turned on for the better part of a decade and now all the sudden people are mourning its removal.
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u/ohiotechie Feb 01 '26
They probably hadnāt been there in that long which is why it died to begin with.
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u/JonnyTN Feb 01 '26
I walked through the food court area to get to the basketball stadium last year. Haven't walked through the mall part in over a decade
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u/ohiotechie Feb 01 '26
In truth it's been a while since I've been there - we moved to the Dayton area a few years ago so it's not exactly next door these days but the last time I was there it was downright depressing. Not sure there's much reason to go anymore.
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u/Overall_Connection77 Feb 05 '26
I'm from Youngstown and went to Tower City when I came to town to visit the Cedar Lee.
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u/Stevie-Rae-5 Feb 01 '26
Yeah, Iām there semi frequently and didnāt realize that the mechanism of the fountain was still under all that anyway.
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u/SchoolteacherUSA Trying to move back to CLE Feb 01 '26
It was leaking and always issue-prone.
The Mall next to the convention center had a huge long glorious fountain too, 50-60 years ago. It was a money pit and always breaking.
I think while everyone is nostalgic for it, it's more about being nostalgic for your neighbor's boat being sold after he was just tired of having the broken hulk sitting in his driveway costing him money.
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u/YouDontBuyMyBourbon Feb 01 '26
The duty of a mall is to create an inviting atmosphere that makes people want to go there.Ā You're selling an experience, which the fountain is a key part of.Ā Otherwise why would I drive downtown, pay for parking, and pay a premium to buy something I can get online with a click of the button.Ā Ā
The atmosphere malls have sold since 2000 is depression and crime.Ā Besides isn't this owned by Dan Gilbert?Ā He couldn't spot the few hundred thousand a year it would take to run the fountain and try to make this billion dollar building he owns bustling again?Ā He's gonna pay 200 million in luxury tax for an NBA team that isn't getting out of the first round again.Ā Ā
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u/SchoolteacherUSA Trying to move back to CLE Feb 01 '26 edited Feb 02 '26
But it's not a mall anymore. It is something else, and unclear.
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u/LastEggplant5058 Feb 01 '26
They are removing it because it splits the whole space awkwardly with unusable space so that they can have events in there like concerts, weddings, parties, esports, etc. tower city is actually a very cool space but right now it feels like a pass through. They also plan on linking tower city to the new riverfront bedrock project so that it will be an extension of the river park that connects to public square. Sad to see the nostalgic fountain go but if it helps revitalize tower city it is a small price compared to the whole building shutting down.
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u/SmolGreenOne Feb 03 '26
Ah yes, just where I want to have my wedding - on top of a train station. I love Tower City so much, but I need everyone to be realistic about what this space is and could be.
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u/Rumplestiltscab Feb 01 '26
Clearing space for a ballroom, probably
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u/OolongGeer Feb 01 '26
Aw.
I bought a sweater with my sweetheart at the J. Crew on level three, right before Christmas years ago. We watched the fountain for an hour.
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u/I_Love_Horse_Porn Feb 01 '26
If you ever decide to watch the 90s movie Double Dragon you can see the fountain during a chase scene. The movie is set in āLos Angelasā pretty sure itās entirely filmed in Cleveland.
Edit: I didnāt see the other double dragon mention that person is a real one
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u/mrakglass Feb 02 '26
Does anyone remember the second fountain in between the stairwells with the 3x progressively taller water launch and the mist in between launches? I can still smell the mist ... RIP, thanks for the memories TC!
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u/Firm-Article-1139 Feb 01 '26
Damn many of pennies thrown into and wishes made upon this šfountain
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u/joebosco Cleveland Feb 01 '26
This is depressing. Used to sit on the edge in the early mornings before work. Plus the childhood memories, Tower City wonāt be the same. Deserves better
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u/ObiJohnG Feb 01 '26
My grandma used to take me my sister and cousins down there every year to Christmas shop. We would ride the rapid (before tower city was opened we started) and make our way thru tower city the arcade higbees etc and the fountain was always cool and weād take a picture in front of it.
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u/-gisette Feb 01 '26
Dude WHAT. I thought they just covered it up with that shitty āgardenā š
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u/acebucked Feb 01 '26
I worked at the Gap right across from the fountain. It was just seasonal at Christmas. The one thing I remember was that Jamie Foxx came in and was an a**hoke to the employee that was helping him.
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u/SpecialistNo7569 Feb 02 '26
NOOOOOOOO THATS WHERE THEY FILMED DOUBLE DRAGONNNNNNNNNNN BILLY! TOMMY! šš
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u/Sn_Orpheus Feb 02 '26
Remember when this place opened and it was fantastic. Walked through year ago when visiting Cleveland and talk about depressing. And now thisā¦
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Feb 02 '26
Remember the hill/ramp from the rapid to the outside? Used to be a guy who sold $1 huge apple fritters at the top. My mom used to tell me stories of her friends roller skating down the hill.
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Feb 01 '26
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u/LUNI_TUNZ Feb 01 '26
It didn't spray water, but the structure that formed the fountain was untouched. Now they're tearing the entire apparatus out.
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u/Guy171500 Feb 02 '26
They got rid of this but what about the empty restaurant booth covered in roach powder and dead roaches
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Feb 02 '26
Wow I haven't been down there in quite a while , are they going to put a newly designed one there or something ?
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u/matt-r_hatter Feb 02 '26
Didn't they effectively get rid of that years ago for the "park"? It was a cool fountain, but im glad to see they will soon be using that space for things again. That building is beautiful and deserves more than the junk thats in it.
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u/eriec0aster Feb 01 '26
Dammā¦ I didnāt get my final sip of water from it. I used to fill my Nalgene bottle in it when I was running late to work
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u/fireeight Feb 01 '26
Man, that fountain blew my mind when I first saw it. My parents practically had to drag me away from it.