The Ice Rink In The Mall

Finally, somebody's going to build SOMETHING on the site of the old Eastland Mall in Charlotte. Whatever it is, it will not be nearly as bizarre as the ice rink that once sat beneath the food court.

Photograph taken from the Ice Capades ice skating rink at Eastland Mall circa the 1980s. The first floor of the mall can been seen, as well as a portion of the second floor. (Photo: Skating Party, undated. MS0356 Irwin Avenue Open School records, UNC Charlotte)

The City of Charlotte is finally going to build something on the site of the old Eastland Mall. Eastland’s story is basically like that of many, many malls: They were once cool and then times changed and the malls were no longer cool, then lots of them closed and people got sort of nostalgic for them? People my age, maybe. I’m not really missing them now, since I can go have a beer at a brewery instead of hanging out in front of Hot Topic. (Related: My wife can vouch for my terrible fashion instincts, and yet I was once employed by Structure at the Eastwood Mall in Niles, Ohio over a Christmas break where I doled out a bunch of terrible recommendations that matched parachute pants with long-sleeved orange t-shirts. It was a different time.)

Still though, there are going to be soccer fields and buildings and stuff, which will be much nicer than the 69-acres of red clay that’s been sitting off of Central Avenue in East Charlotte for a decade. I don’t really have any feelings for the mall itself: It was starting to become vacant by the time I showed up in Charlotte in 2005. No, I’d like to wax poetic for a moment about the ice rink in the basement, which was by far the weirdest place I’ve ever played hockey.