Dead malls rarely make news because of what opens inside them. More often, it’s another closure, another demolition plan, or another reminder that their best days are firmly in the past. That’s why I did a double take when I learned Ashley Furniture had moved into Richmond Mall’s old OfficeMax space! A new tenant filling more than 25,000 square feet in a moribund shopping center isn’t something you see every day, so I wanted to look back at the long history of the space it now occupies.
Ashley’s storefront in Richmond Mall was originally home to Woolworth’s, an opening-day tenant1. The 25,100-square-foot store was one of the largest in the chain’s North Central Region. In addition to all of usual fare, Woolworth’s also featured a luncheonette that sat ninety-four2. Unfortunately, the world’s first five-and-dime shuttered all of its four-hundred stores in 1997 after the brand lost relevance in the face of massive discounters like Walmart3.
OfficeMax opened the same year as Richmond Mall underwent a multimillion dollar renovation that added Garfield’s restaurant and a new anchor, Dillard’s. Richmond’s OfficeMax was the company’s 599th store and opened on May 22, 19974. Sixteen years later, the corporation merged with Office Depot.
Richmond was smacked by an EF0 tornado on June 15, 2019. From 37th Street and Backmeyer Road, the twister spun three-fifths of a mile northeast and hit the mall5. Eight stores -American Eagle, Cell Fun, Elite Nails, JCPenney, Journeys, Justice, Maurices, and Victoria’s Secret were damaged along with OfficeMax6, which received the brunt of it. The cyclone blew a hole in the roof, tore out windows, scattered wreckage across the parking lot, and even threw an HVAC unit into the middle of the National Road7!
OfficeMax lingered while the rest of the mall eventually came back online. Officials targeted an opening date sometime in December, 20198, but I’m not sure that ever happened. I haven’t found a source to corroborate it, but I’m pretty sure OfficeMax never reopened. Google Street View images confirm it closed sometime between 2019 and 2021.
The storefront was empty last I drove around the mall, but there was a dumpster outside and the lights were on. When I posted my trip to social media, commenters speculated that Ashley Furniture was coming to the space! That sounded strange since so many furniture outlets already exist in Richmond like a new one three-fifths of a mile east, but it happened: Last January, Carra Builders Commercial Construction Company announced their work converting OfficeMax to Ashley9.
What great news! Before Richmond Mall was expanded in 1997, the place was home to about thirty stores. A few more were added when Dillard’s came into place. When I last visited inside in January, I noticed only ten in operation. Now there’s an eleventh. The rest of the mall’s empty storefronts are covered by enormous murals that regale visitors with Richmond’s history.
Ashley Furniture alone won’t restore Richmond Mall to its heyday, and one new store can’t erase decades of retail decline. Still, it’s encouraging to see one of the mall’s largest empty spaces filled again instead of boarded up or demolished. In an era when so many enclosed malls are losing tenants faster than they can replace them, Richmond has managed to add one. That’s worth celebrating, and it gives me hope that this old shopping center may yet have a few more chapters left to write. Next: let’s find something to fill JCPenney!
Sources Cited
1 All Roads Lead (1966, May 8). The Richmond Palladium-Item. p. 17.
2 New Woolworth Store Opens (1966, May 11). The Richmond Palladium-Item. p. 27.
3 Woolworth to close its doors nationwide (1997, July 18). The Richmond Palladium-Item. p. 7. ‘’
4 Gynn, A.M. (1997, May 20). OfficeMax to Open Its Doors This Week. The Richmond Palladium-Item. p. 1.
5 Tornado in Richmond, IN – June 15, 2019 (2019, June 17). The National Weather Service [Wilmington]. Web. Retrieved June 29, 2026.
6 Truitt, J. (2019, November 13). Now just 1 tornado-damaged mall store closed. The Richmond Palladium Item. p. A1.
7 Truitt, J. (2019, December 9). Tornado-hit store has reopening date. The Richmond Palladium-Item. p. A1.
8 (See footnote 6).
9 Williams, L. (2026, March 6). 2 furniture stores, Dollar Tree coming to Richmond. Western Wayne News. Web. Retrieved June 29, 2026.
Is the Dillard’s still there? For some reason, Dillard’s became my wife’s favorite department store, and I think this one in Richmond might have been the closest to us.
The Ashley opening is interesting indeed.
Dillard’s is still there! You wouldn’t know it from people wandering the rest of the mall, but its parking lot has always been pretty full every time I’ve driven by. People must go in and out from the external entrance.