Looking out from Sarnia Bay towards downtown and Chemical Valley, on July 29, 2021.

The indoor shopping mall located in the heart of downtown Sarnia, Ontario opened in early 80s as Sarnia Eaton Centre, and was later renamed to Bayside Mall after the demise of Canadian department store chain, Eaton's, and then to Bayside Centre before its demolition in 2021. It is a common story throughout Canada and the USA: big box retailers kill department stores, and the malls once anchored by these department stores die along with them. The death of these malls often results in conversions to even more pedestrian-unfriendly power centres (aka. "demalled").

The story of Bayside Centre is unusual because it is also part of the story of a downtown, representing the resilience of traditional main street retail and independent, local business rather than the triumph of big box retail chains (perhaps the presence of the much larger Lambton Mall on the outskirts of the city didn't help either). And instead of being converted into yet another horrible power centre and reinforcing car culture, the demolition of Bayside Centre is opportunity for urbanization, intensification, and promoting walkability of a historic city centre.

Weekend Walkabout on Christina Street in Downtown Sarnia on July 24, 2021. Sarnia's downtown might not be as big or as well built up as one might expect for that of a city of over 70,000 people. Not enough of the vibrancy of a city, and not enough of the charm of a small town, it is situated in an awkward position. It does feel like a place that is stuck in time, perhaps held back by the presence of the mall. It probably doesn't help that the downtown and the mall are not actually located bayside. Sarnia Bay, the part of the waterfront where the locals gather, actually lies further upstream to the north. To the east, the mall noticeably disrupts the downtown street grid, with Lochiel Street broken up into two parts. Where Lochiel Street once ran became the main front and rear entrance to the mall, adjoining the Eaton's store. Fittingly, this was the first part of the mall that was demolished.

The demolished rear entrance of mall, on July 22, 2021.

The former Eaton's location, on July 23, 2021. Not all of the mall will be demolished, however. The former Eaton's store (pictured above) facing the west side of Christina Street, the main street of Sarnia, was in the process of being converted into a standalone building. It was being renovated and subdivided into multiple retail units, which had yet to be filled at the time I was there.

What exactly is to become for the rest of the mall property? I asked this question to one of the locals and they told me that a retirement home is be built, which surprised me. Searching online I can confirm that the land is owned by an Oakville-based company, Seasons Retirement Communities, but their plans have stalled. When I returned to the city the following year, I did see some small government office buildings had been built on the north side of the site directly behind the former Eaton's. Hopefully, the rest of the site gets redeveloped soon to bring more people into downtown Sarnia and support its small businesses.

Seaway Lane separates the mall and the historic structures on the west side of Christina Street. On July 29th, I arrived at the main entrance to the mall to find that Lochiel Street had been closed off with red ribbon at Christina Street, so I assumed demolition was going to happen sometime that day. Not knowing the exact time, I wandered around town for a bit, and unfortunately I arrived a little late and missed the beginning of the demolition. And I didn't stay for as long as I wanted to either because as the mall crumbled it filled the air with dust. All over my clothes, my camera, my lens. In panic, I actually retracted the extended barrel of my lens when it was still covered in dust, which only made me even more panicked.

Luckily, both my Olympus E-M1 Mark II and 12-100mm f/4 IS PRO are dustproof. The main reason I bought this combination in late 2019 was for a trip to Vietnam, which got cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic a few months later. I didn't think I would need the weather-sealing and dust-sealing in Sarnia. It was very fortunate because this dust would have destroyed my previous camera and/or made me miss capturing this potentially defining moment in Sarnia's history.

Access to Lochiel Street and the front entrance of the mall closed at 4:51PM EDT on July 29, 2021. Demolition at 6:35PM EDT.

Demolition at 6:45PM EDT.

Demolition at 6:48PM EDT.

If you are interested in seeing the rest of the photos in this series, please visit Sarnia: Bayside in my gallery.