Blueprint Archive – Camelot Music

Kicking off the new blueprint section of Mallwalkers with a 1978 storefront elevation drawing of Camelot Music at Mellett Mall (later Canton Centre) in Canton, Ohio.

storefront elevation of camelot music 1978
Camelot Music – Mellett Mall

Camelot Music was a local company founded in Massilon, Ohio who opened their first retail stores in Canton, Ohio in 1965. By the 80s Camelot was a mall staple with over 300 stores and it seemed like they had a store in every mall (except Rolling Acres).

The 90s however were not so kind to the music retailer. In 93 CEO and founder Paul David stepped down and sold his majority share holdings to Investcorp. A few years later in 96 due to massive debts and stiff competition from big box stores the company would file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. Though they did emerge from bankruptcy a year later, the chain was forced to close nearly 25% of the stores. Finally in 1998 the company would be bought out by Trans World Entertainment, who would go on the rebrand the stores as FYE, thus ending the Camelot name for good.

The above image of an unknown store from the same time period shows what the Mellett Mall store may have looked as a finished build.

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