Local history: Children’s Palace was a castle for kids
There are certain advertising jingles that you never forget.
“Children’s Paaaalace. A super toy store … and a whole lot more.”
Kids who grew up in the 1970s and 1980s will remember the joy of visiting a castlelike building topped with red-roofed turrets. Children’s Palace, billed as “The World’s Largest Toy Store,” offered a magical realm of fun — especially at Christmas.
The drawbridge lowered in 1969 when Ohio-based Kobacker Shoe Co., soon to be renamed KB Marketing Systems, revealed plans to build a 40,000-square-foot store in Northampton Township (now Cuyahoga Falls).
The expansion followed the grand opening of the first Children’s Palace in October 1968 in Monroeville, Pennsylvania. After turning a cool profit in three short months, the company announced it would construct identical stores in Akron, Dayton, Columbus and Pittsburgh.
“We’re building a toy organization that can support a heck of a lot larger chain,” President Arthur Kobacker explained.
The company acquired the former site of State Road Wrecking and Lumber Co. at 3479 Akron-Cleveland Road (Route 8) near the Ascot Drive-In and across from Ascot Park. The Ruhlin Co. built the Northampton store and warehouse for about $350,000 (over $2.8 million today).
The location might seem a little puzzling in the 21st century, but what we now know as State Road was a well-traveled thoroughfare to Cuyahoga County in the days when the Route 8 highway ended at Cuyahoga Falls Avenue in Akron.
Workers stocked the shelves with over 10,000 items for the grand-opening celebration Sept. 27, 1969. Miss Barbara, the star of WEWS-TV’s “Romper Room,” did a live broadcast.
Kids stormed the castle. Walls and walls of toys and games! An entire store dedicated to them!
Among the items for sale were Etch a Sketch ($2.93), Spirograph ($2.89), Concentration ($2.99), Talking Barbie ($5.32), Lite-Brite ($6.48), Suzy Homemaker Sweet Shop ($8.91), Rock ’Em, Sock ’Em Robots ($9.37), Big Wheel ($9.93), Baby Peek & Play ($11.93) and Electro-Shot Shooting Gallery ($12.86).
A new era of shopping had begun. Children’s Palace was open from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. Monday through Saturday and noon to 7 p.m. Sunday.
Bob Milan, 69, of Kent, recalls getting hired at the Northampton store in 1973.
“I started on the overnight stocking crew,” he said. “I was 19 years old and we stocked the shelves overnight during the Christmas season.”
The workers came in at 11 p.m. or midnight and filled the shelves until morning: Monopoly, Candy Land, Sorry, Yahtzee, Mouse Trap, Twister, Battleship, Risk, Clue, Stratego, you name it.
“Back in those days, we were known for the wall of games,” Milan said. “We had a long wall with all the board games and everything.”
And the store had so many dolls — or “action figures” for boys. Barbie, G.I. Joe, Baby Alive, Action Jackson, Hollie Hobbie, Batman, Raggedy Ann, Johnny West, Skipper, the Six Million Dollar Man ...
“There was a big aisle of puzzles,” Milan said. “And a whole section for toy guns. Dolls, tea sets for little girls. There was a boys aisle and a girls aisle.”
KB Marketing sold its nine toy stores to Child World of Massachusetts in 1975, bringing the total to 53.
Children’s Palace employed about 25 workers during the offseason in Northampton, but the number swelled to 120 at Christmas. Overall-clad mascot Peter Panda beckoned as crowds swarmed the store in search of the latest thing. Legos, Nerf Balls, Pet Rocks, Slime, Star Wars, Stretch Armstrong …
Playthings went from rudimentary objects to modern electronics, including Magnavox’s Odyssey, Coleco’s Electronic Football, Milton Bradley’s Simon and Parker Brothers’ Merlin.
“There was the Atari video game system and then Nintendo and all the others,” said Milan, who was promoted to store manager in 1979.
After Cole National Corp. of Cleveland acquired the chain in 1980, Children’s Palace added dozens of locations, including Belden Village and Rolling Acres.
Cuyahoga Falls native Doug Caswell, 61, who now lives in Jacksonville, Florida, remembers buying model kits, G.I. Joe, electric trains, slot cars and other toys in the 1970s at Children’s Palace in Northampton.
“I loved that store,” he said. “I wanted to work there because I loved it as a kid.”
His dream came true at age 18 in the summer of 1981, but the work was far from glamorous.
“I started off with the worst job,” Caswell said.
The store had just repaired its roof and the paint flaked off onto the light fixtures.
“It was a mess up there,” he said. “They brought me in to clean every single one of those fluorescent lights.”
After he finished that project, the bosses hired him for a temporary position at the warehouse through Christmas. He returned two years later as a University of Akron student.
“I did everything,” Caswell said. “I worked in the warehouse, I worked the floor, I did the stocking on the floor.”
Care Bears, Smurfs, Rubik’s Cube, He-Man, Ghostbusters, My Little Pony, Pound Puppies, Transformers, Rainbow Brite, Teddy Ruxpin …
Milan and Caswell will never forget Cabbage Patch Kids. Across the country in 1983, customers jostled in the aisles for the cherubic dolls, which came with birth certificates and adoption papers.
“They were going off the shelf like no tomorrow,” Caswell said.
“We ran an ad and we ran out of them,” Milan said.
“We got a late shipment in one day before Christmas,” Caswell said.
“When we got them back in, we kept them in a storeroom and took customers back one at a time and let them pick out their dolls,” Milan said. “We didn’t put them back out on a shelf where they could be fought over.”
In the mid-1980s, Children’s Palace started a Santa’s Helper program to help customers find things.
“I was one of the first Santa’s Helpers,” Caswell said. “I’d run around in my red Children’s Palace vest and a Santa hat. If people looked like they were lost or couldn’t figure out what they wanted, you would go up to them and go, ‘Can I help you?’ ”
In 1986, Children’s Palace left State Road for a high-profile location in a $4.5 million shopping center at 790 Howe Ave. in Cuyahoga Falls near Chapel Hill Mall.
“The shelves — the gondolas, we called them — they were 16 feet tall,” Milan recalled. “We stacked the stuff as high as we could. It was just an overwhelming presence of toys when you came in and walked down the aisles.”
World Wrestling Federation, Jem, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Jenga, Pogo Balls, Micro Machines, Lazer Tag, Koosh Ball …
“Being at Chapel Hill compared to being on Route 8, the volume increased immensely,” Caswell said.
Children’s Palace reigned supreme until a competitor moved into the neighborhood. Toys R Us opened in October 1986 at 590 Howe Ave.
Peter Panda and Geoffrey Giraffe duked it out for years, but Toys R Us won the fight. Citing increased competition, the parent company of Children’s Palace filed for bankruptcy in 1992 and closed all 71 of its stores, including 17 in Ohio.
“I worked about a month after the store closed, emptying out the fixtures and equipment and supplies,” Milan said. “I had the option whether I wanted to stay the final month or whether to delegate it to one of my assistants, but I decided to stay till the end and see it through.”
Afterward, Milan took over his father’s key shop in Kent and remains a locksmith today. After 1986, Caswell leaped from retail into heavy industry and is now a plant manager in Florida.
“I really liked working for the company,” Caswell said. “When I look back, it was a good time.”
Over the years, the former Children’s Palace building on State Road served as the home of Pride RV, Bingo Palace, Falls Lumber & Millwork Co., WCCV Flooring Design Center and Premier O.E.M. Today, the old Children’s Palace on Howe Avenue is Value City Furniture.
Toys R Us filed for bankruptcy in 2017 and shut down in 2018, although it’s been trying to make a comeback.
Meanwhile, red-roofed turrets stand tall in the memories of many.
“Children’s Paaaalace. A super toy store … and a whole lot more.”
Mark J. Price can be reached at mprice@thebeaconjournal.com
This article originally appeared on Akron Beacon Journal: Local history: Children’s Palace was a castle for kids
