A mall-wide dedication was held in February 1969, when forty-four stores opened their doors.

Advert from the Visconsi-Mead-Jacobs Company 

Lazarus was expanded with a second level -and given a facelift- as the mall was being built. When construction dust settled, the official name of the store changed from Lazarus West to Lazarus Westland.

Photo from https://www.digital-collections.columbuslibrary.org / Columbus Citizen-Journal / Columbus Metropolitan Library

Sears anchored the west end of WESTLAND CENTER with a 177,000 square foot store. 

Drawing from Sears, Roebuck & Company

J.C. Penney's WESTLAND CENTER store encompassed 104,800 square feet. As a contemporary advertisement attested, Penneys stores sold "everything from a thimble to a refrigerator."

Drawing from the J.C. Penney Company

In its original state, WESTLAND CENTER was open-air in configuration, which seems odd when considering that nearly every other mall completed in 1969 was fully-enclosed. Whatever the case, the WESTLAND mall covered approximately 816,000 leasable square feet, with a tenant list of forty stores and services. There was free parking for over 5,000 autos.

WESTLAND CENTER TENANTS 1969:

LAZARUS (with beauty salon, restaurant and freestanding Auto Center) / SEARS (with Coffee House, hearing aid & optical center and freestanding Auto Center) / J.C. PENNEY (with Coffee Shop, beauty salon, pet shop and freestanding Auto Center) / A & P supermarket (outparcel) / F. W. WOOLWORTH 5 & 10 (with Harvest House restaurant) / Allied Radio / Andre Duval Beauty Salon / Bakers Shoes / Barricini Candy / Cut 'N Curl beauty salon / Curry's Tavern / Florsheim Shoes / Foxwood Casuals ladies' wear / Gray Drug (with luncheonette) / Harolde's / House of Fabrics / House of Nine ladies' wear / Junior Shoe World / Lane Bryant ladies' wear / Madison's / Marianne Shops ladies' wear / Merle Norman Cosmetic Studio / Miles Shoes / Orange Julius / Parklane Hosiery / Paul Harris ladies' wear / Petty Card Shop / Regal Shoes / Richman Brothers men's wear / Rogers Jewelers / Schiff Shoes / Seven Seas Gift Shop / Sill's Shoes / Silverman's / Singer Sewing Center / Thom McAn Shoes / Tuckerman Optometrists / Waldenbooks / Walker's / Winkelman's ladies' wear

In this view, we see the original open-air shopping concourse. The Lazarus Westland mall entry appears in the left background.

Photo from https://abandonedonline.net

The open mall featured sculptures and water features by Cleveland artisan Clarence E. Van Duzer.

Photo from https://abandonedonline.net