The Valley Fair Mall was billed as the nation's first enclosed mall, but now the stores are gone and the mall is no more, and soon Appleton, WI 53-year-old Valley Fair Mall will be just a memory. Demolition crews are there now, and say it'll probably take them at least a month to finish the job.

"I'm surprised we actually get to wreck it. Usually historic things like this come up as a red flag and they usually like to keep it," Ben Eckert of Eckert Wrecking said. "But we're happy to do it; keeps us busy."

Busy and thorough, Crews say the tricky part of the demolition is tearing down specific sections of the building. Not the entire mall is going to go -- the old Kohl's department store and Value Cinema are staying.

But the heart of what put Appleton on the nation's map will be gone.

For people like Vickie Resch, it hurts. "It feels kind of bad that it's going away."

Resch and her husband opened up Valley Camera at Valley Fair Mall 27 years ago. "When we started in 1980 it was a great mall. We loved it. Business was good. I mean, this is where we started our business."

But over time the mall struggled, especially when competition moved in. Even its place in history could not save the Valley Fair Mall.

"We think about all our memories we have here yet, but it's time to move on," Resch said.

The city said there are no formal plans yet for the property, but a developer wants to put an office building along with a retail strip mall on the site.