Following the movie shoot and the departure of the school district, the mall sat completely empty while new uses for the property were sought. Since then, it has fared worse than possibly any other ghost mall. Birds Eye View of Dixie Square Mall prior to demolition: [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OrfQmcds53E], Forgotten Seattle: Abandoned Streets and Buildings from the Citys Early Years, Where to Download and Play RetroPie ROMs with Emulators, 5 reasons why a student needs to follow the daily routine, Summer Will Never Be Hot Again with These Home Cooling Tips, Canadas Approach to Online Gambling Over the Years, Employee Motivation: How to Empower Your Team Motivation, Comprehending the Difficulties of Android Device Management. Much of the mall is without handrails, windows, or doors. In spite of this early success, the city of Harvey began experiencing economic decline in the 1970s, which in turn depressed the business at the Mall. Tweet. At this point, it is important to note how the history of the Mall is conveyed in the meme. In the decades after the mall closed, numerous proposals to redevelop the property were announced, though none came to fruition. Shortly after the final store vacated the mall, director John Landis used the mall in the summer of 1979 to film The Blues Brothers. Then in 1973 another person was shot on the mall property, and a teenage girl was strangled to death. The locale of the famous "Blues Brothers" mall chase scene, Dixie Square in Harvey, Illinois, now sits unused in a deteriorating condition. From there, it was a heavy crime magnet, with gang activity and vandalism taking over for the first 20 years until photographers began documenting and exploring its bombed-out shell, starting around 2003 or so. This plan forecast bringing more than 1,000 jobs to Harvey, which has one of the highest unemployment rates in Cook County. Here is a short video with a few images that show exact before and after views!Dixie was opened on August 31st 1966 and was very popular until the late 70`s.. The Dixie Outlet Mall is located at 1250 South Service Road, Mississauga, Ontario, Canada. Dixie Square Mall. We work hard to protect your security and privacy. Our purpose is to recreate this Internet meme, but view it from a different critical lens. [7][8], However, by the early 1970s, crime was increasing in Harvey, a poverty-stricken and blighted suburb 20 miles (32km) south of Chicago,[9] and several significant criminal incidents occurred at or near the mall, including three murders in one year alone. The one-time 64-store galleria then stood vacant for years, a spectacular and perilous ruin. Dixie Square Mall was an enclosed shopping mall at the junction of 151st Street and the Dixie Highway in the Chicago suburb of Harvey, Illinois, United States. Now, a painted Toys R Us sign a business that wasnt even in the mall when it was open is the only remaining complete sign. [8][14], The Harvey-Dixmoor School District attempted to sue Universal Pictures in December 1981 for $87,000, citing their failure to repair damage to mall property created during the movie shoot. He has been a guest speaker on numerous national radio and television stations and is a five time published author. Failed: Built in 1966 and closed after only 13 years, Harvey, Illinois's Dixie Square Mall became memorable for good reasons and bad. Blues Brothers was filmed there, yet afterwords was left to decay and that's how it sat for the proceeding 30+ years. Greetings from a poster in the Dallas forum. ${cardName} not available for the seller you chose. Jalopnik readers know. The abandoned mall was used as the filming location for StarCourt Mall, the main setting for Stranger Things season three. Two years later, a fire caused its roof to cave inward. Similar in age and basically decayed but opened to the public, Columbus Square Mall originally opened in 1965 as the first mall in the city and one of the first enclosed malls in Georgia. Due to rainfall, the malls bottom floor flooded and became a mosquito breeding ground. In the early 1990s, a juvenile court was constructed on the far west end of the parking lot. Construction for Dixie Square Mall began in late 1964. The Dixie Square Mall was built on an old golf course off of the Dixie Highway in Harvey, Illinois ( Pleasant Family Shopping ). The massive, hulking structure has wasted away for more than a quarter century. A soft opening took place on August 31, 1966 with 36 stores. But as for the bolded part - Wait, what? Scores of photos of its dismal-looking inside are posted online. Walgreens finally left by the spring of 1979 and by the summer the last store, Jewel Supermarket, vacated. Photo Credits top to bottom: Ian Freimuth, Matt Becker, Ken Fager, Ken Fager again. Reserve the next gen Samsung deviceAll you need to do is sign up with your email and boom: credit for your preorder on a new Samsung device. The 2000s saw fires ravage through the mall on several separate occasions. "Mall Used In 'Blues Brothers' To Be Torn Down." Our payment security system encrypts your information during transmission. [32], The vast majority of the former site is now brownfield land. It was famous for having been used, both inside and out, for the mall chase scene in the movie The Blues Brothers . . The notion that the mall would close down just ten years later would have seemed the height of absurdity then. (PDF), NBC News Report. It opened in 1966 and closed as a mall in 1979. If there is one definitive source on ghost malls, its photojournalist Seph Lawless, who has explored countless dead buildings and published books on his findings. The mall was in operation for twelve years, closing permanently in 1978. Parsippany: 3189 Route 46 Morris Hills S/C (Harmon Face Value) Rockaway: 327 Mount Hope Ave. Suite 1003 (buybuy BABY) and 399 Route . It stood vacant for over 30 years, more than twice as long as it was in business. Dixie Square Mall, destroyed in The Blues Brothers' famous car chase, has recently been transformed online. In November 1972, a young woman was fatally shot near the mall in a botched robbery attempt. Dixie Square Mall was an enclosed shopping mall at the junction of 151st Street and the Dixie Highway in the Chicago suburb of Harvey, Illinois, United States. By the beginning of the 1970s, the town of Harvey's crime rate rose at extreme heights. Since then, conditions have only worsened; the ruins have caught fire twice, and the mall was the site of at least one brutal murder. The fires not believed to be started by accident caused the roof to cave in and brought vegetation inside the mall. This reputation, as it should have, is thought to have played a role in the malls demise. document.getElementById( "ak_js_1" ).setAttribute( "value", ( new Date() ).getTime() ); Wow your conclusions are stunningly myopic. And in April, the city council voted to transfer title for the property to Chicago developer John Deneen. Once the crew left, wrote Jonrev, (the mall in a disastrous state that was never repaired, despite a lawsuit that was ultimately tossed), the mall was briefly used as a school, then left to rot from 1981 onward., What was once a sprawling, $25 million mall with three anchor stores and over 60 merchants total became a bombed out shell., Trashed: The mall was dressed up then wrecked for the scene and left that way for over 20 years by the movie crew and director John Landis, 'Bombed-Out Shell': The 800,000 square foot mall was closed due to a crime spike in the area and quickly went from suburban dream to crime riddled nightmare, Dangerous: The mall, seen here in its heyday, had 4 anchor stores at 60 merchants but became a magnet for gang activity in its decline. Some intel on the Blues Brothers mall: it was the former Dixie Square Shopping Center in Harvey, IL; a south-suburb of Chicago. By 1968 the mall had 64 shops, including a Woolworth, a Walgreens, a Montgomery Ward, and a Jewel supermarket. They get stopped in the lovely Park Ridge and the mall is in not-so-hot What I found most interesting is the striped wall in Walgreen's where they filmed the first crash. The New World Mall In Bangkok, Thailand, gained worldwide notoriety after its closure, as its fate was unlike that of any other ghost mall in the world. Full content visible, double tap to read brief content. The shuttered Dixie Square Mall was revamped and used for scenes in The Blues Brothers.. All you need to do is sign up with your email and boom: credit for your preorder on a new Samsung device. He hopes to have a shopping center built within two to three years. According to officials, demolition was to start in November of that year and take four to six months. Besides that, it lacks the depth I feel the book needs for the price. When the Randall Park Mall opened in 1976 in North Randall, Ohio (whats going on with you, Ohio? That same year, a 13-year-old girl was lured from the Mall by three other adolescent girls, who led her to a nearby abandoned apartment. When it held its Grand Opening in November of 1966, it was one of the first enclosed malls in the Chicago area. [13], In January 1979, the city of Harvey allowed the Harvey-Dixmoor School District to use mall space as a temporary school location while a new school building was constructed. Dixie Square Mall, which opened to much fanfare in 1966, soon offering more than 60 stores, including this JCPenney. In the days before product placements, Alan had to beg stores to be included. People tell us cars are for driving on things like "roads" and "highways." In terms of sexual violence, the cases extend from the symbolic, when the Mall is used as a site for the distribution of pornography, to the literal, when the Mall is the scene of actual rape. The Dixie Square Mall's time as a retail center was short-lived: After opening in 1966, it closed just 13 years later. There they tortured her and strangled her to death (Dixie Square History). If that wasnt enough, a man was electrocuted and fatally caught fire attempting to steal copper wiring inside, among others. The Mall was used briefly as a temporary school, and, of course, the Mall was used to film The Blues Brothers (Labelscar). In spite of the presence of a police station in close proximity, the Mall continued to be a scene of violent crime. I too feel sad about what has passed. Its nice having a hard copy of the photographs to show others that may be interested in Dixie Square, and its nice having some photos from the early 2000's before things got really bad at DSM. Left in the 1980s, the mall has been abandoned more than twice as long. Quinn also stated that the total cost would be around $5 million, with the remainder of the money coming from federal disaster recovery funds given to the state due to flooding in 2008. Dixie Square Mall. Advertisement. It opened in 1966 on the site of the former Dixie Hi 9-hole golf course. It has several brand name outlets including Nike, Adidas, Boathouse, Calvin Klein, Guess, Puma, Tommy Hilfiger, Winners, Famous Footwear. The Bluesmobile rolled through the Dixie Mall in Harvey during the filming of "The Blues Brothers." (Video image) dixie square mall Famous shopping mall in Harvey, Illinois, a south suburb of Chicago. . The mall was no stranger to violent crime while open, and things did not improve while it was closed. Is there any lovely and vigorous square or block in USA which has been an ugly area? The local shopping mall - not too far from home - a place to shop, eat, work, and socialize. This use, which lasted for two years, also included conversion of the former Turn Style into a gymnasium. I went to the post office and there it was, delivered in a small box, not much larger than a dvd shipping box. Gov. On October 21, 1965, Montgomery Ward was the first of the mall's stores to open. In addition to the anchors JC Penny and Montgomery Wards, the Mall housed 50 stores. Other than knocking down an eyesore, how is this a benefit to Harvey or Illinois? Stores such as the Woolworth, Walgreen, and jewel supermarket were some of the many tenants it hosted. Shipping cost, delivery date, and order total (including tax) shown at checkout. The mall went through a renovation in 1976 in an attempt to rejuvenate the business, but these attempts failed. After years of false starts and decades of dilapidation, the Dixie Square Mall in Harvey is finally coming down. Before a new logo was designed after this rebrand, a tentative logo, a variant of the 1965 logo with letters spelling "MALL" made from parts of the "DIXIE" lettering . Dixie Square was anchored by JCPenney, and Montgomery Ward, and had larger stores like Walgreen's, and a Jewel grocery store. The same mall Jake and Elwood Blues raced through in The Blues Brothers one of the most famous chase scenes in movie history now looks like something from a war zone. Help others learn more about this product by uploading a video! Its per capita income in 1999 was just $12,336. After several weeks of asbestos abatement, which was completed by early February,[30] crews began to demolish the mall on Wednesday, February 15. Over the past two decades, as e-commerce has rapidly evolved to be the default form of shopping for most consumers in most industries, physical stores are dying by the thousands. 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