Twisted steel rails and electrical casings hang from the ceiling like tree branches. There's very likely a one word answer to tbis. It was famous for having been used, both inside and out, for the mall chase scene in the movie The Blues Brothers . ), a remodel, and rename (to "Dixie Mall"). But she said Slate told her that the current 500,000 square feet of mall retail will be reduced to about 120,000 square . Filmmakers stocked the stores with hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of merchandise, recalls Jean Alan, a Chicago set decorator for the movie. (WE GOT CAUGHT) EXPLORING AN ABANDONED MALL IN MEXICO, Exploring the Abandoned Hawthorne Mall (Used in TV Shows! dixie square mall Famous shopping mall in Harvey, Illinois, a south suburb of Chicago. Is it time Harry & Meghan accept Clarkson's apology and move on? And I dont know any of us who have an issue with people of the female gender participating our only concern are the risks of going into a place like that alone because of the potential of someone bumping into the wrong person, and getting hurt. At the end of the mall scene, the Blues Brothers crashed through the exterior main entrance of the old JCP store, at which time the 4-barrel carb on the 74 Monaco could be heard opening up, as they raced back into the parking lot, towards the Dixie Highway/152nd St. entrance. Unfortunately this also gave rise to the local crime rate, and Dixie Square was not immune. The suburb of Harvey went through a steep decline during the early 1970s, and crime at the mall surged. There was a problem loading your book clubs. Advertisement. Honestly, this seems like one historical site that needs to go. For a while after it opened in 1966 during a mall building boom, though, residents remember a thriving place. Failed: Built in 1966 and closed after only 13 years, Harvey, Illinois's Dixie Square Mall became memorable for good reasons and bad. Dixie Square Mall was an enclosed shopping mall located in Harvey, Illinois, United States, at the junction of 151st Street and the Dixie Highway. [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 property was developed by Robert Meyer Corp., Meyer C. Weiner, and Robert E. Fryling, with the firm of Hornbach, Steenwyk, and Thrall serving as architects. The man is now serving life behind bars for the rape/murder and a separate rape at Dixie Square. The canvas covering the JCPenney court area was removed as well, allowing rain and snow to enter into the building. document.getElementById( "ak_js_1" ).setAttribute( "value", ( new Date() ).getTime() ); Wow your conclusions are stunningly myopic. Chances are, youve seen the inside of Gwinnett Place Mall, whether you know it or not. [26], Governor Pat Quinn announced on September 23, 2010, that a $4 million federal grant would be used to demolish the mall. Dixie Square Mall; Front cover of mall directory: Location: Harvey, Illinois: Address: 151st to 154th Street and Dixie Highway, Harvey, Illinois: Opening date: August 31, 1966: Closing date: November 1978 (demolished February 2012) No. Final demolition began in February 2012 and was completed in May of that year. [8][10], In mid-1979, director John Landis rented the vacant mall for eight weeks to film a scene in the movie The Blues Brothers. ), it was the largest mall in the entire world. Each image is a work in and of itself capturing a mood through composition, color and texture. Man nabbed 3 months after returning to scene of Porter County crime, police say; Since then, it has fared worse than possibly any other ghost mall. [3] Final construction was completed nearly three months later, and the mall was dedicated on November 9, 1966, with grand opening celebrations from November 1012, and 50 stores open. A damaged sign for Toys R Us painted by set decorators filming the The Blues Brothers was the only complete sign visible inside the mall in 2005. The abandoned Rolling Acres Mall in Akron, Ohio, was so dangerous that the mayor of Akron made a public statement about its safety. Learn more how customers reviews work on Amazon, Luhar-Trice Publications (November 22, 2008). When I left River Oaks, I went to the Park Forest mall (Morris B. Sachs) and it really wasn't any kind of a change in customer types. Even more disturbing is a makeshift wooden cross, left where a 25-year-old woman was murdered in 1993 near a JCPenney store. Some intel on the Blues Brothers mall: it was the former Dixie Square Shopping Center in Harvey, IL; a south-suburb of Chicago. Includes initial monthly payment and selected options. It seems like you just took two interests you had, feminism and urban exploration, and tried to write something that combines the two. It featured more than 60 stores at one point. Add to that a 200-year-old outdoor mall the size of a neighborhood, and you have a combination ghost-town/crime-den. We just saw that legendary Blues Brother chase today on our list of crazy videos of cars driving through stuff. OK, maybe you don't. It was a large mall in Harvey, Illinois (for the 1960s) with JCPenney ("Penney's") and Montgomery Ward ("Wards"). [8][21] On April 14, 2005, a further plan was set in motion to demolish the remnants of Dixie Square (except for the Montgomery Ward building which was ostensibly being renovated for American Kitchen Delights) and bring top "big-box" retailers to the former mall site, including Costco, Kohl's, and Old Navy. ROLLING ACRES MALL : EXCLUSIVE FULL TOUR! The Bluesmobile rolled through the Dixie Mall in Harvey during the filming of "The Blues Brothers." (Video image) Hilarious: Aykroyd's character (right) notes dryly to John Belushi's (left), 'Lots of space in this mall,' in the indelible scene from the classic movie, Iconic: The suburban behemoth was the perfect setting for an indoor car chase in the 1980 classic. The malls heyday was the late 80s, but by the end of the 90s, low traffic numbers had caused the mall to close altogether. So far, four potential tenants have signed contracts, although he declined to name them. Most notable among these is the 2017 discovery of Georgia State University student Silling Man, murdered and left to decompose in the back room of the food courts Subway. This use, which lasted for two years, also included conversion of the former Turn Style into a gymnasium. My main issue is this connection youre trying to make between anti-feminism and an abandoned mall well, I cant think of the words I want to use to explain how I feel. [5] The mall had 64 shops by 1968, including Montgomery Ward, JCPenney, Woolworth, Walgreens, and a Jewel supermarket. In 1968, two men were arrested in the Malls parking lot for distributing pornography. The following errors occurred with your submission. For example, Raymond Eaves was convicted of raping and murdering Denise Shelby in the abandoned Mall in 1993; at the time of the rape, he was facing charges for raping a mentally disabled girl in the Mall three months prior (Dixie Square History). Following the movie shoot and the departure of the school district, the mall sat completely empty while new uses for the property were sought. It was only open for 13 years before closing in 1979, when. 29+ Haunting Pictures of Abandoned Malls From Around the World Universal | LAST UPDATE 04/19/2022 By Hayden Katz In the 1970s, there was a mall building boom. Walgreens finally left by the spring of 1979 and by the summer the last store, Jewel Supermarket, vacated. Memories of Wayne Hills are warm, fuzzy, and nostalgic. In 1973, a man was robbed and shot to death in the Mall parking lot. Dixie Square Mall, destroyed in The Blues Brothers' famous car chase, has recently been transformed online. You cant argue with that and seeing his pictures, you wouldnt want to, anyway. Dixie Square Mall has quite a history, despite standing in ruin for more than double the number of years it was in operation. In the early 1970s crime was becoming an increasing problem for Harvey, a suburb 20 miles south of Chicago. The abandoned mall was used as the filming location for StarCourt Mall, the main setting for Stranger Things season three. Our purpose is to recreate this Internet meme, but view it from a . Frank Mazzolin has lived about 100 metres from Dixie mall for 35 years. The mall briefly re-opened as a movie set for the chase scene in the Blues Brothers, then was abandoned again. The shuttered Dixie Square Mall was revamped and used for scenes in The Blues Brothers.. This mall was made famous when it was used in the Blues Brothers movie in 1979. For around 20 years, the hot bed of gang activity and vandalism sat untouched. It stood vacant for over 30 years, more than twice as long as it was in business. Pat Quinn joined south suburban officials at the Harvey police station this . Over time, this, coupled with lack of maintenance, took its toll on the building. They paid $12,500 for the right to film inside, according to a contract from the time. The mall was open from 1977 to 1999, and during that time, it slowly succumbed to crime and a changing economy. of floors: 1 It was only open for 13 years before closing in 1979, when the city's crime rate exploded in the wake of "white flight". The comments below have not been moderated. Each image tells a narrative of the "Aesthetics of Abandonment" in a unique interesting way. By 2010 the governor of Illinois finally announced a government grant of $4 million dollars to help demolish the mall. This would only hasten the decay. 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. After at least one murder, a rape, arsons, roof collapses, and a failed $76 million redevelopment attempt, the Chicago suburb had enough of its infamous landmark. With those two exceptions, the Mall has remained abandoned, and the building has been left unsecured. Inside, the smell of mold and rotting garbage dumped illegally over the years is staggering. This logo was first revealed in 1965. The fire caused the roof to cave in, and due to that and other structural collapses, saplings started growing inside the former mall. Thats the same store the Bluesmobile ripped through on its way out of the mall. He hopes to have a shopping center built within two to three years. Bring your club to Amazon Book Clubs, start a new book club and invite your friends to join, or find a club thats right for you for free. Amazon has encountered an error. Star Hugh Jackman cant overcome an emotionally manipulative screenplay and an amateurish young co-star. Despite the new Harvey Police station occupying land immediately adjacent, the shuttered mall gained a reputation as a notorious crime magnet during the early 1990s. Mall destroyed by the Blues Brothers, in the movie "The Blues Brothers" Movie Locations, Retail - Malls Links: en.wikipedia.org By: Dag74. I too feel sad about what has passed. After being used temporarily as a public school and as a film set for The Blues Brothers, it remained abandoned until being torn down in 2012. Website. Reader Jonrev then told us the whole story of the mall itself, something I'd never heard before. Dixie Square Mall, one of the first of many more to come in . Much of the mall is without handrails, windows, or doors. Is there any lovely and vigorous square or block in USA which has been an ugly area? Dixie Square Mall, which opened to much fanfare in 1966, soon offering more than 60 stores, including this JCPenney. 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. Scores of floor tiles installed by the studio and driven over by the Bluesmobile are scattered about. Type: Brownfield land Description: former shopping mall in Harvey, Illinois, United States Farm Heroes Saga, the #4 Game on iTunes. 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. It stood vacant for 32 years, more than twice as long as it was in business. [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. It was during the three days of shooting at the mall that Belushi wandered off the set, knocked on a strangers door, asked for something to eat and passed out on a couch. Although the Mall begins as a success, it soon turns into an unsafe place, particularly for women. Cubs pitchers and catchers report to spring training in less than a month. Please try again. The parking lot is choked with weeds and car-sized potholes. Throughout the madcap chase, deadpan stars Dan Aykroyd and John Belushi calmly point out stores like Disco Pants and Haircuts and an unrecognizable Pier One Imports. Despite the occasional use, the area sits vacant most of the time, and over the years, it has deteriorated rapidly. The 1990s saw the mall turn into a haven for gangs, murders, and drug activity. ? Im sorry if Im not as educated as you, but the urban exploration community had nothing to do with that mall closing, people getting raped, etc. My interest in this book is in the art of photography itself and Trice's imagery doesn't disappoint. However,. Its hard to find an article on abandoned malls that doesnt include Metro North Mall in Kansas City, and with good reason. Honestly, it just seemed like it was cursed from the beginning. dixie square mall Famous shopping mall in Harvey, Illinois, a south suburb of Chicago. Though abandoned malls are all a little bit the same, the Acropolis has developed a particularly unique creepiness among all those on this list. In the Dixie Square Mall, womens power was displaced by violent aggression, and the rapes that occurred after its closure served to ensure that women did not return. After the mall closed, the body of another murder victim was discovered there. In 1973 a 13-year-old girl was strangled after being dropped off at the mall. just some of my ideas, what are yours. During its more notable tenure as "Dixie Square", it was both referred to with "Shopping Center" and "Mall" after its name, interchangeably. My wife recently bought this book for me on Amazon. In January of 2012, the permits for demolition were finally issued. For updates and more information please visit the companion website: www.dixiesquareproject.com, Customer Reviews, including Product Star Ratings help customers to learn more about the product and decide whether it is the right product for them.Learn more how customers reviews work on Amazon, [{"displayPrice":"$46.95","priceAmount":46.95,"currencySymbol":"$","integerValue":"46","decimalSeparator":".","fractionalValue":"95","symbolPosition":"left","hasSpace":false,"showFractionalPartIfEmpty":true,"offerListingId":"p96WJyF4CA6XhmBrfgCOZ2%2FMudnDtr2IPTAIc7mzG6i3v64dXDoxpsTIN68nQJVyCaPXbpIOJ1R9QVIwTA1mQ5As3C0gXvUGdyMefIfEw7Br1trligQlnHwkhNpUMd%2F7op9K21SKJXo%3D","locale":"en-US","buyingOptionType":"NEW"}]. This has transformed malls from go-to shopping spots and social hubs into empty, abandoned shells. [31] Demolition was completed May 17, 2012, after which the site was cleaned up and leveled in preparation for future development. Dixie Square Mall The Dixie Square Mall should be familiar to plenty of cinema fans because it was featured in the famous scene where Jake and Elwood lead a police chase through a shopping mall in the 1980 classic comedy . Location: Dixie Square Mall Gallery: Eye of the Beholder 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. It's posts like this one that make me really sad to think about the areas I lived in when I was a kid. 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. 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. Remember Dixie Square Mall? Locals began introducing them to the collapsed lower floor to combat the hefty mosquito problem surrounding the area. By 2005 the city was finally able to afford to demolish the mall, but the discovery of asbestos early during demolition halted the plans. After closing for good, it was used as the setting for the famous mid-mall car chase scene from the 1980 movie Blues Brothers. 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. A soft opening took place on August 31, 1966 with 36 stores. Dixie Square Mall. Every accessible pane of glass in the mall was soon broken. It remaind abandoned and decaying away from 1979 to at least 2006, when demolition began. The mall interior was left damaged after filming wrapped. Each image is a work in and of itself capturing a mood through composition, color and texture. This place has got everything, Jake, played by John Belushi, quips as he and Elwood drive right through it. 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[11] These efforts failed, as by 1978, it was down to its final twenty stores. The theme continues inside, with columns placed throughout. From what I read here, that would not be the case today. Remember Dixie Square Mall? The mall underwent . A spike in crime in the area caused it to shut down just before director John Landis dressed it up for the famous scene and left without picking up after himself. Despite such a recent and high-profile use, the mall wasnt able to shake its dark reputation. Absolutely. Even those cases in which sexual violation did not occur, or the crime was perpetrated by teenage girls, the crimes still portray the Mall as a space in which women were no longer safe. Nearby: Gensburg-Markham Prairie. We may earn a commission from links on this page. Then in 1973 another person was shot on the mall property, and a teenage girl was strangled to death. 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