The Dixie Square Mall (also known as the Dixie Square Shopping Center) was an enclosed shopping mall located in Harvey, Illinois at the junction of 151st Street and the Dixie Highway. In one of the more memorable scenes of the iconic 1980 film The Blues Brothers, the title characters drive through shopping mall with police not far behind as shocked shoppers run for safety and the whole place ends up trashed. Looters have stripped the mall of seemingly everything not drilled downplus some pieces that were. Memories of Wayne Hills are warm, fuzzy, and nostalgic. In 1973 a 13-year-old girl was strangled after being dropped off at the mall. The inevitable mold and rot then had all summer to spread. When was Dixie Professor of. Wow your conclusions stunningly miss the entire point of this article. The pop-ups are examples of the creative forces put in play since the pandemic, as well as a mechanism that will ensure the vitality of Michigan Avenue. I am actually pro-feminist. Here is the story of the Dixie Square Mall. ), a remodel, and rename (to "Dixie Mall"). The 800,000 square foot behemoth had only been built 13 years prior, in 1966 on top of what was once a golf course. We are well aware that these might be problematic reference points were we doing a traditional historical analysis, but what we offer here is the history of the mall as it is told in the context of the Dixie Square Mall meme. Walgreens finally left by the spring of 1979 and by the summer the last store, Jewel Supermarket, vacated. The wonderful photos above were taken in 1968, at the same time as those featured on our Dixie Square history post. cover photo courtesy Brian Ulrich * Pride of Harvey. 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. But she said Slate told her that the current 500,000 square feet of mall retail will be reduced to about 120,000 square . And in April, the city council voted to transfer title for the property to Chicago developer John Deneen. Pat Quinnjoined south suburban officials at the Harvey police station this morning to announce the start of the demolition, while crews swept away and sorted debris at the 39-acre site nearby. The Acropolis was a shopping center in a suburb of Mexico City called Naucalpan de Jurez. [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. Many are due to hasty closures in the months after Christmas; a lone Christmas tree, still decorated, stands among the mud, glass shards, and plaster crumbles of the center courtyard. Montgomery Wards was the first store to open in 1965. Required fields are marked *. Within a year, any piece of metal worth salvaging had been stolen. 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. In spite of the presence of a police station in close proximity, the Mall continued to be a scene of violent crime. For updates and more information please visit the companion website: www.dixiesquareproject.com 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. The Dixie Square Mall opened in 1966, anchored by a Woolworth, a J.C. Penney, a Montgomery Ward, a Jewel store that only opened to the outside, and later a Turn Style discount store. [25] Within several months of the Montgomery Ward demolition, liens were placed against the mall by several invested companies. of anchor tenants: 3: No. Much of the mall is without handrails, windows, or doors. Your email address will not be published. I can't say I have much to argue with in the rest of your post.. 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. The city district attempted to sue Universal Pictures for the destruction, but financial considerations forced the district to eventually evacuate the property altogether and terminate legal proceedings. [8][22], In late June 2005, inspectors discovered the mall contained asbestos and ordered removed debris to be covered in plastic. Washington. Please try again. Jones scored both the game-tying and game-winning goals, doubling his season goal total in a four-minute span, as the Hawks rallied for a 4-3 victory. As crime rose in the city, fear played a part in keeping shoppers away, said Carl Durnavich, a resident for 33 years who runs an online forum on Harvey. In February 2010, it was reported that Chicago-based developer MG Development South LLC was planning to demolish the remains of the mall and replace it with a mixture of big-box stores and other retail on the site. 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. Bungling helicopter pilot blows over stadium roof injuring eight, Five hidden-gem destinations for an unforgettable holiday in 2023, BBC Breakfast celebrates forty years of hilarious bloopers, Royal Family will find it 'impossible' to compromise with Sussexes, Ken Bruce will be joining the Greatest Hits Radio family in April, As it happened: UK Government blocks Scotland's new gender law, Russian pro-war fanatic warns Britain could be 'wiped off the map'. In the 1990s a man lured a young girl into the former Penney's store, where he raped, and murdered her on the second floor. It belongs to the Metropolitan City of Messina . The mall had closed a year earlier after just 13 years in operation. Car-chase mall from 'Blues Brothers' now a wreck, but it was all fake then, and it's been gone for years Some of the few recognizable elements are actually stage dressing left by Universal Studios in 1979. There's very likely a one word answer to tbis. Over the past 25 years, many plans for the mall have surfaced from a baseball stadium for the White Sox to a 157,000-crypt mausoleum but none have taken root. Dixie Square was anchored by JCPenney, and Montgomery Ward, and had larger stores like Walgreen's, and a Jewel grocery store. Our purpose is to recreate this Internet meme, but view it from a different critical lens. The comments below have not been moderated. Were currently living through an apocalypse: the Retail Apocalypse. Dixie Square Mall slated to be demolished, finally - chicagotribune.com. It opened in 1966 on the site of the former Dixie Hi 9-hole golf course. ), ABANDONED SHOPPING MALL WAYNE HILLS MALL- WAYNE NJ. [11] These efforts failed, as by 1978, it was down to its final twenty stores. Dixie Square Mall, destroyed in The Blues Brothers' famous car chase, has recently been transformed online. 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. Photo Credits top to bottom: Ian Freimuth, Matt Becker, Ken Fager, Ken Fager again. The mall was torn down in 2012 using $4 million in disaster relief funds given to the state of Illinois after Hurricane Ike, to be replaced by stand-alone shopping retail stores and restaurants. Gov. Dixie Square Mall photos courtesy Jon Revelle. The mall didn't fully open until November 10, 1966. 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. Shipping cost, delivery date, and order total (including tax) shown at checkout. The mall was open from 1977 to 1999, and during that time, it slowly succumbed to crime and a changing economy. As major business left, the mall was forced to shut its doors permanently. 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. But Paul Mcvay, who is filming a documentary on the mall, said a lack of store variety or even a movie theater might have doomed it from the start. The fact that the developer later opened a competing mall in a nearby suburb also didnt help its chances, said Mcvay, 32, of Coal City. [8], In 1985, the Wards Auto Service garage in the southwest corner of the mall property was razed, in preparation for construction of a new police station for Harvey. When it held its Grand Opening in November of 1966, it was one of the first enclosed malls in the Chicago area. In the early 2000s a massive fire broke out in the Woolworth store and completely destroyed it. [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. Its per capita income in 1999 was just $12,336. I too feel sad about what has passed. just some of my ideas, what are yours. More recently, it achieved notoriety because of a . 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. 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. Shortly after the final store vacated the mall, director John Landis used the mall in the summer of 1979 to film The Blues Brothers. Harvey, Illinois (IL), US. Filmmakers stocked the stores with hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of merchandise, recalls Jean Alan, a Chicago set decorator for the movie. By Dave Newbart Jun 23, 2020, 4:00am PST All you need to do is sign up with your email and boom: credit for your preorder on a new Samsung device. Please use a different way to share. Dixie Square Mall, Harvey,IL: "The Center of South Suburbia" All pictures taken or used with permission Opened to the public on August 31st, 1966 and located at Dixie Highway and 154th Street in Harvey, the mall is located on the lot previously used by the Weseloh and Hendrich farms, then converted as a former golf course. In the mid 2000s, a massive fire broke out inside the Woolworth store and nearly destroyed the building. Includes initial monthly payment and selected options. of floors: 1 Failed: Several attempts were made at revitalizing the mall, including a $76 million attempt in 2006, but all of them failed, No more: By 2003, the mall had become a favorite of photographers and bloggers. The complete story of this abandoned mall is told through thought provoking My interest in this book is in the art of photography itself and Trice's imagery doesn't disappoint. 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