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jonrev
  
location:
Lake Wazzapamani
Gender: Male
Observer of obsolesence
 |  | ![[jonrevProjects]](forum/www.gif) | Let's Go Shopping at Dixie Square!
< on 3/8/2009 7:40 AM >
|  | | | Harvey, IL's Dixie Square Mall opened in 1966 with a Penney’s, Wards, JEWEL (no mall entrance), Woolworth, and in 1970 was expanded with a new corridor of stores and a Turn Style department store. It opened with about 50 stores and was the first enclosed mall on the south-side of Chicago.
Around the time Turn Style opened the crime rate in Harvey exploded. There were countless robberies at the mall and at least three deaths between 1971 and the mall’s closure in 1977.
Two years after the mall closed, it briefly re-opened as a movie set. For 8 weeks, John Landis drove police cars in and around the mall, trashing the interior in the process.
Immediately after filming was done, it was boarded up again. Over the next 30 years the mall would be a crime scene, vandalized, torched, and in 2006 be partially torn down.
In the 80s, vandals broke in, stole any salvageable copper and metal, and broke any remaining glass (this continued onward). 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. In the early 2000s the Woolworth store burned in an extra-alarm blaze. In the mid-2000s plans arose to demolish the mall, and asbestos removal started, but was halted by the state when it was discovered they were not handling the removal properly. In 2006 the Wards store was demolished, but as soon as the TV cameras left, so did the demo crews. This now leaves a gaping hole where the mall now abruptly “ends”.
With the current property owner in prison for allegedly threatening the demolition company with a shotgun, it is unknown if and when demolition will resume. The mall is to the point where it is crumbling in on itself; it may in the end “self-demolish”.
On January 11, 2009 a friend and I got to tag along with Paw Filmworks for, from what they said, their final visit for the documentary of Dixie Square Mall. We went early in the morning since we figured by then it would still be too cold for the dogs to be in there, and any gangbangers would probably still be passed out to be in there. We were right about the dogs and gangbangers, but we did see a fox inside Jewel and later inside Polk Bros.
The mall's deterioration has been progressing much faster in the last two years or so. Penney's second floor has within the last 3 years become very unstable, and many of the stores in Blocks B and C have massive holes in the roof. Block D, an addition to the mall built in 1970 (with supposedly lower-quality building materials), which did not appear at all in the movie, is in even worse condition. There's also tons of lights and electrical junk in block B/C that was left behind by the asbestos removal crews that left 3 years ago.
We spent about 6 hours in the mall and just about saw everything except for some stores in block B/C and some of the upstairs of Penneys (for obvious reasons). We will be going back again soon.
LARGER PICS AT:
http://flickr.com/photos/jonrev/sets/72157612420818525/
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED, DO NOT COPY WITHOUT PERMISSION
Also a video:
http://vimeo.com/2833994
[last edit 3/8/2009 7:42 AM by jonrev - edited 1 times]
[jonrevProjects] | Flickr flicks
Founder: Belvidere Cinema Gallery - Waukegan, IL |
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foxmotorsport
   
location:
Tri-Cities (area) Ontario
Gender: Male
| | Re: Let's Go Shopping at Dixie Square!
<Reply # 1 on 3/8/2009 10:44 AM >
| | | | Very cool set, love the lighting effects. I was assuming this was the mall used in the filming of the Blues Brothers... so I did a Wiki on Landis and found...
"In 1980, Landis co-wrote and directed The Blues Brothers, a comedy starring John Belushi and Dan Aykroyd. It features musical numbers by R&B and soul legends James Brown, Cab Calloway, Aretha Franklin, Ray Charles and John Lee Hooker. At that time, it was one of the most expensive films ever made (cost: almost $30 million) along with the earlier Steven Spielberg movie 1941 (which cost $35 million). Some believe that Spielberg and Landis shared a rivalry to make the more expensive movie.[3]"
From http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Landis
It's a Jeep thing, you wouldn't understand.... |
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PsychoNJ
 
location:
Bordentown City, NJ - Laurel, MD - Sparta, WI
Gender: Male
You want me to crawl through that ????
| |  |  | | Re: Let's Go Shopping at Dixie Square!
<Reply # 2 on 3/8/2009 3:07 PM >
| | | | You got some nice shots there. I would love to explore an old mall.
Found this on Dixie for those interested, They're Grand Opening!
http://pleasantfam...ld-dixie-down.html
http://psychonj.com |
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Uday Shankar
location:
Milwaukee, WI
Gender: Male
| | | Re: Let's Go Shopping at Dixie Square!
<Reply # 3 on 3/8/2009 3:36 PM >
| | | | Man what awesome pictures, are they copyrighted? I couldn't tell. I didn't know that works created by a person were automatically copyrighted in the US. I just didn't know. Thanks for telling me that you've copyrighted them and that it might be illegal to copy them.
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bash
location:
Wisconsin/ Milwaukee/ Menomonie
Gender: Male
light up the darkness
| | Re: Let's Go Shopping at Dixie Square!
<Reply # 4 on 3/8/2009 6:55 PM >
| | | | Great shots, and yes shankar, anything and everything in the US is copyrighted once it comes into existence whether someone actually goes through the process of filing the paper work or not. Because if it wasn't god only knows what the world would come to. What would be next on the attack?? The cinema, or perhaps even the music industry? Scary scary thoughts to consider right there.
You cannot begin to live until you cease to just exist. |
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WarBird69
location:
Eastern TN
Gender: Male
Atomic Bird of War
| | Re: Let's Go Shopping at Dixie Square!
<Reply # 5 on 3/9/2009 12:40 AM >
| | | | Super nice shots! Looks like a really interesting place to visit.
When twilight draws near, when you are pushed to the very limits of your soul, when it seems that all you have left are the dead remnants of the fabric of your life:
-- BELIEVE |
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Kenso
location:
NC
Gender: Male
| | Re: Let's Go Shopping at Dixie Square!
<Reply # 6 on 3/9/2009 11:02 PM >
| | | | Awesome location, amazing that it's been allowed to decay to that degree without being torn down. That speaks to the poverty of the area and the ineptitude of the local government I suppose.
Does anyone know what became of the time capsule that was supposedly buried on the mall grounds? Found the following quote on one of the several sites regarding this mall:
"November 9,1966 (Wednesday): A full day before the Grand Opening celebrations, the mall is dedicated by the Mayor of Harvey, Dixie Mall President Meyer C. Weiner and mall Manager Orlando Segneri. A 75 year time capsule is installed at the entrance to the Montgomery Ward Court"
Anyone recall this? I suppose there would've been a plaque marking the spot or something like that. Was it retrieved before Ward's was demolished? Who knows, maybe it's still buried on the property there?
Pretty sad, the developers expected the place to stay in business for 75 years and it barely lasted 15.
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halide
This member has been banned. See the banlist for more information.
location:
28°37'32.46"N 81°15'52.30"W
www.flurbex.com who else?
| |  | | | Re: Let's Go Shopping at Dixie Square!
<Reply # 7 on 3/10/2009 12:31 AM >
| | | | wow this place has some sweet decay
so unnatural to see this thief so far from its home
must we resonate that we drive it out of the loam |
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jonrev
location:
Lake Wazzapamani
Gender: Male
Observer of obsolesence
| | | Re: Let's Go Shopping at Dixie Square!
<Reply # 8 on 3/10/2009 4:02 AM >
| | | | Posted by Kenso
Does anyone know what became of the time capsule that was supposedly buried on the mall grounds? Found the following quote on one of the several sites regarding this mall:
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It should still be there. They didn't do any digging when Wards was demolished, and the area it was buried in I believe is just outside of what was demolished.
[jonrevProjects] | Flickr flicks
Founder: Belvidere Cinema Gallery - Waukegan, IL |
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dixiesquare
| | Re: Let's Go Shopping at Dixie Square!
<Reply # 9 on 3/10/2009 10:50 PM >
| | | | It was supposed to be in the planter just outside city life, but appears to have been removed.
"sadly alot of explorers in Chicago are 'park hipsters who take boring pictures to impress girls who smoke Parliaments and listen to Wilco." |
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Kenso
location:
NC
Gender: Male
| | Re: Let's Go Shopping at Dixie Square!
<Reply # 10 on 3/10/2009 11:10 PM >
| | | | That's a shame, wonder where it was taken and by whom? Would've been neat to see what they put in there. Thanks for the info, guess it will have to remain a mystery.
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Radio2600
location:
On the Road to Wellville
HY KAK TO TAK
| | Re: Let's Go Shopping at Dixie Square!
<Reply # 11 on 3/11/2009 6:56 AM >
| | | | You really need a black and white, '74 Dodge Monaco to go racing through there with.
There are a couple of videos on YouTube of some guy doing exactly that.
In order to use your head, you have to go out of your mind. |
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Gatsby
location:
Minneapolis, MN
Gender: Male
Like all UER people, I've only explored your mom.
| | Re: Let's Go Shopping at Dixie Square!
<Reply # 13 on 3/12/2009 1:50 PM >
| | | | Posted by jonrev
Yep, that was before any demo work or collapse had occurred. It would be impossible to do it again today. |
Monster truck!
I only listen to 104.7 Poop. I'm always in deep shit, so I may as well listen to poop. |
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