Abandoned - Dixie Square Mall

[Music] what's up guys my name is jake and welcome to abandoned episode 65. one of the most intriguing ideas about abandoned places to me at least is seeing common areas we spend time around in unprecedented states when it comes to retail rolling acres and randall parkball come to mind or even the long abandoned kmart i explored a while back in michigan there is however one massive building so far along in its decay that's synonymous with the very idea of a dead mall it's also perhaps one of the oldest closing abandoned malls in north america shuttering all the way back in 1978 but there is a reason for this on the surface the building is a spectacular showcase of failure and decay but as i found there is a much deeper and darker story behind this infamous mall how could such a popular shopping center the very same one featured in the blues brothers only last for 12 years and spend the rest of its three decade long life sitting completely abandoned well today let's find out what happened to dixie square mall this episode is sponsored by curiosity curiositystream get access to my streaming service nebula when you sign up for curiositystream using the link in the description below it all started in the early 1960s with a developer named meyer c weiner he had already worked on large-scale retail projects and selected the town of harvey illinois a suburb just outside of chicago for his next project after approval from the city to redevelop a struggling golf course dixie square mall was officially announced and began construction in 1964. this was just three years after the southdale center had been opened now considered the first modern mall in north america so the creation of dixie square was one of the first successors to this popular trend the shopping center's largest anchor tenants montgomery ward opened first with the rest of the indoor portion of the mall opening its doors officially on november 10th 1966. at this time the mall by all accounts was a massive ultra-modern success across its 64 retail stores it was anchored by montgomery ward jcpenney or pennies walgreens woolworths and jewell a local supermarket chain the 000 square foot structure featured soaring concourses and beautiful courtyards apparently the trees from the former golf course had been saved and relocated to the vast 4200 space parking lot creating lots of shade which was rather uncommon for the time within modern architecture would guide shoppers through the l-shaped building and threw one of the stars of the show here which was what they called the wonderful this was a staple at several other shopping centers they developed and at dixie it served the same effect from a distance appearing to be columns but up close revealing itself as perfect shapes of cascading water here there would be five circular streams emanating from the roof and disappearing into tropical foliage certainly the charm of the 1960s dixie square was the very best a mall could be at the time popularity there proved that and over the next few years dixie became host to many celebrity events concerts and community gatherings by the conclusion of 1967 the property had produced sales of over 40 million dollars which is around 330 million dollars today by 1970 the mall was expanded to add yet another anchor tenant that being turnstyle a discount big box store this however was coinciding with an economic shift in the area the suburbs outside of chicago were struggling and harvey was one of the worst hits with a loss of their industrial base with little support unemployment shot up as did crime in poverty a huge demographic shift was also occurring in chicago and this escalated racial tensions amongst the suburbs this new mall now found itself smack dab in the middle of an economically depressed area and soon crime began to plague them all i should probably warn you that the following events at dixie square get pretty heinous the string of crime arguably began in 1968 when a hit and run occurred in the parking lot resulting in the death of a 68 year old woman as she was hit by a car when exiting her own the driver however was never found it wasn't until 1972 when the first major crime had been committed a 27 year old female was shot and killed after a botched robbery at her car also in the parking lot the four young men were later caught and charged a year later yet another botched robbery occurred once again in the parking lot resulting in the death of a 28 year old male just two months later in 1973 perhaps the mall's most infamous and despicable crime had taken place on july 16th 13 year old kim harwell had been dropped off by her mother to buy a bathing suit seemingly at random she was lured away by three teenage boys and was tortured and strangled to death by an electrical cable her body was brought to a small abandoned apartment building across the street and left in a closet her body was ultimately discovered by children playing inside that abandoned building and coming across it the teenagers who killed her were ultimately caught and charged one thing to note is the building where her body was left in still remains standing and abandoned today one more death occurred on the property the following year however this was merely accidental by a stunt devil but as you can imagine the reputation of dixie was not great with lack of state funds to help the area and significantly decreased foot traffic inside the mall at the beginning of 1978 only 20 tenants remained it wasn't long before anchors began to escape too when jcpenney announced they would be closing their store turnstile had already gone bankrupt a year earlier and montgomery ward closed in 1976. soon an announcement that was rather shocking occurred in november of 1978 dixie square mall announced they were filing for bankruptcy and closing the indoor portion of their property after only 12 years of being open millions have adjusted for inflation dollars had been spent on security however even that wasn't enough to solve their rampant crime issues merchandise losses were also becoming a huge issue as reports showed millions of dollars worth of merchandise had been stolen by employees and shoplifters this alongside the fact that the mall was already somewhat unpopular as small businesses in the area chalked their losses up squarely on dixie overall decreasing business in other districts but as the economical atmosphere shifted and other shopping centers opened up in safer areas the local economy couldn't nor wanted to even support them all by the next year a portion of the property was leased out to the local school district and a temporary facility was set up while their primary school was under construction meanwhile the last two major stores jewel and walgreens which had separate entrances also shuttered for good this was seemingly the end for dixie square as the building was now fully vacant and set for a very unknown future in a very bizarre turn of events though the property was selected by universal pitchers and the producers of the upcoming film blues brothers filming for that movie was taking place in chicago through 1979 and with a script calling for an indoor chase scene the closure of dixie square provided the perfect opportunity to use the space for filming so the shopping center was renovated in certain spaces that would appear on camera and certain stores had their facades made to look like real brands what's especially interesting is that several tenants who used to call dixie square their home returned just to use their names to populate them all jcpenney gave the producers their new logo one which was never actually used at the mall along with other returning tenants like jewel walgreens decided not to take part despite their logo appearing in the film anyways and its place inside the mall is toys r us a tenant that never actually had a store inside the mall it's an iconic scene in the film and something that really immortalized the legacy of this mall one last time even if it was entirely fake dixie square mall would be lit up and filled with people after principal photography was finished the production crew allegedly had left the condition of the mall in shambles the owners at this time which was still the school district filed a lawsuit against universal studios seeking 87 000 in damages this apparently had ruined any chance of reopening the mall which was the idea once filming wrapped this lawsuit was eventually dropped however and any desire of this happening was crushed as by 1984 the building had been ransacked vandalism inside had escalated to where every panel of glass was broken and scrappers stripped away every conceivable piece of copper the building in a very short span of time was a total loss in the preceding years several redeveloping plans were submitted now with the city seeking to take control of the land a 140 000 crypt mausoleum was proposed for the site i have no idea why this mall has turned out to be so morbid but as you could probably imagine residents nearby weren't exactly psyched on that idea the city concluded through site studies that the property could be put to good use and there certainly were people in city council that wanted to aggressively get something done in 1986 perhaps the most ambitious plan for the site was announced one dixie center was an ambitious multi-stadium proposal for the site comprising a 60 000 seat baseball stadium and an 80 000 seat football stadium they would be joined by a 30-story hotel tower and new shopping district this 250 million dollar project ultimately went nowhere and dixie square mall continued to sit abandoned by the early 90s yet another heinous crime took place within the property in the summer of 1993 a man lured denise shelby onto the second floor of the abandoned jcpenney within the moldy dark space she is sexually assaulted and murdered the suspect was arrested and given a life sentence in 1997 and this became the fifth murder on the property by 2002 demolition plans were finally brought to light after an announcement was made that the former jcpenney space would be leased out by the states for offices this would also include the demolition of the rest of the structure alongside the move while the steel ultimately fell through the demolition plans however stuck around from the air you can see that the roof had sustained critical damage in 2004 the former woolworth had caught fire causing huge damage to that side of the structure including large sections of the roof that had completely collapsed so demolition was becoming more and more popular of an idea obviously dixie square mall was in a horrific state and seemingly impossible to reuse that was until 2005. now this part gets insane so stay with me here so in january a small industrial kitchen supplier made a deal with the city that they wanted to turn the montgomery ward space into a showroom at the same time the ymca had also expressed interest in redeveloping a separate portion of the property into senior housing so with two interested parties a plan was put into motion tear down everything but montgomery ward and redeveloped the newly cleared land with new big box retail such as costco it's not that crazy the concept and has been done many times before with abandoned malls so with city officials gathered around demolition finally began at dixie square mall the only problem was asbestos was found when taking down the first few walls soon after the demolition crew was ordered to stop until this newly arised issue could be solved apparently though the demolition company had continued work during this time without permits they were essentially demolishing the structure illegally and were only caught when the mayor of harvey was driving home on christmas eve and noticed the work going on not only was this happening without permission but they also accidentally demolished a portion of the montgomery ward building essentially killing off the deal with the kitchen supplier following this the city essentially gave up and sold the property to a man named john dennan a local businessman who was already involved with the redevelopment and gave the city a check for five hundred thousand dollars to purchase it however apart from a single day of demolition work finishing off the montgomery ward building all subsequent work was halted meanwhile john's contractors had placed liens against the property which apparently set him off john went to the contractor's business armed with two guns and brass knuckles allegedly yelling i'm going to get you apparently jon hadn't paid for the demolition cruise and in total was in over 450 thousand dollars in debt so he was arrested and charged clearly luck wasn't in favor of this property now with another new owner though that public housing project that the ymca wanted to build actually did happen perhaps the one redevelopment plan that made it to the finish line so far and from the outside at least they look like nice buildings although their view wasn't the greatest talks of demolition continued here on out as the new owners had been negotiating to use a federal grant to fund the demolition meanwhile though the inside of this mall was a fascinating and incredible sight since the property had been shuttered for over three decades the interior was in an almost unprecedented state for a maul the decay was so far advanced that the enormous holes in the roof had allowed mold to completely take over and foliage of all kinds to cover the tiled floors store signs were incredibly at least in some cases still visible and while many of the walls stripped away the escalators in the jcpenney remained in place even the toys r us sign put there for the filming of blues brothers still remained and rather intact for that matter the once grand concourses home to huge panels of glass and the wonderfuls are now hastily boarded up facades and hollow dreary tombs dixie square mall was perhaps the most famous abandoned mall at the time and a sign to come for the indoor shopping malls all across america finally though even its time had come to an end in early 2012 the money had been secured along with the necessary permits to begin demolition first with the removal of that asbestos demolition of the structure itself began in february and was completed on march 17 2012 clearing the entire sites and completely removing the infamous mall today the site sits empty and cleared with the ground properly graded so that it would attract developers this ultimately didn't happen and by 2016 the city took control of the land once again with plans for themselves to offer it on the market for developers they believe the site is perfect for industry and commercial uses but that hope hasn't yet paid off and right now dixie square mall is just a 36-acre plot of dirt and weeds and there really are no public plans in the works right now the area surrounding the former mall is honestly shocking blight litters the streets and despite the ease of access to highway 57 new development is few and far in between the county hasn't had the recovery i think many hoped it would have from the 70s as many homes in the area are listed for sale under ninety thousand dollars i can't help but think that the abandoned dixie square mall played a hand in the area's lack of recovery and perhaps with a gun it may breathe the new life into this neighborhood i mean there were people in their 30s who only knew them all as an abandoned property for a mall to be left abandoned for that long is extremely rare i think in the end dixie was an enormous failure while in the 60s it briefly thrived even prompting expansion those days were short-lived after an increase of competition and huge spike in crime retailers bailed as did the city they shuttered the building after a little over a decade of it being open and that was it if anything though that wasn't the mall's true legacy it perhaps will always be known in pop culture as the mall from the blues brothers or one that always pops up here there as the poster child for america's brick and mortar death either way dixie square mall will always be known in history not for what it was when it was opened but for what it became after death [Music] if you enjoyed this video there's a good chance you enjoy other online creators who also make educational videos like mine nebula is a streamy award-nominated platform built by and for creators like myself who specialize in diving deep into interesting topics on nebula you can find exclusive content that sometimes doesn't work with youtube's algorithms if you visit my channel there you can see my videos a day early and watch them including this one ad-free while doing research for this video i wanted to know how and why chicago became so divided as i found out one of the factors in that and for much of the urban centers in america a common culprit is the highway i ultimately went down a huge rabbit hole on the subject through a great documentary on curiosity stream over there you can find thousands of fascinating non-fiction titles and documentaries across all types of topics but what makes this deal even better is that curiositystream has partnered with nebula if you sign up using my special link curiositystream.com bsf you'll get 26 off an annual plan that makes it an incredible deal of just 14.79 for access to two incredible sites when you sign up for curiositystream you also get nebula completely free anyway guys my name is jake and thank you very much for watching [Music] you

Channel: Bright Sun Films

Views: 901,091

Keywords: abandoned mall, creepy, dead mall, murders, crime, true crime, 2020, 2021, 2022, update, full history, story, documentary, dixie square, urbex, inside, blues brothers, universal studios, closed mall, family friendly, clean, HD, new, decay

Id: 05Mr-SFN658

Length: 19min 47sec (1187 seconds)

Published: Fri Oct 22 2021