About a year ago there was a thread on urban exploration and I believe at one point I mentioned Dixie Square Mall. Rather than revive that thread I'll start this.
I'm a nut for urban exploration and Dixie Square Mall has fascinated me for years. I have visited the place three times; this post documents the first visit on January 11, 2009. I will post the pics the other two visits later in this thread.
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Welcome to Dixie Square, a suburban-Chicago shopping mall trapped in the 1970s and left to rot for over 30 years.
It opened in 1966 with a JCPenney, Montgomery Ward, JEWEL Food Store (with no mall entrance), Woolworth 5&10, 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 one of the the first enclosed malls 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 1978.
Two years after the mall closed, it briefly re-opened as a movie set for the 1980 cult-favorite "The Blues Brothers". For 8 weeks, Dan Akroyd, John Belushi, and others 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 vandalized, torched, serve as a crime scene, 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. The man is now serving life behind bars for the rape/murder and a separate rape at Dixie Square.
In the early 2000s a massive fire broke out in the Woolworth store and completely destroyed it. The remains would later be demolished.
The former Montgomery Ward building was purchased by American Kitchen Delights in 2005 to be used as a warehouse. The store was gutted and debris was pushed to the Block A entrance. AKD was then fined by the state of Illinois due to their improper handling of asbestos in the debris.
Later, the building was severely damaged during the illegal demolition of the Central Energy Plant on Christmas Eve 2005. The mayor of Harvey actually happened to be driving by when he ordered demo work to be halted.
In 2006 the property was sold to developer John Deneen who planned to demolish Dixie and replace it with big-box retailers. In the Spring the Block A entrance, the remains of Montgomery Ward, and the remains of the Central Energy Plant were demolished. Unfortunately, asbestos removal proved too costly and work halted shortly after it started.
Deneen was later arrested for harassing United Demolition. A loaded shotgun and ski masks were claimed to have been found in his car.
With Deneen now presumably still behind bars, and 80% of the mall still standing, nature has began the final chapter of Dixie Square. Throughout 2007 to today, many sections of JCPenney's second floor have collapsed. On 7/20/09 another fire broke out in the mall's Block C entrance, and it has collapsed within a month afterward. Many other stores are also showing signs of roof failure.
More than 30 years have passed since the last shopper walked out of Dixie Square, and with its fate STILL uncertain, it's likely Dixie Square will "self-demolish" before any plan comes into effect.
In the 6 hours I was there I did not run into any gangbangers or homeless. Stray dogs are known to have a presence here; but I've been told they're more bark than bite. Didn't see dogs but saw a fox inside Jewel and inside Polk Brothers record store.
JCPenney court. In the Blues Brothers, this is where they had the JEWEL facade (in reality, Jewel never had a mall entrance)
Burt's Shoes is visible several times in the movie
Walgreens/Toys R Us. Walgreen did not want to appear in the movie so it was remodeled as a Toys R Us
Center court; where the light shines in is where Woolworth stood. It was torched by arsonists in the 90s then demolished in 2006.
Remains of Wards court
City Life nightclub
"Wonderfalls"; these were fountains that mysteriously flowed upward.
The art tent the police cars got stuck under in the movie was located here
Thom McAn shoe store; this was the last of the mall's original signage. By March it was gone.
"Block D". This was an addition built in 1970 alongside Turn*Style.
Turn*Style Department Store
The mall is covered in graffiti. This one reads "Abandoned Paradise"
City Life
JEWEL Food Store. The first pic is where I found a fox. ^in this last pic; the white stuff on the ground is not snow. It is actually all of the ceiling tiles that have fallen and turned to mush.
Mall Entrance next to Penneys. On July 20th a massive fire broke out in this area of the mall. The plywood wall built by the asbestos removal crews several years ago, and the roof were both destroyed in the blaze, while JCPenney to the left now has scorch marks on its side.
JCPenney
More JEWEL
City Life exterior. A "CITY LIFE" sign used to be here until last year.
Center court
Block D; it was built with **** -quality building materiel and is deteriorating faster than the rest of the mall
JCPenney Elevator
The second floor.
In 2007 a massive section of the second floor collapsed.
A sign at one of the Penneys entrances; it reads: "You can count on Penney's... three generations already have"
JCPenney's Mall Entrance
Looking down Blocks B/C. This corridor is where most of the filming occurred
I was the one who started that last thread. i have been spending a lot of my time chillin with my friends at black rock tunnel. its a tunnel still used for trains and such real scary history to it. im going to a few places with a group of people on thursday ill take some pics for you guys.
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06:16 PM
87antuzzi Member
Posts: 11151 From: Surrounded by corn. Registered: Feb 2009
This place is freekin scary. i went here about 2 years ago at night with me and a handfull of my friends and i bugged out like i dont remember things that happend and things that i said. i swaer i saw things in there that arnt normal. havent gone back since. also if your caught there now its fedral offence.
^^Yeah, that was about five or six years ago; before any major demolition work and deterioration began. Doing that is now impossible due to the debris, collapse in JCPenney, and plant overgrowth. Also there are plywood walls in the Woolworth court built by asbestos removal crews that prevents anyone from doing the full Blues Brothers path.
Amazingly; they did not get any flat tires doing that. The floor of the entrance to Penneys he drove through is absolutely covered in glass shards and rusty debris.
Here is the video from my second visit in March; pics will be next. Thanks for the comments!
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Originally posted by css9450:
Cool pics as always Jon.
DSM is amazing because it can look so different at different times of the day or year. Its like it has a life of its own.
Thanks! Your pics from there are awesome as well; that one came out real good!
[This message has been edited by ShockWave (edited 09-22-2009).]
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10:31 PM
PFF
System Bot
Derek_85GT Member
Posts: 1623 From: Flipadelphia, PA Registered: Mar 2005
I've always wanted to go there but in recent years they have really come down on people who get caught there. Friends who got caught there years ago just got escorted off the property and told not to come back. Now, like you said, you can get in big trouble. Not worth the risk anymore.
I love your photography, reminds me a lot of my favorite photographer, Troy Paiva.
I've always wanted to go there but in recent years they have really come down on people who get caught there. Friends who got caught there years ago just got escorted off the property and told not to come back. Now, like you said, you can get in big trouble. Not worth the risk anymore.
I love your photography, reminds me a lot of my favorite photographer, Troy Paiva.
Originally posted by pontiackid86: Thats better than getting caught at penhurst. you get caught there you walk out of there with a big effing mark on your perment record.
a fedral offence mark at that.
I was referring to Pennhurst.
It's only in recent years they've gotten tough about it.
~ Derek
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11:41 PM
katatak Member
Posts: 7136 From: Omaha, NE USA Registered: Apr 2008
The "33" part of the sign is gone now; someone on flickr claims they posed for a picture with it and it broke off when he bumped it.
Here's a (bad) shot of it in March. The entire Jewel Food Store building is interesting because it still has tons of signage dating back to the 60s and 70s inside. Most of it has been rescued out of there already, though some still remains.
[This message has been edited by ShockWave (edited 09-23-2009).]
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12:22 AM
proff Member
Posts: 7393 From: The bottom of the world Registered: Oct 2004
Those could've been shot before police became strict about the place; though I have not heard of any cases of police tracking down urban explorers who post pictures from inside abandonments.
The City of Harvey has a police headquarters right on Dixie Square's parking lot; I have been told they have waved hello to explorers going into Dixie and then ignored them. They were supposedly very strict a few years ago when the city owned the building, however they seem to have lost all care for the place now that someone else (whomever they may be) has it.
[This message has been edited by ShockWave (edited 09-23-2009).]
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12:35 AM
1986 Fiero GT Member
Posts: 3383 From: Eden, NY USA Registered: Mar 2005
First movie i ever saw in a theater was "The Blues Brothers"....no pics of "Pier One Imports"?
Cool pics, yet a sad story. I grew up in Des Plaines and don't get back to the burbs very often. I wonder if Randhurst Mall in Mt. Prospect might look like this some day...lol
Randhurst Mall is dead. It closed almost a year ago and last time I went by it about 45% was demolished, much more is reported to be gone since then. I remember spending a bunch of hours there on closing day taking pics. They're keeping the anchors and are turning the mall itself into an outdoor lifestyle center with a HUGE AMC theatre. http://www.flickr.com/photo...s/72157611598295155/
Pier One Imports at Dixie was next door to Burt's Shoes. I'm not quite sure if it was a mock storefront of if they were an actual tenant of Dixie Square. Some stores were fake stores set up by locals because the original tenants did not want to appear in the movie. The Toys R Us the Bluesmobile crashed through was a Walgreens originally (guess they didnt want to take the drive-thru pharmacy to the next level )
[This message has been edited by ShockWave (edited 09-23-2009).]
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02:45 AM
PFF
System Bot
Ditkaphile Member
Posts: 816 From: Rockford, IL USA Registered: Apr 2007
Holy you know what...I spent my teenage years at Randhurst. I knew it was a dying mall, didn't know it was done. That is sad...I had so many memories at that mall! Thanks for documenting this stuff man. Good job, and great pics. I guess we don't have to worry about Woodfield, do we
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02:49 AM
css9450 Member
Posts: 5491 From: Glen Ellyn, Illinois, USA Registered: Nov 2002
You should definitely come up to Detroit... plenty of places to discover!
Yep Detroit has thousands of empty buildings.... I've been a few times and have done little more than just drive around gawking at stuff.
I went into the old Packard factory for about 10 minutes. The place has been abandoned for decades and is really trashed. Its huge! It would take days to explore the whole place but I'm not sure where to leave the car there. I don't mind parking in Gary Indiana but I wasn't sure about Detroit.
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08:10 AM
2.5 Member
Posts: 43235 From: Southern MN Registered: May 2007
Pics from visit two on March 14, 2009. Spent another 6 or so hours in there on a gorgeous day.
Penneys
Wake up and Smell the Asbestos! Taken in the Penneys loading dock
Floor was still iced over. The mall is actually 20-degrees colder than outside
Employee sign inside Penneys
Broken glass at one of the Penneys entrances
Overview of the second floor collapse
Escalators
Looking out Penneys into the mall
An area I didn't see last time. Two stores that were torched by arsonists
Have a Cold One
Walgreens R' Us
The sun was bright and the dust that had been kicked up with us walking in there caused these lightstreams to pop up everywhere
Block B
Some gang graffiti in the window display of this store
Former restaurant
Gutted store in Block B.
Asbesto-cicles
Another lightstream
Burt's Shoes
Turn*Style had some great lightstreams
Just another brick in the wall
Center court
This lightstream showed up later in the day in Penneys
Probably the best pic I have ever taken
Remember that Thom McAn sign from the first post? Somebody nabbed it between the 2 visits.
In west Philadelphia born and raised On the playground was where I spent most of my days Chillin' out maxin' relaxin' all cool And all shootin some b-ball outside of the school When a couple of guys Who were up to no good Startin making trouble in my neighborhood I got in one little fight and my mom got scared She said 'You're movin' with your auntie and uncle in Bel Air' This basketball hoop is from when the Harvey-Dixmoor school district briefly used the building as a school while their new school was under construction. The district tried to sue Universal for damages not repaired after filming for The Blues Brothers; the lawsuit was dismissed.
Lightstreams inside Turn*Style
Back entrance to Jewel
Deli counter inside Jewel
January:
March:
Entrance to Jewel. It was connected to the mall but it did not have a mall entrance.
Giggity.
Penneys
Mall entrance
Random trash piled in the back of Jewel
Fallen vent in the service corridor
Penneys court
Walgreens Grill
Some of that funky wallpaper they put up for the Toys R Us in the Blues Brothers
Another look inside Walgreens R Us. The yellow lines represent where the breakaway wall stood that the Bluesmobile crashed through. That disappeared in the 80s.
Rorry's Womens Apparel
Block B
Went back upstairs in Penneys onto the other side of the collapsed area
It's really hard to imagine this place 40 years ago when this floor was covered in clothing racks, tables, mannequins, signs, and of course shoppers.
Big hole in the cieling of Penneys
Welcome to the Machine
The machinery room is on the roof of the store, and someone has kicked down part of the wall. I have a very hard time believing anybody could walk across that roof section.
Remember how I said 20-degrees colder?
Penneys
Screw Starschmuks, let's get some of this quality stuff here...
Employee corridor
Turn*Style
So remember how I said 20 degrees colder inside? I walked past this open doorway and could feel all the cold air rushing out of the mall.
Penneys
Turnstyle loading dock is filled with crap people just tossed in there. They cleaned this out when they demolished Wards, Woolworth, Block A's entrance, and the Central Energy Plant
Stores that once made up Block D
What's left of Montgomery Ward
Hard to see in this pic, but there is a J E W E L labelscar near the top of the building
Ironic how the demolition company's sign is now abandoned like the mall
amazing, simply amazing. im glad you put this post up.
i want to visit that someday if i get a chance. i always like places like that. i helped renovate a old pizza plant/very old dairy plant in my home town. some similiar finds there.
Thanks! I have so much more to post, there's always something new to see or something you missed whenever you explore Dixie.
Here's a tour of the most dangerous area of the mall; the second floor of JCPenney.
At around the 7:00 mark; the floor I am walking on has since collapsed. I was very lucky something did not happen while I was filming. I need to go back through the offices with the good camcorder next time; I found the store's cash office and safe last time!
[This message has been edited by ShockWave (edited 09-24-2009).]
Makes me wonder what North randell will look like in a few years. used to be such a beatiful mall, and over the years violence has caused it to finaly close. Im allways looking for places to explore but never seem to find them in safe cities lol.
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11:00 PM
DjDraggin Member
Posts: 2854 From: St Louis, MO. USA Registered: Feb 2003
I'll take your spooky and raise you a WTF.... Girl raped and murdered on second floor of JC penny.. and the floor collapsed on its own? Freaky supernatural powers???????
^The murder/rape occurred in 1993, about 12 years before the floor began to collapse. Harsh Chicago weather has taken a great toll on the structure. On the machinery room on the roof of Penneys, some of the steel roof is completely rusted through.
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Makes me wonder what North randell will look like in a few years. used to be such a beatiful mall, and over the years violence has caused it to finaly close. Im allways looking for places to explore but never seem to find them in safe cities lol.
