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| ==ABOUT DIXIE SQUARE MALL== Welcome to Dixie Square, a suburban-Chicago shopping mall trapped in the 1970s and left to rot for over 30 years. -RISE AND FALL- Dixie Square, located in the south-Chicago suburb of Harvey, opened in 1966; anchored by 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. On top of these, it opened with about 60 stores and was, at the time, one of the the largest enclosed malls on the south-side of Chicago. Shortly after Turn-Style opened in 1970, a demographics-shift occurred, and the crime rate in Harvey exploded. Dixie Square would be hit among the hardest; between 1971 and 1977 there were at least three deaths at the mall, along with countless robberies. One-by-one, stores would shut down due to declining sales, or to flee to safer malls nearby. Turn-Style would shut down due to a company-wide closing, followed by Montgomery Ward in 76, and finally Penneys in early 78. Oddly, over a year after closing, JCPenney re-opened its store for a sale known as "Dixie's Last Gasp"; only to liquidate outdated merchandise and store shelving. By mid-1978, mall security could no longer keep the remaining few tenants and shoppers safe, and despite a major remodeling two years prior, Dixie was shuttered just 11 years after opening. Jewel and Walgreens (both having exterior entrances) held on until early 1979 before closing down. From then until around 1981 the mall served as a temporary school while the Harvey-Dixmoor school district constructed a new elementary school. -HOLLYWOOD- In August of 1979, director John Landis, Dan Aykroyd, John Belushi, and over a hundred stunt people and film crews set up shop inside Dixie Square for the filming of the soon-to-be cult favorite "The Blues Brothers". The mall received some minor renovations inside and out, and was dressed to appear as a fully operational shopping center. Some former tenants, such as Walgreens and Hickory Farms, refused to appear in the movie. These stores were either remodeled as a different store, or did not appear at all. For eight weeks, the parking lot facing Dixie Highway, and the interior corridors of the mall itself would be used to film police car chases. The chases inside did major damage to the interior of the mall; most of it was never repaired. The Blues Brothers opened in 1980 to average reviews, however it was a hit with audiences; grossing over $4,000,000 on its opening weekend. -ABANDONED- Immediately after filming was finished, Dixie was boarded up again. For the next 30 years the mall would fall victim to mother nature and human arrogance. In the 80s, vandals broke in, stole any salvageable metal, and smashed any remaining glass (this continued onward). In 1993 a man lured a young girl into the former Penney’s store, where he raped, and murdered her on the second floor. Raymond Eaves currently serves life imprisonment for her's, and the rape of another girl at Dixie Square. In the early 2000s a massive fire broke out in the Woolworth store and completely destroyed the building. 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. That same year, the rest of the property was sold to developer John Deneen who planned to demolish Dixie and replace it with big-box retailers. On Christmas Eve 2005, the Montgomery Ward building was severely damaged in an illegal demolition of the mall's main entrance. The mayor of Harvey actually happened to be driving by when he ordered demo work to be halted. Days later, it was revealed that the Wards building had accidentally been sold twice. Months later, the Block A entrance, the remains of Montgomery Ward, and the remains of the Central Energy Plant were demolished. Ultimately, asbestos removal proved too costly and work halted shortly after it started. Deneen was later arrested for harassing demolition contractors. A loaded shotgun and ski masks were claimed to have been found in his car. Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan filed a lawsuit in 2005, which would not be resolved until 5 years later. -DEATH- With 70% of the mall still standing, nature began the final chapter of Dixie Square. Within the time span of 2007 to the present, over half of JCPenney's upper level collapsed, with many areas of the rest of the mall either partially-collapsed, or showing signs of future collapse. On 7/20/09, arsonists started another fire in the Block C entrance, and it also collapsed within a month afterward. Stores along Block B began to cave in around June of 2010, as well. The mall is currently under the ownership of MG Development, who in September of 2010 received a controversial $4-million grant from the State of Illinois through Hurricane Ike relief funds. Demolition was toted to begin in November of 2010, but finally began in January 2012 after months of bureaucratic holdups. Date of death was May 17, 2012. While the mall may be finally gone, there is no definite indication of anything being built to replace it in the near-future. The image pictured is inside JCPenney, where the second floor has collapsed, and the roof is not far behind it. On a sunny day, beautiful lightstreams like this one can be seen throughout the mall. MORE INFO: [link] LOCATION: 15201 Dixie Highway Harvey, Illinois 60426 |
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