it all started when i watched the extra footage on the blues brothers dvd. they infamous mall chase scene (i consider it cinematic genius) was filmed in 1979 inside an abandoned shopping mall located in harvey, illinois. an abandoned mall?!?!?! now, surely they've torn the place down by now... and where the hell is harvey, illinois?
as it turns out, harvey is only about 25 minutes from chicago, and the mall is still standing (barely) and still abandoned!
this page contains pictures of several trips to the dixie square mall that was abandoned around 1978. director john landis had the mall leased for 8 weeks in 1979 for the blues brothers mall chase scene. that was the last time the mall was used for anything, and it has been decaying since then. the mall entrances were once boarded up, however weather and vandals have left almost every entrance open. two rapes and one murder occured in the mall in the early 1990s. the buildings most likely serve as a hangout for the homeless, teenagers, and gangs. the town of harvey does not have money to demolish the mall, however a brand-spankin-new police department sits on the corner of the mall parking lot.
"i'm proud
to say we were the first movie to trash a mall."
- john landis, blues brothers director
"i do remember that danny aykroyd thought that shooting at that mall was
just one of the greatest things he'd ever seen."
- sean daniel, blues brothers executive in-charge of production
"look
at the dixie square mall in harvey, which 30 years ago supplanted the first
regional shopping mall in the country, in park forest, but has more or less
been abandoned for the last 20."
- thomas hackett
- http://www.fordfound.org/publications/ff_report/view_ff_report_detail.cfm?report_index=207
"it was
during the granddaddy of all chicago blizzards, january l967. along with about
l00 others, i was stranded at the dixie square shopping center in harvey, where
wards was a major tenant. after 48 hours from which dozens
of interesting stories could be told, the wards manager gathered as many of
us together as he could and told us all 'take a change of underwear as needed
. . . no charge.' i recall what a good guy the manager of wards had been."
- herbert adler, former
managerof dixie square shopping center
- http://www.suntimes.com/output/business/wards26.html
"the factories are
long gone, of course, along with the department stores, along with the famous
dixie square shopping mall that replaced them. that's not quite right. the mall
is still there decades after its closing, drearier than ever, a monument to
the continued futility of economic development efforts in the south suburbs."
-sun times, april 3, 2003 "ousted harvey mayor insists he'll be missed"
-http://www.suntimes.com/output/brown/cst-nws-brown03.html
"not a mall.... the
mall... show some respect."
- brodie, mallrats (completely unrelated, but a good quote)
view
from space
deadmalls.com
feature
rape
and murder info
a
future for the mall?
now and
then