174 Comments for Dixie Square Mall

This is one of my FAVORITES! I just started looking at the ABSOLUTELY INCREDIBLE Opacity and am addicted, I can't STOP looking! VERY intrigued by it all. Makes me feel some sorta way......... LOVE IT!!!!

Were the toys left over from filming The Blues Brothers?

BURT'S SHOES!! I definitely remember that from the chase scene.

The ambulance was too late.

"Emergency Services, what seems to be the hold up? What is your position?"
"Well, we've encountered some debris..."

Looks like the exterior of Turn Style to me. From what I've seen in old photos, this place was ugly looking when it was open. Jewel owned the Turn Style chain (which tells me a lot, as the exteriors of their stores in the 70's were quite ugly too). The Turn Style chain, like the mall itself, failed by the late 70's & Jewel ended up selling the chain off. After the DSM Turn Style store & the mall itself rolled up for good in late 1978, this Turn Style location was used as a gymnasium for the temporary school that was set up, using parts of the old DSM building, in 1979-1981 (used by the Harvey-Dixmoor School District).

YMCA senior housing, what can you expect? This is the Jesse Jackson Senior Housing, built & owned by YMCA. Block D is to the left of the corridor here, with the old Turn Style store to the left, at the northeast corner of the mall. The YMCA housing was located on 151st St., along the north perimeter of the mall property. This part of the mall was built in 1970, the year Turn Style opened. Turn Style was actually owned by Jewel & was Jewel's attempt at the discount department store business (which, itself, subsequently failed). Block D, across the corridor from Turn Style, was also built in 1970, as an addition to the mall. It was constructed w/ inferior materials, which is why it was in the worst shape (along with JCP) of any location in the mall by the late 90's. As far as crime at the YMCA housing, it is senior housing, so I don't believe the ppl who live there commit a lot of crime, but, while that place is fenced in, knowing Harvey, the elderly ppl who live there probably are afraid to come out of the building, for fear of being robbed, or worse.

Most of the trim in Blocks B & C was painted this ugly blue color during the 1976 mall renovation (it was renamed simply Dixie Mall at that time, in hopes to lure patrons & tenants back into the place, to keep it open). Must have been a 70's thing to paint anything that color. This is looking out toward the JCP Court, with the old Walgreens ("Toys R Us" in Blues Brothers) to the right of the court, looking in this direction. According to Jonrev's YouTube videos, Richard Eves (serving a life sentence) raped & strangled Denise Shelby, just to the left of the JCP Court (to the left of the JCP entrance in this photo), headed out toward the Block B exterior entrance, in 1993. To the right (again, according to Jonrev's videos), is the Block C exterior entrance, which burned in a 2000's arson, with the roof of the entrance subsequently collapsing. The fire also left black scorch marks on the exterior of the JCP building.

Since most of the JCP roof was pitted with holes, from roof collapses, I'm not surprised most of the place was full of water. I'm surprised there weren't more trees growing in JCP than there were, as they seemed to grow throughout the rest of the mall. From what I've gathered, JCP & Block D were the 2 sections of the mall that were in the absolute worst shape. Most of the Penney's 2nd floor had collapsed by the late 2000's.

This is the old JC Penney store (ground level), with the pair of escalators in the center of the store. JCP & Monty Ward's were the only 2-story stores in the mall. Monty Ward's was razed in 2006, so there are likely no pics or video of the interior of that store between 1979-2006 (this was before any of Jonrev's videos). And, no, the escalators were not safe to go up or down, as they were about on the verge of collapse (according to Jonrev, in one of his vids that he shot in 2010). The entire center portion of the 2nd floor had collapsed by the late 2000's, another third of it was about to collapse by around 2010 & the remaining third (at the top of the escalators) was still stable enough to stand on. There were also elevators in JCP to access the 2nd floor (they obviously no longer worked, as the mall hadn't had electricity since about 1981 & the central energy plant, which supplied the mall's electricity was razed in 2005). Jonrev always used a set of regular stairs to access what was left of the 2nd floor. Personally, I probably wouldn't have gone up there on a dare, as what was left pretty much could have collapsed at any time (even though Jonrev said the end near the escalators was "relatively" stable).

This is one end of the old Turn Style anchor store, near the old store offices. I only recognize this from Jonrev's videos, as I've never seen the place in person. There are a couple of stairways (one was very unstable & was not safe to use, the other one was safe) that lead up to the Turn Style store offices.

Looks like part of Block D, as this was built later, in 1970 (at the same time as Turn Style), with inferior building materials. Because of this, Block D was in the worst shape of any part of the mall (although the entire place was pretty much decimated by the late 90's).

Dixie Square never had a Pier One in real life. The Pier One storefront featured in the Blues Brothers was actually Stewart's in real life, when the mall was open. The "Jewel" store portrayed in the Blues Brothers was actually the old JC Penney store. Most of the "storefronts" in the Blues Brothers only took up the first 10' or so of each tenant space, dressed up just enough by Universal to look like open & operating stores. The fake "Toys R Us" store in the old Walgreens space only used up maybe a third of the space closest to the JCP Court, with a fake wall strip (this is what the Bluesmobile & state police cruisers crashed through at the beginning of the scene inside the mall, as they entered "Toys R Us"). At the end of the mall scene, the Blues Brothers crashed through the exterior main entrance of the old JCP store, at which time the 4-barrel carb on the 74 Monaco could be heard opening up, as they raced back into the parking lot, towards the Dixie Highway/152nd St. entrance.

More toys/items from the temporary school, most likely.

Another toy, likely from when the place was used as a temporary school.