While demolition officially commenced on October 15, exterior signs of the deconstruction of the almost fifty year old Chesterfield Mall have only just begun to show on the exterior. Completion is set for an ambitious deadline of April of 2025. Much of the material is marked for recycling, including grinding up the concrete, etc. Two…
Tag: Department Stores
Looking Back, Chesterfield Mall
Chesterfield Mall officially closed forever on August 31, and I was told by management that demolition will begin earlier than planned. The mall originally opened on September 1, 1976, so it made it 48 years. Back when it was built, the area was largely fields, as can be seen above and in an aerial photo…
Late Summer Odds and Ends
I have some leftover photos from the summer that I needed to clear out. Above, this house has collapsed on West Florissant Avenue just north of Grand Boulevard in the College Hill neighborhood, unfortunately. The house below is in Hyde Park, and I originally looked at it back in August of 2018. The infamous gas…
New Target Opens
The new Target is open! I’m not complaining; there is a dearth of shopping east of Grand and it is much needed. But make sure you check your receipt for the added taxes you’re subsidizing to pay for this place… Plenty of bollards to prevent people from crashing through the front of the store–good thinking…
Sealed Shut, Railway Exchange Building
I think many of us have fond memories of Christmas at Famous Barr downtown in the Railway Exchange Building, so there’s something deeply sad to see it clad in massive metal sheathing now, a necessary step the City of St. Louis has taken to secure the structure from further intrusions after a fire earlier this…
Demolition, Jamestown Mall
Update: Demolition proceeded quickly and was finished by March of 2024. It’s showtime! The long-awaited demolition of Jamestown Mall has begun. It doesn’t really come as much of a surprise. I had just visited back in August of this year, and there wasn’t much to see except tall weeds and other signs of dilapidation. I…
Other Fall Updates, Fires, Demolitions, Etc.
It finally happened, the Mullanphy Emigrant Home, which I last looked at back in June of this year, caught on fire and burned to the ground on the night of September 14th. There is certainly no grand conspiracy, but simply the fact that overnight lows reached 50 degrees, and a squatter’s fire probably spread out…
Survivors, Chicago, August 2023
We’ll finish up Chicago by looking at those vestiges from the past that survived the rapid gentrification and rebuilding of the central core of the Windy City which has happened over the last forty years. A hundred years ago, the area north of the Chicago River was a relatively peaceful residential neighborhood, but with the…
The Chicago River and Civic Identity
I would argue that the approximate one mile from the Lake Shore Drive Bridge to Wolf Point, where the Chicago River splits into its North and South branches, is easily one of the most famous vistas in the world. Along it you will see the Wrigley Building, the Tribune Tower and many others you’d recognize…
Civic and Retail Monuments, Chicago
I was always intrigued how for decades, the Cook County Building/Chicago City Hall stared at the Marshall Fields Department Store across the Daley Plaza and Block 37. Then, several years ago, Block 37 was redeveloped, Marshall Field’s became a Macy’s, and that grand urban vista was blocked and altered, most likely forever. While it looks…