So this is how it all ends. With Macy’s chugging along, and apparently the Cheesecake Factory and the movie theater locked into long leases or owning their own buildings, Chesterfield Mall seems to have finally bit the dust. There are still maybe two stores open, but otherwise the halls are empty, and the air conditioning…
Tag: Department Stores
Checking Up on Far North County
Years ago BeltSTL and I took a drive around Far North County and checked out some old buildings, including this old farmstead. The barns appear to look in good condition, though there has been no progress on finding a new use for them. Update: The mall was demolished in 2023-2024. Jamestown Mall is now completely…
Crumby Run-Down Malls of St. Louis #6: Chesterfield Mall
I never thought Chesterfield Mall would join the ranks of Crumby Run-Down Malls of St. Louis. But it has, and despite surviving the Great Recession, was done in by the two new outlet malls further west. I used to love this mall, back in the 1990s before the cool 1970s style was ripped out. Those…
Crumby Run-Down Malls of St. Louis #5: Northwest Plaza “Reborn”
Did you ever have a friend who went through a rough patch, and then when they finally moved past that hardship, they just never were the same anymore? That’s sort of what I feel like when I look at Northwest Plaza. I covered its partial demolition several years ago. I thought that the original outdoor…
Crestwood Mall Demolition, Conclusion
Update: Due to public outcry, the large pile of dirt left behind, dubbed “Mount Crestwood,” was removed by October of 2018. There’s not much left to say about the demolition of Crestwood Mall; we have not learned from our past, and will continue to make the same mistakes. Plan on Gravois Bluffs being demolished forty…
Crestwood Mall Demolition, the Past is Now Back to the Present
Crestwood Mall is disappearing, but the recent demolition of the “front” of the mall, built in 1984 opposite the original strip mall shops, has reappeared, temporarily. Most fascinating to me, the curved original facade of the Sears, one of the original tenants, can be seen now. Only a small portion of the enclosed renovation is…
Syndicate Trust Building, Mid-November, Sunset
Easily one of the largest and tallest of downtown’s historic core, the Syndicate Trust is one of my favorite buildings in the city. Restored several years ago, it looks ready for another one hundred years.
Old Stix, Baer and Fuller Store Demolition Continues
Update: See the old Stix, Baer and Fuller at its prime. The demolition of the old Crestwood Mall, and in particular its Stix, Baer and Fuller store, is accelerating as external evidence has appeared of interior demolition. The parking structure is long gone, and now the pavilion restaurant, once a hallmark of Stix’s new stores…
Downtown Waterloo
Waterloo, Iowa is a textbook example of how cities have purposely sabotaged themselves through an unquestioning belief in the suburbanization of America. The city once had a thriving downtown, anchored by Black’s Department Store, but in a fit of stupidity, built a giant mall on the outskirts of town (luckily, unlike St. Louis, still in…
Crestwood Mall, Demolition, Late July 2016
Update: See the old Stix, Baer and Fuller at its prime. Obviously there’s a huge amount of work going on inside Crestwood Plaza, but the parking garage for the old Stix, Baer and Fuller is coming down slowly. Stylistically, the Stix, later Dillard’s department store was the most aesthetically pleasing, but apparently the parking deck…