Dixie Square Mall, Illinois

A decaying shopping mall shuttered since 1979, the Dixie Square Mall was an economic reflection as well as centerpiece of the depressed south-side suburb town of Harvey, IL once known as "the gateway to the south suburbs." Many attempts (including a federal program supported at the time by U.S. Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr.) were made to have it converted for other uses or demolished entirely, but none of these attempts cleared political or financial hurdles. Less than a year after its closure, the mall was used as a location for the film The Blues Brothers in which police cars were driven through the stores and walkways. The west parking lot was used by the Harvey Police Department as a heliport, and newer buildings on the property housed the Department headquarters, complete with temporary jail facilities. The slow but inevitable effects of harsh winter weather, vandalism, and a new growth forest slowly spread across the complex until it was finally demolished in 2012.