Jamestown Mall Tour
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- čas přidán 7. 09. 2024
- 2 complete rides through with a different camera angle.
Jamestown Mall was an enclosed shopping mall in Florissant, Missouri. Opened in 1973, the mall formerly included Dillard's, JC Penney, Macy's, and Sears as its anchor stores. The mall had become increasingly vacant since the beginning of the 2000s. It closed in July 2014 and was slated for redevelopment as an open-air center.
Construction began on the mall in 1972. Its anchor stores at the time were Sears and Stix Baer & Fuller, a local chain based in nearby St. Louis. The Stix store was converted to Dillard's in 1984 after Dillard's acquired the chain. Famous-Barr (now Macy's) was added as a third anchor in 1994, and two years later, JC Penney relocated to the mall from an existing store in Florissant. A movie theater was also added in the 1990s.
Jacobs Group sold the mall to Carlyle Development Group in 2003. At the time, the complex was approximately 30 percent vacant. In April 2006, Dillard's Inc. announced the closure of the Jamestown Mall store, and Sears closed two years later.
Carlyle announced redevelopment plans in 2008. Under these plans, the former Dillard's would be converted to offices, and its wing would be closed to retail. A year later, St. Louis County hired researchers from the Urban Land Institute to analyze the mall's viability as a retail center. The study found that the center was no longer viable as a shopping mall because it overlapped with existing retailers in the area. These plans were canceled in 2009 when the mall developers lost financial support from the county following an attempt to auction the former Dillard's store. Further plans in 2010 called for the demolition of everything except the JC Penney and Macy's stores, with the rest of the complex to be re-developed as a mixed-use center. In June 2011, a furniture store called Central States Liquidation opened in the former Dillard's. The JC Penney Outlet store, which was renamed JC's 5 Star Outlet, closed in late 2013.
In late 2012, gas service to the mall was shut off but later restored. The mall was closed in November 2013 due to the heat being shut off. The closure of the Macy's store was announced in January 2014. Jamestown Mall finally closed it doors on July 1, 2014.
Wow it is amazing how good of condition the mall was in so long after closing. You did an excellent job trying to keep everything together and nice and clean for someone to hopefully buy it and breathe life into it. It seems like it just closed. It's a shame what ended up happening but I glad they were at least able to preserve the statue in the dead wing.
It’s March 2024 and Jamestown is fully demolished which is Extremely Sad. 😢
I have so many memories at this place growing up in north county my grandfather was apart of the building of this mall it saddens me to see it this way so eerie and nostalgic
It’s real sad. There was a proposal from a KC firm to redevelop it but someone on the county council blocked it. Now the taxpayers are on the hook to remove it.
I lived in Fox Manor subdivision next to Jamestown mall when I was a teenager. We saw it built and practically lived there, always walking to the mall for something to do. Spent a lot of time at Aladdin’s Castle and the Orange Bowl. My best friend worked at Pass Pets. My now ex wife worked at Walgreens when we where dating. Fond memories of picking her up after work to go out together. I still ride my bike around the parking lot a few times each summer to reminisce about the good old days. Getting to be a little dangerous in that part of town now. I was there the last Christmas before they closed it, walked the entire mall feeling something in me dying. Bittersweet memories but boy did we have fun there. Eddie Money sang it best “I wanna go back and do it all over but I can’t go back, I know…”
The store I miss the most is Aladdin's Castle. All of the fun, cutting edge new games, and the lines of people playing them and supporting, learning from, and having fun with each other!
Yes Aladdin's was great.
Rest in Peace Jamestowm mall I miss you.
Me too. It was quite an experience. I’ll be putting together some mall mementos to sell sometime in the future.
It's really shocking how quickly, and badly this mall was trashed only since this ridethrough was filmed.
After the county took it over we no longer had access to keep it reasonably secure.
Ikr it looked pretty when it wasn’t trashed tbh
It was nice seeing this mall still in pretty good condition, pretty much before vandals took over the entire mall just like rolling acres
You’re shitting me.. this mall got demolished by vandals too? Wtf 🤬
Use to frequent this mall quite a bit in my youth. Memories just come flashing back
Spent many a weekend at Jamestown Mall back in my high school days
Me too
It’s sad that this mall is now so badly damaged. I wish it was still in pristine condition
Soon as the county took over it got really bad fast.
Thanks for taking the time to make the video. I miss the Jamestown Mall and the nostalgia that came with it. I remember very well a time when it was nice to shop with other humans, interact with others, see the arcade, and frequent this fun comprehensive "village" of shops, rather than the cold mechinations like our current shopping environment (Amazon, etc.). If I could travel back in time, I'd like to visit this mall again in the late 70s; especially in 1984, were I would argue it was at its peak. I believe that the mall's decline began circa 1988. Too bad it couldn't have been saved. People aren't accustomed to human-interaction anymore. And many wonder why our society struggles so hard with social issues. Maybe it's because people aren't used to being around people outside of their small social circles anymore...Maybe they have un-learned this skill?
squaresunmusic you’re welcome. Glad you enjoyed it.
Yes thank you so nice memories there. .
It's strange to see both the dead trees and the green artificial plants together in the same time and place
I was trying to spruce it up a little. There’s a mimosa tree growing in there that I planted before we vacated.
Be cool to see those abstract sculptures in a park somewhere.
I tried to get the county sculpture park interested in them but they never responded. I think the smaller ones are around somewhere but I think the large one got scrapped. 😢
Remember when its was open & bought my St Louis Cardinals jarsey from JC Penny in 2009 when it was kinda booming. Alot of memories from the 90s when the whole north county was booming back when I was a teen
This store still looked that good three years ago? What the fuck happened because recent videos show it as a fallout Dystopia of hell
We did our best until the county took total control of it. After we had to leave it was open season for the scrappers and destroyers. 😔
Yeah it does look decent
still have two prints on my wall from the art store where the framed your choice of prints right there in the store. used to work at merry go round too..
Sad what the thugs did to this once great mall.. and the other malls in the surrounding area.
Back before they cut power to the mall and it was trashed
It’s sad what happened to the American mall. I have a lot to say about it. Because it angers me.
Thanks.
That's a good size mall. Bums me to see any mall go.
The county turned this mall into a nightmare, and when Carlysile handed it over to them, they permitted scrappers to enter the building under the false pretense that a demolition was "SUPPOSED" to take place, which never happened. As a result, the entire mall was left in ruins. Did you manage this building, cause I heard you say this tarp was recently put up. How did you know that?
We were doing our best to keep it secure with next to nothing. I tried to manage areas where the roof leaked by use of buckets or trash cans. The spot you mentioned where I hung plastic near the center I hung a huge plastic sheet to catch multiple leaks and funnel it to a trash can.
There was a store on the left just inside the dead wing where it leaked so bad inside I hung a 20x40 pool cover from the ceiling that sloped into a trash can with drain hoses at the bottom which ran out to the flower beds. You can see the hoses as I rode out of the dead wing earlier.
Was then when the county owned it or Carlysile@@StLouisEarl
I'm not implying that you did a bad job; you genuinely tried to help. However, on the flip side, the county seemed to remain inactive, doing absolutely NOTHING. Consequently, vandals gradually infiltrated, ultimately contributing to its recent demise.@@StLouisEarl
@@chrisexplores1 Carlysile.
Yeah, Thanks for helping. You guys actually did unline the county! Thanks for doing all that. How long did you work there for?@@StLouisEarl
crazy to think it opened the year i was born
Looks pretty clean compared to what I seen last week there was broken glass and trash everywhere
We did the best we could until the county took it over. 😔
@@StLouisEarl you guys did great 👍
Great job for going into the walled off Dillard's/Stix wing! I always wondered what that wing looked like, since when I visited in early 2014(months before the entire mall closed, and during Macy's closing), I of course wasn't able to see that part of the mall. Also nice to see it hasn't been heavily vandalized, like I feared it'd be like(i.e. Lincoln Mall in Matteson, after Seph Lawless visited and it got vandalized to all crap sadly). I wonder if the mall is likely to be entirely demolished soon, or will be redeveloped and renovated somehow? I worry it'll be totally torn down, but who knows what'll occur I guess. Finally, I wish something would occur with those amazing sculptures, still in this mall.
That alarm sound at 7:52 was freaky to hear. I'd almost get the crap out if I heard that go off were I to explore a place, but that's just me. I sure wonder what that alarm sound came from. I guess that was a motion detector of some sort(i.e. inside some former store)?
BoratWanksta the Dillards wing leaked like a sieve. Most likely why the wing was closed.
Yep, that would have to be why for sure. I can believe that as to why that wing was walled off, before Jamestown Mall's closure in summer 2014.
We had an alarm until the government got involved in the takeover.
@@StLouisEarl Is there a way to get access to golm this abandoned mall?
Film*
Did any of the old pay phones work when you were there? ( weird question I know )
No.
This mall's a war zone now, needs to be demolished!
I was there literally 2 days ago so scary inside
@@claytonschumacker671and dangerous.
I just seen some more recent videos and this place is falling apart fast. This looks like new compared to the more recent vids
Dennis W that’s because we did our best to take care of it while we were there. Since the county now owns it. They’re guilty of many violations they held us to keep up. I.E. grass cutting and dumping. 😳
Not to mention, all the HVAC units have been stripped & gutted - You can see that in Google Earth.
@@ericdee1310that pretty much was the first to go.
Hi Earl, was this job as cool as it looks? Could you have camped in the food court overnight and had a barbecue if you wanted to? Last time I went to the mall the stix was a hotel surplus. It was dark inside and the escalators didn't work. Were the anchors in worse shape than the rest of the mall? I wish you'd got every store, but thanks for this footage. Cool to see it before it got trashed.
It was definitely a unique experience. The Dillards building had a 3ft hole in the roof and was pretty water damaged.
You should talk the county into opening up the mall back up this generation will never get to the experience of what it's like to be at Jamestown mall
There's no way of opening up after what's happened to this mall because all the metals gone for the store Gates. plus it's filled with black mold and looks like a war zone. The structure is rotting anymore because of the leaks that have been there for years and the roof
Man. Are you the undertaker of the dead mall? That's awesome. What exactly is your job there?
Probably should have called it undertaker! I was an assistant to the caretaker. It was quite an experience babysitting a dead mall. I wish I won that Billion dollar lotto. I would have bought the mall myself and moved in!
StLouisEarl hey if we were willing to pay and take away liability from you totally in a written agreement could you give me and a couple friends a tour of the mall?
@@talenclip Sorry. It belongs to the county now.
So what the crap happened?!?! In this video there’s still some lights and an alarm. Yesterday I watched “Dead Malls” video and there is a bunch of graffiti and busted glass. What happened between December 2017 and May 2018??!!??
H.H. foxaddict I shot the video summer of 17. The caretaker had been preparing to vacate the mall for the county purchase in January 18. Little time was spent out there as the deadline approached and it was being increasingly difficult to keep such a large building secure with no money. No help from the police when I’d tell them someone was trespassing in the mall stealing copper. They told me I couldn’t be in there, yet they didn’t care that the intruder was. :-(
Watch the one that Doomie Grunt posted around Aug 18. The place has really went to shit after this was made. This video the place looks like new compared to the more recent video that I assume was made a year after this one. They won't have to worry about tearing it down. The way it is going it will fall down. It is getting just as bad as Rolling Acres and Randle Park before they were torn down.
@@StLouisEarl It is sad that punks have to come in and destroy these places. It is bad enough that water leaks in without punks tearing shit up
Liked the vid
Thanks, I kind of miss the place.
Dudes riding a bike in here lol
It was better than walking! 😃
@@StLouisEarl was better than walking? Cycling is temporary... shattered glass everywhere now, ur gonna have to walk instead of giving yourself a flat tire
@@lord.d1_haven’t been there in years now. It’s like a war zone now. And it wasn’t trashed when I made the video.
@@StLouisEarlcan confirm. Me and some buddies went in last night and it was awful. Black mold everywhere, destroyed beyond comprehension
Any future plans for this mall?
Not sure at this point.
Now being prepared for demolition.
" A movie theater was also added in the 1990s."
No the theater was there in the early to mid 80's I specifically remember seeing movies there in 1983
Eric Draven yes, the old theater was up by Sears until the mall expansion then the current theater was added.
I don't remember the theater being anywhere near sears, I could be wrong but I believe it was in the same place where it was before the mall closed, I think they just expanded it.
Maybe there was a small theater(i.e. 2 or 3 screen theater) near Sears, and then that closed and then later on the Wehrenberg(sp?) 14 screen theater opened up not far from Dillard's(where that used to be mind you), JCPenney Outlet Store, and Macy's in that particular wing of the mall? I don't know for sure, but it sounds like from Earl's comment that this was the case.
BoratWanksta yes, there were 2 screens.
I’ll see if I can make a cover pic for this video that will have the old theater entrance which was later the north entrance to Sears.
Just so I know, did Sears open after the 2 screen movie theater at Jamestown closed and was(for all I may guess) demolished? I'm trying to better understand the history of this mall, and thanks for answering all my questions about this place.
Too bad what happened to North County floors and all of it went to shit
Too bad what the hell it happened North Carolina went to shit
What happen to this Mall and I think it's should be tear down soon it's trash so bad inside 😅
They tearing it down now
Video was way too shaky. Buy a gimbal.
This video was filmed almost 6 years ago you incel. Buy a life.
@@slyhog007plus I was on a bike. 🙃