While driving with the ambition to see the old Jamestown Mall on a routine trip to St. Louis came with mixed thoughts. Was the mall blocked off, guarded, or was trouble waiting for me to arrive. Enroute to the mall, taking a wrong turn through the woods along the Mississippi River ended up being better than worse come to think about it, as the original directions called for driving through Ferguson, Missouri. Although the riots have settled down, going out of the way as it ended up should always be the first choice. Arriving at the abandoned Jamestown Mall in Florissant, Missouri should have come to no surprise the entrance was blocked off.
...and the other near the Movie Theater sign
...The entrance near the old Sears wing was open for cars to drive through.
Jamestown Mall opened in 1973 with original anchor stores being Sears and Stix, Baer & Fuller, a local St. Louis area department store chain that would later be bought by Dillard's in 1984.
Famous- Barr opened as a third anchor in 1994, and converted to Macy's in 2006. In 1996, JCPenney was added completing the mall's floor plan.
A movie theater was also added sometime in the late 1990's. The mall changed hands in 2003, and shortly after, Dillard's announced it would close it store at Jamestown in April 2006. This was the malls first anchor loss, and not too far after, in 2008, Sears also closed.
After many plans were developed for the mall to be repurposed, make offices, assorted shopping, rebuild parts of the mall, etc. A final decision was made that the center would no longer be viable for shopping because of overlapping competition elsewhere at the time, and the demographic of its location kept developers from investing in the property.
In November 2013, the heat and power was shut off, forcing the owner to close most of the mall off from shoppers. Finally, on July 1, 2014, because several circumstances such as no power, or heat, and increased crime and vacancies since the early 2000's, Jamestown Mall was officially closed after 40 years of business.
Here are pictures I took of the mall in April 2016.
Former Stix, Baer & Fuller/ Dillard's.
Now showing signs of overgrown foliage, the front of the mall gives the allusion as if time stopped in Florissant.
The although the Sears store may be closed for good, the former Auto Center still appeared open as a car wash or detail center of sorts.
Former Sears store.
Here is the old JCPenney store, which converted to an outlet store, later JC's 5 Star Outlet, closed in late 2013.
The original Famous-Barr, later Macy's, and JCPenney (JCP Outlet, JC's 5Star Outlet). In sequence of time, the pictures provided below from an online search show to rapid demise of both the chains locations at Jamestown.
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| 2011 |
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| 2013 |
The last holiday season at Jamestown mall was the worst as a result of not paying bills for several months, the power and gas was shut off, making most of the mall "un-shoppable" for black Friday.
Former JCPenney/ JC's 5 Star Outlet.
Famous-Barr converted to Macy's in 2006. In January 2014, Macy's announced a series of closures that included the store at Jamestown, which closed a few months later.
Just goes to show, something actually was here before abandonment.
Former Famous-Barr/ Macy's
AMC should film an entire season of The Walking Dead: Mall Edition, it makes for the perfect setting.
Now leaving the mall unscathed, one last shot of the sign and former Sears Auto Center in the distance.
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