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When they built the mall the thinking was that the farmland would become developments like in Florissant and Hazelwood. Also, the Columbia bottoms was targeted to be the location for a new airport since Lambert, at the time, was boxed in and could not expand. Couple this with the white flight due to african americans moving from St. Louis city into North County areas like Spanish Lake and Blackjack sealed its fate.
Thanks for this great incite into St. Louis history. I use drop my friend off in Spanish Lake after we hung out for the night. Sometimes we would take the scenic route and go up Hall Street, Riverview, and Columbia Bottom. It's a great route with few people at night. It reminds me of the lyrics "Just you and your mind on Lakeshore Drive tomorrow is another day." Different city but a similar feeling.
I just want to say how much I appreciate this video. I am originally from St. Louis Missouri and I now live in Baton Rouge Louisiana.Your video truly gives me a piece of home because I miss it. Thank you so much for these wonderful videos and I look forward to more of them❤️✊🏾
Really well done video. Love the street indicator. I was born in Ferguson and grew up in Spanish Lake after a short time in Hermann Mo. I felt like I was in the car with you. I spent tons of time in that mall. They thought that residential development was going to continue spreading that way. I feel like a time traveler watching this. As a kid in the 80’s I could not have imagined the mall looking any different than it did right then. Thanks for putting this together.
I am an architectal student in europe (germany). I found american cities so interesting. Its very interesting in the context of city planing history. I love your videos. Thank you Chris.
Northwest Plaza gone around the same time, too replaced with offices and a few big box stores like a Menards. Chesterfield Mall is still open but 95% empty. Mid Rivers Mall out in St Peters seems to be on life support and about half occupied these days. Really it seems like West County Mall and the Galleria are the only malls still doing well in the area.
wow i used to to this mall back in the day, it was sad when all the stores left and also the area it located in, thanks for the memories have good day please stay safe :-)
Thanks for the video. That was my childhood mall and I will always be fond of it. I’d say it did well for quite some time. It even expanded as late as ‘94, I believe. That was the closest indoor mall for many North County folks until Northwest Plaza was enclosed in the late 80’s/early 90’s. If Jamestown had any chance in the early 2000’s, it was killed by the opening of St Louis Mills mall in Hazelwood in ‘03 and the rise of online shopping.
And i have one more thing to add to this info dump, when this mall was built they found a set of mammoth bones, When the construction group found them they chose to cover it up and keep going. So one of the parking lot areas are actually built higher than it should have in order to keep the bones covered up. In addition some of the construction crew also claimed to have seen Fur in addition to the bones. But who knows. Most of the people who have worked on this project are dead, and the company responsible for it is also gone. So good luck finding and talking to any survivors.
I lived in Alton and uh I remember going over there buying shoes and cans of kodiak and playing video games at the tilt. The most important thing was checking out the scenery God I miss the late 80s and early 90s
Ironic that "florissant" means "flourishing" in French. Also, I'm just old enough to remember the world without so many malls. Back then, a city's downtown was where you'd go to do your shopping and for your entertainment. Now, it's the malls that are dying. Interesting how the world evolves.
Me and my friend Patrick (who never posts comments on RU-vid) both thought you did a good job showing an area we both spent a lot of time in. There is a good documentary called "Spanish Lake" that was on Netflix at one point.
The only good thing that will happen to Spanish Lake in the future is an extension of the St. Louis Zoo where there will be expansive areas for zoo animals.
Wanna know what’s crazy is both Baltimore and St Louis are both independent cities have high Murder/crime rates and some parts of the counties with the same names are unincorporated as well and both had huge population declines after their peak in 1950
@@drh3b I moving this week to south county North county Turing into north city sum men killed 3 people in the northwinds apartments and sum dude just got hit up on my street
It used to be so nice over in Black Jack. Now it's terrible. Not many people take care of their property. And Spanish Lake...forget about it. I was offered heroin at a gas station there recently and also saw a police chase on Larimore where the suspect crashed into a house. It's a shame.
It really is sad because it is such a pretty area and there are a lot of really beautiful homes in that area. The schools are crap, though. My dad did some substitute teaching in the Hazelwood School District in that area about a decade ago and it was about like that movie with Michelle Pfeiffer "Dangerous Minds" a gangster's paradise - and that was the junior high school... I used to run the RadioShack store on Lewis and Clark in Bellefontaine Neighbors not that far off in the late 90s, and that area was just starting to turn bad at that time, now driving through there is outright scary. Florissant really is the furthest north decently livable city in StLCo, the further out 270 you go, the worse it gets.
@@louisejones798 What a coincidence, my local mall is named Independence Mall and it too is losing some big name stores, but a recent renovation came and it has a Lidl and Dick’s Sporting Goods. And fair share of crime is around the area.
@@louisejones798 Oh okay. Because my closest mall is Independence Mall Wilmington, NC. Sorry about that. But yeah Kansas City Metro is struggling when it comes to economy in malls. I looked it up.
Nostalgia Driver, you should add more statistics like: Number of homes under Section 8 vouchers Number of homes owned by outside investment firms/speculators....especially firms headed by Chinese Nationals...many of which fleece the Section 8 program, and fail to pay Property Taxes to the country year after year.
Cool Video. I grew up in the old Fairgrounds hood, Spanish Lake and Black Jack. One childhood home is at 25:06 on the video-the house with dormers on the right. About once a month we would be awakened to a loud bang-usually a rental truck smacking that low 11'6" clearance railroad bridge! Furniture all over Trampe Ave!
Bruh i used to walk up and down this street and criterion and all over there. You went to Hazelwood east high right? What year did u graduate? 😂😂 you either know me or my big brother or my bigger sister.
@@kinggcamoo7727 Nah, I'm probably a lot older. Finished 5th grade at Twillman then moved to Black Jack. Then into the Chicago burbs by the 9th grade around 1970.
@allenaviation5746 Okay, so you know how dangerous St. louis is now right, although it has always been, I have a question... Is Saint louis more scarier to be in vs. Chicago? Bc Saint louis murder rate is 3.5x higher and has been for a decade.
@@allenaviation5746 for some reason my previous comment was removed. I asked if which one is more scarier to be in? Saint louis north side or Chicago's south side? We know stl murdr rate is 3.5x higher than Chicago's and has been for a decade. What do you think, is Saint louis more scarier to be in than Chicago? I would imagine so
THEE USED TO BE A INDOOR SOCCER ARENA THERE WE BROUGHT GOLLOWAY UP THERE ONCE AND THE KIDS WERE LIKE YALL CAN PLAY U CAN JUMP. THERE USED TO BE CLUB IT WAS THE FIRST TIME I EVER PLAYED BASKETBALL IN ST. LOUIS JUST THAT LITTLE GAME TAUGHT ME SO MUCH.
St Charles is rough too toward the city ...they got their own problems same people u meet and see in the city you see in the county and Rual nothing New....
Why did AA’s move from the city to Spanish Lake? Is that black flight? Fleeing from black crime? Then they brought crime with them causing the current residents to flee their crime. Rinse repeat.
Jamestown Mall was the place to be before the 90s. The place was packed. The change in demographics is what shuttered its doors. What the call White Flight. As soon as that departure started so did the decline and eventual closing of the malls and many other businesses in the North County area. It can all be attributed to white flight and change of demographics. I know first hand. I grew up in North County/City when it started to change.
Thanks for telling the truth instead of acting like unseen and unexplained forces are the culprit. Change of demographics has worsened the mall in my city and they've had to institute strict rules and close earlier. Back in the 80's and 90's it used to be a really fun and safe place for everyone to be at but now they need a police presence almost all day whereas before only a couple of mall cops were needed.
@@loricampbell1164 you’re welcome! I’ve been a fan of this guy’s channel since I ran into it seven months ago. And it so happens to be the East St. Louis one too...
I once lived near Parker and New Halls Ferry. The mall was about a 15 minute drive, not at all unreasonable. That's why it was where it was. Northwest was always the better mall, and a bigger deal in the '70s. It was also a campaign stop for Carter in '75.
Your in the middle of a crime infested ghetto that USED to be nice until the thugs destroyed it, Everyone left and went across the river out of St. Louis County
"White flight" is not simply racist white people moving because of black people moving in. The St Louis metro has a long history of manipulating low income housing. Spanish Lake area was targeted for large multi-family complexes. Housing vouchers brought the people displaced by the failure of the Pruitt-Igoe housing high rises. Other practices like block busting further accelerated the movement out. The movement from North City did not flow into the more affluent areas was not an accident. It was determined by those in power. The real racism or classism is with the elite of the area who directed all of this.
Funny how upper class white areas are rarely targeted for enrichment. It's always working class and lower middle class white communities that bear the brunt because they don't have the money or connections to stop it. Section 8 housing has destroyed countless formerly white communities like Spanish Lake and BlackJack.
12:30 Nostalgia Driver mused about the bad location of the Mall. Well the real estate speculators, who didn't live in the region (Jacobs), figured the farm land around there would turn into subdivisions. It didn't. Most 'Flyers' went west to build their dream homes in places like Chesterfield, T&C, Kirkwood, St.Charles Co, and SoCo. Plus the farmers didn't want to sell their land up in NSTLCo. Keep doing a great job on these monitized YT videos Nostalgia Man, and you can go and resettle Black Jack with your YT money. See how that goes for 'ya, Homes.
GR8 GRANDMA LIVED OVER THERE THEY SPOKE GERMAN IN THEIR HOUSEHOLD WHEN SHE WAS YOUNGER THEIR FAMILY NESTLED IN THAT AREA WITH MY GREAT GRANDFATHER AFTER THE SPANISH AMERICAN WAR DADD WAS FERGUSON AND MOM WA FURTHER TOWRADS THE CITY LATER TO NEW HALLS FERRY RD. AND THAN JJDBJNKKAB 1985
The perfect solution: Turn the Mall into a noisy factory with no other effluent. Take the old school buildings and turn them into living quarters. Repaint all those school buses. All those folks comin up from the border gotta live somewhere. They are good workers. Unfortunately, because of that biome, you will have to grease a lot of palms to git er done. Huey Long would be proud of Missouri politics.
I'm a big opponent of racism. Other factors to consider is that people move up on their houses and buy bigger houses and later they downsize. That doesn't usually mean moving back to the old neighborhood. Nothing is when people want to get away from your problems where they're at they bring the kids with them and themselves which means they bring some of the problems with them out just spread it around. Some of the people are some of the problems and some of their kids are some of the problems but they don't realize it or think that it'll change with a change of address. Besides you're contributing racism as white against black and it goes in all directions. The fearfulness goes in all directions. There is a sizable element of racism. So the whites have all the money and they move and the blacks don't have any money so they move in and property value goes down. That is really what people are saying when they say white flight. I tuned in on this one because I find abandoned malls interesting. My first economics class with my first economic instructor nailed it. The collapse of shopping at the mall and making it an event. Also he said that you'll see a lot of people who appear to be crazy 😧. They will appear to be talkin with themselves because phones are going to get to the point where they can fit into your ear 👂. Everybody will have these mobile communication devices. You won't be able to find a pay phone anywhere. Well he pretty much nailed it and so did the books that we we studied. I do find your videos very interesting. The Detroit videos especially with the interest to me. I plan to watch you one on Ferguson because I made a trip about an hour and a half hour on my way just to go there after riots. We shopped and we were definitely the minority in the smallest minority being white at that moment at the stores. The Sam's Wal-Mart complex is where we went. And then drove through the city a little bit. I want to show my families and others that with me that it wasn't exactly the way it was on the news. We sat down in the cafe at Sam's club in the folks there well they are down-home folks. Everyone we met was sociable to say the least. I might say that as a comment on your Ferguson video. We just have to learn as a society that people are people. Let's not judge each other by ridiculous thing is saying well your skin colors different that makes me better. How can you get any more ridiculous than that! So by no means do I disagree that racism is a problem. It is a problem that the flames of it is fanned by all sides and colors.
