Belvidere Discount Mall (Waukegan, IL) - 1960s retro mall
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- Опубликовано: 20 сен 2023
- What a fun place to visit for both shoppers and old mall fans! Belvidere is a retro treasure that has been surviving since the 1960s by adapting and being a useful part of the community. Lakehurst tried to steal its thunder, but was demolished in 2004. While Belvidere has had some minor updates to stay relevant, parts of it are still wonderfully 1960s.
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I used to visit here back in 1990, used to love visiting the arcade room, used to eat at pollo loco, buy clothes here. There was a time there was a small theater. It sure brings me flashbacks.
The theater is open again. I made a video about it. :)
@@YodelingLoonRetail Used to bring my kids there. Thanks.
I remember the arcade and theater as well.
However empty, they are immaculately clean.
This mall looks very boring but definitely retro. It’s good that you were able to document this mall.
I remember when it opened. No one around here had ever seen a mall like this. Loved the movie theater there.
I love these types of malls that are kind of oddities in todays retail landscape! Great video! Thanks for documenting a mall like this that gets no attention and most of us would never knew existed! 🎉
I can't believe it!!! My favorite of all the "mall channels" came to my town. Wow! Great video. I grew up when the Belvidere Mall was in full swing and I remember all the developments you outlined- Lakehurst, Hawthorne and Gurnee Mills moving in and chipping away at Belvidere's business. But I can't tell you how much I appreciate that you also made a point I've been making for years; the irony that all of these bigger, "better" shopping malls that stormed in are now dead and buried or at the very least, struggling to keep going. And here is this little mall in a working class town that just keeps on going. The other remarkable thing is how clean and well-maintained the mall has been kept and without any major updates. I give the owners and tenants all due respect for keeping that place active. Another great video, and as always, you've got the best narrator's voice.
Thank you very much!
Wow this is so weird. I've lived like 30 mins away from this my whole life and never even knew it existed. lol
I lived in Waukegan when I was in the 1st grade. 85-86 school year. Super Bowl Shuffle. I'm 45 now. Been living in Tennessee since 86.
Thank you for uploading this. 👍
I'm so glad you met up with jonrev! I've been loving what he's done with that cinema there the last few years. And his work is excellent (seriously, his Northridge video is as creative and original as they come). I bought one of his photos of the Belvedere theater hallway at the gallery there a couple years ago. I went to high school in Gurnee and parents still live 10 minutes away. I always go back to Belvedere when I'm in town and love that it's been reclaimed as a community hub.
Great work!
Back in 2001-2002 I went there all the time to get my hoodie sweatpant combo, they had the most comfortable ones!!! Id smoke cigarettes while i was shopping in there too!! Back when i was 16-17. Good ole days, buying dope shit in the Belvidere Mall and in the parking lot. 😉
Amazing. I wish I had more words, but I don't. I love it.
I remember this mall back in the early 70s when it was thriving. In the 80s I use to see movies in the cinema on the north end of the mall.
The most retro exterior I have ever seen.
I remember going to see Candy Man at that theater years ago😩❤️. This Mall and Lakehurst Mall were both beautiful. We would walk around for hours. If my memory serves me correctly I think Walgreens was at one end of the mall before Moving across the street.
What I find amazing is that ever since I moved out of Waukegan almost 2 decades later Belvidere Mall is still in operation and chugging along meanwhile a few major malls near Milwaukee where I live are completely failing and one has closed completely. It's so prominent that there's online groups dedicated to abandoned malls (like on Reddit).
ive driven past this several times. didn't know it was an indoor mall. thought it was just a strip mall
I watched the cinema video first. I am a waukegan historian, I know this mall well, as I grew up in Waukegan. Fairway Foods took over the original grocery store location, later it was a Giant Auto, a thrift store, and a China Buffet. It became a mom and pop Hispanic mall about 1990 or so. I would get strange look the last time I was there in the 2000's. I guess it was because my dad and I weren't hispanic? The best childhood memory would be the Flinstones phone at the main entrance. I first discovered what Nintendo was at Montgomery Wards.
I wonder if you ever hear of another Waukegan historean fr back in the 70s, Si Williams, also City treasurer. My neighbor as a kid
I was born in 1974, no I have not, but I texted a friend who would know as she is in her 80's and a historian as well.
my family usually go to the mall for jewelry or miscellaneous stuff but I mostly like going there for candy store
Didn’t expect something local!
A legendary mall, cared for by a legendary photographer. Wonderful video. Thanks for sharing, brother.
Thank you, Sal! I’m hoping to go back and catch a movie some time.
How is this mall "legendary"?
@@jsperb82It was the first indoor mall of its kind, to open in Lake County
Thanks for the entertaining and informative video!
Awesome!
cool
YEAH WAUK TOWN
I am so upset that there’s no place like this within an hour or two of Charleston to visit on the weekends. Western PA had places like this and I really miss being around these old style community malls.
Had you ever been to any of the small town malls in eastern Kentucky? If you go to say like Village Center Mall in Harlan, KY, I think it'd have that feel you are looking for.
I think Middlesboro, KY has a small mall, that hangs on to this day as well. Laurel Mall in southwest Pennsylvania is an antique mall(converted from a traditional enclosed mall), but is only open 3 days a week(Friday-Sunday?) I think.
Hawthorn Center may be sparse now, but they're restructuring. However, a future tenant pulling out of it due to their company going under isn't good.
they had a haunted house set up at this mall, late 90s
That must have been a blast.
Welcome to illinois.
Make sure you show your Imperial employees hiding in the vacant spaces while the other employees work.
They just reopened the theater
What was the name of the place you ate at, that sold elotes? I'd like to try that place, next time I go to Belvidere Mall.
I wish A LOT more malls would turn over spaces to artists, especially if they couldn't fill up all spaces. I remember Crestwood Plaza in the Saint Louis area did this, in its last years before closing for good.
Inside of El Pollo Rico was a woman who sold elotes. We paid her separately from the main restaurant with cash. I'll have to ask my friends how often she is there. We went on a Saturday during lunch.
@@YodelingLoonRetailShe's there daily until about 6pm. If not, Ortiz has them across the mall entrance -- PR's are consistently good, but theirs aren't bad either.
I wonder what the property value of these malls are now. I feel like the government could use all these abandoned malls to house homeless people
Imperial is a slum lord! Total dump mall!
Those were the days. The 1960s were a great time in Waukegan.
Nothing but Americans everywhere. No illegal trash to see everywhere.