Musicians State Street 'Mall' Circa 1985

            It's Christmas along the State Street "Mall" as a small brass band plays holiday songs for the passers-by.  I would have to place the date of this photo sometime between 1984 when I started attending nearby Columbia College and 1989 when massive changes began occurring along here.  

The structure immediately to the musicians' left is a subway station entrance.  It has now been replaced.  Behind the musicians is Karoll's Menswear, a very famous shopping destination.  It is now a boutique hotel.  In the distance, the set of lips is an advertisement for Magikist, a cleaning service that was well-known for similar billboards on the Kennedy, Dan Ryan, and Eisenhower Expressways.  An Old Navy store is on the site now.

The entire block to the right of Karoll's was demolished beginning in 1989.  This was part of the infamous "Block 37" fiasco because nothing was built in its place until 2006 when an indoor mall was finally opened.  And even that new building hasn't been much of a success either.  The "Block 37" name has stuck to the new building.  It has a high vacancy rate (the most successful businesses are in the basement along the Pedway, which links the Red Line and Blue Line  Subways).  A cinema was built into the new building, but it sat unused until 2016 when AMC finally leased it.

State Street "Mall" itself was a flop.  It was actually a transitway which was designed to improve business along what had been Chicago's most famous shopping street.  It had the opposite effect though.  The street was redesigned and re-opened for traffic in 1996 and that seemed to really help as State Street is much busier today.

Taken in: United States / Illinois / Chicago / Fort Dearborn Addition (show map)

Taken on: January 1, 1985

Tags:

State Street

State Street Mall

Karoll's

Magikist « less

Sets appears in: • Christmas

Groups appears in: • * CityScapes & City Life • The Urban Landscape more » • Chicago Buildings • To Be Demolished • Chicago Icons • Chicago - Now Demolished, Lost, Destroyed, Razed... • Places That Are Gone • City Skylines (Buildings,Cities) • Christmas in Chicago • Forgotten Chicago • CHRISTMAS - Magical Christmas • Christmas photos! « less

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