Mall Ratting at Jamestown Mall

Any of you lucky enough to stay up late drinking with me might know of my sick fascination with malls. (I think I've written about it on here before too)

I was a mall rat from approximately age 8-17. They are in my DNA. I love the lighting, the soft pretzels, and the feeling of the tile against my feet.

When Sallie and I planned to be out in Florissant this weekend, I couldn't pass up a chance to go to my original childhood mall, Jamestown.

The mall was built in 1973 with the thoughts that the suburbs would crawl to the land around the mall area following the trend of people leaving the city. Things took a terrible turn when all the suburbanites started instead running to the St. Charles area.

This mall has long been empty, losing two of its four anchors almost 10 years ago.

The fountains were empty except for about $20 in change that had stuck to the floor with a nice mossy + rust paste. The pipe that fed the water in before was still leaking some water.

This is the food court. It had a Chinese restaurant. I remember when they opened this food court and it was packed with hundreds of people. 

This was once a Sears.

One of the weirder shops still open was a picture shop that specialized in African American versions of famous paintings. (The last supper, all with black dudes.) This piece is a bunch of Union Civil War soldiers riding horses. If you look closer, you realize Martin Luther King Jr. is leading the charge with Michelle Obama, President Obama, and Colin Powell following behind. 

This was once a Sam Goody I bought many singles from. The neon sign that said, "Goody Got It" (with a minor adjustment) was still hanging and lit up inside. A church meets in this location now and they changed the sign to say "God Got It."

And this is the large, un-air conditioned hallway that had an MMA gym and one of those fake jewelry kiosks. At the end is the movie theater.