The Last Night at Charlestowne Mall

After 27 years one of my favorite malls, the Charlestowne Mall in St Charles, IL closed December 1st, 2017.

Filmed November 30th, the last day the mall was open.

Music:
Kevin Mcleod - Local Forcast
Vexento - Crystal Child

[tigerrockschase]

In the dark creepy closed food court...you were standing directly in the spot were the carousel used to stand.

[fthetm]

I went through here around late Springtime and it was clear the interior of the mall wasn't long for this world. Thanks for documenting the inside on the final day

[LeoPlaysMCElevators]

I grew up going to this mall. I remember when all the anchors were open but Sears was about to close there location.

[withjeff]

Sad to see it close but knew it would happen one day thanks for posting this video. Had fun memories there.

[LiliannaVess]

This video is awesome! I miss this mall so much 😭

[nancydarling]

Good video. I liked the interior design of this mall. It is sad it is closed. Thanks so much for filming.

[dvferyance]

Many malls that have closed were run down anyways but this one was actually pretty nice so it;s quite a shame. Although it probably being a long ways from I-88 and I-90 with other malls much closer to the interstate could have been a major factor.

[tiffanyribbons]

Thank you, thank you, and thank you once again. Thank you for letting me relive that mall through my eyes once again.

[samanthalyn]

so sad it closed i'll miss it a lot

[freddiev]

I was just reporting to the USS THORN in the summer of '91. So many good memories of this mall! 😞

[hannahpumpkins]

I remember a few years ago my partner and I went there to see a movie, but we stopped at the food court to ride the carousel. Afterward I went to use the bathroom - it was so creepy! I told her that "if I don't return within 15 minutes, run like hell"!

[lostvlog]

I used to frequent this mall back in the mid 90's when I lived in Glendale Heights, believe it or not back then there were good crowds here, so eerie seeing it all dark and deserted like this. Looks like Stratford in Bloomingdale will soon suffer the same fate as this one...

[KristenPellegrini]

Wow I had no idea this even happened!! I live so close in aurora (by the fox valley mall). Hoping the same thing doesn’t happen to ours!

[fixedfocusmediaofficial]

Update: As of November 1st 2021 Von Maur and Classic Cinemas are the only ones left. Everything else is closed and inaccessible. They are planning on demolishing the mall and leaving Von Maur and Classic Cinemas which will remain in operation. They plan on building townhouses where the mall used to stand.

[elizabethpeterson]

I remembered going to this one mall that I liked it had every stores opened in the late 90’s. I went to this mall in 2003 only 2 chain stores were opened and the food court with one restaurant remained. It was so disappointing for me. One mall is still running is a one story mall with a little bit more foot traffic.

[BoratWanksta]

I visited there on that last day, though more in the early afternoon. Oddly the guards kicked me out at the end, despite that I was being peaceful and obeying all the off limits part of the mall signs and not walking into those parts(i.e. the area where the carousel used to be in the food court, walking into the old center court area where Santa, Easter Bunny, etc. would sit for photos during those seasons). Though at that point it didn't matter that I got kicked out, since I got a walk through all parts of the mall at least once. And the part I was kicked out of(lower level just north of center court), didn't have a lot of former shops you could look at anyway. Did explore the outside of the mall after that, plus went into Carson's and Von Maur briefly, so it's all good. Most private security mall guards are total a-holes in my experience wherever I go when it comes to how stupidly overjealous they enforce those ridiculous no photography rules, unless you're discrete. For the most part, I think I've done decently at being discrete. This was only the 2nd mall I ever was kicked out of(first was Evergreen Plaza, only on its last day. on previous visits there before my last Evergreen Plaza visit, I never had any issues). Also with all my past Charlestowne Mall visits, I never once had a single time when a guard kicked me out! For whatever reason, the guards usually were absent inside this mall whenever I visited in the past, and were just sitting outside in their security car north of the food court.

Great video, since I always wondered how exactly dark it gets into there at night! Maybe one still might risk it and try to sneak into the former mall parts, since allegedly the fitness place(where Deb used to be) isn't closing just yet? That mall really did become a huge joke, in its final years. I'm surprised the closure of this mall didn't happen sooner!

[ElationProductions]

So sad to see this happen. They just can't seem to keep a mall going in St. Charles. The smaller St. Charles mall on the west side had an even shorter lifespan. If I remember correctly, 1979 to 1995. Likewise the theaters there operated shortly after the mall closed. I think part of it is the city trying to jam too much retail too close together. The other part of course was the takeover of online shopping.

I have a lot of happy childhood memories roaming the mall with my family. It wasn't as easy or efficient as buying stuff online these days, but there's a certain social element there which is gone from online shopping.

[aruglaempire]

So sad. This was such a beautiful mall in an high end area too.

[turtleislandlac]

This mall had been mostly vacant for almost 10 years before this closing day in 2017. It hasn't been busy since around 2003. The city really let it sit for that long and it's still there today but just closed. There were many talks about renovating it and turning it into a partial outdoor mall that never came to fruition.

[TXMNElevators]

VERY sad. At least the anchors are staying.