Message #230702

[Desolate Angel]

Whatever happened to ... Old Chicago mall in Bolingbrook?
Tribune reporter
March 13, 2009|By Vikki Ortiz, TRIBUNE REPORTER

It was an amusement park that was supposed to put Bolingbrook on the map. Instead the Old Chicago mega-mall and amusement park went bankrupt a year after it opened in 1975, closed in 1980 and was demolished six years later.

Still, many people surely remember the 215-shop, turn-of-the-century-theme mall with rides, a concert venue and circus performers -- all under a glowing 16-story dome.

"It was Disneyland indoors," said John Miller, 40, of Downers Grove, who still remembers Old Chicago's TV jingle by heart. Miller remembers visiting Old Chicago many times with his family as a child.