I was born and raised in this town, it was a great town back in the day. I know before Graves was the Mayor of Harvey, stores, restaurants and so on but then water bills to the city of Chicago were never paid, garbage was never paid either, the town became very poor, companies left, grounds from the industrial buildings once stood had EPA issues and you can't build on chemical issue grounds a lot of my generation have medical issues because back then no one knew what was taking place, it's really sad, how this once amazing town went to crap over not 1 person giving a crap.
The Dixie Square Mall is the mall that was in the movie The Blues Brothers. It was abandoned for many years with numerous proposals. None came through. The mall was a favorite among the urban exploration groups. The mall was finally torn down. The police station is the only building left that by the mall.
It opened in 1965 and closed in 1978. The handwriting was on the wall for Harvey already. The filming took place in 1979 and really destroyed the place. It stood there rotting away until it was finally torn down around 2015. Legendary urbex spot.
Harvey took a shit back in the 70s that’s why the mall closed because of crime and unemployment. The mall was only there for 10 years and everybody started bailing back then.
Why I carry my piece on any explore I go on. Had a gaggle of fools threaten me last week in NJ. 9 of them against 1 of me, real tough. My little friend came out and all the sudden everyone had better manners and got very apologetic for their rude behavior. Had I not been prepared, I may not have been writing this.
@@Rob_Basich Armed trespass? I was looking for my dog, lol. And last time I checked, legal carry isn't a crime, I've had more than a few encounters with Jersey cops. Never once had a problem.
@genefogarty5395 I hear ya, and I don't disagree with your logic. Where I'm from, having a weapon and trespassing is a felony though. That makes me weary of exploring because you never know what you may find. I'm probably missing out but that always been in the back of my mind.
Harvey was a vibrant, active town - until about 1963. Then, crime started going crazy. My parents moved us to LaGrange Park, Illinois in 1966. Although there are some efforts being made to recover, it is now basically mostly gone.
It’s a shell of itself, but not totally abandoned. The people in Harvey pay cheap rent to live away from Chicago so the residents ain’t as mad as you think. Inna backroad smoking Chilling😊
Hey I’ve been interested in buying three buildings in Harvey all next to each other I’ll drive out there tomorrow and get the address would you be willing to tell me if you have any history on these if so How can I reach out
Just went thru Harvey yesterday,from expressway north to 159th on Halstead back east on 159th thru South Holland. There is now a huge influx of Mexican businesses to serve the incoming residents who have discovered an affordable place to live outside of Chicago.
That is exactly what happened un Phoenix Illinois not to far from Harvey. All the house were either drug Dan's or burned down because of it. In seven years Mexicans came in and now that neighbor has so many nice houses and many of it is fixed up. Still some abandoned parts though.
I'm thinking about moving to Harvey Illinois and buy house Im happy I found ya channel and videos..watching this on the same day u released it last year ❤️💕❤️
We used to live on Campbell Ave., by the gun range. It was nice and quiet. The deer used to come around our yard. It looked bad back there but I liked living there.
So many memories. 😔 Just passed my auntie house, in the 1st couple of minutes. Much of the outskirts of west Harvey (My old side of town) was shown. There is soooooo much more. Mostly occupied. Though, yes, there’s much abandoned housing.
I lived in Harvey in the early 90s. Right across the street from those abandoned apartments were more apartments. There used to be an armored truck company. Across the street was a car lot across Dixie hwy was a Burger King.
I was born in Harvey in 1955 and lived there into elementary school. It was a mostly clean and prosperous working class burg with plentiful jobs, good schools, a Police Department and lowish crime. Harvey had a Downtown Shopping District and there was a Harvey Improvement Association-my father was President. Guess they didn't get enough improvement over time. Should have kept it up and supported policies in Illinois which promoted marriage & family, lower taxes, American Jobs in America, law & order.
Island Lake, Elgin, Rural SOUTHERN Illinois? Uh no far from it. Perhaps a trip down south, you know the "here there be dragons" area 150 miles plus SOUTH of Cook county and the collar counties, THAT's rural Southern Illinois
@@arlaabrell8658you know cuz when you’re driving through places like Elgin or centralia or pike county you’ll be cruisin along a back road then all a sudden comin from it seems like nowhere you just hear a banjo drifting through the air that’s why it’s called banjo country.
Its more than that. Harvey's downfall began with the destruction of the notorious housing projects in Chicago like Cabrini Green. Many of those people were then moved to suburbs like Harvey and its neighboring towns like Dolton, Riverdale, etc. My father took my mother on their first date in Harvey back in the late 60s and now look at it. Makes me sick to my stomach.
I lived there back in 2004 and the onwer was an old black couple but it’s a lot of corruption in Harvey like most cities and that’s a reason for the current state!
25 years ago I was visiting my brother in the Chicago area. I asked if we might stop in Cicero of Harvey. He wondered why and I told him the winning Lotto ticket is usually purchased there. So we stopped in Cicero. The winner was sold in Harvey. Desperate even then.
@@_fiberjunkie Gang violence. Harvey has a violent crime rate of 1,085 for a town of just 20,000 making it 44% more dangerous than the national average.
I own a house in Harvey, yes there are plenty of abandoned buildings, and when you mostly show the bad areas it's easy to assume that every area is crap. There are some of us who take pride in our homes. Coming from Chicago, it's honestly not much worse it's just a smaller town.
As god is my witness. True story. I was born and raised in Harvey. way back in the day. 1978 to be exact. Back then there were nothing but white peoples. Lots of polish. Lots of going to church activities. I swear to you. Not a single black or Hispanic around. 159th an halsted was were I stayed by an alley. The whole entire Harvey neighborhood was gorgeous and beautiful. UNTIL ONE DAY. No joke. A single Mexican family had moved in the neighborhood from chicago. I was about 11. I became best friends with a kid my age. He ended up going to my school. His big brothers and brother in law were Latin kings. Shortly after they moved in I remember his big brother says to me. Tomorrow afternoon I’m going to throw a meeting and start a chapter here. I was a skate board kid. I had no idea what he was talking about. Shit. Who would have known I just witnessed the entire Harvey chapter start right before my own 2 eyes. That’s when Harvey started to fall apart.. I have long left Harvey but I’m hearing from distant family members that all the kings done left and now it’s all crack heads now.
@@maryyung1994 yes. It’s true. I witnessed it all happen. They were really wild back in them days. I stayed by the genos pizza place near all them bars that use to be there. It was a church’s chicken spot there as well. And the kings had that whole thing on lock. But if you passed the train tracks you were now in (phoenix). That’s what we use to call it. It’s kinda sad to see Harvey like that. But I’m pretty sure lots of other towns had the same happened to them.
Back in the 90’s a group of us went to Harvey at night to explore Dixie Square mall. We went at night because it was next to a police station😆. There was someone in the mall but there were 8 of us with shaved heads and mow hawks etc but we were mild trouble tbh haha. We lived in rough neighborhoods ourselves. My friend got a bad case of fleas from some old wet carpet in one of the anchor stores. It was cool to see the big gouges on one of the decorative concrete triangular structures that the police car in Blues Brothers ramped off of and landed upside down. Place was pretty trashed. Left my tag👉 a headless stick figure holding his head 😂. A lot of our adventures were at night in these types of places. Before smartphones phones people actually did stuff 😆
Being like 14-16 and living there would be a blessing and a curse. Granted, there'd be a ton of exploration to be done, but there'd also be not a whole lot of friends who are close by lol.
yep! looked on google maps and west of halsted are abandoned, unlivable looking homes but wut do you know? nice cars parked outside of more than a few of em. nothins goin down in THAT town!😡
Im 67,my parents were born in harvey.it used to be a nice town a long time ago. I remember going to dixie square mall when i was a kid.not long after that it closed .black people moved in and white people moved out. Thats what happened to harvey.
Careful out there shit looks wild I hear this town when bad in 80sh I wonder if had todo Martin Luther King death riots idk honestly dont know happened to this town
Harvey was built around large manufacturing and machining industry. Some plants were massive. The plants and all their thousands of jobs started leaving in the 80s for the South and for overseas locations. 40 years later this is the result.
Damn, pretty interesting. I thought it went to hell back when Martin Luther King got shot and they just happened to be a bunch of riots on that side of town.
I was born and raised in this town, it was a great town back in the day. I know before Graves was the Mayor of Harvey, stores, restaurants and so on but then water bills to the city of Chicago were never paid, garbage was never paid either, the town became very poor, companies left, grounds from the industrial buildings once stood had EPA issues and you can't build on chemical issue grounds a lot of my generation have medical issues because back then no one knew what was taking place, it's really sad, how this once amazing town went to crap over not 1 person giving a crap.
60426!
The Dixie Square Mall is the mall that was in the movie The Blues Brothers. It was abandoned for many years with numerous proposals. None came through. The mall was a favorite among the urban exploration groups. The mall was finally torn down. The police station is the only building left that by the mall.
The Dixie Square Mall was in Harvey, Illinois.
@@nathansmith7790My father took my mother on their first date at that mall. Breaks my heart.
It opened in 1965 and closed in 1978. The handwriting was on the wall for Harvey already. The filming took place in 1979 and really destroyed the place. It stood there rotting away until it was finally torn down around 2015. Legendary urbex spot.
Harvey took a shit back in the 70s that’s why the mall closed because of crime and unemployment. The mall was only there for 10 years and everybody started bailing back then.
Why I carry my piece on any explore I go on. Had a gaggle of fools threaten me last week in NJ. 9 of them against 1 of me, real tough. My little friend came out and all the sudden everyone had better manners and got very apologetic for their rude behavior. Had I not been prepared, I may not have been writing this.
Armed trespass in NJ of all shitholes. What could go wrong?
@@Rob_Basich Armed trespass? I was looking for my dog, lol. And last time I checked, legal carry isn't a crime, I've had more than a few encounters with Jersey cops. Never once had a problem.
@genefogarty5395 I hear ya, and I don't disagree with your logic. Where I'm from, having a weapon and trespassing is a felony though. That makes me weary of exploring because you never know what you may find. I'm probably missing out but that always been in the back of my mind.
@@Rob_BasichWhere did you get trespass from? OP never said he was trespassing anywhere.
Unless you are from NJ and have a CCW, cops aren't just looking the other way.
Wow you went down to Harvey. Be careful over there
Harvey was a vibrant, active town - until about 1963. Then, crime started going crazy. My parents moved us to LaGrange Park, Illinois in 1966. Although there are some efforts being made to recover, it is now basically mostly gone.
I had to stop and watch this. Harvey is definitely not abandoned.
Harvey reminds me of Gary,IN
At least Gary is by the Lake
It’s a shell of itself, but not totally abandoned. The people in Harvey pay cheap rent to live away from Chicago so the residents ain’t as mad as you think. Inna backroad smoking
Chilling😊
Im a medic and worked 911 in Harvey for years. Violence galore. If thats not anger then I dont know what is.
My coworker and I just watched this. We are property inspectors in Harvey. You zoomed in on his Stop Work order.
Hey I’ve been interested in buying three buildings in Harvey all next to each other I’ll drive out there tomorrow and get the address would you be willing to tell me if you have any history on these if so How can I reach out
No permit to build ?
Just went thru Harvey yesterday,from expressway north to 159th on Halstead back east on 159th thru South Holland. There is now a huge influx of Mexican businesses to serve the incoming residents who have discovered an affordable place to live outside of Chicago.
That is exactly what happened un Phoenix Illinois not to far from Harvey. All the house were either drug Dan's or burned down because of it. In seven years Mexicans came in and now that neighbor has so many nice houses and many of it is fixed up. Still some abandoned parts though.
I am from Maywood and Harvey, Riverdale, and Robbins makes Maywood look nice.
I'm thinking about moving to Harvey Illinois and buy house Im happy I found ya channel and videos..watching this on the same day u released it last year ❤️💕❤️
South Holland represent! Thanks for checking out our area. Grown up here all my 23 years of life so far
1:53 actually this road is far away from undrivable, we have a lot of roads like this in Ukraine and it's completely drivable
We used to live on Campbell Ave., by the gun range. It was nice and quiet. The deer used to come around our yard. It looked bad back there but I liked living there.
I graduated from TTHS-Thornton Township High School in Harvey in 1986. George's BBQ was a favorite of my family!!
So many memories. 😔 Just passed my auntie house, in the 1st couple of minutes.
Much of the outskirts of west Harvey (My old side of town) was shown. There is soooooo much more. Mostly occupied. Though, yes, there’s much abandoned housing.
I lived in Harvey in the early 90s. Right across the street from those abandoned apartments were more apartments. There used to be an armored truck company. Across the street was a car lot across Dixie hwy was a Burger King.
Right on the corner.
@@G-entleManAndScholarYes.
I worked at that Burger King 91-94
I used to work EMS out here. Lot of arson and shootings
I was born in Harvey in 1955 and lived there into elementary school. It was a mostly clean and prosperous working class burg with plentiful jobs, good schools, a Police Department and lowish crime. Harvey had a Downtown Shopping District and there was a Harvey Improvement Association-my father was President. Guess they didn't get enough improvement over time. Should have kept it up and supported policies in Illinois which promoted marriage & family, lower taxes, American Jobs in America, law & order.
That’s DEPRESSING AF
I used to have a cousin that lived in Harvy years ago. Dixie Square Mall used to be out there off Dixie Highway. Pretty sketchy area now.
Looks like bits of Island lake, IL
Elgin, IL; basically rural southern Illinois 😅
Harvey is not rural
Island Lake, Elgin, Rural SOUTHERN Illinois? Uh no far from it. Perhaps a trip down south, you know the "here there be dragons" area 150 miles plus SOUTH of Cook county and the collar counties, THAT's rural Southern Illinois
@@arlaabrell8658banjo country.
@@arlaabrell8658you know cuz when you’re driving through places like Elgin or centralia or pike county you’ll be cruisin along a back road then all a sudden comin from it seems like nowhere you just hear a banjo drifting through the air that’s why it’s called banjo country.
Poor city management and unpaid debts so businesses pulled out.
Its more than that. Harvey's downfall began with the destruction of the notorious housing projects in Chicago like Cabrini Green. Many of those people were then moved to suburbs like Harvey and its neighboring towns like Dolton, Riverdale, etc. My father took my mother on their first date in Harvey back in the late 60s and now look at it. Makes me sick to my stomach.
All of that area has been abandoned for almost 20 years most the people there are squatting with no where else to go sadly 😢
Give it a few years, the whole effin state will be like this.
I know, I live in it.
For now.
I lived there back in 2004 and the onwer was an old black couple but it’s a lot of corruption in Harvey like most cities and that’s a reason for the current state!
Next Try FORD HEIGHT IL
25 years ago I was visiting my brother in the Chicago area. I asked if we might stop in Cicero of Harvey. He wondered why and I told him the winning Lotto ticket is usually purchased there. So we stopped in Cicero. The winner was sold in Harvey. Desperate even then.
Harvey is dangerous!
Meth labs?
@@_fiberjunkie Gang violence. Harvey has a violent crime rate of 1,085 for a town of just 20,000 making it 44% more dangerous than the national average.
@@_fiberjunkieCanadians
There’s squatters in those apartments. It’s super sad
I think you were near the police range, kinda along I294?
I own a house in Harvey, yes there are plenty of abandoned buildings, and when you mostly show the bad areas it's easy to assume that every area is crap. There are some of us who take pride in our homes. Coming from Chicago, it's honestly not much worse it's just a smaller town.
Agreed
Christ I would have such a good time living in this town
I load train axles out of Harvey and steel, it's a friendly town. Yeah, there's run down areas but that doesn't define the entire town
@TheRoadhammer379 you hiring? I want that job
How’s the infrastructure there? Does the power and water go out all the time? Do you have to worry about the corrupt police force?
As god is my witness. True story. I was born and raised in Harvey. way back in the day. 1978 to be exact. Back then there were nothing but white peoples. Lots of polish. Lots of going to church activities. I swear to you. Not a single black or Hispanic around. 159th an halsted was were I stayed by an alley. The whole entire Harvey neighborhood was gorgeous and beautiful. UNTIL ONE DAY. No joke. A single Mexican family had moved in the neighborhood from chicago. I was about 11. I became best friends with a kid my age. He ended up going to my school. His big brothers and brother in law were Latin kings. Shortly after they moved in I remember his big brother says to me. Tomorrow afternoon I’m going to throw a meeting and start a chapter here. I was a skate board kid. I had no idea what he was talking about. Shit. Who would have known I just witnessed the entire Harvey chapter start right before my own 2 eyes. That’s when Harvey started to fall apart.. I have long left Harvey but I’m hearing from distant family members that all the kings done left and now it’s all crack heads now.
Even the gangs have no use for Harvey. The Latin Kings carried a lot of weight and a pretty strong street rep back then.
@@maryyung1994 yes. It’s true. I witnessed it all happen. They were really wild back in them days. I stayed by the genos pizza place near all them bars that use to be there. It was a church’s chicken spot there as well. And the kings had that whole thing on lock. But if you passed the train tracks you were now in (phoenix). That’s what we use to call it. It’s kinda sad to see Harvey like that. But I’m pretty sure lots of other towns had the same happened to them.
Back in the 90’s a group of us went to Harvey at night to explore Dixie Square mall. We went at night because it was next to a police station😆. There was someone in the mall but there were 8 of us with shaved heads and mow hawks etc but we were mild trouble tbh haha. We lived in rough neighborhoods ourselves. My friend got a bad case of fleas from some old wet carpet in one of the anchor stores. It was cool to see the big gouges on one of the decorative concrete triangular structures that the police car in Blues Brothers ramped off of and landed upside down. Place was pretty trashed. Left my tag👉 a headless stick figure holding his head 😂. A lot of our adventures were at night in these types of places. Before smartphones phones people actually did stuff 😆
My Grampa used to live in those apartments, we currently still live in the area
Being like 14-16 and living there would be a blessing and a curse. Granted, there'd be a ton of exploration to be done, but there'd also be not a whole lot of friends who are close by lol.
Interesting. I wonder what happened here?
My grama lived on finch street it was a great place to go knew some great people there
great place for a horror movie
Some of the area is not even harvey it's Markham. Smh they always show the bad show the nice houses in harvey cause there are a lot of them
Used to be some great strip bars here on Halsted, some fun times...
Lotta action!!!
I went to that elementary school so sad how it looks now😞
That Amazon building was a huge neighborhood before
I believe Homewood is only 2 or 3 blocks long.
The name of this state is the meaning of being sick 🤢 ill
😂😂
Sum parts of the state are nice bro but yeah
@@18thSTVATO from what I've seen on TH-cam this state is being used as a warehouse for big business
@@robertmailhos8159 true sad to say IL has so much potential
@@18thSTVATO yes it does if it is done The right way
Town is a shit hole and dangerous as hell
Nice!
Thats the hood. Lol
I wad born there, my great grandmother lived there, she died in the 70s, and it was a hood then.
And will always be
Chill I live next to that house by the highway😭
yep! looked on google maps and west of halsted are abandoned, unlivable looking homes but wut do you know? nice cars parked outside of more than a few of em. nothins goin down in THAT town!😡
I was burned and raised there and was a cop there for 4 years..
Harvey is like Gary in Indiana be careful.
70% of Illinois feels abandoned...that includes government officials.
Im 67,my parents were born in harvey.it used to be a nice town a long time ago. I remember going to dixie square mall when i was a kid.not long after that it closed .black people moved in and white people moved out. Thats what happened to harvey.
They destroy everything 😡😡
So sad..
Thats IL for you
Hope you dont break down anywhere around there.
LOL my name is Harvey and i have a town wtf LOL 🤣😂🤣🤣😂
Harvey and some other towns around it are shit-holes.
Black government.
Find the abandoned mental institution in mokena Illinois
Tinley Park, IL......183rd and Harlem
Had a friend grow up on the same street as me ( Green ) he ended up in Tinley Park mental this is in the 70s he still there to this day.
Another example of a democratic run city☠️💀☠️💀. LETS GO BRANDON
Right, because every republican run area prospers and is great. Have you been down south where a majority of the states are red run.
@@sroevukasroevuka
Yes I have and I love it down there
@@zenos.5315 trump loves stupid people, he said it himself.
Careful out there shit looks wild I hear this town when bad in 80sh I wonder if had todo Martin Luther King death riots idk honestly dont know happened to this town
Harvey was built around large manufacturing and machining industry. Some plants were massive. The plants and all their thousands of jobs started leaving in the 80s for the South and for overseas locations. 40 years later this is the result.
Damn, pretty interesting. I thought it went to hell back when Martin Luther King got shot and they just happened to be a bunch of riots on that side of town.