Sears in Atlanta

While most of this blog has seemed to focus on the imprint of Rich's and Davison's in Atlanta, we must not forget the impression that Sears left on the city. Foremost, Sears may be lagging behind these days, but the most successful stores in the entire chain are nowhere else but Atlanta. Stores at two metro mall locations continue to compete for the top spot in sales, so obviously there is a respect for the store by the people of this state. Indeed, to this day my parents choose to buy all of their appliances from Sears, and I found out the hard way in the past what happens when you don't.

This photo taken in 2004 from Atlanta Time Machine shows today the old Sears building on Ponce de Leon Ave.

Sears original store in Atlanta was a monolithic combination store/warehouse located at Ponce De Leon Ave (US 78) & Glen Iris Drive in the Inman Park neighborhood. While I currently do not have any historical shots of Sears in Atlanta, I am going to share some pics from other people made through the years of Sears with links to the where the photos came from.

Long-demolished Sears store in Buckhead from the Atlanta History Center archives. As a side note, the Atlanta History Center is right down the street from where this used to be, which might relate to why this photo exists in their archives.

In the late 1950's, Sears opened its first suburban store in Buckhead. This store was originally located at the intersection of Peachtree Road and West Paces Ferry Road. Unlike later stores, this Sears was free-standing and not attached to any mall. Lenox Square never had a Sears, but this was within a short distance. In the late 1980's, this Sears location was demolished and replaced with the first building of Buckhead Plaza in 1988.

This rare photo from 1974 was taken by Judy Baxter of her new car with Sears and Columbia Mall in the background. This is from karendean.net.

After this, the next suburban store constructed was at Columbia Mall in Belvedere Park south of Decatur. This store was constructed by Sears-owned Homart Properties, who also partnered with RH Macy to develop the rest of Columbia Mall. Opening in 1964, this marked the second suburban entry in Atlanta with the rest history. In 2007, this store was demolished along with the rest of Columbia Mall to make way for a Super Wal-Mart. The Columbia store closed in 1983.

This photo is of the brand new Sears at Columbia Mall in 1964. It is taken from Pleasant Family Shopping on a post dated March 9, 2008.

North Dekalb Mall (Update from July 2, 2006 post)

North DeKalb Mall is today approaching its third phase of existance. It is one of the least known of the metro Atlanta malls, but is over 40 years old and a survivor considering that two other malls of its vintage are both gone: Cobb Center and Columbia. Opened in 1965, North DeKalb Mall was a small T-shaped mall with a two-story Rich's on the east end and two junior anchors on the west end, which appear to have been a Woolworth's and Colonial Supermarket. In many ways it was a sister mall to Cobb Center. It remained a very successful mall serving the growing suburbs from Decatur north, but was marginalized early on by the construction of much larger Northlake and Perimeter, both completed in 1971. Historicaerials.com has a photo of the mall in its original configuration. Supposedly this mall was originally open-air, but as recent as 1968 the mall appears to have been fully enclosed with small skylights.

The first and second photos both are of the east court, featuring this big clock. The corridor to the left (original mall) in the first photo heads to the Macy's (former Rich's). In the second photo, Macy's is to the right. The second photo is one of the two Ross mall entrances.

Fortunately, North DeKalb survived because of the fact that mall developers avoided adding a Rich's to Northlake. Northlake had Sears, JCPenney and Davison's...but not Rich's. In addition, white flight from Memorial Drive south was drawing more traffic to the mall than would have gone there otherwise. If not for Rich's continued success, North DeKalb would likely have been demolished by the late 1980's or early 1990's. However, it began declining in the 1980's, and that is why the mall today looks nothing like it did when it first opened.

First photo is looking back down the main corridor to the Macy's mall entrance (Rich's mall entrance shown below). Second photo is looking out on the longest (east) wing with Macy's behind me. Last photo is of the mall corridor extending from the east court to south court.

In 1986, North DeKalb Mall was extensively renovated and renamed "Market Square at North DeKalb". This renovation brought a Mervyn's, Upton's and Lechmere to the mall bringing anchors to the area that distinguished the mall from the others in the area. Ross and Stein Mart joined some time later, but it is not known exactly when they arrived or when Stein Mart left. The Rich's at North DeKalb also got a shot in the arm that year when the Rich's at Belvedere Plaza on Memorial Drive shut down for good. This renovation was wildly successful, and completely altered the layout of the mall with a diamond shape that also added an Applebee's and a food court. This unusual shape was undoubtably intent on trying to build a mall on the same footprint since there was no other way to expand the mall. See this mall map for an explanation of this (I have saved the map for when the mall is redeveloped). Unfortunately, a much greater expansion would have helped the mall more so that it could have competed on a more level playing field with Northlake.

Photos include view of south court, view looking down the southeast wing and view looking down the south wing. The southeast wing is really strange: it is part of the mall itself but also a store. While it has a pseudo entrance, the walkway through it is mall while the stuff on each sides is the store. This was a Rhodes Furniture when I visited in 2004. Today it is a local furniture store. The south wing (last photo) is the wing to AMC Theaters that originally opened as a Lechmere.

In the early 00's, "Market Square" was renamed back to North DeKalb Mall. By the middle of the decade, North DeKalb was also becoming very troubled. It's solid list of tenants was constantly being shaken up by bankruptcies such as Lechmere in the early 1990's, Mervyn's in 1995, Upton's in 1999 and Rhodes Furniture in 2005. The mall replaced these vacancies with stores like Burlington Coat Factory (in the old Mervyn's), Ross Dress For Less (presumably in the old Upton's) and an AMC theater (in the former Lechmere). With such age and competition, the mall has been managed extremely well, but the renovation is aging, the traffic is slowing and pressure is mounting. It didn't help when Rich's merged with Macy's in 2004. The Macy's (former Rich's) at the mall is now in direct competition with the Macy's (former Davison's) at Northlake, and ultimately only one of those stores will survive. Considering that previously dated and dumpy Macy's at Northlake has just been renovated and the old Rich's at North DeKalb has not, it is a bad sign. Only one of these two stores will ultimately survive since they are so close, and only because of the ailing condition of Northlake Mall has this remained in doubt. The last plan for the mall involved building a parking deck and adding a Costco. Neighborhoods around the mall fought the plan, but the Costco was kept. The problem with the reworking of the plan is that it will be the end of the center as an enclosed mall.

The Food Court makes up the west court of the mall. The first photo is approaching it from the side and the second features the huge domed skylight over the main seating area. The last is looking back from the food court to the west (rear) entrance. Note the Applebee's on the left. This is approximately where the original Woolworth's was located.

2009 looks to be approaching the end of the line for North Dekalb after nearly 45 years of business. The redevelopment plan will become a cluster of big box stores traversed by a new street cutting right through the existing mall corridor. The Rich's/Macy's and the remaining big boxes will be retained in the new center, but what remains will likely all be extensively renovated until it is unrecognizable, including Rich's. The webmaster went back and took much more extensive photos of the mall as it looks to be suddenly dying compared to last visit when the mall was still quite vibrant. The Rich's, however, seemed busy as ever, so perhaps maybe the reason that North Dekalb has lasted as long as it has will be allowed to stay.

First photo is view of the north court followed by photos of the north wing to Burlington Coat Factory (former Mervyn's) and northeast wing to parking lot (Ross comes off of this wing as well).

This photo is looking from east court (at the clock) to north court.

And now for a look back in time to late 2004 and early 2005 at Rich's just prior to the changeover:

Rich's mall entrance prior to the changeover.

Two views of the south entrance to Rich's. This was the best preserved part of the original facade. Note the letters mounted on poles!

Rich's north entrance falls short of original, but luckily the green signs were retained in the 1986 renovation. Note that the display windows next to the door were covered up as well as the original arched awning. That is still visible underneath the ugly stucco cover.

The east side features two entrances. The one-story wing entrance was completely original. The second photo focuses more on it.

The last daytime shot of Rich's focuses on the auto center. It, too, was completely original from 1965.

Now for some night shots:

Rich's southeast entrance at night. Note the lightbulbs under the arch.

Rich's east entrance at night. The lower sign is in better shape because it is newer: note the forementioned stucco awning.

One more look at the south entrance: this time at night. This is my favorite angle of the store. The Macy's sign that is here now is in a big white box in lieu of these poles.

* Original post dated July 2, 2006 *

Rich's at Gwinnett Place Mall

The guys at Labelscar saved me the trouble on having to go back to Gwinnett Place again. In 2006 I was working during the summer while in college as a driver. The car I was driving wasn't in the best repair, and the car quit on me while there. While it turned out to be something that I overlooked as a result of their poor maintenance, I managed to find myself stranded at the mall for several hours. I pretty much visited every angle of the mall, but failed in that opportunity to photograph it since I obviously wasn't there for pleasure. My lack of mechanical abilities didn't bode well for that job, either.

On the first photo, sign crews begin removal of one of the signs near the west entrance. The second photo shows another side-angle view of the south entrance.

For those in Atlanta, everyone knows that Gwinnett Place has seen its better days. The traffic around the mall is more chaotic than anywhere in the entire city, and traffic jams getting onto Pleasant Hill Road from I-85 (ironically named road the mall is on) will leave you sitting for a half-hour. The scene around the mall is also my least favorite, too. The area around the mall is disected by huge high voltage lines, which makes the place seem very ugly and makes the fact it is nothing but sprawl city stand out even more.

Photos of the mall entrance. The top photo is of the first floor with more visible backlighting. The second photo was an attempt at a shot of both floors simultaneously. The last is a view from the second floor.

However, before the 2006 incident I still braved the area traffic to come and photograph one of the very last of the Rich's stores to still be flanked with the Rich's logo during the first couple months of 2005. For those of you who know this store, this is the unique Rich's store completely covered in black glass that today leaves a very obvious labelscar from when it was Rich's. The Macy's that is there now was previously in the old Davison's store, now being renovated for an Asian discount/department store known as Super M Mart. When I took those pics in 2005 and 2006, the store was still known as Rich's-Macy's.

Night shots of the sign next to the dark glass exterior. Note the street lights reflecting on the side of the building. I wish I had a better camera when those were taken.

More exterior shots of the Rich's in the daytime with greater emphasis on the sign in the first shot.

The Rich's pics here include outside and mall entrance photos. While the outside is amazing, the inside mall entrance is less impressive. I have also included pics of the Rich's Furniture Store on the outlot.

The Rich's Furniture Showroom is located on an outlot close to the Sears: nowhere near the Rich's itself. It was very obviously built later.

Target at Lenox Marketplace

Today is my third year anniversary of Georgia Retail Memories! While the new name for the blog will be introduced in the next month (you can still offer your suggestions beforehand), I thought I'd show you something I thought was pretty unique by today's standards...a two-story Target in Atlanta!

Night shot of two-story Target from second level of parking deck.

This Target anchors Lenox Marketplace, located across from Phipps Plaza and near Lenox Square. Because of the enormous cost and lack of available land in Buckhead throughout the past two decades, most new developments have been built upwards instead of outwards. Not far from this development are many new highrises: mostly built around the intersection of Peachtree Road (SR 141) and Piedmont Rd (SR 237) just to the south. I am sure to longtime residents of Atlanta how apparent it is that very little of old Buckhead is left. Most of this demolition has taken place in the last decade.

Parking deck entrance to Target. Target is the only store in the complex accessable from the bottom level of the deck.

Built in 1999, the shopping complex is located at the southwestern corner of Peachtree and Wieuca Roads. The center features a three-story Dick's (originally Galyan's), two-story Target, a Publix, Staples and Filene's Basement. A now-closed Dekor once flanked the shopping center, and the center is completely connected by a multi-story parking deck in the center accessable from Wieuca Road.

Approaching the two-sided elevator and escalators.

Most retail history type blogs (including mine at times) are gloom and doom about the good old days of retail, but we all must have to admit that the major draw of many of these older shopping centers is by and large the period decor and memories attached to them. While many places of that era had pretty fascinating layouts, many also were pretty standard and at the time even somewhat depressing. Think of the dumpiest 70's malls you've visited still in operation or a typical strip mall built in the 80's and 90's. People in the day saw the construction as cheap and ugly while those of us much younger are more sentimental, yet even the older crowd is starting to miss those places today.

That's what is so interesting about these infill developments in cities: these are the places you discover interesting shopping centers that are not old but actually very new. Think of Atlantic Station: an outdoor mall built on top of an enormous parking deck with stuff you'd never find in a mall. Five stories of escalators in the Dillard's and escalators coming out of strange places. Remember it wasn't so long ago that retail was fleeing the cities, and most of us have not recovered fully from the realization that the wonderland downtown department stores are gone, so this is a start.

These, however, are not ordinary escalators. They have a twist. Note that this is a CART escalator. I pulled a cart onto the cart escalator here for a demonstration.

While this would be an oversized strip mall in a place like Canton (e.g. Canton Marketplace), this is built up in a very interesting fashion such that it is one of the oft-overlooked interesting places of today. In fact, I overall believe architecture really took a turn from the better from 1998 on from the pink stucco horrors of the early 90's. Some of us have almost been blindsided by the reality that architecture has improved dramatically from even a decade ago, and is quite fascinating to look at these days much in the same way the art deco and bold color schemes of the 60's and 70's were fascinating in that time.

The top of the escalator has the look and feel more of a 70's department store than a typical Target. The distinguishing overhead directory of departments kind of gives it away, though. Now what I would give to see a three-story Super Target!!!

With the increasingly desperate situation in the nation and world around us, those of us remembering the places of our childhood in the 70's and 80's will also look back in awe at these later monuments to American prosperity as well when we were teenagers and in our college years. The only difference is that we will have more successfully preserved today vs. yesterday when documenting these places was not so commonplace without a medium like the internet. Enjoy these pics of this unique Target store, and thanks to all who visit and contribute to my site who appreciate retail history from a Southern perspective.

Three Star Mall: McMinnville, TN

In January, a wrong turn in the Cumberland Plateau out of Altamont led me to McMinnville. While there, I was rather hungry and looking for some place to eat. While driving back from the town going east back to Hwy. 111, I stumbled upon Three Star Mall. There was no way I could resist visiting since I was there, but I was there at night and knew I would eventually have to come back to get more pics. I finally did so in July.

Two types of entrances grace the mall. The one without the three stars, representing the three stars of the Tennessee flag, appears to be original, while the other appears to be from modifications in 2002. The overview of the mall is rather unattractive and imbalanced from the outside.

In the past I have heard about this mall from a post on deadmalls.com. It seems that person that posted there was the only one that actually knew it existed. Indeed like most Tennessee malls, it is difficult to find information on it beyond the mall's own website. What is also interesting is that the mall has a siteplan available online. This siteplan pretty much explains how the mall is laid out better than can be described. This is also the only mall map available. None were posted in the mall.

Three-Star Mall today is anchored by JCPenney and Rose's with an attached Sally Beauty Supply, Dollar Tree and Kroger not accessable from the mall. However, those three attached tenants still share the same parking lot, and they are attached on the other side of the Penney's. The mall has a rear entrance, but nothing else is accessable from the back. Both Penney's and Rose's open from the front and into the mall, but nowhere else. In fact, Rose's anchoring a mall today is very, very unusual. It was once much more common in the 1970's and 1980's, but Rose's closed most of their mall-based locations. I understand at one time Kmart anchored the mall, but I do not see from the current plan how this was possible. The Rose's appears to be original and nothing on the mall inside and out looks to have been built any later than the late 1980's. Possibly the Kroger location was once a Kmart? Maybe Rose's took over the Kmart and renovated it to their standards?

The anchors of the mall are shown here including Rose's, JCPenney and Kroger as well as Three Star Cinema adjacent to Kroger on an outlot. The Kroger does not connect to the mall, but is instead divided from Penney's by front-facing tenants Dollar Tree and Sally Beauty Supply, both of which do not have any mall access but share the same overall structure.

The mall itself is one of the most tiny malls I have ever encountered aside from even smaller Northgate in Tullahoma. The layout is basically an offset dumbell shape in lieu of a straight shot, giving a bit of definition to it. Goody's once anchored the mall as part of the inline tenants before bankruptcy in early 2009, and the Goody's location literally filled a quarter of the mall space, which should tell you how small it is. The Goody's was located on the upper right portion of the pdf on the backside of the mall.

Entering the Rose's entrance (to the left), then views of Rose's closer in and further out. Note here the detail of the ceilings. The vacant store with the wood paneling in the third photo is a mystery. Perhaps this was a photo finishing lab prior to the digital photography used to take photos of this mall. RIP Kodachrome.

Despite its small size, Three Star Mall is not the typical dumpy mall that tiny malls usually are. Instead of tiled ceilings with cheap looking skylights and terrazzo floors, the mall is quite beautiful inside with elevated stained wood ceilings with lots of skylights and angles. Throughout the mall are planters surrounded by blue-gray tiles. The mall is carpeted with well-maintained gray carpet. The store fronts compliment or match the design of the roofline. The design is attractive enough that the only thing that needs changing is the carpet to more contemporary tiling, and tiles around the planters need to better match the neat looking ceilings. Also, a fountain in center court would also be nice as well. Still, I was quite amazed a mall this small looked this good, and judging by the design it was probably built between 1979 and 1983.

Photos as follows: looking toward center court with J's Restaurant on the left, J's Restaurant on the right looking towards main entrance, close-up of main entrance corridor, detail of skylights in center court and looking towards rear entrance with former Goody's on right.

The outside of the mall, however, does no justice for the mall. It is guessed this was the part renovated in 2002, because the big stucco three star design over the mall entrances definitely does not look like anything from the 80's. In fact, on the outside it looks like a rather ugly strip mall, and it is actually somewhat difficult to tell a mall is actually there. Unlike most JCPenney locations, it is so blended with the mall and strip it looks like a tenant on the outside instead of an anchor. I tend to think the mall would be helped a lot by moving Sally and Dollar Tree into the mall and tearing the existing buildings they are in down to make JCPenney stand out more and to make it look more like a real mall. JCPenney could then have a side entrance, and the rear of the mall would become more accessable for such things as possible expansion.

Looking toward Penney's from center court. The next photos look back from Penney's at the inline tenants. The stores to the left are alive and well while Goody's to the right left a big hole needing to be filled (preferably with Dollar Tree and Sally, honestly).

Of course, the fact that McMinnville even has a mall is amazing considering this is not a very large city by any definition. McMinnville is nowhere near an interstate, and the area surrounding McMinnville is very rural. It was not lost on the original developers that the mall needed to be very small for a small town, and the local economy does appear a bit dubious considering the dead Jack In The Box and Ryan's down the street on the US 70S by-pass. Beyond that, the nearest mall in Cookeville is currently dead awaiting demolition for redevelopment into a strip mall.

Entering Penney's court, note the incredibly attractive roofline and store entrance. The second photo looks back at the skylight. The storefront underneath is part of Hibbett Sports. The last photo is looking from the west mall entrance toward Penney's. Note the wasted space on the right approaching Penney's, similar to the entryway for Rose's.

Unfortunately, the fortunes for Three Star Mall do not look very bright. The mall has too many vacancies, and Rose's can hardly be described as a major traffic generator in comparison to a Target or Wal-Mart. At least it does have several chain stores including Radio Shack, Bed Bath & Beyond & Cato, and lets hope they stay there! With its very front-facing layout, the conversion to a regular strip mall is unfortunately far more likely than continued function as an enclosed mall. Nevertheless, this mall was a treat and a really rare find this day and age. It was one of my favorites in design I have seen anywhere. Of course, with a name like "Three Star", it certainly lends itself to jokes about its quality. Three stars is probably a pretty good measure for it overall, but its cool interior architecture I would definitely give 4 1/2 stars.

The Mall: Huntsville, AL

This video on YouTube is of one of the lost malls of Huntsville, a mall with no real name generally referred to as "The Fountain Mall". The fountain in this video still exists: now located in a traffic circle. Russell Wells first alerted me of this long lost shopping center, but it still lives today in this YouTube video! Also check out a couple pics below.



This description by Evans Criswell on deadmalls.com describes it better than I could:

"The Mall" (the actual name of it) opened on March 24,1966 at 10:00 AM at the northwest corner of Memorial Parkway (US 231 and 431) and University Drive (US 72 west). It had Loveman's (which actually opened March 4, 1966) and JCPenney as its original anchors, and was a 425000 square-foot facility. Loveman's was the fourth store in the chain at the time, with locations in Birmingham, Bessemer, and Montgomery, AL. Loveman's was built with escalator wells and expansion to 2 stories in mind, but that expansion never occurred. The 126000 square foot JCPenney was the first in Alabama to have a catalog sales desk and contained a snack shop that could handle 40 customers. Both JCPenney and Loveman's had auto centers.

What is left of the fountain in The Mall today is in the middle of a traffic circle

A movie theater, the Alabama Theatre, built by the Martin chain (based in Columbus, GA), was actually the first business to open at the mall site as an outparcel on January 21, 1966 with "My Fair Lady" (in Super Panavision 70) as their first movie. The theatre's decorations were tangerine and gold and Griggs push-back chairs were used. The theatre was made into a twin cinema, completed on March 20, 1981 with "Cheaper To Keep Her" and "The Final Conflict" shown that night. The theater's last day of business as a regular movie theatre seems to be July 25, 1985. It reopened briefly as the "Alabama Pitcher Show" on January 29, 1986 with beer, wine, and food being sold in addition to movies being shown. On March 9, 1988, a "closed for remodeling" as was placed in the paper, and I believe that was the end of that theater's use. The mall's name was somewhat problematic, especially after other malls opened, so "The Mall" had the nicknames "The Loveman's Mall", "The Penney's Mall", and was also called the "Four Balls Mall" by some because at each entrance were posts with lighted spheres at the top. The Mall's sign also had that feature. Unlike most enclosed malls, many of the inline stores had doors to the outside, giving the front of the mall as "strip mall" appearance. The first time I saw it driving my on Memorial Parkway on March 3, 1988, I didn't think it was an enclosed mall. The JCPenney sign wasn't the current JCPenney logo, but the older 60's style logo that just said "Penney's" that was kept until the place was demolished.

1967 image of fountain with the actual logo (Russell Wells: photo)

This was the main mall in Huntsville until it got competition when the Parkway City shopping center was enclosed around 1975 after being damaged by the 1974 tornadoes. The two malls did well together since they had different anchor stores (Montgomery Ward, Pizitz, and Parisian were at Parkway City). The Loveman's closed in either 1980 or 1981 and their stock was bought out by The Mary Shoppe. However, the largest blow to the mall occurred when the two-level Madison Square Mall opened out west on US 72 at Rideout Road in 1984. "The Mall" was by far the most seriously affected and it went down very quickly. By the time I'd moved to Huntsville in 1988, the Loveman's space was half-occupied by Toys R Us, and the rest of it was soon to be a Books-a-Million. The JCPenney closed in mid-to-late 1988. The mall already had many empty stores then.

Russell Wells created this amusing interpretation of what the sign on US 431 looked like for The Mall. I wonder if all doubleknit polyester was on sale at Penney's that day.

In the early 1990s, a good section of the southwestern internal part of the mall was being used my Calhoun Community College (called the "mall-ege" by many students), which drew enough people into the place for a few places to be open. After that moved out, there wasn't much going on. Art some point, Toys R Us and Books-a-Million closed off their entrances to the mall, and the mall interior hung on in that dead state until around 1998 when the mall was demolished (along with the Alabama Theatre) and replaced by a new development called "The Fountain" later on. "The Fountain" got its name because in the center court of the mall was a fountain that was preserved and placed in a traffic roundabout at the new development.

For many years before its demolition, I'd occasionally go in that mall to look at all of the stores and the label scars. Many stores were vacated, leaving their old signs up for years, or if removed, were not repainted to hide the scars from the signs. The mall was a bit spooky at times, since I'd often be the only one around, except for maybe a senior citizen or two using the place to walk for exercise. I'd try to imagine how the mall would have been if I could have seen it in its original late 60s and 1970s glory. It was a relatively dark place.

The only thing left of the original mall today in 2008 is the old Loveman's building, which still houses the Toys R Us and Books-a-Million! A Home Depot was built right behind it, taking most of the space formerly occupied by the mall, and a Costco was added to the north. A Bennigan's and Zaxby's opened facing Memorial Parkway, and the Bennigan's is no longer open, and became Beauregard's. The theatre was demolished along with the rest of the mall before the new development took place. In the new development, there is a small traffic circle with the fountain from the original mall in the center.

Bry-Man's Plaza

Bry-Man's plaza is a classic-era strip mall in Dalton located at the intersection of Walnut Ave (SR 52) and Thornton Ave (Old US 41). As the first major center to replace downtown, time has surpassed this shopping center overall with newer and better strip malls located across the city, but none have quite the charm as this strip that has been twice renovated since it was built.


While I have no knowledge of its history beyond passing by it as a child, this piece from "krogerclerk" on Groceteria dated November 5, 2005 looks to shed some light on it:

"Dalton, Ga.'s first large shopping center, Bry-Man's Plaza had both Colonial and Winn-Dixie on opposite ends of the center. Colonial became Big Star briefly in the early 1970's, and relocated in the mid-70's next to a nearby Kmart, only to close in 1981 when Grand Union downsized the chain. Winn-Dixie relocated to Bry-Man's Plaza South which was constructed in 1979 until relocating into a Winn-Dixie MarketPlace in 1994, Office Depot now occupies this site. The original Winn-Dixie has been subdivided and Jewel T was a short lived occupant in the early 80's, and is now a Tuesday Morning. The Colonial space was shortly a Western Auto and since subdivided. The construction date of the original Bry-Man's Plaza was late-50's-early-60's, with me leaning to 1961 or 62."


Another article dated March 7, 2009 by Jimmy Espy from "The Daily Citizen" also mentions Bry-Man's plaza:

"Jamie also recalls his glory days at Bry-Man’s Plaza, when a Saturday afternoon with buddies consisted of too many hours blasting Space Invaders at Funway, scarfing pizza at Godfather’s and slurping ice cream at Kay’s Kastle for dessert."

View of the main part of the strip with the enclosed mall portion entrance

In all, this was a pretty significant classic strip mall. Other tenants that have appeared and disappeared there include JCPenney and Dunaway Drugs. I am still curious after all these years if there was ever actually a store called "Bry-Man's", which is part of what got me interested in the center. What also interested me were the mall portions of this shopping center, which were usually very small and generally found only on the 1950's-era shopping centers. Town & Country north of Atlanta and Five Points West north of Birmingham both had mall portions. The Five Points West mall portion was the most substantial with a now long-abandoned Pizitz store hidden behind it.

A close-up look at two store fronts reveals classic architecture typical of strip malls of older vintage.

According to this information, the date is pretty close to the construction of most of the first strip malls loaded with grocery stores and mall-like tenants. A Woolworth, Newberry's or McCrory's was very likely in this strip and a sit-down restaurant or cafeteria flanked the shopping center somewhere as well. I remember the shopping center when it had its most 1970's appearance, and 1979 sounds correct judging by the design. The former design featured the diagonal cut cedar siding wildly popular in the era, which was when the shopping center added its second phase across the street (not pictured). This is also most likely when the two mall portions were added to the strip. According to the quote above, 1994 also sounds right for the renovation to the modern bleached look. I recall it being renovated in the 1990's, but did not remember when that actually happened.

The enclosed mall portion looks to have not had any real stores of any kind in years other than a second interior entrance for O'Henry's Restaurant. This mall portion looks to have been added in the 70's, and today is primarily mall management offices. The visible back door is nothing more than that, opening directly onto W Franklin St.

The mall portions of Bry-Man's plaza are two-fold. The first is an enclosed mall portion that at its peak contained maybe 6 stores and a back entrance onto W Franklin St. This enclosed corridor appears to be primarily used by mall management. The second is an open-air corridor with ten stores ending at a ledge overlooking S Hamilton St and a disconnected former Kuhn's Big K store. Bry-Man's Plaza South has no mall portion. It is completely a strip mall with an Office Depot located in the former Winn-Dixie and has remained a traditional strip mall longer than the original center. In that, the original center today has no major anchor tenants and is made up of mostly small locally-owned shops and restaurants.

The open-air mall portion is far more viable with attractive planters and a full host of small businesses. The open-air portion ends at a ledge overlooking S Hamilton St and a thrift store that was once Kuhn's Big K.

While Bry-Man's plaza has seen better days, it is still a really interesting complex. Personally, I wish they would utilize those mall portions as actual malls, expanding those corridors into actual anchors. The old Big K (now a thrift store) could be torn down and replaced with a department store and parking deck connected by a catwalk. W Franklin St could be closed and a Target built into the back of it with that mall portion actually going straight into it. A lifestyle wing would be built into the back, connecting the Target and hiding the backside of the original strip. Instead of tearing up vacant land and tearing down mountains, a 21st century Bry-Man's plaza updated to a semi-mall could be a fascinating and incredible project. Of course, while I'm still dreaming I hope you enjoy this gallery featuring one of the last surviving early strip malls.

This is the view of the Big K how it looks today from the ledge. The Big K store was vacant at last visit and had the original dark awnings similar to the early 80's Wal-Marts. Wal-Mart bought the Big K chain in 1981.

Renaming "Georgia Retail Memories"

Realizing this blog has stretched beyond a focus of exclusively Georgia, I am mulling renaming the blog. I have a couple ideas, one of those is borrowed from "Caldor Rainbow" as "Richway Sunrise". In case you've noticed, I'm pretty crazy about Richway LOL. Before I do this, though, I'd love it if you'd post some ideas here! The sooner you give me your suggestions the sooner I can rename this, because I think that GRM does not properly describe the blog anymore and I think it's time to retire the name after two years. The new name will be announced in a week and will be e-mailed to all those who link to my site.

New goodies!

Along with new posts, I am in the process of updating existing posts with new photos and corrected descriptions. With that, keep on the lookout for new photos for the following:

* North DeKalb Mall. I took many new and better photos of the mall. I will also provide larger images of the Rich's.

* Lakeshore Mall. A complete photoset now available (6/20) in addition to previously published content.

* Rich's Memoirs. Two exclusive photos will be featured of the downtown store from 1962. These never-before seen photos come from Allen Scott and will be available today!

* Lenox Square. Two exclusive photos will be featured of Lenox Square, also from 1962. One of the photos shows the outside of the Davison's store complete with the sign. These are also never-before seen from Allen Scott and will also be available today!

Walnut Square Mall

Five years after Riverbend Mall became the first mall in Northwest Georgia, Walnut Square opened on July 23, 1980 (from Wikipedia) bringing Dalton its first and only enclosed mall. Prior to the construction of Walnut Square, most business was in or near downtown. Bry-Man's Plaza was the major strip mall for the city located within a few blocks of the major downtown department stores. Walnut Square is in a rather odd location. It is nowhere near I-75, basically east of downtown on Walnut Ave (SR 52). It is not located near the intersection of any other highways, but is within a couple miles of the east by-pass, completed almost 20 years after the mall first opened. With that, the Dalton By-Pass (US 41) has no positive impact on the mall. In all, this suggests that Walnut Square is largely a local affair not meant to attract customers outside of its original buying area. However, the most likely reason for its location probably relates to the mountainous terrain near I-75 where building a large shopping mall would have been difficult and costly.

Four photos of the main concourse. The third is in front of the Belk Home & Kids (former Loveman's) and the last is in front of Penney's

Walnut Square is one of the few remaining malls to have been little modified since it opened. While there have been some changes of anchors, the overall mall concourse still features the original terrazzo floors, original overall design and original store fronts on long-time businesses: definitely NOT a bad thing in a successful mall in otherwise good repair. In fact, the only place in the mall that has been updated is the flooring in the court areas and the mall entrances outside, which strongly resemble those at Georgia Square (CBL owns both malls). Despite all of this, the mall is still successful even with a desperately ailing local economy.

Northeast entrance and just inside the northeast entrance.

Dalton, the carpet capital of the world, is struggling with a declining housing market; vastly reduced demand for carpet; gasping industrial sector and an overall bad economy. The result is Dalton having the highest unemployment rate in the state and one of the highest in the country at the moment. With that, a few store vacancies vs. a dead mall is impressive and I was glad to see it was not in worse shape since my previous visit in 2006.

Note the original signage here. The chinese restaurant on the right still has diagonal wood treatment and is obviously original. In the background is an original Sbarro sign not seen anywhere else. Mall owners, please do not ever change these signs!

The CVS pharmacy here was originally a Revco. Note that the CVS has its very own entrance, allowing the store to operate outside of regular mall hours.

A few malls still have the classic Foot Locker sign with the diagonal wood trim. Walnut Square is one of those.

When Walnut Square opened, it had anchors Belk, Sears and Loveman's along with a movie theater. According to Wikipedia, JCPenney moved to a new store in the mall later in 1981 and Goody's came along in 1990. The last now leaves a vacancy in the rear of the mall since Goody's went bankrupt in 2009. Loveman's of Chattanooga was acquired by Proffitt's in 1986 before becoming a second Belk store when Belk bought up the entire Proffitt's chain in 2006. Also, the movie theater left the mall in 2007 or 2008 and now resides in the back of the mall on an outlot. The first Belk store was a continuation of defunct Belk Gallant, which was once downtown along with Loveman's, Sears and JCPenney.

All the mall entrances, except Goody's including Belk, Penney's, Loveman's and Sears. The Penney's was the most original store in the mall. It even has the original brown carpet from 1980 before it came back into style again. A photo of the sealed Goody's mall entrance and Sbarro will be done in another trip soon.

Recently, a planned lifestyle center looked to pose a threat to Walnut Square. With most of the trade area around I-75, it is not surprising that such a proposal would be introduced, so with that, the economy may actually be helping the mall. Since this will likely not happen now for awhile, Walnut Square remains successful in its position as one of the outpost shopping malls of Chattanooga and as Dalton's very own major shopping mall.

Loveman's today and Loveman's in 2005 as Proffitt's. This is the only photo I have of the store as a Proffitt's.

Outside photos of Goody's, Penney's, Sears and Belk

Outside entrance to now-closed McDonald's. A labelscar is visible for it as well as Goody's. The McDonald's is now a pet store, but it still has the same floor as McDonald's. Walnut Square never had a food court. All restaurants are scattered through the mall as was once common.

Cookeville Mall: Cookeville, TN

Cookeville Mall at over 47,000 square feet is one of several tiny malls located in small cities throughout Tennessee. Sadly, Cookeville Mall is near closure and probable demolition since the last time I saw it in 2005. In 2005, the mall was about half full and featured anchors JCPenney and Peeble's. Today, ONLY JCPenney remains. All other stores have either left or were forced out due to a rumored redevelopment plan that might not have been necessary if the mall had ever been renovated, expanded or upgraded in its entire history. JCPenney closed its mall entrance, and the mall was completely void of any stores or life but was still open when I visited four years after last seeing it.

Center court is a classic 1970's-style with planters, steps and linoleum tile treatments.

Information on Cookeville Mall is strangely non-existant, not even in the community of retail history fans. There is no Wikipedia page, photo streams or mention on any of the other sites, so I am featuring this for the very first time. It is impossible to tell exactly when it was built, but by design it was built probably between 1975 and 1980. From what I understand, the mall was originally anchored with the same JCPenney on the west end and had a Harvey's on the east end. Harvey's was sold to Peeble's in 1988, which is why the last anchor there was a Peeble's. The mall also apparently had a now long-closed Cracker Barrel on the south end of the mall that ended up being a very locally run clothing store at the last. Having Cracker Barrel as an anchor makes sense considering the next city over is Lebanon: headquarters of the company.

Harvey's/Peeble's mall entrance.

Harvey's south entrance outside with mall entrance in background.

Looking inside empty Harvey's from mall entrance.

Another look inside Harvey's toward the south entrance.

The hold-out of JCPenney on an otherwise deserted mall is a real fluke. Unless the mall has a very solid redevelopment plan, it is unlikely that JCPenney will want to remain on a decaying piece of real estate no matter HOW appealing the terms. JCPenney historically tends to flee malls before they die instead of holding out to the bitter end like Sears. Nevertheless, it looks to me that the mall pretty much emptied out all at once in 2008. The mall was not in disrepair when I visited, and while the air conditioning appeared to be down or off, I did not detect any foul odors or any major decay other than a few signs of roof leaks.

Penney's mall entrance - sealed off.

Most of the stores that left Cookeville Mall did not leave for another mall...or even a lifestyle center! The majority of the malls tenants instead left for a two-phase strip mall known as Jackson Plaza, which oddly is anchored with mall tenants. The Peeble's as well as most mall stores bolted for Jackson Plaza, which is also anchored by Sears, Belk and Food Lion. The center also had a Goody's, which leaves a very clear vacancy that JCPenney could very easily fill.

Most stores - including Maurice's - left for loaded strip mall Jackson Plaza.

The funny thing, though, about Jackson Plaza is that unlike Cookeville Mall, it is quite far from I-40 or any freeway. The only thing it has to offer, quite frankly, is that it is a "newer" side of town. At this, Cookeville Mall still has the advantage of a high visibility location, and a proper redevelopment could reverse its fortunes completely. In fact, it is rather peculiar how none of this development steered towards the area where I-40 and TN 111 (an eventual future interstate) crosses. Furthermore, the condition of Cookeville Mall in my opinion is sheer marketing failure, and it did well to last as long as it did considering the lack of interest by the mall's owners of keeping it attractive and competitive. It is hoped that Penney's hangs on and the center really does sprout the city's first Target and what comes is better than what they have had.

Looking at the old Cracker Barrel: the ONLY one I've ever known attached to a mall. The former mall entrance for this is somewhere near the Chuck-E-Cheese looking entrance below.

The aboved mentioned mirrored mall entrance off of center court close to where Cracker Barrel once entered the mall. Perhaps this was the entrance prior to the subdividing of the restaurant.

Mall entrance corridor closest to Penney's.

North entrance at center court. The store on the left looks like a restaurant.

Winding mall corridor approaching Harvey's.

Penney's outside entrances north and south, respectively. Note the ambulance in front of the north entrance. Ironic?

More views of center court. The last photo is facing the Penney's.