Lenox Square Mall
Atlanta, Georgia - circa 1962
Aerial view of the utter swankiness that was, Lenox Square, in the sixties.
The large anchor store in front on the left, is Davison's (now Macy's) next to a Colonial supermarket on the right (no longer there). The large anchor in the back right corner, is Rich's department store (now Bloomingdale's I believe). Look closely and you can also see the upper level parking area built onto the left side of Davison's.Thanks very much to my man, Dennis Creech, for putting together the cool vintage era Lenox Square map above, which shows the major anchors and overall layout circa 1959, when it first opened.
History: 1959 - present
Current website: here
Current aerial view
Info from Wikipedia
Previous entries: 1, 2, 3
posted by Keith @ 10/11/2006
15 Comments:
I love it when malls have weird layouts. It adds to the mystique.
Close, Keith...
The Davison's became macy*s and then became Bloomingdale's after Rich's became (as I resist the urge to vomit) Rich's-macy*s and then finally macy*s.
I would kill to see a closer photo of Davison's. I never knew it had such an...interesting...exterior. It definitely looks nothing close to that anymore.
Great stuff!
Matt said what I was gonna say.
What a novel concept: a supermarket.
This mall seriously expanded... 4 levels now? Sheesh. I just saw it in a movie called "Southern Comfort" the other day. Looks the place to be in Atlanta.
Scott
Matt: Thanks for the notes. But now I'm confused. I was going by what I'm seeing on the old directory map Dennis sent me, and comparing it to the current store directory map on Lenox's website. Where Rich's was, they now show as Bloomingdale's. And the original Davison's they have as macy*s. Thought I juggled it all correctly according to what I was seeing.
Ugh, I'm gonna go back to just posting the groovy photos and leave all the complex layout history stuff to you guys to hash out in the comments (like I used to). :D
I just don't have time to make a study of all that stuff every time I make a post, nor do I really care to--the visuals are the whole point of this blog anyway. Figuring out the layouts and store histories just gives me headaches every time, lol.
Keith:
Flip the Simon map 180 degrees and it will match Dennis'...amazingly enough, the anchors are in a sort of mirror-image of each other...just at the corners!
It took me forever to get the layout of Lenox correct in my mind...to this day I've never explored all of it. My mind used to play tricks on me, thinking that coming out of Rich's I was at the *end* of a corridor (like most anchor spots at a dumbbell mall), when actually it's on the side just a smidgen inwards.
Ever since the downtown Rich's closed, Lenox has -- at least from my observations -- taken over that mystique. It is a neat place to just soak up some atmosphere. I do wonder, though, if macy*s is planning (or has already done -- I haven't been there in a while) renovations to the exterior. Then again, it's covered on most sides by parking decks, so who would notice?
Can't blame you for being confused. It IS confusing. Davison's was consumed by Macy's, which 20 years later jumped across the mall and ate Rich's. The shell of the devoured Davison's was brought back to life as Bloomingdale's :) I sure do miss Rich's, though :(
Davison's now has a very 70's marble exterior that covered up that original brick. What's curious is that I don't see a Davison's sign anywhere on that building unlike the Rich's with signs on top of the store and over the entrance early on.
Rich's-Macy*s was the ultimate insult to native Atlantans, btw. As one guy put it, it was like Ford-Chevy. They pitched such a fit about Marshall Fields...I wish they had here, but everybody knew it was a shell of its former self...we lost our downtown store in 1991. I don't think I'll ever quit being bitter about how Federated destroyed our store no matter what the "market trends" are...there's a REASON department stores are dying.
Believe it or not, it once had as glorious of a history as Marshall Fields, but it fell out of the family too soon. Rich's was practically reverenced until the end of the 1980's. I saw the downtown store once in 1985 with my kindergarten class...we went to see the Great Tree and ride the Pink Pig located on the glass bridge.
All department stores had the elegance, class and histories of Marshall Field's. Too bad no one nowadays seems to emphasize the importance of elegance.
This '62 shot is pretty cool, Keith. I can make out more detail in this photo than in any of the other Lenox Square aerial photos I've seen.
I can understand why you guys are kind of confused by the layout at Lenox....and the changes in anchor stores over the years. Suffice to say, it went like this;
Anchor Store # 1 (facing Peachtree Road): Rich's, Rich's-Macy's, Macy's
Anchor store # 2 (facing East Paces Ferry Road): Davison's, Macy's, Bloomingdale's
The mall has been remodeled and has morphed so much over the years, that it may, indeed, be confusing to keep your bearings when navigating it.
I am told that it is being expanded (again) as we speak here. The single level, Neiman Marcus corridor is being double-decked. With this renovation, I think that they might have run out of places to build onto the mall....
Maybe not.
Cheers,
Dennis
North Georgia
That Davison's (now Bloomingdale's) is, as mentioned, completely hidden behind massive parking decks. Only when in one or from above would you even find it. Bloomingdale's signs are seen on the walls of the deck because of this. It is a cool store however. Any one remember when davison's opened "The Cellar" like the Herald Square Macy's?
BTW if one visits Lenox and can get up into either the JW Marriott or the adjoining office building now on the southeast corner of the property, one can see that original facade of Davison's behind the feaux marble that was added in the late 70's/early 80's when the store was greatly expanded.
Also, RH Macy himself alludes to Davison's in Atlanta in the original release of Miracle on 34th Street when he tells his cadre of VP's to get a Santa who'll tell it like it is in all "his" stores...among those he mentions is Atlanta. The Davison family had a strategic alliance with RH Macy going way back. For retailers it was a tragedy, but not too surprising when Macy's took over the Davison chain. It was also promised at the time not to drop the Davison's moniker.
So true all the ATL natives comments about Rich's v. Davison's and a bad day at black rock when the downtown stores closed and Macy's desecrated Lenox by killing the Rich's name...
Ernie H. said
I was a bag boy at the Colonial Supermarket ,all the carts had numbers on the front. We give you a matching number and you drive by and pick up you order.I made more money on tips loading the cars than I make in my pay check.
Tues. March 23,2010
Ernie H. did you go to cross keys? I was a bag boy,too! MS
What was the name of the hair salon between Davison's and J P Allens? Anyone remember?
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