Cobb Center Mall/Four Seasons Mall: Smyrna/Fair Oaks, GA

Drawing from grand opening ad showing the front of the store with the open-air mall to the left.

 

A map I made from a 1993 aerial photo.  Please feel free to help me make corrections or additions to this map.  I am not positive of the location of Saul's, and if this was not Saul's where Kessler's was, what was that originally?

Cobb Center Mall was a major childhood haunt and a place that is still of great fascination to me today. I've posted information about the mall on both Wikipedia and Deadmalls.com about the history of the second oldest mall in Georgia, which completely died in early 2004 when the Rich's there was closed for good. The Rich's there was the fourth in the chain in what would be a major suburban expansion during the 1960's and 1970's. The story of the mall will be told here on the best of my memory as well as what others have told me.

Drawing from grand opening ad showing the base of one of the escalators. The escalators seemed to disappear into the wall going up. The pharmacy in the background is very curious: I never remember one at Rich's

What I do know about Cobb Center aside from its opening on August 15, 1963 is that it was originally an open-air mall built around the Rich's. It had upon opening about 50 planned shops in it, opening with about 35 stores including anchors Woolworth's, Saul's department store and a Colonial Stores supermarket. Davis House Restaurant, later Davis Brothers Cafeteria, would open soon after fronting the mall adjacent to Rich's.  Most of the original tenants were originally stores found in downtown Marietta and not chain stores. From the amount of ads in that era, the opening of this mall was a very big deal. It was the first mall in the suburbs outside of Atlanta proper. For the first time, shoppers on the fast-growing northern suburbs were offered an option besides downtown Atlanta or Lenox for better shopping. The problem was, this was the undoing of long-established retail in downtown Marietta.

Looking at the front of the grand Rich's store. The store was built too small for the sheer demand, and was expanded on a one-story addition to the right not long after it was built. The first photo was from November 2003 before it closed and the second was from early 2004.

The early 1970's were the beginning of trouble for Cobb Center. When Cumberland opened in 1973, the mall rushed out to enclose the mall.  The enclosure and renovation was completed on November 15, 1973 including a "wonderfall".  The original Japanese water garden, however, remained outside surrounded by windows.  Grant City, a division of W.T. Grant, would also replace Saul's with a new store at the mall where Saul's had been previously.  After W.T. Grant's liquidated in 1976, Kessler's would replace that location.  Kessler's was a downtown Atlanta store close to Rich's, and this was the only mall anchor they ever had. The enclosed mall was not hugely successful after Cumberland opened, but maintained a modest amount of A-list tenants throughout the 70's and 80's.

View of the east (main) entrance both with detail of the brickwork and up close. Note the similarities to North DeKalb.

Here are the northeast and north entrances along the one story addition. The bakery was located on the sealed off north entrance.

In 1987, Cobb Center was renovated again for it's 25th anniversary with work completed in early 1988. This time, it got the full 80's treatment and some interest in the mall. The long-closed Davis Brothers Cafeteria (originally Davis House Restaurant) reopened as Howard's restaurant. Originally a bar and grill across from the mall, the restaurant became a full line family restaurant and was initially quite successful. It seemed all through the history of the mall that an outdoor area was maintained in the center court that had been a garden area, but my memories of this are vague. It was located at the southwest corner of Rich's next to the Woolworth's where the south wing went off. That south wing had a Turtle's Records and opened outside to the side of the long-closed Colonial store. The renovation also supposedly included a food court, but I never recall seeing one. The renovation also resulted in a new name: Four Seasons Mall, officially "Four Seasons at Cobb Centre".

The northeast and north entrances as they appeared in November 2003 before the signs were removed.

The problem with the 1987-88 renovation was that the mall was in a very bad position. First, it had never been upgraded enough to become a major shopping mall. Had any major anchor been attracted to the mall during the period after 1972, the mall would have been in a better position. The problem was two-fold: the decline of the neighborhood around it and the opening of Town Center at Cobb to the north. At that point, you had two huge beautiful malls with an enormous amount of stores, all the popular department stores and easy access in the best sides of towns competing with an old, smaller mall nowhere near the interstates in a not-so-nice side of town. There was no hope for Cobb Center.

This sign was put on all the doors right after it closed. These may still be there.

During the early 1990's, Cobb Center slowly withered away. Rich's was converted in that time into a clearance store and the mall began to empty out of tenants. Kessler's closed in the early 1990's (the chain folded in 1995) and the mall had maybe 10 stores left in it. Howard's had moved down to Concord Road by then and the mall had maybe 10 stores including Eckerd (in the old Dunaway Drugs), Friedman's Jewelry, Florsheim Shoes and of course dear old Woolworth's. In 1995, the mall was purchased for redevelopment, and that was the end of Cobb Center.

An overview here of the entire Rich's structure with the one-story addition.

By the spring of 1996, the mall was promptly demolished and redeveloped. Unlike most redevelopments, though, the Rich's was strangely retained and converted into part of the strip mall. All entrances except the front two entrances were sealed off and the stores was completely a clearance center by that time. Publix anchored the new center, built precisely across where the original main mall entrance and Howard's was located. A strip mall was also added to the other side of Rich's, concealing its north entrance. The movie theater withered away and closed during that time as well as the neighborhood began to further deteriorate. The new development was sadly named "Cobb Center".

Last but far from least, a couple interior shots of the store. The first is of the main store, while the other is of the one-story wing. The lights were shut out soon after, and the store became a target of vandals.

In 2004, the Rich's finally closed at Cobb Center. It was the second Rich's to close in the entire history of the chain after Belvedere closed in 1986 and it closed at the same time as Century Plaza in Birmingham. Since 2004, the store has sat vacant and deteriorated awaiting redevelopment. A couple years after it was closed, the store was sold and proposals have been outlandish. Wal-Mart, of course, has this banked as a second site if the Belmont Hills redevelopment failed. Since that is apparently a done deal, the latest plan was to convert the Rich's into a private school. After five years of vacancy, I hope something good happens to it. The site is too sad, and a really depressing tribute to one of the earliest and most uniquely designed malls in Atlanta.

* Updated post from July 1, 2006 *

Ellman's

Ellman's was one of a couple catalog merchants in Georgia that once existed in competition to now-defunct Service Merchandise. The other was Segall & Sons, which was more common in central and southern Georgia. Segall & Sons, however, did open a location near Gwinnett Place Mall in the early 1980's. Prior to being bought out in 1985 by Service Merchandise, Ellman's was located in Atlanta and also Charlotte.


Most former Ellman's locations today are either closed or have been demolished. The former Ellman's location near Cumberland Mall was demolished and rebuilt as a Lexus dealership and the former Ellman's near Southlake Mall still sits abandoned with the Service Merchandise sign still on the outside. It should be noted that the logo shown in the ad was red on the exterior sign. The second two photos shown here are of the Southlake store, and fans of Service Merchandise should be pleased to see that the signs were never removed for it.

Lenox Square Mall: Atlanta, GA

Panoramic shot of Rich's and early Lenox Square in the 1960's from the GSU photo collection.

Lenox Square has changed much to keep up with the times, and the area around it has changed even more as the city around it grew taller and taller. It opened in 1959 as the first mall in Georgia. It was open air and had Rich's, Davison's and a Colonial Supermarket as its anchors. It was enclosed in 1972 with the addition of Neiman Marcus. In 1980, the previously open-air court to the rear of the mall was enclosed into a three-level atrium with a food court and access to then-under-construction MARTA. In 1995, the mall received another level between the atrium and the mall entrance next to Rich's. Along with Phipps Plaza, Lenox Square remains part of the most upscale shopping district in Georgia sitting on tony and world-famous Peachtree Street.

Part of Lenox Square does not actually connect to the rest of the mall. A lower level known as the Plaza Level is now exclusively offices. Prior to the enclosing of the mall in 1972, this was actually shopping space with several shops including a Kresge. A mall entrance to Rich's was also down there. It is really not known why the lower level was sealed off.

Compare the Rich's mall entrance in the 1960's to today. What is not shown is the first enclosed incarnation of Rich's mall entrance in the 1970's, different from either of these two images.

People both local and not local are bound to be confused at the anchor shuffle that occurred here and across Atlanta. What gets people so confused these days is how Rich's and Davison's got shuffled there. Here's how it works: the Macy's NOW was Rich's until 2005 and opened as Rich's. The Bloomingdale's there now WAS Macy's and was originally Davison's prior to 1986. Neiman Marcus was added to solidify the mall as an upscale destination and as competition to Phipps, which had opened with upscale anchors never before seen in the city prior in 1968.

Men's store addition added in the 1980's

Rich's mall entrance on lower level in 2005

The north Rich's entrance was near original. The sign on the upper left is much newer, but the sign over the concrete awning is the original sign, replaced with black lettering in lieu of green. The front entrance was obscured by the later addition of the Men's store. Both photos here taken in 2005.

The Rich's at Lenox was not skipped over on my Rich's project, though it was one of the more difficult stores to photograph. It has been expanded much since it first opened and it's actually hard to find the original building as 3/4 of it is surrounded. Hardly beautiful, the Rich's at Lenox was the epitome of 50's bunker-like modern design, but still quite enjoyable to shop in with three floors of merchandise, and the expansion was quite attractive. The Rich's here became the flagship when the downtown store was closed in 1991.

Random photo of Lenox Square taken in August 1962 by Allen Scott. Gotta love those pointy glasses

Here is a very rare angle of Lenox Square featuring the Davison's mall entrance with the actualy Davison's sign! This photo is also from Allen Scott taken August 1962.

The Last Super Kmart in Georgia

Kmart these days has a lot in common with a former discounter that is slowly being forgotten: Zayre. Like Zayre, Kmart was once a leading retailer covering large areas of the country (actually all for Kmart) that fell under poor management and began to decline. Like Zayre, it earned a reputation for being poorly stocked and having a poor selection. Like Zayre, it has earned a reputation as low-class or basically a ghetto store. What is left to be answered is will it disappear in 2008 like Zayre did 20 years earlier in 1988? While Zayre lived on awhile as Ames, it was the big lead weight that eventually sunk everything it landed on...in its case the entire Ames chain. Kmart and Zayre indeed have a lot in common, and time will tell if Kmart sinks Sears the way that Zayre sunk Ames.


What Zayre did not have was supercenters. They did not exist when Zayre was around, but Kmart still has a few. In fact, there is only one left in the entire state of Georgia: Rome. I still have a receipt from the Gainesville location during its going out of business sale back in 2003, so it is a treat to see that one remains. Indeed, the Super Kmart in Rome exists as an anomoly and possibly a prototype in a town where it must compete with two Wal-Mart supercenters. The only ace it does have...Target so far has not shown any interest in this small city in Northwest Georgia. The nearest bullseye is in Cartersville over 20 miles away.


While the Super Kmart in Rome is quite nice, it definitely tends to serve a more diverse clientele than many Romans would prefer to mingle with. It was not always that way, but it did not help when Supercenter #2 opened down on U.S. 411. While the Super Kmart is still in the commerce center of the city, it has a tough time competing. For me, I'm just glad it's there to offer an alternative. It is actually a very clean and nice store inside with quite attractive decor and a decent selection for Kmart. In fact, it is not unlikely this will end up being one of the first Sears Grand stores in Georgia. The Super Kmart also has a service station called K Express in front of the store, and I have fueled up there many times trying to take the edge off of the soaring gas prices.


Just as additional information, the Super Kmart is oddly located right across from what was once Rome's major mall: Riverbend Mall on the site of East Rome High School, which was demolished in the early 1990's for the store.

Photos featured here include Super Kmart in 2006 with its new orange and green theme, photo in 2005 with more Wal-Mart like colors, fading sign on Turner McCall Blvd. (U.S. 27) with a Kroger sign beneath. The Kroger has since moved across the street into the redeveloped Riverbend Mall, now a strip center. The last photo is of the K Express service station in front of the store.

Ansley Mall: Atlanta, GA

Traveling over Georgia, I had honestly believed there were no open-air malls left from the 60's and 70's. I was wrong. Nestled in the Morningside area near Midtown was one of the best preserved specimens of an open-air mall: Ansley Mall. Built in 1968, it is not a mall in the sense of what you typically would call a mall. This little open-air mall features maybe 25 tenants and a Publix grocery store. The Publix was not original to the mall and was built on the site of what had been originally a Big Star. Other major tenants at the mall include CVS Pharmacy (probably a former Revco), Piccadilly Cafeteria (previously Morrison's Cafeteria, next to the Publix), Moe's Southwest Grill, L.A. Fitness (formerly Woolworth's) and a Pet Supermarket. Many of the tenants at the mall have entrances both to the main parking lot and to the mall itself.



When I first saw Ansley Mall on the map, I thought it was just a glorified name for a strip. Au contraire, it is definitely a mall and quite attractive though gaudy with its 80's-style reddish decor. This mall would probably also not be well-known outside of the area beyond those that shop there. I had heard of it, but never knew where it was or what was in it previously. What I do know of Ansley Mall is that it is located at the heart of the gay community in Atlanta, which is a major reason this mall did not fall on hard times like its sister mall near Lakewood.


Regarding its sister mall, this twin known by several names is located off of what was then Stewart Avenue (now Metropolitan Parkway) near Hapeville and is feature in a later post. Unlike Ansley Mall that caters to a slightly upper class crowd, the other mall fell on hard times and is partly vacant with much of the abandoned portion destroyed by a fire several years ago.


Photos include main entryway, part of the mall, lush vegitation at opposite end of mall next to the Piccadilly (pictured on the right), more of the mall with a Moe's Southwest Grill sign overhead and a view of the center court (click on the image for larger size).

Proffitt's

Before becoming Belk, Proffitt's had a good run in Georgia even though it was a department store mostly associated with eastern Tennessee. In Georgia, it pretty much lasted here from 1992 until Belk bought it out in 2005. How it came into Georgia pretty much came as a result of several consolidations.


Proffitt's existed in Georgia in two locations: Dalton and Rome. At both of those locations, Belk was already there as well. In regards to Belk in Rome, it was known as Belk Rhodes while in Dalton it was possibly originally Parks-Belk. Proffitt's, however, had started out as two different stores for each town. In Rome, it was the only Georgia location of the Miller's (Miller Bros.) Department Store, which was centered in Knoxville. In Dalton, it was the Chattanooga-based Loveman's (not to be confused with Loveman's of Alabama).

Proffitt's came first to Dalton in 1988 when the small Loveman's chain was purchased by the expanding Proffitt's, which originated in downtown Maryville, TN. The expansion of Proffitt's was a rather strange phenomenon considerings its origins as a small town department store south of Knoxville. The notion of how it came to trump Miller's was rather strange, but Miller's itself was bought out two years earlier by Pennsylvania-based Hess's.

For a few years, you had Hess's in Rome and Proffitt's in Dalton. Hess's moved from the flood-prone Riverbend Mall to the shiny new Mt. Berry Square in 1991 and only a couple months later it became Proffitt's. That's how there became two locations. Proffitt's by then had gone expansion crazy and had locations in about seven states and bought out Saks Fifth Avenue and McRae's in Alabama. The expansion did not go over well in many areas and the chain began hurting and retracted back in those places.

By 2005, Proffitt's sold out to Belk because of the decline of the chain. Belk was a good fit for all these stores and the small size of most locations made the Belk conversion easy since they could simply expand their departments in two buildings in the same mall. Belk also gained much greater prominence in Tennessee and Alabama, where they had previously had a very limited presence.

Photos include the Proffitt's at Mt. Berry Square Mall in Rome (now Belk Home and Kids) and the Proffitt's at Bradley Square Mall in Cleveland, TN (now Belk).

Columbia/Avondale Mall: Decatur, GA

Georgia Retail Memories was the second site to bring you detailed online information about the then-abandoned Columbia Mall, known in later years as Avondale Mall as well as a few interesting pics not available previously. After my post, a few other people took pics after I did. One person actually managed to get inside to get a few angles I couldn't. Perhaps I should have tipped the security guard that day to get an "inside" tour that had been free only a couple years before I got those pics. "Discovered" abandoned malls tend to become viral on the web these days.


A short version of the history of that center was that the mall was opened in 1964 soon after its anchors were opened. Story is that the anchors were built with just an open area of dirt inbetween which was later filled by the one-story center with only one entrance. The original anchors to the mall were Davison's and Sears and it was the first enclosed mall in Georgia. General decline of the area enhanced by white flight and competition from other malls killed the center and it started faltering in the late 1970's. Sears first left in 1984 with the store serving as a Sears Budget Store for a short while after. Davison's also operated a clearance center in the mall in that time.

In 1985, Columbia Mall was renovated. Following this, the mall was given its new name it would have the remainder of its life: Avondale Mall. Unfortunately, the renovation did absolutely nothing to save the mall. The problem with Columbia Mall was not as much the neighborhood as it was just too close to the other malls and too far from the interstates. Columbia had never fully recovered from the opening of Northlake Mall, and Rich's across the street left Belvedere Plaza on January 15th of the following year as the neighborhood declined just enough to remove justification of having three Rich's stores that close together. Later on, Davison's closed there as a Macy's Clearance store in early 1992. By that time, the mall struggled, reinvented itself and languished until it finally died quietly in December 2001.


With no anchors, the mall struggled the best it could. A 16 screen movie theater was added into the old Davison's. The mall itself was expanded into the old Sears, including a short-lived Goody's. The mall's outside entrances of all of its front facing stores kept the mall viable as a semi-strip mall until the end. Then it sat vacant: until Wal-Mart was interested in the site. Wal-Mart had bought and planned demolition as early as 2004, but the project was delayed due to community opposition being planned on the site of the mall. Local residents saw better uses for the place then another smiley-faced monstrocity that in time would leave something much more unsightly vacant than an empty mall standing as a curious monument to 1960's architecture combined with some 90's uglification.

In spring of 2007, Columbia/Avondale Mall was torn apart with cranes and wrecking balls to be replaced with a forgettable box. County leaders hailed the project as a success, because no community wants to be stuck with a rotting, abandoned mall. While the Wal-Mart was good for the short term revitalization efforts of the area, a discount store is hardly a realistic tool for neighborhood revitalization. Nevertheless, the store was badly needed as the neighborhood had a huge shortage of discount stores as well as other retail. It is hoped that at least the store will have a positive effect on Belvedere Plaza.



The photos here feature the inside of the main mall entrance, Avondale Cinema sign (which opened in the old Davison's), looking inside the old Sears (part of the mall later), overall view with Davison's in the background and lastly the old Sears.