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.