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.

Walnut Square Mall: Dalton, GA

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.

"The Beef People" got Leaner and Meaner: Winn-Dixie Today

Alas we hear today that Winn-Dixie is still yet alive, but at least not in my parts. In fact, today they only exist in five states: Georgia (south of Atlanta), Alabama, Florida, Mississippi and Louisiana. In a recent trip to Anniston, AL, a store was noted in that area off of US 431. Winn-Dixie was once the leading grocery store in North Georgia pretty much from the 1950's to the 1990's. Essentially the Wal-Mart of deep south supermarkets, its range was far and wide from large cities such as Atlanta to smaller towns such as Franklin, NC, pictured here.

These three photos above show a perfectly preserved specimen of a 70's-style Winn-Dixie in Franklin, NC on April 16, 2005. Winn-Dixie completely left North Carolina in 2005.

In the late 1980's, Winn-Dixie started a major upgrade of their stores to the "Marketplace" concept. It was quite showy at first, but encroachment from Publix into most of their markets along with way too many dated-looking stores led to declining traffic at too many of their stores. This led to them suddenly having difficulty competing with the as well as Kroger on the high end and Ingles on the low end. The toughest blow came when Wal-Mart and Target began to sell groceries, making the competition even stiffer. It was just too many players for the once dominant chain without a real niche.


The Marketplace concept obviously worked for us, because throughout the 1990's, it was very convenient and at first a pretty decent store. Unfortunately, this was also one of the first locations to close as the area around it became less profitable and traffic dwindled to none. That store today is now a Goodwill.

The above three pictures are of the Gainesville Winn-Dixie Marketplace in original late 1980's form. This was shortly before it closed in 2005.

Winn-Dixie's greatest trouble was that they catered to the lower-end of grocery customers. While this market is reliable with less competition, they are not shopping for an image or a specialty item...only the lowest prices. Winn-Dixie was basically undersold and squeezed out of many, many markets from the near fatal blow of Wal-Mart and Ingles combined. Winn-Dixie was also strained for another reason, and that was a desperate attempt to modernize and relocate stores. A store near Hiram, for instance, moved three times within a span of less than five years. First they left their 70's-style store for a new store in a more remote location only to move it again a short time later to a sleek new store in a lonely intersection removed from all other retail. Needless to say, this store closed within a year of opening. It seemed at that point, the store was finding itself in increasingly inferior locations, which did not help.

After the Atlanta area Winn-Dixies closed, Winn-Dixie tried something very strange...resurrecting the more profitable of the Atlanta area stores into a warehouse grocery concept called "Saverite". Saverite was hardly a hit, but their mascot in their slogan was quite amusing featuring a comical, bug-eyed man in a cape who was going to save you from high prices. Honestly it looked like the cape was on too tight causing his eyes to bulge through them! In real life, such a character would be hauled off to the psych ward and likewise this crazy and rather dated attempt at advertising wasn't enough to disguise (pardon the pun) that it was Winn-Dixie's last gasp in the Atlanta market. They all closed less than a year later.

This Saverite is shown here on Cobb Parkway (US 41) in Kennesaw. It replaced a Winn-Dixie Marketplace that opened in 1989, which replaced an older Winn-Dixie on Old US 41. The original Winn-Dixie is now country-western bar "Cowboys".

Despite this, most of these stores held out until the big retail purge of 2004-2005 and from what I understand the company is now much leaner and meaner. In fact, discussion I have heard lately about the chain is that it is coming back quite nicely in their remaining markets and has greatly improved on the quality and appearance of their stores. Gone are the sloped metal fronted 70's stores in dated shopping centers. Gone are the ridiculously offbeat locations in saturated markets. The battered company is refueling itself where it stands today. Will it come back bigger and stronger against the tough competition that mauled them in the first place? All of us who ever grew up shopping there hope so.

Also, check out a more historical piece on Winn-Dixie featured at Pleasant Family Shopping.