Riverbend Mall, Rome, GA

 A dead mall

Rome, Georgia is a quant little town in the northwestern mountains of the state.  Just a pit stop halfway along the back roads route from Huntsville to Atlanta, the town of 37,000 hasn't seen much growth over the last several decades.  But it has seen two indoor shopping malls opened in its market.  The first was Riverbend Mall.

Riverbend Mall opened in 1975 on the banks of the Etowah River just south of the downtown area of the city.   It opened with Miller Brothers and Belk Rhodes as the main anchors, though Miller's was later replaced with Hess's.  At its peak, a JCPenney, one of the smallest mall locations in the chain, was added.  

Riverbend Mall Mallmanac ca. 1975.  See the full PDF version here.

Though fairly successful in its day, it did endure a few hardships.  The infamous kidnapping and subsequent murder in 1982 of Lisa Ann Millican took place at Riverbend Mall.  Then in 1990, the Etowah River overflowed and flooded the property, leading to its closure for several months.  But it's death knell rang loudest with the opening of Mount Berry Square in 1991.  The 4 anchor mall debuted on the city's northern fringes to much fanfare.  Riverbend faded away in the shadow of its new, glitzier competition and in 2002 finally closed its doors.

Riverbend Mall satellite view. (Source)

Today on the banks of the Etowah River, Riverbend soldiers on as quite the successful power center.  Its proximity to the city gives it a big advantage over the curiously placed Mount Berry Mall.  The newer mall is seeing struggles of its own and has lost two of its anchors.  In addition to being built much too large for the small town, it was built in an area near Mount Berry College but not much else.  Funny how retail trends go and the killers of these first and second generation malls are fighting through struggles of their own.

Riverbend Mall on Wikipedia

Gwinnett Place Mall, Duluth, GA

 A dead mall

1- Gwinnett Place just after opening with its three original anchors. (Source)  2- Aerial view of Gwinnet Place just after the Mervyn's store and wing were added. (Source)

I only ever made it out to Gwinnett Place one time, but it was one hell of a one time.  It was early on New Years’ Eve, 1995.  The next year, I would be turning 21.  I was a sophomore in college and there were endless possibilities ahead of me.

Gwinnett Place Mallmanac, ca. 1995. View the full PDF version here.

My buddy and I had just made the trek to the Atlanta suburbs from his place at Auburn University.  He and I were there to meet his girlfriend who lived in Duluth and would be celebrating with us downtown later that evening to ring in the new year.  Besides the prospect of a great time partying, I was stoked as hell to find out that we’d be going to the huge shopping mall to the northeast of Atlanta to meet her.

1- The Parisian exterior.  2- The interior hadn't changed much since my last visit in 1995.  (Source for both)

The weather was a bit chilly, overcast and rainy that morning as we pulled into the still empty parking lot.  It was just a few minutes before the mall would be opening, so we pulled into one of the many vacant parking spots just outside of the Parisian.  We waited in the vestibule until 12:30 when they finally unlocked the doors for us.

In and outside Gwinnett Place. (Source)

The Parisian itself was glamorous in a nineties sort of way, as were most of their best stores.  Parisian was the Nordstrom of the deep south, if you will, although they were never really able to effectively penetrate the Atlanta market.  I still miss the hell out of their teal nameplate with the diamonds elegantly separating each letter.  But I really couldn’t wait until I made my way into the mall itself so I that could grab my own treasure- a mallmanac.

1- The southeast entrance and Mega Mart.  2- The empty anchor once holding Davidson's, Macy's then Mega Mart.  (Source for both)

It wasn't long before the two of them ran off for some time alone and I used that opportunity to nerd the hell out at a new mall.  The corridors were wide and accented in the basic pastels of the day.  Bright and airy, it was your archetypical 1990s mall, and I was absolutely loving it.

Gwinnett Mall lower level concourse from the upper level mezzanine. (Source)

Gwinnett Place opened in early 1984 in the fast growing northeastern suburb of Duluth.  The main corridor ran from the west-northwest to the east-southeast with Rich's on the west end, Sears on the east and Davidson's in the middle.  In 1986, the short concourse to the southeast opened along with new anchor Mervyn's and Macy's took over the Davidson's spot. In 1993, the mall grew to its present footprint when Parisian opened at the end of the second spur built off of the northwest of the main concourse.  

Gwinnett Place lease plan, ca. 2011. View the full PDF version here.

We left the mall not long after and I haven’t been back since.  At midnight, the three of us stood watching the Great Peach drop from Underground Atlanta.  It was a fantastic night; definitely one of the best New Years’ Eves I’ve ever had, if not THE best.  Unfortunately for Gwinnett Place, even its behemoth size couldn’t save it from the fact that Atlanta was terribly over-malled.

Gwinnett Place lease plan, ca. 2015. View the full PDF version here.

New competition from the Mall of Georgia and Sugarloaf Mills pulled customers away from the super-regional.  Belk took over the Parisian in 2008 not long after Macy's moved their location to what was then the former Rich's.  Today, Macy's remains but the only other open anchor is in its former location, now housing a Mega Mart.  The interior stores are mainly vacant except for a few locally owned establishments.  

Gwinnett Place Mall in better days. (Source)

What was the main shopping attraction for metro Atlanta during the nineties is now, for all intents and purposes, dead.  Though this made it the perfect setting for the "Starcourt Mall" in the third season of Netflix's Stranger Things, there isn't much hope for it in its present incarnation.  Gwinnett County purchased the property in 2020, but no plans have been announced yet for the site.

Gwinnet Place on Wikipedia

Lenox Square, Atlanta, GA

An extant asset

-UPDATE BELOW-

2 September 2024

(Source)

Back down south and in my younger days, Atlanta was one of the places to go whenever we wanted to get away from our everyday existence and have some real fun. Living just about two hours away in Huntsville, it was never more than just one spontaneous suggestion away. On a whim, a group of us in the midst of another boring afternoon would just up and go. Our lack of funds, planning or sense be damned! It really helped that gas was only around a dollar a gallon at the time...

-UPDATE-  1- Lenox Square’s original edifice in 1959. (Source)  2- This extraordinary example of googie architecture used to sit where the Marriott is now located. (Source)  3- The initial main concourse of the facility was open air. (Source)  4- The brutalist concrete latticework on display in 1960. (Source)  5- 1968 photo with Phipps Plaza in the foreground showing its proximity to Lenox Square in the background. (Source)  6- The innovative complex from above in 1968. (Source)

Our preferred way to make our entrance into the ATL was always from the west on Interstate 20. It was definitely the most dramatic way to enter the city; before passing the hulking steel roller coasters of Six Flags Over Georgia or the downtrodden neighborhoods of west Atlanta, there was the descent down an incline just at the Douglas County line. And when the ridge was crested just before the descent, the full Atlanta skyline would reveal itself in all of its New South glory, more often than not shrouded in the dense haze of another humid southeastern summer afternoon. But that was of no concern. We were about to make our entrance into the big city, where a full day of spotting airplanes ceaselessly move into and out of Hartsfield, cruising the sidewalks of Midtown and Piedmont park and dining at some mediocre chain at Lenox Square was surely to commence.

-UPDATE-  Lenox Square lease plan ca. 1997. View the full PDF version here.

Lenox Square was a must do on just about every trip to ATL. Our sojourn would more often than not happen at the end of the day, when the relentless sun and stifling humidity became more than we could bear. Usually, we'd park our vehicle somewhere downtown and just ride MARTA (the city's heavy rail subway system) to the hulking enclosed facility just a few stops north of Midtown. Located amongst an extensive collection of high-rises along Peachtree Road, Lenox had quite the monumental profile. After a quick exit from the Lennox Station, it was just a short walk across busy Lenox Road. And from there, the main entrance was framed by two glass towers, rising like silent and glowing sentinels ready to greet us upon our arrival. Just inside the entrance was a large, multi-level lobby with not much more than a set of escalators that readily delivered us upward to what was, at the time, one of the most thrilling shopping experiences that I had ever had.

Lenox Square Mallmanac ca. 2003. View the full PDF version here.

We'd browse all of the stores we couldn't afford, cruise the waiters we could never have and lived, at least for one evening, in a manner we never could back home in Huntspatch. The first Neiman Marcus I ever visited was at Lenox, as was the first time I ever ate at California Pizza Kitchen. The setting of the latter place was much more profound than their menu offerings, as it sat right in the center of a large open atrium, with three levels of people watching to keep one's mind off of their bland recipes. It really was quite the sight.

1- The Lenox Square nameplate greets us on a visit in 2003.  2- On this visit, the Macy's sign was being removed to be replaced with Bloomingdale's.  3- The Neiman Marcus exterior.  4- The Rich's name, now gone forever.  5 & 6- Some of Buckhead's high-rises surrounding Lenox Square.

Lenox Square has quite the history behind it. It opened on August 3, 1959 with nearly 800,000 square feet of space, an absolute monster for its time, and with the anchors Rich's, Davison's, a Colonial Stores Supermarket and a Kresge five and dime. From the very beginning, it featured three levels named The Mall, The Plaza and The Market. In 1970, the facility was fully enclosed while a new wing and an attached Neiman Marcus joined the line up. Years later, its first anchor change came in 1985 as Macy's merged with Davison's before the latter name, an Atlanta legacy, was replaced completely by the former in 1986. Eventually, the original Macy's was converted to a Bloomingdale's while the former Rich's was retitled as Macy's.

1- The CPK-trium.  2- The mall entrance for Neiman’s.

What amazes me about Lenox and this market is that even though the mall contains outlets such as Prada, Salvatore Ferragamo and Ermenegildo Zegna, it is still only considered upper mid-market, especially when put up against its even more upscale neighbor, Phipps Plaza. Personally, I always preferred Lenox Square anyway, even when no longer a poor college student and with gas prices rising to upwards of three dollars a gallon. It was worth the trip, if for nothing more than its diverse selection of stores. In fact, in the early 2000s, a Christmas trip to Lenox became an annual event.

-UPDATE-  Lenox Square lease plan, ca. 2011. View the full PDF version here.

I'll never forget the impression that I had of Lenox Square all of those years ago as I walked into that place for the first time on a cold December evening with the JW Marriott rising just to my side. I remained in a state of awe from the moment we first met until back on the platform ready to board the next MARTA train for the mass transit trip back downtown. And though I've since walked the corridors of much newer and more extensive facilities such as the SM Megamall and The Mall of America, I'll always remember the first time I felt such wonder and awe.

-UPDATE-

- 2 September 2024

Lenox Square lease plan ca. 2017. View the full PDF version here.

Unlike most other enclosed shopping centers in the United States, Lenox Square carries on seemingly unaffected by economic downturns and even the lockdowns of the Covid 19 pandemic.  The fact that none of the anchors have even changed is testament to the facility’s mostly unmatched staying power.  New stores such as Savage X Fenty, Montcler and Ferrari have joined the lineup since the start of the new decade and it continues to draw a large portion of its patronage from visitors to Atlanta.

1- Lenox Square’s main entrance today. (Source)  2- Macy’s façade in 2007. (Source)  3 to 5- The interior after the latest renovation (Source)  6- An overview of the complex looking toward the south-southeast. (Source)

Lenox Square will celebrate its 65th year in existence in 2024 and plans to host over 35 million patrons during the same year.  Though larger malls have sprung up in the Atlanta metro area while former juggernauts such as Gwinnett Place and Greenbriar Mall have faded, the Buckhead mainstay continues to be the top retail venue for the entire state.

Lenox Square lease plan ca. 2021. View the full PDF version here.

Lenox Square official website