Brothers Morris (1847-1928) and Emanuel (1849-1897) Rich emigrated to the United States from Hungary, landing first in Ohio and eventually in Atlanta. In 1867 they founded what would one day become an Atlanta retail institution: Rich’s Department Store (younger brother Daniel eventually became a partner, too). The initial store was located at 36 Whitehall Street. Rich’s occupied several storefronts along Whitehall through 1907 when it moved into a new emporium at 82 Peachtree Street – a building that still stands today. In 1924 Rich’s moved to its final flagship store at 45 Broad Street, a building it would occupy until its closure in 1991. That building, a fine example of Palazzo-style architecture (widely used for department stores in the early twentieth century) is now part of the Samuel Nunn Federal Center complex. Through much of the twentieth century, Rich’s was a thriving retail business, immensely popular with its devoted Atlanta customers. The chain began expansion outside downtown Atlanta in 1955, opening a store in Knoxville, TN (this store didn’t perform well and was later sold so management could focus on locations in Georgia). In 1959, Rich’s opened a store at Lenox Mall, Georgia’s first shopping mall, and also one at Belvedere Plaza in Decatur. More aggressive expansion took place in the 60’s with four more huge Atlanta area stores opening, and in the 70’s when Rich’s opened its first Georgia stores outside the Atlanta area. Stores were also opened in Alabama and South Carolina. During its heyday, Rich’s created two holiday traditions that became quintessential parts of Christmas in Atlanta: the Great Tree and the Pink Pig. Starting in 1948, every Christmas Rich’s placed a massive, decorated pine tree atop the ‘Crystal Bridge’, which spanned Forsyth Street, connecting the main store to the Store for Homes. When the downtown store closed in 1991 the tree and its accompanying Thanksgiving-evening lighting ceremony were moved to Underground Atlanta. Popularity waned, however, so a few years later the tree and ceremony were again moved, this time to the top of the Men’s Store at the Lenox Mall location. The event continues at that site today, featuring performances from popular singers and musicians and choirs from local churches. The event culminates with the tree’s dramatic lighting by a child to the tune of ‘O Holy Night.’ The Pink Pig – known originally as the Snowball Express – was a child-scaled monorail that first hung from the ceiling of the toy department in the downtown Store for Fashion. In 1965 it was moved to another ceiling and a second monorail was added. The pair became know as the ‘Pink Pig Flyers’, further nicknamed ‘Priscilla’ and ‘Percival’ in the 70’s. The front cars featured pig faces and the rear cars had curly tails. The trains operated for years following the downtown store’s closure at the Georgia World Congress Center’s Festival of Trees. Much like the tree lighting, the Lenox Mall location continues the tradition today using a redesigned child-scale train set up on the top level of the Lenox Road parking deck. The original Pink Pig monorail cars are on display at the Atlanta History Center. One hundred years of Rich family ownership came to an end in 1976 when Federated Department Stores bought Rich’s. In 1994 Federated bought Rich’s’ competitor Macy’s and the two brands continued to operate independently for some time under Federated ownership. In 2003 the phasing out of Rich’s began with the re-branding of most stores under the Macy’s-Rich’s banner. With Macy’s already well known in Atlanta, Federated linked the two names together to minimize backlash over the elimination of what had become a retail institution in the city. After 138 years, on March 6, 2005, the Rich’s name disappeared forever from the Atlanta retail landscape with the renaming of all stores as Macy’s.
Posted on: Wed, 04 Jun 2014 15:44:51 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015