Cobb Center Mall (originally Cobb County Shopping Center) was a

shopping mall A shopping mall (or simply mall) is a North American term for a large indoor shopping center, usually anchored by department stores. The term "mall" originally meant a pedestrian promenade with shops along it (that is, the term was used to refe ...

Smyrna Smyrna ( ; grc, Σμύρνη, Smýrnē, or , ) was a Greek city located at a strategic point on the Aegean coast of Anatolia. Due to its advantageous port conditions, its ease of defence, and its good inland connections, Smyrna rose to promi ...

Georgia Georgia most commonly refers to: * Georgia (country), a country in the Caucasus region of Eurasia * Georgia (U.S. state), a state in the Southeast United States Georgia may also refer to: Places Historical states and entities * Related to the ...

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...

. It was the second mall built in Georgia, and opened on August 15, 1963.

Early years

The mall was built in a post-

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

suburb of

Atlanta Atlanta ( ) is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Georgia. It is the seat of Fulton County, the most populous county in Georgia, but its territory falls in both Fulton and DeKalb counties. With a population of 498,715 ...

by the parent company of

Food Fair Food Fair, also known by its successor name Pantry Pride, was a large supermarket chain in the United States. It was founded by Samuel N. Friedland, who opened the first store (as Reading Giant Quality Price Cutter) in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania in ...

and featured nearly 50 stores including a Rich's department store (the fourth in the chain), Woolworths, Dunaway Drug (later Eckerd), Davis House restaurant (later Davis Brothers Cafeteria) and a Colonial supermarket. A six-screen movie theater, which later became King's Cinemas, was also opened on an outlot on the north side of the center. The mall was also originally an open-air center with covered walkways and the stores wrapped around the south and west side of the Rich's store, all facing it. For the first ten years, the mall was successful and the two-story Rich's store was quickly expanded with a one-story north wing that greatly increased the total floor space. The mall was a major blow to downtown

Marietta, Georgia Marietta is a city in and the county seat of Cobb County, Georgia, United States. At the 2020 census, the city had a population of 60,972. The 2019 estimate was 60,867, making it one of Atlanta's largest suburbs. Marietta is the fourth larges ...

to the north. When the mall first opened, nearly all of the major clothing stores in downtown Marietta also had branches at Cobb Center. It began to draw out its tenants, leaving the downtown mostly dead by the 1970s.

Enclosing Cobb Center

Ten years after the mall opened, Cobb Center struggled after the opening of Cumberland Mall, a mall far superior in size and quantity stores compared to the much smaller open-air mall. Cumberland Mall opened in 1973 and featured all of the major

anchors including Rich's,

Davison's Davison's of Atlanta was a department store chain and an Atlanta shopping institution. It was the major competition to Rich's and it took the Macy's name in 1986. Founding Davison's first opened its doors in Atlanta in 1891 and had its orig ...

Sears Sears, Roebuck and Co. ( ), commonly known as Sears, is an American chain of department stores founded in 1892 by Richard Warren Sears and Alvah Curtis Roebuck and reincorporated in 1906 by Richard Sears and Julius Rosenwald, with what began a ...

and

JCPenney Penney OpCo LLC, doing business as JCPenney and often abbreviated JCP, is a midscale American department store chain operating 667 stores across 49 U.S. states and Puerto Rico. Departments inside JCPenney stores include Mens, Womens, Boys, Gir ...

. Cobb Center just had Rich's. The owners of Cobb Center in reaction to the new mall, fully enclosed the structure and added a new anchor, Grant City on the northwest corner of the mall.

Survival

The changes worked and the mall survived. There were two major factors to the success. The first was that Cumberland was the only nearby competition. Second, the Rich's at Cobb Center remained extremely popular. Rich's was enormously successful in the 1970s and this was one of only two locations that existed on the northwest side of Atlanta at the time. When Grant's closed in 1976, a small low-end chain with a store downtown named Kessler's took over the location.

Downturn, renovation, and closure

Eventually, the mall was unable to continue to survive. The first blow came when Town Center Mall in

Kennesaw, Georgia Kennesaw is a suburban city northwest of Atlanta in Cobb County, Georgia, United States, located within the greater Atlanta metropolitan area. Known from its original settlement in the 1830s until 1887 as Big Shanty, it became Kennesaw under its ...

opened in 1986 in what had been a farming area. The mall also included Rich's. Town Center Mall was also much larger than Cumberland and was more convenient to the northern suburbs. The second blow was that the area around the mall was declining very sharply. The shopping base dwindled and so did the mall traffic. By then, Cobb Center looked very dated and small with its dark wood interior and very 1960s

retro Retro style is imitative or consciously derivative of lifestyles, trends, or art forms from history, including in music, modes, fashions, or attitudes. In popular culture, the "nostalgia cycle" is typically for the two decades that begin 20–30 ...

exterior. Once again, in 1987, the mall was renovated for its 25th Anniversary. This time, it was redesigned to the popular bright pastel look of the 1980s, skylights were improved and the mall was renamed "Four Seasons Mall" to attempt to remove the stigma of the mall that had been fading slowly for over a decade. As a short-term boost for the center, Howard's Restaurant, which had been a small bar and grill located across the street, located in the former Davis Brothers bringing business back to the center. Unfortunately, this renovation did not lead to expansion and many parts of the mall remained vacant, including the former Colonial/Big Star grocery store on the southwest corner, which closed at the mall somewhere in that period. In the late 1980s, the mall continued to operate with many vacancies and no customers. What kept the mall alive was the Rich's and Kessler's, both which looked little different from the days they opened. With the upscale shoppers avoiding the center, Rich's was downscaled to a clearance store by the early 1990s and Kessler's closed in 1990 with no replacement. Howard's moved to a new location, and all that remained for tenants was a few stores including Woolworth's,

Eckerd Drugs Eckerd Corporation was an American drug store chain that was headquartered in Largo, Florida, and toward the end of its life, in Warwick, Rhode Island. The chain had approximately 2,800 stores in 23 states as far west as Arizona. In November 199 ...

in the former Dunaway Drugs and Friedman's Jewelry. One of the wings to the mall had burned and was closed off as well. The mall was finally demolished in 1995 except for the Rich's, which lingered until it closed in February 2004.

Cobb Center redevelopment

The former Rich's entrances to the mall were sealed except for the front entrance and a strip mall was attached to both sides of the Rich's store. The back parking lot of the mall was converted into a soccer park and the Rich's continued to operate there until it closed. The center was also renamed back to simply Cobb Center. In December 2008, the

city council A municipal council is the legislative body of a municipality or local government area. Depending on the location and classification of the municipality it may be known as a city council, town council, town board, community council, rural counc ...

unanimously approved a

rezoning Zoning is a method of urban planning in which a municipality or other tier of government divides land into areas called zones, each of which has a set of regulations for new development that differs from other zones. Zones may be defined for a si ...

which would allow for Imagine International Academy to move its

school A school is an educational institution designed to provide learning spaces and learning environments for the teaching of students under the direction of teachers. Most countries have systems of formal education, which is sometimes comp ...

into the two-

story Story or stories may refer to: Common uses * Story, a narrative (an account of imaginary or real people and events) ** Short story, a piece of prose fiction that typically can be read in one sitting * Story (American English), or storey (British ...

part of the Rich's building, covering of floor space. The classic

façade A façade () (also written facade) is generally the front part or exterior of a building. It is a loan word from the French (), which means ' frontage' or ' face'. In architecture, the façade of a building is often the most important aspect ...

will be destroyed and it will be made to look like a "modern school", to open in August for the 2009-2010

school year A school is an educational institution designed to provide learning spaces and learning environments for the teaching of students under the direction of teachers. Most countries have systems of formal education, which is sometimes compul ...

. Imagine International Academy opened for business as of 2010.
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Gallery

Image:ccmrichsmain2007.JPG, Front parking lot of former Rich's is now Imagine International Academy of Smyrna as of 2010. at Cobb Center Shopping center. Image:ccmrichsmall2007.JPG, Former mall entrance to Rich's is now Imagine International Academy of Smyrna as of 2010. Note former roof line along brick. Image:ccmrichsnorth2007.JPG, North entrance to Rich's is now Imagine International Academy of Smyrna as of 2010. One story expansion.

References

{{Shopping malls in Georgia (U.S. state) Buildings and structures in Cobb County, Georgia Demolished shopping malls in the United States Shopping malls in the Atlanta metropolitan area Shopping malls established in 1963 1963 establishments in Georgia (U.S. state) 1995 disestablishments in Georgia (U.S. state) Shopping malls disestablished in 1995