Greenbriar Mall is 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 ...

in the Greenbriar neighborhood of

Atlanta, Georgia 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 ...

that opened in 1965. The anchor stores are Beauty Master,

Dollar Tree Dollar Tree, Inc. is an American multi-price-point chain of discount variety stores. Headquartered in Chesapeake, Virginia, it is a ''Fortune'' 500 company and operates 15,115 stores throughout the 48 contiguous U.S. states and Canada. Its st ...

, Greenbriar Furniture,

Macy's Macy's (originally R. H. Macy & Co.) is an American chain of high-end department stores founded in 1858 by Rowland Hussey Macy. It became a division of the Cincinnati-based Federated Department Stores in 1994, through which it is affiliated wi ...

(closed April 2021), and Citi Trends. There are 2 vacant anchor stores that were once

Burlington Burlington may refer to: Places Canada Geography * Burlington, Newfoundland and Labrador * Burlington, Nova Scotia * Burlington, Ontario, the most populous city with the name "Burlington" * Burlington, Prince Edward Island * Burlington Bay, no ...

and

Fallas The Falles ( ca-valencia, Falles; es, Fallas) is a traditional celebration held annually in commemoration of Saint Joseph in the city of Valencia, Spain. The five main days celebrated are from 15 to 19 March, while the Mascletà, a pyrotechnic ...

. It is the home of the original

Chick-fil-A Chick-fil-A ( , a Word play, play on the American English pronunciation of "wikt:filet#Pronunciation, filet") is an American fast food restaurant chain which is the country's largest which specializes in chicken sandwiches. Headquartered in Coll ...

location.

Early years

Greenbriar Center opened in August/September 1965 as Atlanta's third enclosed mall, after North Dekalb Center, in July 1965, and Columbia Mall, in August 1965. The mall was designed by Atlanta architect

John Portman John Calvin Portman Jr. (December 4, 1924 – December 29, 2017) was an American neofuturistic architect and real estate developer widely known for popularizing hotels and office buildings with multi-storied interior atria. Portman also had a pa ...

's firm Edwards and Portman. The design of the mall was like many of the early malls in Atlanta, with an anchor store on each end and an enclosed concourse. The complex opened with Rich's on the east end 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 ...

on the west. It was the second-largest suburban Rich's when it first opened. JCPenney closed their store on September 28, 1985 after 20 years of operation. In 1987,

Uptons Uptons was a department store based in Atlanta, Georgia, United States. The chain operated primarily in the Southeastern United States, with locations in Florida, Georgia, Tennessee, Maryland, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Virginia. The cha ...

took over the former JCPenney site and a

Circuit City Circuit City is an American consumer electronics retail company, which was founded in 1949 by Samuel Wurtzel as the Wards Company, operated stores across the United States, and pioneered the electronics superstore format in the 1970s. After m ...

store opened outside the mall. In mid-1992,

Cub Foods Cub is an American supermarket chain. It operates stores in Minnesota and Illinois. The company is a wholly owned subsidiary of SuperValu Inc., based in Eden Prairie, Minnesota. History Beginnings Cub Foods was founded by Minnesota-based Hool ...

opened a location on a mall outlot facing Lakewood Freeway. Later in 1992, the Uptons and

McCrory's McCrory Stores or J.G. McCrory's was a chain of five and dime stores in the United States based in York, Pennsylvania. The stores typically sold shoes, clothing, housewares, fabrics, penny candy, toys, cosmetics, and often included a lunch cou ...

stores in the mall closed for good. A

Burlington Coat Factory Burlington, formerly known as Burlington Coat Factory, is an American national off-price department store retailer, and a division of Burlington Coat Factory Warehouse Corporation with more than 1,000 stores in 40 states and Puerto Rico, with it ...

store opened on September 1, 1995, but relocated in 2019. Greenbriar Mall housed the very first

location. Local Atlanta businessman

S. Truett Cathy Samuel Truett Cathy (March 14, 1921 September 8, 2014) was an American businessman, investor, author, and philanthropist. He founded the fast food restaurant chain Chick-fil-A in 1946. Early life Cathy was born on March 14, 1921, in Eatonto ...

took the chicken sandwiches served at his

Dwarf House Chick-fil-A ( , a Word play, play on the American English pronunciation of "wikt:filet#Pronunciation, filet") is an American fast food restaurant chain which is the country's largest which specializes in chicken sandwiches. Headquartered in Coll ...

in nearby

Hapeville Hapeville is a city in Fulton County, Georgia, United States, that is 2.5 square miles wide. Hapeville is located inside I-285 between the city of Atlanta to its North and the Atlanta International Airport to its south. The population was 6,553 ...

and opened the Greenbriar store in 1967.

Record Bar The Record Bar is a former U.S. retail music/entertainment store chain founded in Durham, North Carolina. The company eventually grew from a single location to 180 stores. One of the largest music retailing chains, it was located primarily in the ...

opened one of its stores there, to be later supplanted by

Camelot Music Camelot Music was a mall-based American retailer of prerecorded music and accessories and was one of the largest music retailers in the United States based on store count. As of May 31, 1998, the company operated 455 stores in 37 states nationwide ...

. There was also a Happy Herman's Liquor Store, a

Woolworth's Woolworth, Woolworth's, or Woolworths may refer to: Businesses * F. W. Woolworth Company, the original US-based chain of "five and dime" (5¢ and 10¢) stores * Woolworths Group (United Kingdom), former operator of the Woolworths chain of shops ...

dimestore and a branch of the Atlanta Public Library. In 1996 a

Magic Johnson Theatres Magic Johnson Theatres is a chain of movie theaters, originally developed in 1994 by Johnson Development Corporation, the business holding of basketball player-turned-entrepreneur Magic Johnson, and Sony Pictures Entertainment through a partnership ...

multiplex Multiplex may refer to: * Multiplex (automobile), a former American car make * Multiplex (comics), a DC comic book supervillain * Multiplex (company), a global contracting and development company * Multiplex (assay), a biological assay which measu ...

opened at the mall, and in 2002

Magic Johnson Earvin "Magic" Johnson Jr. (born August 14, 1959) is an American former professional basketball player. He is often regarded as the greatest point guard of all-time and has been compared with Stephen Curry. Johnson played 13 seasons in the ...

himself made an unsuccessful effort to buy the mall but the theatres, unable to recover after the Great Recession, (by then managed by

AMC Theatres AMC Entertainment Holdings, Inc. (d/b/a AMC Theatres, originally an abbreviation for American Multi-Cinema; often referred to simply as AMC and known in some countries as AMC Cinemas or AMC Multi-Cinemas) is an American movie theater chain fou ...

) closed in 2009. At that point the mall was seen as a somewhat stagnated property, although still mostly occupied.Bill Torpy
"Greenbriar Mall boosters hope for its survival"

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution ''The Atlanta Journal-Constitution'' is the only major daily newspaper in the metropolitan area of Atlanta, Georgia. It is the flagship publication of Cox Enterprises. The ''Atlanta Journal-Constitution'' is the result of the merger between ...

, December 21, 2009. On December 6, 2019, Burlington Coat Factory relocated to Camp Creek Parkway. On January 6, 2021, it was announced that

would be closing in April 2021 as part of a plan to close 46 stores nationwide. After

closes, there will be no traditional anchor stores left.

References

{{Shopping malls in Georgia (U.S. state) Buildings and structures in Fulton County, Georgia Shopping malls in the Atlanta metropolitan area Shopping malls established in 1965 Buildings and structures in Atlanta