Belvedere Plaza
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Belvedere Plaza Shopping Center, located in Belvedere Park (at Memorial Dr — S.R. 154 — and Columbia Drive), was one of the earliest malls in the Atlanta area. Opened around Labor Day in 1955, the center was an open-air strip and not an enclosed mall, but it still had many of the major mall tenants of that era and competed with Columbia Mall (later named Avondale Mall), which opened at the adjacent corner of the same intersection in 1964. The center had a two-level portion with an escalator and many of the major mall tenants of the era. The shopping center included one anchor, a two-level Rich's, and also included a bowling alley, Woolworth's and Davis Brothers Cafeteria as some of its major tenants. The Rich's was located in the front of the center and was the second suburban store built after Lenox Square. Rich's at Belevedere opened in 1959.
The area around Belvedere Plaza fell into sharp decline in the 1970s and 1980s and lost its major anchor, Rich's, in 1986. The Rich's location there was the first to ever close in the chain. The center since fell into sharper decline, but has been somewhat redeveloped since that time into a smaller center.
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