I have many wonderful memories of working at my dad's store during my high school and college years. Many thanks to all our customers of Atlanta that supported his business. My dad had his business at Lenox for over 25 years before he sold it. I remember being part of the parade the day that they opened Lenox. I remember vividly when my parents decided to make the commitment to move their business to Lenox, the merchants in the Buckhead triangle told my dad that he was crazy to take his business so far away from the heart of Buckhead.he would never make it because people would travel that far to shop. My dad, Hugh Leamon, used to have the Buckhead Hobby Shop. I am the daughter of one of the original merchants of Lenox Square,The Lenox Toy and Hobby Shop. ![]() There was also a Beauty Parlor in that upper level where I spent what seemed like days waiting for either of my grandmothers to finish getting her hair done. My most vivid memories of Rich's are: the water-wall/fountain that sat in between all of the escalators, the Br'er Fox cafeteria in the basement/lower level, and The Magnolia Tea Room, which was in the upper level of the store. The Bremen Town Musicians now sit outside the mall and the parking lot, close to Peachtree Street. the restaurant itself was actually upstairs. Houlihan's was on the North side of the mall, just inside the Peachtree Road entrance. Magic Pan was in the north and west-facing entrance that led into the mall in the Neiman-Marcus wing. There was and is a stairwell that led from the plaza level and into the mall, coming out more or less directly across from what was J.P. At another time, one of the mall's Mori stores was also there and perhaps still is. In the earliest days of the mall, there was also a Dipper Dan ice cream shop on the Plaza Level, and Merle Norman cosmetics and a Colonial Stores grocery. The plaza level featured Pet Village with its distinctive mural and which was perpendicular to the lower level/South entrance to Rich's (now Macy's), the aforementioned Toy and Hobby (I used to get Corgi diecast cars there) and jewelry store, a bakery, the S&S Cafeteria, and S.S. I worked at the first Banana Republic in the summer of '88, at Britches of Georgetown for Christmas '88, and at Mark Shale from Fall of '89 until Fall of '91. My other grandmother worked at the mall, first at Neiman Marcus and then at J.P. This egress was eliminated when the MARTA rail line was extended to the mall in the 80s. ![]() We used to go to the mall via East Paces Ferry. My grandparents lived in the neighborhood that bordered the Lenox property on the West side, now called Lenox Park. It is really not known why the lower level was sealed off. A mall entrance to Rich's was also down there. Prior to the enclosing of the mall in 1972, this was actually shopping space with several shops including a Kresge. A lower level known as the Plaza Level is now exclusively offices. Part of Lenox Square does not actually connect to the rest of the mall. Along with Phipps Plaza, Lenox Square remains part of the most upscale shopping district in Georgia sitting on tony and world-famous Peachtree Street. In 1995, the mall received another level between the atrium and the mall entrance next to Rich's. In 1980, the previously open-air court to the rear of the mall was enclosed into a three-level atrium with a food court and access to then-under-construction MARTA. ![]() It was enclosed in 1972 with the addition of Neiman Marcus. It was open air and had Rich's, Davison's and a Colonial Supermarket as its anchors. It opened in 1959 as the first mall in Georgia. Lenox Square has changed much to keep up with the times, and the area around it has changed even more as the city around it grew taller and taller. Panoramic shot of Rich's and early Lenox Square in the 1960's from the GSU photo collection.
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