DAVISON'S

'Davison's of Atlanta' was the major competition to Rich's, a legendary Atlanta shopping institution.

Contents

Founding

Growth

Mergers

Final act

Former store locations

Former Davison's Store Pictures

Founding

Davison's was founded around the time Rich's was founded as Davison-Paxon and later Davison-Paxon-Stokes, rising from the same Atlanta ashes from which Rich's rose. While what was then known as M. Rich Brothers Dry Goods Company remained a family owned store, Davison-Paxon-Stokes sold out to R.H. Macy & Co. in 1925. This sale was most likely a knee-jerk reaction to the huge new store opened that same year by the Rich family.
By 1927, R.H. Macy built the huge Peachtree Street store that still stands today, but no longer as a department store.
The downtown Davison's store was a classic example of a downtown shopping experience. The main entrance on Peachtree featuired a very stately marbled cosmetics and jewelry area. There was a mezzanine overlooking the level with escalators leading to that floor. A bank of elevators in the rear would move you throughout the building from the basement to the upper level. Two of the levels also connected with the parking garage across Carnegie Way. The store was also connected on the other side to the Westin Peachtree Plaza hotel when it opened in the 1970s providing an additional entrance.
The two stores competed heavily for Atlanta's money. Nevertheless, competition was stiff and Davison's nearly put Rich's under several times in its history as Rich's spared no expense to compete with the cleverly disguised New York giant.

Growth

Over time, the Davison-Paxon Company was shortened to simply Davison's, and that was not long after met by an aggressive expansion across Georgia. Locations opened in the downtowns of Athens, Augusta, Macon and Columbus, as well as a store in downtown Columbia, while Rich's was still exclusively in Atlanta. In Augusta, Davison's competed with the former 'J.B. White' chain and in Columbus, 'Kirven's'. In 1959 Davison's opened its first suburban location at Lenox Square Mall along with Rich's.
Throughout the 1960s, Rich's began to very aggressively expand in the suburbs while Davison's remained a downtown player for the most part. However, Davison's did open one mall location at the now vacant Columbia Mall (later known as Avondale Mall) near Avondale Estates. Davison's expanded again in the 1970s and 1980s with locations at Cumberland, Southlake, Gwinnett Place, Shannon, Northlake and Perimeter Malls. New locations also replaced the downtown stores in all the other cities mentioned except Columbus, which faced stronger competition from regional chains. Most of these Davison's stores featured outlandish external design features typical of that era.

Mergers

After years of tense rivalry, Rich's finally sold out to powerhouse Federated Department Stores in 1976 after the great grandson of its founder, Richard Rich, died suddenly in 1975. Macy's meanwhile had begun to streamline itself and began to consolidate its regional divisions. In January 1985 Davison's and Macy's Midwest were combined into one division, Macy's Atlanta.
Macy's had already begun to shed its southern skin and began to slowly retire the Davison's name. In 1984 the logo had been changed to the exact same font of its more famous counterpart in the ITC Avant Garde font.Ads by that time read "Davison's, a Division of Macy's since 1925."
By 1985, when the change was announced and stores were re-branded as Davison's/Macy's. Macy's would do the exact thing 20 years later with the conversion of Rich's to Rich's-Macy's. By early 1986, all Davison's became Macy's and the first Atlanta store to open exclusively as Macy's opened at Town Center Mall.

Final act

By 2003, all other former Davison's stores were closed when Rich's and Macy's were consolidated into the unwieldy nameplate Rich's-Macy's, a change that meant that Macy's took both of Atlanta's major names over a 20-year span. That same year, the historic downtown store was also closed, ending the era of department store shopping in downtown Atlanta forever. All of the old Davison's mall stores in Atlanta were then vacant except for three locations. The Perimeter Mall and Lenox Square locations were renovated and reopened as Bloomingdale's. The Northlake location became one of two stores re-branded fully as Rich's-Macy's before changing back to Macy's only two years later. One floor of the Town Center location, which had opened exclusively as Macy's, was preserved in part as a Rich's-Macy's Furniture Gallery location. The remainder of Davison's former locations are vacant except for the locations at Cumberland Mall, Avondale/Columbia Mall, and Augusta Mall. The Cumberland Mall location was torn down in late 2005 for a major overhaul at the 32-year-old center. The Avondale/Columbia Mall location was completely demolished with the rest of the mall for a Wal-Mart SuperCenter. The Augusta Mall location was open till 2006 as a Macy's Furniture Showroom. It has closed to make way for a lifestyle center similar to Cumberland Mall, another General Growth Properties Mall.

Former store locations

All locations here were converted to Davison's/Macy's in 1985 and to Macy's in 1986 except for the Columbus location. All former locations outside of Atlanta had previously existed in the downtowns of each respective city listed.

City	Shopping center	Existed	Notes
Atlanta	Peachtree Street	1927-1986	Closed 2003
	Lenox Square	1959-1986	Converted to Bloomingdale's in 2003
	Cumberland Mall	1973-1986	Closed 2003 & Demolished 2005
	Perimeter Mall	1982-1986	Converted to Bloomingdale's 2003
Decatur	Columbia Mall	1964-1986	Closed 1995 & Demolished 2007
Tucker	Northlake Mall	1976-1986	Converted to signed Rich's-Macy's in 2003
Morrow	Southlake Mall (Atlanta)	1976-1986	Closed 2003
Union City	Shannon Mall	1980-1986	Closed 1998
Duluth	Gwinnett Place Mall	1984-1986	Closed 2003
Macon	Macon Mall	1975-1986	Converted to Rich's 1998-2005
Augusta	Augusta Mall	1978-1986	Converted to Rich's-Macy's Furniture Gallery in 2003. Closed in 2006 for demolition for new lifestyle center
Athens	Downtown Store	? - 1981	Former Michael Brothers Building. Left for Mall.
	Georgia Square Mall	1981-1986	Converted to Rich's 1998-2005
Columbus	Downtown Store	unknown
Columbia SC	Downtown Store	? - 1986

Former Davison's Store Pictures