Davison's
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Davison's of Atlanta was the major competition to Rich's, a legendary Atlanta shopping institution.
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[edit] 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 that Rich's rose from. 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 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.[citation needed]
[edit] 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 now-defunct 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 1960's, 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 1970's and 1980's 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.
[edit] 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 Century Gothic 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 temporarily rebranded Davison's/Macy's, the exact thing that happened to Rich's 20 years later. 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.
In 1995 the Davison's at Columbia Mall closed. By then it was a Macy's close-out in what was by then an economically depressed area. In 1998, another location, this time the Shannon Mall location was closed. It was only 18 years old. Also that year, the original Davison's stores that had been converted to Macy's in Athens and Macon were converted to Rich's in an ironic and short-lived twist.
[edit] Final act
By 2003, all other former Davison's stores were closed when Rich's and Macy's were consolidated into 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 rebranded 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. All other stores remain vacant except for the Cumberland Mall location, which was torn down in late 2005 for a major overhaul at the 32 year-old center.
[edit] Former Store Locations
All locations here were converted to Davison's/Macy's in 1985 and Macy's in 1986 except for the Columbus location.
[edit] Atlanta Area
- Downtown Atlanta (1927, closed 2003)
- Lenox Square (1959, changed to Bloomingdale's in 2003)
- Columbia Mall (1964, closed 1995)
- Cumberland Mall (1973, closed 2003 and demolished 2005)
- Northlake Mall (1976, existed as Rich's-Macy's from 2003-2005)
- Southlake Mall (1976, closed 2003)
- Shannon Mall (1980, closed 1998)
- Perimeter Mall (1982, changed to Bloomingdale's in 2003)
- Gwinnett Place Mall (1984, closed 2003)
[edit] Other Areas
All former locations outside of Atlanta had previously existed in the downtowns of each respective city listed.
- Macon Mall - Macon (1975, converted to Rich's 1998-2005)
- Georgia Square Mall - Athens (1980, converted to Rich's 1998-2005)
- Augusta Mall - Augusta (1978, converted to Rich's-Macy's Furniture Gallery in 2003)
- Downtown Columbus (dates unknown)
- Downtown Columbia, South Carolina closed 1993
Store conversions to Macy's
2006: Famous-Barr | Filene's | Foley's | Hecht's | The Jones Store
Kaufmann's | L.S. Ayres | Marshall Field's | Meier & Frank | Robinsons-May | Strawbridge's
2005: The Bon Marché | Burdines | Goldsmith's | Lazarus | Rich's 2001: Liberty House | Stern's
1996: The Broadway | Bullock's | Emporium-Capwell | The Emporium | Jordan Marsh | Weinstock's
1995: Abraham & Straus 1986: Bamberger's | Davison's
