Cobb Center Mall (originally Cobb County Shopping Center) is a shopping mall in Smyrna, Georgia, United States. It was the second mall built in Georgia, and opened on August 15, 1963. The Mall of America in Bloomington, Minnesota — the third-largest in the world. ... Atlanta from southern Smyrna on a clear day; the large nearby tower is Plant Atkinson. ... August 15 is the 227th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (228th in leap years), with 138 days remaining. ... 1963 (MCMLXIII) was a common year starting on Tuesday (the link is to a full 1963 calendar). ...

The mall was built in a post-World War II suburb of Atlanta by the parent company of Food Fair and featured nearly 50 stores including a Rich's department store (the fourth in the chain), Woolworths, a local drugstore chain, Davis House restaurant (later Davis Brothers Cafeteria) and a Colonial supermarket. A six-screen movie theater was also opened on an outlot on the north side of the center. The mall was also originally an open-air center with covered walkways and the stores literally wrapped around the south and west side of the Rich's store, all facing it. Combatants Allies: Poland, British Commonwealth, France/Free France, Soviet Union, United States, China, and others Axis Powers: Germany, Italy, Japan, Hungary, Bulgaria, Romania, and others Casualties Military dead:17 million Civilian dead:33 million Total dead:50 million Military dead:8 million Civilian dead:4 million Total dead:12 million... This article is about the state capital of Georgia. ... For the discount department store of New England see Richs Department Stores. ... Foot Locker Inc NYSE: FL (formerly Z) is a United States company specialising in athletic footwear and clothing. ...

For the first ten years, the mall was enormously successful and the two-story Rich's store was quickly expanded with a one-story north wing that greatly increased the total floor space. The mall also was a major blow to the downtown of Marietta, Georgia to the north in that it began to draw out its tenants, leaving the downtown mostly dead by the 1970's. That favor would be later returned. When the mall first opened, nearly all of the major clothing stores in downtown Marietta also had branches at Cobb Center. That shift oddly lead to the demise of those local stores as well. Marietta is a city located in central Cobb County, GeorgiaGR6, and is its county seat. ...

Ten years after the mall opened, Cobb Center stumbled over the opening of Cumberland Mall, a mall far superior in size and stores to the mall. Opened in 1973, Cumberland Mall featured all of the major Atlanta anchors including Rich's, Davison's, Sears and JCPenney. Cobb Center only had Rich's. In reaction, Cobb Center was then quickly enclosed and one anchor was added to the center, a small low-end regional chain known as Kessler's. The mall survived, however, because Cumberland was its only nearby competition and the Rich's remained popular at the mall. Rich's was enormously successful in the 1970's and was one of only two locations that existed on the northwest side of Atlanta at the time. Cumberland Mall, located in the Atlanta suburb of Smyrna near Vinings, opened in 1973 and was the largest mall in the country when it first opened. ... This article is about the state capital of Georgia. ... This article or section contains information that has not been verified and thus might not be reliable. ... Sears Holdings Corporation NASDAQ: SHLD is the third largest retailer in the United States, behind Wal-Mart and The Home Depot. ... J. C. Penney Company, Inc. ...

The events that led to the downfall of Cobb Center were two-fold. First, Town Center Mall in Kennesaw, Georgia opened in 1986 in what had been a farming area, also including Rich's, and presenting a mall equal to Cumberland, but more convenient to the northern suburbs that previously still shopped at both malls. Secondly, the area around the mall was beginning to decline. The shopping base dwindled and so did the mall traffic. By then, Cobb Center looked very dated and small with its dark wood interior and very 1960's retro exterior. Kennesaw is a city located in Cobb County, Georgia. ... 1986 (MCMLXXXVI) was a common year starting on Wednesday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Events and trends The 1960s was a turbulent decade of change around the world. ... Retro, short for retrospective, is a modern term used to describe things from a bygone era. ...

Once again, in 1986, the mall was renovated this time to the bright pastel look of the 1980's, skylights were improved and the mall was renamed "Four Seasons Mall" to attempt to remove the stigma of the mall that had been fading slowly for over a decade. As a short-term boost for the center, Howard's Restaurant, which had been a small bar and grill located across the street, located in the former Davis Brothers bringing business back to the center. Unfortunately, this renovation did not lead to expansion and many parts of the mall remained vacant, including the former Colonial grocery store on the southwest corner. At this point, the mall was doomed.

In the late 1980's, the mall continued to operate with many vacancies and no customers. What kept the mall alive was the Rich's and Kessler's, both which looked little different from the days they opened. With the upscale shoppers avoiding the center, Rich's was downscaled to a clearance store by the early 1990's and the Kessler's finally closed with the chain around 1995. Howard's was long gone and all that remained for tenants was a few stores including Woolworth's, Eckerd Drugs and Friedman's Jewelry. One of the wings to the mall had burned and was closed off as well. Events and trends Technology Explosive growth of the Internet; decrease in the cost of computers and other technology Reduction in size and cost of mobile phones leads to a massive surge in their popularity Year 2000 problem (commonly known as Y2K) Microsoft Windows operating system becomes virtually ubiquitous on IBM...

After Woolworth's closed their last 400 stores in the United States in 1997, the mall was promptly closed and demolished except for oddly the Rich's store in early 1998. All Rich's entrances were also sealed except for the front entrance and a strip mall was attached to both sides of the Rich's store including a Publix Super Market, paying tribute in a peculiar sense to the Colonial Market that once operated there. The back parking lot of the mall was converted into a soccer park and the Rich's continued to operate there until it closed in February 2004. The center was also renamed back to simply Cobb Center. Publix is a United States supermarket chain based in Lakeland, Florida. ... Football is a ball game played between two teams of eleven players, each attempting to win by scoring more goals than their opponent. ... It has been designated the: International Year of Rice (by the United Nations) International Year to Commemorate the Struggle against Slavery and its Abolition (by UNESCO) 2004 World Health Day topic was Road Safety (by World Health Organization) Year of the Monkey (by the Chinese calendar) See the world in...

With Smyrna now in severe decline and many other businesses closing along South Cobb Drive, where the mall was located, the Rich's now sits there vacant and deteriorating. After fading for 30 years, the mall is now a symbol of inner ring suburban decline, and is significant because it was the second major regional mall in the Atlanta area after Lenox Square. Cobb Center Mall was very similar in design and layout to North Dekalb Mall on the other side of Atlanta. The Mall of America in Bloomington, Minnesota — the second-largest in the world. ... Lenox Square, owned by the Simon Property Group, is a shopping mall located in the Buckhead neighborhood of Atlanta, Georgia. ...