Description

View of the exterior of Morris Rich's first store, a frame building measuring 20 feet by 75 feet on the east side of Whitehall Street, south of Alabama Street in downtown Atlanta, Georgia.Rich's Department Store was founded in Atlanta, Georgia in 1867 by Morris Rich, a Hungarian-born immigrant. The business expanded over several decades, and eventually was located on the corner of Alabama and Broad Streets in downtown Atlanta. In the 1960s and 1970s the store opened in several other locations. In 1948 a seventy-foot live Christmas tree was first placed on the roof of Rich's downtown department store. Thereafter, the Lighting of the Great Tree became an Atlanta tradition. In 1960, several African American college students protested segregationist policies practiced by Rich's until the store agreed to desegregate its stores in 1961. Rich's department store was phased out in 2005.

Record Contributed By

Atlanta History Center

Record Harvested From

Digital Library of Georgia