Landmark store to reveal its latest incarnation

When Davison’s, that “Cathedral of Commerce” on Peachtree Street, opened in 1927, it was reportedly the first department store south of Philadelphia to have air conditioning. Many tourists came from around the region just to ride the escalators.

By 2003, most shoppers had fled to suburban malls. The Davison’s building (rechristened Macy’s in the 1980s), went dark.

Today, workmen are busy completing a $16 million renovation at the massive downtown landmark. Of the 26 or so investors in the project, 25 are native Atlantans.

Many of them were around when Davison’s represented the acme of Atlanta’s glamour and glitz. That nostalgia didn’t lure them into an emotional investment. But it didn’t hurt.

“We’re not in the preservation business,” said Robert Patterson, the Chastain Park-raised, Ivy-educated president of 200 Peachtree. “This is a business investment. We’re not trying to say this is a philanthropy. This a group of people that remember Davison’s and what that building meant to downtown. There is a desire to see that come back.”

The former department store, being remade as an event facility, opens its doors June 5 and hosts a party for Leadership Atlanta. While the top five floors have been occupied for years by a data company’s telecom machinery and Atlanta’s 911 operation, the building’s first three floors, including the atrium with its 30-foot ceilings, once again will welcome the public.

They will find a building with much of the same panache as the original incarnation, which opened in territory that had been dominated by Rich’s since the 1800s.

For Davison’s to compete on Rich’s turf, a grand statement was required. The Davison’s building was grand. Its Palladian arches and Georgian facade, stretching along 300 feet of Peachtree Street, echoed the urban palazzos of Italy. It covered almost a full city block.

“We thought it was absolutely gorgeous,” said Doris Hayes Dunbar, who modeled fashions for Davison’s during the 1950s. “I loved everything about it, the mezzanine, the book department, the escalators, the tea room up on the sixth floor — you could go and live there all day long.”

A Georgia State University co-ed then known as Doris Hayes, she was one of two “house models” who worked daily at the store, showing off the newest frocks in a parade that wound through the men’s grill to a stage at the ladies’ tea room. She also took part in formal shows with celebrity commentators, such as Zsa Zsa Gabor. “It was big time,” said Dunbar.

Davison’s was owned by the R.H. Macy Co., and took the Macy’s name in 1985. It continued to stage flashy events, rolling out the purple carpet for Elizabeth Taylor in 1987 when she introduced her first perfume, Passion, to a crowd of several thousand.

“It was grand, and it was beautiful; it felt like a real city store,” said Craig Weaver, a hairstylist at the in-store salon during the 1980s.

Laurie Ann Goldman left her home in New Orleans to become special events manager at the downtown Macy’s in 1987. She remembers the first time she walked into the atrium and stared at the 14-foot crystal chandeliers. “I went to a payphone, called my parents and said ‘Oh my God, I’ve arrived.’ ” Goldman went on to become CEO of Spanx, the Atlanta-based foundation garment company.

When it closed in 2003, Macy’s had outlived its downtown rival Rich’s by 12 years. The upper floors of the building were rented by a data center, but the lower floors were only intermittently occupied. (One tenant was Delta, which used the atrium as a training facility, complete with an imported jet fuselage).

“It was kind of sad, kind of pitiful” to see it empty, said Weaver.

A new life for those bottom floors was kindled last August, when Patterson’s team began construction.

In March, the Irish pub Meehan’s — 4,300 square feet — opened on the northern side of the building’s ground floor. An even bigger restaurant, Sweet Georgia’s Juke Joint, will flank the atrium on the south side when renovations there are complete.

One recent morning in May, workers scurried through the Grand Atrium, polishing and installing the final sections of the marble floor, part of which is original to the store and part of which is matched with new marble from Greece.

Scissor lifts scooted around the mezzanine, their backup warnings mingling with the chanting voices of protestors out on the sidewalk. (The picketers vocally disagreed with the contractor’s choice of nonunion carpenters. “That’s their constitutional right,” said Patterson.)

Elsewhere in the building, workers installed ductwork or tested ovens in the 4,000-square-foot catering kitchen. Patterson pointed to the newly constructed balconies designed to curve around two of the chandeliers. Five of the chandeliers were saved but three had to be removed to make room for enclosed spaces. They will be used for spare parts.

After the June 5 grand opening, the atrium will host weddings, parties and corporate events, including an already-scheduled meeting of Microsoft employees. Patterson’s group is still seeking a tenant for a 50,000-square-foot area in the basement, appropriate for a museum or a permanent or traveling exhibit.

Managers at the Ritz-Carlton, across the street, and the Westin Peachtree Plaza, which is attached to the 200 Peachtree building, say they plan to stage events at the facility. The 18,000-square-foot atrium is no bigger than some downtown banquet facilities, but lends an historic quality to an event, said Timothy Crimmins, director of the Center for Neighborhood and Metropolitan Studies at Georgia State University.

That quality shouldn’t be underrated. When Boston’s historic Faneuil Hall was resuscitated in the 1970s, it helped trigger a strong resurgence of the city’s ailing downtown and became one of the country’s top 25 tourist sites, said Sean Hennessey, spokesman for the National Park Service in Boston

It also served the purposes of historic preservation, he said. “The best way to save a building is to use it.”

A.J. Robinson, president of Central Atlanta Progress, said the renovated space, along with the newly minted Ellis Hotel and the 191 building, helps shore up one of Atlanta’s showpiece sections of Peachtree.

“This is a final piece of the puzzle of that block so important for everyone visiting Atlanta,” he said. “It’s a return to a healthy downtown.”

The current recession hasn’t been kind to downtown. Charles Jaret, a professor in the department of urban sociology at Georgia State University, said the recent closing of several high-profile restaurants downtown, including Dailey’s and the City Grill, don’t augur well for an event facility.