The demolition of one of Georgia's most beloved cultural icons.
In 1994, most of the buildings that made up
the downtown Rich's store were demolished.
The Rich's flagship department store at the corner of broad and Alabama streets,
had already closed its doors for good in 1991.
The original building is now a
unit of the Sam Nunn Federal Building.
More Rich's stores would come and go,
but the Rich's name disappeared from department stores for the final time on
March 6th, 2005.
It's spirit survives, thanks to the Rich Foundation Incorporated.
The Rich Foundation when it was started made its
initial contribution to Emory University, to build the Rich Memorial Building on
the campus, which was to house the business school.
It is a memorial to the three founding Rich brothers,
Morris, Emanuel, and Daniel.
Today, it houses Emory's Department of Economics
and the Foundation maintains
its strong interest in education.
A couple of years later, the Rich Foundation purchased the first FM
Public Radio Charter in the Southeast and donated it to the Atlanta Board of Education.
Shortly thereafter they donated the Rich Computer Center to Georgia Tech.
The Orly Tragedy of 1962, in which 122 of Atlanta's foremost art
patrons died in an Air France takeoff crash,
elicited one of the Rich Foundation's
best-known civic contributions.
Richard H. Rich headed the
campaign to build the Atlanta Memorial Arts Center,
later renamed the Woodruff Arts Center.
The Rich Foundation was a major contributor and it still is.
And in honor of the Centennial which was 1967,
The Rich Foundation donated the
statue which stands in Woodruff Park today,
The Phoenix: Atlanta Rising From the Ashes.
Nearly half a century later, The Foundation provided the Planning
Grant that brought works from the Louvre and two other museums to the High for
three exhibitions offering Louvre Atlanta.
The idea was look and learn.
The Rich Foundation today has a focus on education.
Excel at Georgia Tech is a program which allows high school
graduates with intellectual and developmental disabilities to have a
four-year college experience.
Georgia State University's Honors College is
using a Rich's Grant to endow the Herndon human rights initiative.
It uses teaching and research to expand students knowledge of America's
long and varied civil rights struggles, exemplified
in the lives and work of Alonso and Norris Herndon.
Attentive as The Foundation is to the future,
it also maintains its commitment to the past.
It's three phase restoration and repair of the Jewish Hill
in historic Oakland Cemetery, is an excellent example of the variety and
depth of its concerns.
The Rich Foundation, going back to 1943,
I would say probably has supported literally
hundreds of organizations, hard to say the number.
But I would guess the dollar value is well in excess on an
inflation-adjusted basis, in excess of 100 million dollars.
The Foundation continues to live
because it's a 501 (c) (3) charitable institution that was created
by the store and hopefully it'll last a lot longer.