Waking a Leviathan: From Historic Atlanta Sears to Ponce City Market

Constructed in 1926, the regional headquarters for the Sears, Roebuck & Company stood along Ponce de Leon Avenue and served the southeast United States for over 50 years. As catalog fulfillment gave way to department stores and Internet commerce, so did this building give way to eventual disuse and near-abandonment. In later decades it became partially owned by the City of Atlanta as City Hall East, housing a 911-dispatch center and police precinct. The building even had claim to home to a fitness center by famed bodybuilder Lee Haney, but together these occupants could never fully utilize nor restore the building to its former iconic status. It would not be until 2011 that a new owner would finally put into motion a plan to rehabilitate the building in its entirety.

Through these pages you will take a visual journey through the former Sears building in Atlanta as it made the transition from dormant giant to a bustling mixed-use development. Explore what existed at the historic Sears, Roebuck & Co. building in Atlanta, Georgia as it transforms into Ponce City Market. Located on the site of the namesake Ponce de Leon springs and amusement park, this visual journal documents several of the former southeast icon’s changes from 2008 to 2017.