Did you know that there used to be a line of one/two story commercial retail along the western side of the Old DeKalb Courthouse that sat across from and looked quite similar to the row of buildings currently standing along EAST Courthouse Square (think Brick Store, Sweet Melissa’s, Squash Blossom).

“But wait!”, you exclaim to your monitor, startling the dog at your feet, “isn’t that where that glass, DeVry, better known as the “Birds From Hell” building is?!”

“Yes.” is my reply.

Once upon a time, prior to the early smart growth efforts of the 1980s, but after the Old DeKalb Courthouse was saved from the cry for more parking spaces, the City of Decatur – not a developer – tore down all the old commercial along West Courthouse Square and said to the development world, “Please build a 20-story indoor shopping mall on this property!”  (Seriously, that’s pretty much what they had planned for the site, if my memory serves me.)

After years of no one taking the bait, in the late 1970s, the city FINALLY secured a developer to build the Old Courthouse bell-blocker that we know and mock today.  (The “Birds From Hell” didn’t come until later.)

“Where the hell is he going with this?” you ask the dog, now starring up at you with a look of vague amusement and confusion.

Ah, well our good friend at Next Stop…Decatur has unearthed a rare photo of that strip along West Courthouse Square near the intersection with Ponce de Leon Avenue, and you must see it!  If for no other reason than to think to yourself, “How the heck was there ever a road there?”