A movie theater sits where a Dillard’s used to be. That’s the short version of what happened to Decatur Mall, the enclosed regional center at 1801 Beltline Road SW that opened in 1978 as Beltline Mall.
It was built around department stores: JCPenney, Castner Knott, Rogers, and later Sears. Locals also knew its first movie house, Beltline Cinemas, three screens that opened two days after the mall with “Animal House” and “Grease.”
The department-store lineup narrowed to Dillard’s and Belk; Dillard’s left in 2011, Sears closed in 2014, and the JCPenney outlet began closing down in 2013…