Over the decades, Kroger has operated in three different PLAZA stores. The first -depicted here- opened in April 1952. 

Drawing from the Kroger Company

The big news at the PLAZA in 1952 was the completion of adjacent J.C. Penney and J.G. McCrory stores. Both opened on the same day in October.

Photo from the Digital Archive of Memphis Public Libraries / LaVerne Dinwiddie

A Britling cafeteria (a.k.a. "Britling's East") welcomed first diners in April 1956.

Drawing from Britling Cafeterias

Our first PLAZA plan depicts the complex of 1959. It had taken 10 years, and several construction phases, to complete the basic footprint. The cluster mall now encompassed approximately 456,600 leasable square feet and contained forty-one tenant spaces. All store blocks had basements. Four also had upper levels. Free parking was provided for 1,800 autos.

A late '50s view of the new north and northeast store blocks. From left to right are Kroger, Woolworth's, Walgreen Drug and Bond Clothes.

Photo from the Bluff City News Company

Over the years, the official name of the complex morphed into POPLAR (sans "highland") PLAZA. In 1986, there were fifty stores in the directory. These included Center Stage Dancewear, David's Home Fashions, Fox Photo, Hecht's Suburbia and The Telephone Store. There was also a 10-tenant mall within a mall known as Poplar Plaza Gallerie.

Graphic from the Finard Company

The PLAZA had begun to decline in the early 1980s. It was renovated, repositioned and retenanted between 1991 and 1996. The complex now housed approximately 571,000 leasable square feet. During its 1990s overhaul, several big box-type stores had set up shop. These included Old Navy, Bookstar (a subsidiary of Barnes & Noble) and Party City.