On November 25, 1949, “Miss Memphis” Gladys Dye snipped a red ribbon and Memphians were treated to the grand opening of the city’s newest shopping complex — the Bomah Center at the southeast corner of Union and Cleveland.
According to an old Commercial Appeal article (which was also the source of the somewhat grainy photos here), “special activities are planned by some of the firms in the building.” Jenkins-Leach Appliance Store (shown below) would give away a new Frigidaire refrigerator as an attendance prize to some lucky customer, and Wallace E. Johnson — builders of the one-story L-shaped building — announced they would give away a brand-new Pontiac.