Rich’s Christmas Tree Lighting- Neely Farm History

Rich’s had one store downtown. When it took over a second building across the street, it was Rich’s Home store (furniture, appliances). Neely was responsible for the building of the Crystal Bridge, a four-story, glass bridge connecting the two buildings.

It’s one of the great Atlanta stories. Every year, different choirs would perform on each level of the bridge — starting from church choirs to very accomplished performers at the top. A renowned opera singer would sing, “O Holy Night.” Each story would light up as they were singing, from the bottom to the top. At the high note of the song, a real Christmas tree on top of the bridge would light up. It could be seen from miles away.

“Because we were his grandchildren, we got to stand on a parking garage roof to see that. This was in the ‘50s, and the audience was totally integrated. It was what you did on Thanksgiving evening, everybody came out to see this. It gives me chills just to think about it. Even a Jewish girl like me was in love with it. It was very powerful, incredible,” shared Eve Hoffman. “As I’ve gotten older and look at these pictures, I see these faces — of all races, sizes and ages — everybody bundled up with a coat on. Neely envisioned that kind of thing. He got the architect, and they did it.”