In 1953, M.D. Goodfriend, Jr., owner of M. Goodfriend Store, and Simon Monen, owner of Sterling Dress Shop, opened the Athens Outlet Store at this location. The store specialized in selling discount apparel and used the old jail building on Hornsby Street as its warehouse. The store moved to Congress Parkway in 1981, and the name was later changed to Goody's. In 1990, the headquarters moved from Athens to Knoxville. A corporate name known throughout the South and Midwest as a popular chain of brand name family clothing began in this building in Athens.