ATLANTA – The Home Depot put the brakes Thursday on some of its expansion plans and said it would do what was previously unthinkable – close 15 of its underperforming flagship stores.

It is the first time the world’s largest home improvement store chain has ever closed a flagship store for performance reasons. The move, to be completed within the next two months, will affect 1,300 employees.

The company reiterated its intention to open 55 new stores in the 2009 fiscal year, though it will no longer pursue the opening of roughly 50 U.S. stores that have been in its new store pipeline, in some cases for more than 10 years.

The stores The Home Depot said Thursday it plans to close consist of three in Wisconsin, two in Ohio, two in New Jersey, two in Indiana and one each in Kentucky, Louisiana, Minnesota, North Dakota, New York and Vermont.