Drive-By Photos 14
This opened around 1995 with the shopping center. Until last summer, it remained the same as it was on day 1. It just reopened from a massive remodel.
Lane closed here around 2011. Halloween Adventure has been using this as warehouse space 11 months out of the year since then, and operates this as a store in October.
This was built in the 1920's, and has been closed as long as anyone in the area can remember. Somehow, through the years it has been kept in relatively good condition. They repaint it often.
This was the best shot I was bale to get of the pool itself. The windows are pretty high up.
This is an older location, but it recently expanded and added a fuel station, which pretty quickly put all the other gas stations in the town out of business.
It looks like an older Wawa, but I don't think there's a replacement nearby, and it's pretty rare for a Wawa to just close. (Wawa refers to these older stores as "the Legacy Model") Sunoco redid the building to fit their current design, and it came out pretty nicely!
Eckerd opened a store here in 2002, which Rite Aid moved across the street in 2010. Two years later, Giant demolished the Eckerd and put up a gas station. They only took up half the site. There is still half a footprint of the old building. UPDATE: Bank of America is being built on the other half of the Eckerd site.
This sign was put up around 2012 when Giant added a gas station. I'm not sure what the deal is with that Sears logo. It was recently converted to a Sears Outlet (do they even have hardware stores anymore?), and the new logo seems more normal.
Longhorn, Exton, PA
Opened in 2003 with the shopping center. A couple of years later, an On the Border Mexican restaurant was added onto the back.
Looks like an 80's location. It was closed in 2014 when Burger King god rid of a couple hundred franchises.
RadioShack, Phoenixville, PA
Opened in 2002 with the shopping center, closed April, 2015. The store is currently vacant. UPDATE: Now home to Philly Pretzel Factory.
Some upgrades were being done last summer. The pumps and lights were replaced, a digital sign was added, and everything was given a fresh coat of paint. I wish the prices stayed like this!
Opened 2003 with the shopping center, closed in early 2015. Shortly afterwards, work began converting this place to Visco Pizza. Construction was delayed for a few months because they violated some building codes. It finally opened in August.
Puppy
This is Ruby. We got her back in May. She chews on everything, and is very possessive with whatever she has.
This store opened around 2005. The elementary school I went to was right behind it, so every recess, there would be a line of kids up against the fence watching them build it. The design has been modified to look more like the old-timey village, "Eagle," it is in.
I'm not sure what this was originally, but Family Dollar opened here around 2009, and closed in 2013.
This location opened in the 70's, and relocated to a new store at the other end of the shopping center in 1995. It is currently divided between Dollar Tree and a place that changes so often I have no clue what it is now. I think it was a real estate office last time I went by. Before that, it was a party store.
This place has been closed as long as I can remember, so I'm just taking a wild guess as to what it was.
UPDATES: "Could have been a Texaco. I remember a lot of their closed stations being painted over like this when the name disappeared form the area in the Mid 2000's (Only the larger, modern stations seemed to stick around and became Shell)." -mbz32190
"Canopies indicate that this was a Gulf for a good long time. Of course it could have been anything before that." -alexweb8
Opened around 2009. They modified the design, but I don't know why. There is really nothing special about the town's architecture. You should check out the Giant next door to see what I mean. :P
This location opened in the 60's, and closed at least a decade ago. It sat abandoned for a while until Green Drop moved in. They made this place look better than it had in years.
Update: Unfortunately, that didn't last too long. The building has been demolished as of 12/10/16
Here we have yet another Mobil. Norristown must have been crawling with them at one point. I guess Lukoil thought that one location was enough, and let this one go.
This would have been built in the 60's, and closed in the 90's. The replacement can be seen in the background of the Mobil photo you just passed. You can see some of the patchwork done with the brick filling in the old service station bays.
This was built in the 60's as a mushroom canopy station. It was sold to Lukoil after the merger with Exxon. It closed around 2010, and the canopy was demolished.
This is a very old location. Recently, they replaced the roof. It looks a lot better this way.
Opened in the 60's, but received a small facelift in the 70's or 80's. It moved to a new location in 2015.
IHOP, Norristown, PA
Probably built in the 80's. As tacky as it looks, I kinda like it.
Bed, Bath, & Beyond, Exton, PA
Opened in 2002 with the shopping center. It is the only original store in this section of the shopping center, so it must do pretty good business.
The Genuardi's (Left) opened with the center in the 70's, and closed in the 2011 closure rounds. Kmart (Right) closed around the same time and is now Metro Self Storage.It looks like the Kmart facade was kept intact. The left half of the Kmart is still for lease. Correction: Google maps shows a view from 2009 of the Kmart closing. The façade was redone when Metro took over.
This has to be one of the strangest canopies I have seen. I wonder if they added onto it or something.
Genuardi's Souvenir
A very specific closing sign from Lionville. This probably came off one of the produce cases.
Goodyear opened here in the 70's, and closed around 2010. Shortly thereafter, it was divided into three stores. Chipotle was the first to open in the old office portion later that year, followed by Vision Works and then Kiwi in 2012. Kiwi put up their sign in 2011, but waited about a year to actually fit out their store. The Goodyear facade was kept remarkably intact.
This building was built in the early 2000's, but Panera opened in 2007. They redid the facade a bit at that time.
A close-up of the Amoco seen here.
This place closed around five years ago rather suddenly. I'm not sure why, but given the state the property was left in, they were not ready to go.
If you look very closely, you can see they reused the plastic from the Clemens sign, and a faint scar is still visible 9 years after the buyout.
Jamesway/TJMaxx, Pottstown, PA
When Jamesway closed in 1995, it was divided into two spaces: One for TJ Maxx, and another store. That other store closed in the 2000's, where it was divided again. Half became some kind of clothing store, and the other part sat vacant until 2009 when Tractor Supply Co. opened. TJ Maxx moved in 2010, leaving Tractor Supply as the only occupied part of the Jamesway.
I think this became a salon or something for a bit. It closed before TSC opened in the remaining portion of the Jamesway in 2009.
This was built on the site of a Pizza Hut around 2004. Strangely, Pizza Hut returned to town a few years later when they bought out Mimmo's Pizza.
Update: Closed as of 12/10/16. It looks like it will be demolished before too long.
Update II: Taco Bell is rebuilding on the site. The existing building is gone, and KFC is not going to come back.
I think all of their roadside signs were upgraded to the new logo as soon as it came out. I guess they missed these! I think these would date back to the early 90's.
Jamesway opened in the 70's, and Ames took over in the mid-90's. That closed in the early 2000's, around the time the center was de-malled. The mall entrance used to be in the corner with the boxy façade.
The shopping center it is in was built in the early 2000's, but that seems a little new for a Ponderosa like this. It has been O'Grady's for over a decade now.
I think this is one of four remaining Burger Kings in Chester County. It opened in the 80's and hasn't been remodeled since the early 2000's.
This opened in the 70's or early 80's, and I think this is another one of Chester County's 4 remaining BK's.
Sunoco, Royersford, PA
I think they give a slightly different décor to the locations with Auto Shops than they do with the convenience stores. Ones with A-Plus stores have a red stripe and lights going around it.
This was built in the mid-90's, and given a more extreme than usual remodel last year.
The Greendrop In Norristown, PA Was Originally A Shell. It Became A Texaco Station In The 1980's When They Bought Many Shell Stations In The Philadelphia Area. The Texaco Closed In The Early 2000's. The Greendrop Opened Later On. It Is Now A Taco Bell Location.
ReplyDeleteOld Texaco Sign
https://www.google.com/maps/place/1161+S+Trooper+Rd,+Audubon,+PA+19403/@40.1143981,-75.4185964,3a,25.7y,17.04h,97.3t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sYgHFYJOYRmhtMCuRuSlUYQ!2e0!7i13312!8i6656!4m5!3m4!1s0x89c696a722b164b5:0xc6a28ce2459f66f8!8m2!3d40.1149573!4d-75.4183891