Drive-By Photos 29
This opened in the 90's, but was redone in 2010 to their short-lived tower design. Update: Remodeled again in late 2016.
This was built originally in the 50's, but was completely rebuilt in 2012. You can still get a good look at the original building here.
This was built in the 70's originally, and completely redone in 2014. At first I thought it was a rebuild, but it matches the footprint of the original one.
Woolworth opened with the center in the 60's, and held out until the chain closed in the late 90's. Soon afterwards, it was divided between Rite Aid and another tenant. The Rite Aid was redone last year along with the shopping center, which was when Chipotle moved into the right half of the store..
This was a 60's mushroom-canopy Mobil, which had the canopy boxed in sometime in the 80's. It is a twin to the now-demolished Lionville location.
Even though I came across this place by accident, it became the highlight of my road trip. This place would have opened in the 60's, and has somehow avoided being remodeled. It is still in impeccable condition, indicating that the lack of remodeling has not been because of neglect.
Nothing new since last time we were here. I just tried to get a couple extra photos on principle.
They tore up this section of parking lot in 2010, when they built the Rite Aid. Nothing ever really became of it until earlier this year, when Advance Auto Parts built a fairly small store here. It went up fast. Construction began in January, and the store was open by July.
The end of the parking lot closest to the road was rebuilt early on in the project. New sodium vapor lights were put out, and the new area had parking spaces painted. I hope they redo the rest of the lot at some point. It still has the original 80's pavement and incandescent parking lot lights. If it ever had lines, it sure doesn't now!
This opened as an A&P in the 70's. The façade still retains the general shape of it, with the exception of the peaked roof, which was added by Genuardi's when they opened in the 80's. They closed by the mid 90's. Strangely, they returned to the area with a store in Lionville only a couple years later. This was briefly a Michael's craft store, which relocated to a brand-new store in Main Street in 2003.
Han Dynasty is a small local chain of 8 restaurants. Exton was their first location. It was recently listed as one of the top 50 Chinese restaurants in America. The food is authentic Chinese, and tastes incredible.
They certainly had a lot of olives. Grocery Outlet probably doesn't keep anything stored in the back rooms.
Two and a half years after the Chinese restaurant was demolished, Construction has finally gotten above the ground. From here, construction went quickly. The addition was finished by July.
This was built as a 1N bank as an addition to the shopping center in the early 2000's. It was built in the same style as the now closed Lionville branch, although this one was only one floor. Lionville's second story served as offices for congressman Jim Gerlach. After he retired, his successor chose to relocate the office to West Chester. The building sits completely vacant now. This one was not sold to Susquehanna Bank, and later became Alliance Bank, which WSFS bought in 2015. UPDATE: Closed Fall 2016 in favor of the Penn Liberty down the road. Update: Now a Nudy's Café as of 2017.
Picked this up at Ollie's. I'm trying not do drink it all, but it's hard. This is delicious.
This barn sat abandoned for a long time, but was recently refurbished into what looks like offices. This is located in the middle of Exton Park, which made me think it was some kind of municipal building at first. Further research revealed that this is actually a small island of private property in the middle of the park.
Here's the replacement for the former Eckerd in the shopping center across the street. This was built on the site of the former PNC.
This opened in 1996 with the shopping center. I'm not sure if this was their standard design at the time, since all the other Citadels I know of were built much later.
They finally moved over to the Nova space, and have started to clean out their old store.
And yes, that's all snow.
The left half of the store was converted to a Planet Fitness. This part was actually added to the ACME in the 90's.
Shell hasn't changed much here. They kept the original brick pylons from the sign! The station hasn't changed much in the past thirty years. Update: Now a Liberty as of 2016.
Despite being in a very prosperous area, this restaurant hasn't been updated since the early 2000's. I'm pretty sure this one will be rebuilt before too long. Update: Remodeled Spring 2018.
This was built in the 70's. I think the overhang off the side of the building was supposed to serve as a shelter back when the bathrooms had exterior entrances.
This was added onto the center in the 70's. Within recent years, more stores have been added to the side of the center.
This shopping center opened in 1928, and was the first shopping center built in Pennsylvania, and the third oldest in the United States, (First is Roland Park in Baltimore, second is Country Club Plaza in Kansas City, MO). It currently houses a number of luxury stores.
We got here pretty late at night, just before closing time. The selections were picked over, but we were able to get some great pastries.
the remodel is now complete, and this store is now totally unrecognizable from its previous incarnation. I have to day, I like this new design! Here's a comparison shot before.
This building served as Saint-Gobain's US headquarters from the 60's, up until 2015. They moved to a much larger complex near Frazer. These buildings were demolished shortly after I took this picture. A new office building is being put up on the site.
There was a factory here that they started demolishing back in the 90's. For whatever reason, the process halted halfway through. It sat abandoned for the next 20 years, and finally knocked the rest of the way down in 2015. An apartment complex is being built on the site. The retaining wall on the left was actually part of the factory wall.
This was established in 1876, and was originally housed in Memorial Hall and relocated to this building in 1928. Its staircase is best known for its appearances in the Rocky movies, which you can read about here.
Old timey shoe store towards the edge of Chinatown. Looks like it's closed. :(
John Yi Fish Market, one of the older businesses in the marketplace. It is also one of the largest businesses in here.
OK Produce, Inc. Their name doesn't exactly paint them in a positive light. Just OK, not bad, but not great either.
Deli sign.
There's a park in New Jersey that allows kids to drive around power equipment for fun. They had a couple smaller vehicles set up here.
This was a 50's store, that was open until at least the early 70's. Given its proximity to ACME's headquarters, I'm surprised it didn't stick around longer. There is still some detailing on the exterior left over from the Colonial look.
Parkway cleaners didn't last very long here. It was taken over again by Greendrop not long after this picture was taken.
This one is now paired with a Sprint store, and is thankfully staying open. Update: Closed 2017. Update 2: Becoming a gym as of early 2019.
I'm not sure what the deal is with this place. They covered up the BP logo everywhere, only to become a BP again a month later. They really fixed the place up when the franchise was returned to them.
This store was added onto the shopping center around 2005. It's fairly large for a Five Below.
A fairly old America's Choice container, from at least before the first bankruptcy.
Giant discontinued both their name store brand and the logo seen here several years ago, in favor of the generic Ahold branding. I was surprised to see it still printed on these boxes.
A little over a year after Taco Bell closed, and a little under three years after they opened, Starbucks took over the building. While they didn't do as much work on the outside of the building as Taco Bell did, they completely tore apart the inside...
Trees.
This was the best picture I had with the A&P sign frame in the foreground. The sign itself has since been refurbished, but thankfully still retains the decorative part on top.
A new tenant is moving into the Spring City Amoco. Unfortunately, the old façade has been stripped off. The new one is pretty bland.
It was hard to find information on this place. It either opened in 1966 or 76 (different sources didn't agree). The building itself dates back to 1930, and probably housed another restaurant originally. The Meeting House was a popular restaurant with good food. I'm pretty sure I are here once. It unfortunately closed in 2002 due to a dispute between the owners, and the building has sat abandoned since then. Over the years, the building had fallen into horrendous shape. Squatters lived here for a while, and it was used as a dumping ground. The township eventually condemned it in 2013, although it wasn't demolished until February, 2016.
This was the ACME space. The entrance was originally on the other side of the store, but was moved over to the door frame seen here in the 70's. The frame is really the only ACME characteristic here. 50's stores looked so generic. The current tenant moved the entrance to the end of the windows, closer to its original location.
I'm not sure if all these Asian stores are related, or if they have a tendency to open near each other. Even the outdoor part of the mall has tons of Asian restaurants and supermarkets.
I think I caught an old Clemens cart in the corner here.
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