A Particularly Bad Set of Photos

Howdy folks! I've got some good news and some bad news- the good news is that the next several posts should have much better pictures in them. The bad news is that I've got to get these out of the way first. I cut a lot of the worse pictures out but I didn't want to remove the stours entirely as I have no plans to return to either in the near future. Plus, some of the other things covered here have changed enough I feel a duty to upload these blurry "before" pictures before we eventually see them in their present form.

Update: Thanks to Dblackwood on Flickr, some of these photos have been touched up nicely!

 Shops at Coventry, North Coventry, PA
We'll start the day off with the strip center behind the Coventry Mall. It was almost entirely vacant during this visit, but has since rebounded nicely. This space appears to have been some kind of restaurant, but has been vacant long enough there are no records left of anything being here. In 2019, it became a nail salon.

 This was formerly Pomodoro Pizza, which closed around 2014. It became Positively Pasta in 2019, which as far as I'm aware isn't a restaurant but rather a pasta factory and store.

 Former Panda Heaven restaurant, which closed around 2010. This became Piccolo Mondo, an Italian restaurant, in 2019

 Based on the absence of ceiling tiles here, I'm assuming they had some leakage problems with the roof here. Fortunately it seems they stopped that before it caused any major structural damage.

 The wood-paneled bars were my favorite thing about this space, and I'm happy to report were saved by Piccolo Mondo.

 This restaurant takes up two storefronts; the dining area has the larger corner one, while the kitchen occupied the smaller one behind it. Currently, the center only has two vacancies and neither tenant left the property. Jo-Ann recently moved into the mall itself, while CVS relocated to a freestanding store in the parking lot.

 Carmike Cinemas closed this location when they opened a larger one in Pottstown in 2011. That one then became an AMC when they bought out the Carmike chain. Honestly I didn't expect Coventry to ever be able to fill this, but to my (pleasant) surprise it became a Flagship Cinema last year.

 Walmart, Eddystone, PA
This Walmart opened in 2002 on the site of Buildings 1-5 of the former Baldwin Locomotive Works (Of which only Building 7 and the offices remain). While the store has been impacted, the cart corrals retain the old logo and classic Always tagline.

 I don't think Walmart Financial Services is even still a thing.

 Now for the fun part. Inside, not a single photo I got was in focus. They're clear enough you get the gist of it though.

 Not quite sure what the blue square in the flooring was from. Possibly a holdover from the original decor?

 The interior of this store is practically identical to the Exton one. They both opened around the same time, and neither have been expanded to a Supercenter.

 Exceptionally blurry look down towards the Auto Center.

 The Cosmetics department, which looks relatively low-security for a Walmart, and especially low-security for one right outside Chester. I only see one camera. A lot of Eddystone residents blame the opening of this shopping center for the decline of their neighborhood since it draws so many people from Chester in, along with the problems they bring. Eddystone was never all that glamorous, just a typical middle class Irish-American factory town, but their crime rates were much lower pre-Walmart.

 Looking toward the pharmacy from the freezer aisles. I remember being sent here to grab something we needed for my job that would have been a quick trip, but I tried to take my time here because they were playing Hall & Oates.

 Exterior of the store, which despite having a different design also has the same general shape of the Exton store.

 Brookhaven PetSmart Construction
When I put up the photo of the center from the road last post, I forgot I had these much closer shots. I think the inline stores here were (from left to right) H&R Block, Dots, and a Karate studio.

 The passage between the center's two buildings leads to a beer distributor in back (Fun fact: PA recognizes Beer Distributors as an essential business). Despite the passageway being theirs, they don't get a sign on the front. PetSmart's logo now graces that block above the entryway. You'd think they'd get at least a little recognition for being the only tenant left here that's been around more than 5 years. :/

 Howard Johnson/Days Inn, Chester, PA
HoJo opened this Hotel/Restaurant combo in the 60's. The restaurant held on a surprisingly long time, but between the decline of the city and the fact that the chain was falling apart, ultimately gave up the franchise in 2000. The restaurant became an independent diner, while the former franchisee operated the hotel as "Airport Inn" (Chester's relatively close to the Philly airport) until they got Days Inn to take them under their wing in 2003. Under the Orange Roof has a pretty detailed article on this place with some great vintage photos.

 Red Cross, Chester, PA
This is one of my favorite buildings to drive by in Chester. It began life as a rowhome, which evidently lost it's neighbors by the 50's (a testament to how long Chester's been in decline) when the Red Cross took it over and added some wonderfully modern additions to either side. They operated here until around 2014. It's near the nicer western edge of town, so hopefully it won't sit vacant for much longer.

 Grace Church, Chester, PA
Despite the boarded-up front window, this church is actually still operational.  More recently, they've reinstalled a window here, but it is much smaller than the original and doesn't have any stained glass. Judging by the architecture, I'm assuming this was built as an Episcopal church. Their website doesn't give much of a history of the church itself, but I get the impression they've been here for a few years at this point.

 Giant, Brookhaven, PA
This opened in 2016, replacing the 80's store across the street. It was the last store to get the Ahold decor and opened at a time when Giant was really cutting a lot of corners. Aside from the signage, it had practically no decor. They realized their mistake a few months later and remodeled both this location and one in Harrisburg that opened around the same time and was in a similar predicament. The new Grayscale decor made its debut in early 2017 at the Middletown store. Harrisburg and Brookhaven were respectively the second and third stores to receive it.

 When this store opened, is was just a blank white wall.

 The remodel also brought recipe decals, which I thought were a neat touch.

 The remodel only added signage, they didn't remove any of the Ahold decor signs. It has a mashup of two decors now. You can see the Ahold look went basically 2-D at the end. I have some pre-remodel coverage in this post.

 Sears, Granite Run Mall, Media, PA
While Sears was allowed to remain open during the redevelopment of the mall property, I get the impression the owner is waiting for them to close (which as of now hasn't happened; it's Sears' only remaining full-size store in the Philadelphia area now that Concord Mall's location has begun liquidation). They only did some minimal improvements to the side exposed during the mall's demolition. It has an entrance but no sign on the building, nor on the new roadside pylon. The other surviving anchor form the original mall, Boscov's, has their sign on the pylon. That's suspicious.

 A lease sign by Baltimore Pike had a rendering for what the finished "Promenade at Granite Run" will look like.

 Some new stores being built where the front parking lot used to be. I really should have gotten a picture of the Riddle Ale House next door, which was original outparcel to the mall and was still operational at the time. It was a local landmark steakhouse and bar that would have live music from moderately famous locals, like Charlie Gracie who had a big song in the 60's. Even though it was in the mall parking lot, the building was owned by the same family as the restaurant. They sold out to Wawa and opened a sandwich shop in downtown Media.

 McDonald's, Granite Run Mall, Media, PA

 While this did survive the mall redevelopment, it couldn't escape the mandatory McBoxing. This location was remodeled in early 2019.

 Abandoned Houses, Media, PA
These houses were torn down in 2019 as part of the Franklin Mint site redevelopment, for which most of the properties were bought out for back in 2007. However, these appear to have been abandoned for much longer. Either another developer had smaller-scale plans for the site beforehand, or people really just didn't want to live on a 4-lane highway.

Here's another house next door. I didn't ever get a chance to check out either of these places, but evidently the first one was accessible and this one was not. While I cannot offer my own further coverage of these houses, I can direct you to somebody who can.

I picked this song for today for no other reason than it was what I was listening to when I wrote this. It's got some interesting trivia too- while it was originally released in the early 60's, it became popular again in the 80's after Eddie Money sampled it (and featured guest vocals from Ronnie Spector, the lead signer of the original group) for his song Take Me Home Tonight.