Downtown Amishland and Some Trains
Hey guys welcome back! Today we're going to be mostly looking around downtown Lancaster PA, then heading back to Strasburg and visiting the Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania. Calling it downtown is a stretch, there is an actual downtown that we're passing through but that's just a couple photos. I'm just lumping in the fringe retail district around it to differentiate from the acres of farmland people tend to think of when they hear "Lancaster."
While you're reading, please take a moment to wonder if it bothers Lancasterians when we refer to it as Amishland, and if they do, should I care? After roasting Chester in the past couple posts I think I need to pick on another city a little too. Share the love.
Judging by the atrium on the attached pizzeria, I'm guessing this location opened in the 80's. Another Turkey Hill opened up recently in the Willow Street neighborhood that I was positive was going to replace this one, but it would seem both are operational now.
This store was built in 2015 on the site of a long-abandoned Hess station. The McDonald's behind it was originally built in the 80's and got an expansion/remodel in the early 2000's. It lost its mansard in late 2017. It's a shame, that black metal roof looked sharp on it.
This opened as Willow Valley Shur-Fine in the 80's before becoming part of the Darrenkamp's Shur-Fine chain. The company dropped the Shur-Fine affiliation in 2013. The chain went under in 2018, closing three of their stores and selling the one remaining one to Giant. This one was only out of service for a week while it was restocked and given a quick remodel to Giant's decor. One thing I don't get is why Giant remodels basically every store they buy before they rebrand, yet still have three stores with Clemens' decor 14 years after the buyout.
R&D usually opened alongside ACME stores since they were both part of American Stores, but by the time this center was built ACME had already pulled out of the Lancaster area. It was fairly short-lived, as CVS bought the chain in 1991. The stores they bought from Rea & Derick were some of CVS's first in the region, so at this point the store was really old by CVS standards. They moved across the street in 2018, to the site of the former Willow Valley Inn.
I was super excited to come across this one. There aren't many old tile facade ACME's left out there, let alone with the stump of their old sign tower. It would have looked something like this originally. ACME opened here in 1952, and closed 30 years later when they left Lancaster. Save-A-Lot's been here for a while, they might have been the only other tenant this building has had. The interior's still remarkably intact too. SAL only seems to have replaced the decor.
Honestly I'm still not positive this started out as McCrory. It sorta looks like one and that's how I deciphered the labelscar going down the front tower. Feel free to check me on that. CORRECTION: Was actually Green's. What I can say for certain is that Rite Aid moved in here in the early 90's from an older location nearby. It was one of the earlier stores to get their current decor (remodeling from the 90's look), which is why they got the Customer World-era window treatment as opposed to the current one.
This mall opened in 1970 in an effort to bring business back downtown in response to the opening of currently thriving Park City Mall. It featured Hess's Department Store (see link for Green's in the last photo), a hotel, an office building, two parking garages, and the inline space seen here. It died as a mall years ago. Hess's became offices and the inline space fell into abandonment. The brutalist-style concrete ornamentation and access to the roof deck were removed within the past 10 years, but is visible in the 2008 Streetview. I sorta forgot about this place until I started writing this post, otherwise I totally would have come back to check this place out in depth. Unfortunately, that just wasn't meant to be. In 2018, redevelopment began. Hess's is being converted into apartments, a theater and library will be taking most of the former mall space, and the hotel is being remodeled into a Holiday Inn.
This center was built in 2017 on what was one of the last farms in the "downtown" area, and was anchored by Whole Foods and Target. Whole Foods now occupies the blue building on the right, the one on the left became a PLCB store. The Target opened while the company was going through the bullseye-only logo phase. Less than a year after they opened, they replaced the roadside signs with the lowercase logo. They have yet to add the lowercase logo to the front of the store, as they have at other area locations.
This location opened in the early 2000's, and was remodeled to the Corten steel front in late 2017. It was one of the first to get the new logo, however the roadside sign was not updated.
This opened in 2008 as one of the earlier eyebrow-model restaurants, replacing an old one on the site. It got an interior remodel in 2018. It's weird seeing McDonalds' of this era getting remodeled, but every 10 years is probably appropriate for a place like this. Fast food restaurants can get pretty gross if not maintained right.
I've posted pictures of this in the past, but it's a classic so I'm obliged to post again. Unfortunately, this is the last you'll be seeing of it. They closed in late 2018, and the building was immediately razed for a self storage facility because we can't have nice things. It stayed remarkably intact after HoJo left (granted they were still here up until 2010), and was by far the nicest Budget Host I've ever seen. It even had an indoor water park.
Remarkably they're still open here, though the way the company's been closing stores who knows for how much longer. The Amish buggy out front was a neat touch, adding a little local flair.
This Arby's opened in the 90's or early 2000's. It hasn't been remodeled yet, though it did recently receive what look like fluorescent parking lot lights. It's weird since I've seen several places out this way with them, but none anywhere else.
Shoney's closed here in the early/mid 2000's and was quickly replaced by Star Buffet, who doesn't appear to have done anything major to the building inside or out. It's been open here surprisingly long for a place that looks like it opened on a budget; those tend to have a very high turnover rate.
Going by the streetviews, this place has been remodeled 4 different times between 2008 and now, so it seems to be doing pretty well for itself. Hopefully that's enough to stop YUM! from forcing them into a strip mall eventually.
Country Inn opened this location in the early 2000's. It's still sporting the old logo, despite every other location I know of adopting the new one as soon as it came out.
This location looks like it opened in the 80's. The outside was repainted around 2010, but otherwise it doesn't appear it's had any actual remodeling done inside or out.
What I think is hilarious is that Bob Evans goes through the effort of chopping the top of their facade off as soon as they close a location, but will leave the pylon sign frame (which is the EXACT SAME SHAPE) up. I feel like one of those would be a lot easier to remove than the other.
Kentucky Fried Silver's, Lancaster, PA
Google Maps lists this as just KFC, and LJS's sign has been broken for years, but I'm still not entirely sure they've dropped them. If it were just KFC at this point, I feel like they would have at least taken LJS's sign down. Then again, if LJS was open I feel they would have fixed their damn sign by now.
This museum opened in 1975 after the state historical commission bought a number of antique trains from Penn Central Railroad's bankruptcy sale, and was doubled in size in 1995. This one here was built in 1917 by the PRR Juniata works. The museum's Wikipedia page keeps a list of the locomotives here which I may or may not be getting my information for this post from.
I usually drive through the village of Gap on my way to and from Lancaster. It's locally famous for its clock tower, which was originally built in 1892 to serve as a marker that you were crossing from Chester County into Lancaster County.
This sign's been here for what feels like forever. The earliest mention I found of Downingtown's Giant opening was from 2007, although I also found renderings of it (that apparently aren't available online anymore) that look like a very early 2000's store. The developer's website also says it will only be 51,000 square feet- half the size of a modern store but about right for a 2000-era Giant. Plans appear to still be active, as it's still listed on the developer's website. This sign was also replaced recently after the old one blew over. Not sure what the holdup is, since they've already secured an anchor tenant and the 9,500 square feet of pad sites can always be developed at a later date.
Since we spent so much time today in the Yeehaw part of Pennsylvania, a little Dwight Yoakam seems appropriate.
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