Mostly Delco and Westtown
Welcome back everybody! Since nobody's allowed outside the house, how about I take you on a photographic excursion through southern Chester and Delaware counties. It's not scenic but at least it'll be a nice change from whatever you've been binge-watching.
Also a scheduling note, to make up for lost time I'll be cranking out a couple posts a week during quarantine but am not committing to any specific days. It's going to be for the most part just writing whenever I've got some downtime.
I cut off most of the building in the picture, but it looks like a 50's-era Gulf service station building that had a second story added on top of the store part. They dropped the Gulf affiliation in 2011, and though their name wouldn't indicate it they do still sell gas. If you were wondering about the name, Essington is closer to the Philadelphia Airport than about 90% of Philly. A large part of the airport actually crosses the city line into Delaware County and there are long-term plans to add another terminal on the Delco side.
There's not too much information out there on Pacific Pride, but they're a club diesel station that you need to get a membership card to use. It sounds like they have partnerships with most truck stops as well as Sinclair, Chevron, and Texaco stations in addition to their own. It looks ancient but they appear to still be using the same station design to this day, so I can't really narrow down when this opened.
A while back I covered this store before it was remodeled in early 2017. Despite the renovation, there are rumors this is going to relocate to a store with fuel on the site of the former St. Margaret Mary church nearby. It wouldn't be the first remodeled store to do so, I know of two others already.
7-Eleven opened here in the 60's, and relocated to another location in the 70's (which then relocated yet again to their current location in the 80's). It's been Seafood USA for several years now, though its tenure here is quickly approaching the end. This year, they will be relocating down the road (and in the process, rebranding to Main Line Seafood) so PennDOT can reroute Valley Road through here as part of the Paoli Station rebuilding project.
This was a 90's-era KFC that closed in 2014. It sat empty for a few years before Taco Bell moved in. This was one of the first to open with the Corten Steel facade and one of the last to open with the old logo. Construction was just about done when I got this picture, but they had not yet opened for business. I was pleasantly surprised to see they could save the KFC building. In its closed state, it had gotten so overgrown I assumed the building was beyond repair.
Pizza Box in Thorndale's longtime location is getting ripped down for a new Wawa. In addition to that, a car wash, a small apartment building, and a couple trailers were also pulled down. It's nice to see the area gentrifying, but this restaurant was a local landmark.
RadioShack was in the process of closing here, I stopped at the liquidation sale and got a phone case. It's now an F45 Fitness, who aside from putting up their sign really didn't do much to the store.
This was one of Starbucks' first locations in the area, which opened in the 90's. In 2015, they moved up the road to a former Burger King. This became Buena Vista Mexican Restaurant shortly afterwards. In late 2017, they got bought out by local chain El Limon, which has 9 locations mostly along the Main Line. This struck me as odd since the Paoli Station project was already well underway at that point, and Phase 2 of the project involves demolition of this building. Phase 2 is supposed to begin this Fall. One of the building's 3 tenants has already closed in preparation for this.
For the past several years, Sunoco has been working on building a larger new underground pipeline to replace a smaller 1930's pipe carrying gas from rural PA's gas fields to their refinery in Marcus Hook. This construction has come with a bit of controversy, most of which comes from people who have no idea how a pipeline works, but there have been some valid complaints regarding the experimental construction method which has been causing several sinkholes, claiming three houses, and shutting down construction for a few months. That's all been straightened out at this point, and I believe it should be operational before too long.
This is an older Dunkin that got remodeled in the 2000's. The adjacent cafe still has their old roof. Bonu isn't as pretentious as it sounds, it's very casual and a great place to get a gyro.
This opened as a mushroom-canopy Mobil station in the 60's, and was divested to Lukoil after the Exxon merger.
This store is number 223, meaning it probably opened in the late 70's. It was one of the first to get remodeled in 2016, but they did cut some corners here. The bathrooms still have the mid-2000's tile, side walls have the original stone facing, and around back the air conditioner cooler area on the roof has the gray wood paneling.
Penn Fruit opened here in the 50's and sold this location to ACME after they went under. ACME closed in the 90's and was replaced by Bally's Fitness. LA Fitness did not pick up this location, and it continued to operate as a Bally's for a few more years. Dollar Tree took over the majority of the space in 2015 and added an awning to the front of the previously unaltered Penn Fruit facade. They also added a drop ceiling inside. Fortunately despite Dollar Tree's unwelcome alterations, it remains one of the better-preserved Penn Fruit buildings out there.
Rite Aid opened this location in 1979 and operated without major competition until this center's landlord decided to shoot themselves in the foot. In 2005, they built a CVS outparcel here literally feet from Rite Aid's door. Rite Aid hung on for another ten years, but ultimately closed up shop in early 2015. This store more recently became a Pet Supplies Plus.
The Paoli RadioShack is completely closed up, just a couple days after I got that last picture. The "Last 1 Days " sign had been in the window for several weeks. It got my hopes up they wouldn't actually close. A guy can dream, right?
This center was built in 2002, a few years after Bell Atlantic became Verizon. I don't remember there being a long transition between the two names, but this would indicate they kept the Bell part around for a while. They closed, and this space became a RadioShack. After RadioShack also closed, they scraped their name off the plastic and revealed a little piece of history.
This is one of Sunoco's franchised locations that keeps opening and closing. The franchisee's around this time got fairly political for a gas station. It's the only place I've seen a gas station openly endorse a presidential candidate on their sign. They're also the only owners this place has had that have bothered to put any effort into making the building look nice. They added landscaping, painted the building, and added a new LED price display.
Last we saw, demolition was wrapping up on the old Futurestore Giant had been operating out of. I didn't stop by again for another month or so, since new construction always takes forever to get above the foundation and that's usually the most boring part to watch. At this point, the new store was really starting to come together.
Sam's opened here alongside Walmart in 2002 and closed sort of abruptly in 2017. Rumor has it they're going to knock it down soon so they can expand the Walmart into a Supercenter, but as of yet nothing has happened.
New facade's going up on the RadioShack building (if it even still counts as the same building). Mattress Warehouse now occupies the middle space.
Today's song is the official anthem of quarantine.
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