Yuengland
Today is part 2 of our 2017 Trip up the Schuylkill. We'll be passing through Pottsville (not to be confused with Pottstown), and stopping at the wonderfully out-of-date Cressona Mall along the way!
Pottsville, like most towns in this part of the state, started out as a coal mining town. As the demand for coal has fallen, many of these towns have started to dry up. Pottsville is no exception, its population is a little more than half of what it was at its peak in 1940. Despite that, they still have a major employer and tourist draw- they are home to Yuengling, the oldest and second largest American-owned brewery. It's my favorite normal (for lack of a better term- just whatever category you'd stick Coors/Bud Light/Miller under) beer. Most Pennsylvanians agree with me there.
Cressona Mall, Pottsville, PA
Unlike Vanity Fair, this mall is actually pretty well covered (that's 3 links!) by the mall community. It first opened in 1974, anchored by Woolco, Hill's, and ACME. Woolco didn't last long, and closed in 1976. Lane, better known as Laneco's parent, moved into the left side of the store in in 1982. Not long after, ACME moved into the other half from their existing store which I think makes it their last store to open outside the Philadelphia region of PA. Lane became Staples after they closed. The ACME was among the stores converted to Bi-Lo in 1996 after their north/central PA stores were sold off to Penn Traffic. Giant then bought it off of Bi-Lo two years later. On the other end, Hill's was sold to Ames in 1999 which closed in 2002. Ollie's, Planet Fitness, and a surgery center now occupy most of it, while a tiny portion remains vacant. I'm not sure exactly what happened to the original ACME while after they moved to the other side, but it is now home to an Advance Auto Parts. The interior portion is almost totally dead, but you wouldn't be able to tell by the outside. The stores facing the parking lot now all have exterior entrances, which are almost completely filled. The mall's been tossed around a bit and even foreclosed a couple times, but I don't see it going anywhere soon.
From the outside it hardly looks like an enclosed mall. Its façade was redone the 2000's to better match Giant's façade (Even though Staples' red monstrosity separates the two).
Lets head inside, shall we?
Several of my interior photos from this time around didn't come out well. I'm probably leaving out half of them here. The good news is that I've been back here twice since then and nothing has changed. This sports collectibles store was one of the few remaining inline stores that didn't open to the outside.
This store had a surprisingly modern front. It looks vaguely like a Regis but without their usual black stripes.
As you can tell from the ceiling, Dollar General was carved out of the mall space. It originally mainly used the mall entrance, but quickly closed that off in favor of the parking lot entrance.
The "Somewhere in Time" sign is a holdover from a long-gone kiosk. It's a fitting message to have ominously floating in the hallway here.
The interior part of the mall started to dry up all the way back in the 90's. I wouldn't be surprised if that was the last time this space had a permanent occupant.
This one, on the other hand, was last used as an office for Planet Fitness as they were getting ready to open their gym in the former Ames.
This spot's clearly been empty for a long time. I theorize it used to be a fast food restaurant-possibly Arby's, given the brick flooring. I know they used to have a lot of sit-down mall locations.
The message board off to the side of the mall offices hasn't been changed in the past decade, if not longer. I actually doubt the offices are even still used regularly. The lights were on, but I haven't seen anybody in there during any of my visits.
LA Hair Designs was one of the other mall-only stores. They've expanded out into the hallway quite a bit. It's very wide and doesn't get much use, so that extra space won't be missed.
Another empty store in the corner. The doorway to the left goes to the mall's bathrooms, which I am pleased to report still get cleaned.
While Planet Fitness doesn't open into the mall, they put in windows instead of just walling it up- perhaps in hopes that one day something will move in here that will make it worth reopening.
That vacant storefront's being used for storage by the mall's management. There are some really old carts kicking around here, one of which came from Ames next door! I believe the gray one is something they picked up from Wal-Mart, since I saw another one elsewhere in the mall. They probably came from an auction, since Walmart never had a store here. The red-handled one could possibly be from ACME.
Speaking of ACME, lets head over there now. Giant totally gutted the place when they moved in, but really haven't done much to it since then. It is one of two stores left with the earliest version of the Fun House décor (which is actually lacking all the "fun" elements so I always just refer to it as the Late 90's look- if you can come up with something better, drop it in the comments below!) and is the only one left with the green version of it. Interestingly the other store (which has the red version) is also in Pottsville. This store sadly doesn't have the full décor anymore; the service department signage was replaced with Fun House V2 in a 2010ish semi-remodel.
Behind produce, you can see some of the newer signage. The tile backsplash is original. Another thing I found interesting was that this store hasn't reconfigured their produce department yet. Almost every other store in the chain went from angled to straight cases in 2015 in order to expand their selection.
Some more of the newer signage. Fun House V2 was retired in 2011 in favor of the Ahold decor, but about 1/3 of their stores still have it in some form.
The fluorescent bar is left over from before the semi-remodel; it would have been aimed at the original seafood sign. The new sign is in a different location and it's really bothering me how off the light is now.
I think it's funny the late 90's aisle markers are still in place, seeing how they would be the easiest part of the décor to update.
Not sure if the football stuff over meats was merchandise or just their way of supporting the team.
The earliest version of this décor used ceramic tile flooring with this pattern throughout the store. To my knowledge, that only made its way into one Giant before they realized how uncomfortable that was to push a cart across. Their former subsidiary Edwards on the other hand was not so lucky. Several of their former stores still have that tile in it.
On the dairy aisle we've got some light bars that still line up with what they were supposed to. The picture mosaics that were originally between the pillars here got replaced with solid panels during the semi-remodel, but the Dairy sign itself is still original. Bonus points for still having green backlighting.
Over on the other end, the former Hills entrance has been taken over by the Surgery Center. While the right half of their façade has been redone to match the rest of the mall, this entrance and everything to the left of it remains as Ames left it.
Ollie's took over a portion of the store. I recently found out their registers still have Ames lights over them, so I'll need to check that out next time I'm up here.
These signs were by the mall's driveway. Not sure if they were specific to any tenant or just belong to the mall as a whole, but regardless look pretty old.
Brok Sel Market, Pottsville, PA
Yes, I was wondering the same thing. Unfortunately, the internet offers no clarification as to what their name means.
What I can tell you however is that they're a 3-store grocery chain in the area here that has a strong following. They all look like this one, but this is the only location to still have an original sign. They're a holdout of a time when convenience supermarkets were popular- when Wawa didn't offer prepared foods or when Turkey Hill wasn't known as a gas station. It's exciting seeing one that's not only still open but going strong.
Sunoco, Pottsville, PA
There was originally an Arco-turned-Sunoco on the site here, whose former service center had been turned into an A-Plus. Sunoco decided to rebuild in 2015,putting up what you see here. Sunoco doesn't rebuild too often, but this isn't the first time I've seen it happen. Their new stores are nice; I really hope the ~300 franchised A-Plus's that didn't get sold to 7-Eleven keep this design.
CVS, Pottsville, PA
This location opened in 2016, on the site of a small Suzuki dealership, a long-abandoned Arthur Treacher's, and a Brewer's Outlet store. It's nice seeing new investment along this street, but I don't like that the store doesn't face the road. I'd call this a downtown area, and facing away from the road kinda kills the feel.
Gulf?/Mobil/Getty/Mobil, Pottsville, PA
Prior to this station converting back to Mobil after Getty went under, the canopy had a shingle roof around the edge instead of the flat parapet there now. I'm reasonably certain Gulf was the only one to do that. Gulf would have opened here in the 60's, and most likely switched to Mobil in the 80's.
Coal Creek Center, Pottsville, PA
This center first opened in 2001, at which point it was just Walmart. Home Depot, then Tractor Supply, followed not long after, but the main strip mall didn't come until 2009. Since then, Taco Bell and Aspen Dental have moved in, but there's still no shortage of space available for pad sites as it sits on a huge piece of flattened land. It was formerly the site of a large coal mine and its rail yard.
The strip mall itself was designed to look like an old colliery. Somehow I doubt the one that once stood here looked this nice.
I wouldn't say strip mall Dunkin's are exactly rare, but you really don't see them too often. Particularly for newer stores.
Gulf/Texaco?/Sunoco, Pottsville, PA
Sunoco doesn't do 3-D canopy signs that often so this was an interesting discovery. It looks like this was originally built as a Gulf in the 40's or 50's. Prior to Sunoco moving in a couple years ago, it was selling gas independently but looked like it had some traces of Texaco so I figure that's what operated here in between.
The building's exterior has since been repainted white, which IMO doesn't look as good.
Finishing off the post with a little preview of what we'll be looking at next week! ;)
Fun Fact: Pottsville had its own NFL team (The Maroons) from 1925-1929. In that short time, they won the 1925 Championship. It later moved to Boston (becoming the Bulldogs), and again to DC in 1932 becoming what are now the Redskins.
Pottsville, like most towns in this part of the state, started out as a coal mining town. As the demand for coal has fallen, many of these towns have started to dry up. Pottsville is no exception, its population is a little more than half of what it was at its peak in 1940. Despite that, they still have a major employer and tourist draw- they are home to Yuengling, the oldest and second largest American-owned brewery. It's my favorite normal (for lack of a better term- just whatever category you'd stick Coors/Bud Light/Miller under) beer. Most Pennsylvanians agree with me there.
Unlike Vanity Fair, this mall is actually pretty well covered (that's 3 links!) by the mall community. It first opened in 1974, anchored by Woolco, Hill's, and ACME. Woolco didn't last long, and closed in 1976. Lane, better known as Laneco's parent, moved into the left side of the store in in 1982. Not long after, ACME moved into the other half from their existing store which I think makes it their last store to open outside the Philadelphia region of PA. Lane became Staples after they closed. The ACME was among the stores converted to Bi-Lo in 1996 after their north/central PA stores were sold off to Penn Traffic. Giant then bought it off of Bi-Lo two years later. On the other end, Hill's was sold to Ames in 1999 which closed in 2002. Ollie's, Planet Fitness, and a surgery center now occupy most of it, while a tiny portion remains vacant. I'm not sure exactly what happened to the original ACME while after they moved to the other side, but it is now home to an Advance Auto Parts. The interior portion is almost totally dead, but you wouldn't be able to tell by the outside. The stores facing the parking lot now all have exterior entrances, which are almost completely filled. The mall's been tossed around a bit and even foreclosed a couple times, but I don't see it going anywhere soon.
Yes, I was wondering the same thing. Unfortunately, the internet offers no clarification as to what their name means.
What I can tell you however is that they're a 3-store grocery chain in the area here that has a strong following. They all look like this one, but this is the only location to still have an original sign. They're a holdout of a time when convenience supermarkets were popular- when Wawa didn't offer prepared foods or when Turkey Hill wasn't known as a gas station. It's exciting seeing one that's not only still open but going strong.
There was originally an Arco-turned-Sunoco on the site here, whose former service center had been turned into an A-Plus. Sunoco decided to rebuild in 2015,putting up what you see here. Sunoco doesn't rebuild too often, but this isn't the first time I've seen it happen. Their new stores are nice; I really hope the ~300 franchised A-Plus's that didn't get sold to 7-Eleven keep this design.
This location opened in 2016, on the site of a small Suzuki dealership, a long-abandoned Arthur Treacher's, and a Brewer's Outlet store. It's nice seeing new investment along this street, but I don't like that the store doesn't face the road. I'd call this a downtown area, and facing away from the road kinda kills the feel.
Prior to this station converting back to Mobil after Getty went under, the canopy had a shingle roof around the edge instead of the flat parapet there now. I'm reasonably certain Gulf was the only one to do that. Gulf would have opened here in the 60's, and most likely switched to Mobil in the 80's.
This center first opened in 2001, at which point it was just Walmart. Home Depot, then Tractor Supply, followed not long after, but the main strip mall didn't come until 2009. Since then, Taco Bell and Aspen Dental have moved in, but there's still no shortage of space available for pad sites as it sits on a huge piece of flattened land. It was formerly the site of a large coal mine and its rail yard.
Sunoco doesn't do 3-D canopy signs that often so this was an interesting discovery. It looks like this was originally built as a Gulf in the 40's or 50's. Prior to Sunoco moving in a couple years ago, it was selling gas independently but looked like it had some traces of Texaco so I figure that's what operated here in between.
The building's exterior has since been repainted white, which IMO doesn't look as good.
Fun Fact: Pottsville had its own NFL team (The Maroons) from 1925-1929. In that short time, they won the 1925 Championship. It later moved to Boston (becoming the Bulldogs), and again to DC in 1932 becoming what are now the Redskins.
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