Drive-By Photos 10

Taco Bell/KFC/Great Valley Grill, Malvern, PA

This was built in the 90's as a stand-alone Taco Bell, which around 2004, was supplemented with a KFC. Around 2012, it was shut down after some drug-fueled fight in the parking lot. They painted all the exterior décor brown when they left. Great Valley moved in 2014, and have kept It brown.

Applebees/Plaza Azteca, Exton, PA

Opened probably with the center in 1991, closed when the new store was built in Lionville (although they aren't terribly close to each other)

Rite Aid/PLCB, Lionville, PA

Opened in the 80's as a Rite Aid, which moved here in 2002, and here in 2010. Is now PLCB (Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board), which calls most of its stores Wine & Spirits, though it is rebranding to Fine Wine & Good Spirits. It was created after Prohibition ended. For some reason, they allow private businesses to sell beer, but not wine. Currently our state government is battling it out with half trying to get it privatized, the other half trying to keep it state-owned. This store can only be accessed through the Giant next door.

House Demolition, Chester Springs, PA

On December 23, 2009 the furnace malfunctioned in this house, resulting in a massive fire. Thankfully, everyone was able to get out safely. They had a second house not too far away. It sat abandoned until March, 2014 when demolition began. By that afternoon, the 60's-era addition had been razed. The original house (built 1851) remains. And by that afternoon. The people who bought the property lived right behind it, and just wanted to get rid of the eyesore. the property is for sale again as a house site.

Franklin Institute, Philadelphia

A giant science museum. You can get a partial tour of it on google Earth.

Philadelphia, PA

From left to right: Embassy Suites (round building) Bell-Atlantic Tower/3 Logan Square (Tall red Building), Comcast Center (really tall place), Four Seasons Hotel (Shorter large building; closed 2015, has been gutted out, Seasons will reopen in the top floors of the new Comcast center, you can see inside the old one on google Earth), Liberty Place (multiple Pyramid place), Mellon Bank Center (single pyramid), Moore Art College (short funky building).

Comcast Center on the far right, the tallest building in the city and their headquarters, although they still lease several floors in the building this was taken from (Bell-Atlantic Tower, which is ironic since Bell-Atlantic is now Verizon). They are building another Comcast Center behind this one, which will be even taller, and then they will move out of Bell. Black building in back is Aramark's (a food distributor to hospitals, schools, etc.) headquarters. More recently, they got a new logo and stuck it up on top. The building on the right with PNB on the roof was once a bank, but has been converted to residences. The sign was removed last winter, as it was becoming dangerous.

Large building in the center would be the Convention Center, which expanded shortly before this picture was taken (Gray roof area). Small brick building in the bottom left and the one behind it are a private Quaker school. City hall on the far right, and a bunch of office buildings elsewhere.

William Penn Statue atop City Hall

Block in front: Archdiocese of Philadelphia, behind that, Mormon Temple under construction, to its right is a parking lot that is now being built on. The Sheraton on the right was originally Franklin Plaza Hotel.

1984 Drug Palace Ad

My grandfather was gathering old newspaper clippings. I found this on the back of one. This was Rite Aid's discount store. Most of them were switched to Rite Aid in the 90's. I don't think a store with that name would do too well these days.

JCPenney, Exton, PA

Exterior view. Surprising that this will close while this remains open.

Conoco, Kennett Square, PA

History courtesy pauled8no1 on Flickr: "Happy to report it is still there. I've been passing this place for years. Never an ARCO. Believe It or not, it was built in the mid-80s as a Conoco, when Conoco had a small presence in Chester County and DE due to being owned by Dupont. it went unbranded for many years before the pumps were removed.
However, those are ARCO price boards. I'm guessing maybe they were bought used and recycled."

Sunoco, West Chester, PA

Probably opened in the 80's, closed by the mid 00's. The car dealership next door has expanded here

UPDATE: Has been demolished

Olive Garden, Downingtown, PA

Opened around 2013. It's in a little center that has been growing one building at a time for the last 3 years. Since then, a LA Fitness and an AAA have been added.

Little T's Bar/Makoto, Downingtown, PAThis was an incredibly popular restaurant at the time, I'm not sure why it closed, but it did. It sat vacant for a couple of years, until a local chain of Karate studios bought it, relocating from a rented location in a former police station (I was there for a party once. It was pretty weird. They still had a couple cells and a sign reminding us to chain the prisoners to the bench).

Seen at Home Depot

According to B-More Retail on Flickr, this is a 1952 Packard 200.

Clover Bag!

Clover was Strawbridge's discount chain, 11 of which was sold out to Kohl's in 1995. The rest were closed by the end of 1996 after being bought by a real estate agency.

Sunoco, Kennett Square, PA

This had to have been something else originally, but I don't know what. Might not have even been a gas station! It has been repainted 3 times since 2013, first it was a dark gray, then it was lightened up with the seen color in early 2014, and by the end of the year, it was bright blue. I'm not sure why/how the franchisee got permission to do that. Sunoco keeps their stores the same colors usually. All of them in my area were recently repainted from dark to light gray. Correction: Actually was a 60's colonial Sunoco that remodeled to this look.

Sunoco, Chadds Ford, PA

A 60's location, has remained surprisingly intact. I'm not sure what's up with the garage area I would guess it is being used for storage now.

Old ACME Store Card

ACME's SuperCard, which had been discontinued around 2013, still on our keychain, along with an old Wegman's card on the side. Not only does it have their old logo, but the name under it (Chase-Pitkin) was a hardware store chain owned by Wegman's, which closed in 2005. Probably should have gotten a picture of that, but I didn't know at the time. :/

Arco/Exxon, Lambertville, NJ

Looks like a 60's location, I would bet Exxon has been here since at least the 80's.

Rittenhouse Tavern/Whitehall Inn, Spring City, PAThis probably opened in the mid-1800's, and was rebranded Whitehall Inn in the 60's or 70's. It closed around 2000, and remains abandoned. I can't find out too much about this place on the internet, I had to guess on just about everything except the name change. I have heard rumors that this place was haunted, but I can't find much on that either.

Sunoco, Spring City, PAI think a 90's build. The A-plus convenience store has been turned into a Subway.

Strange Art Fair Project

Towards the end of the school year in 2014, we went to their art show. This was there. I'm not sure what to make of it. The cart came from Waterloo Gardens.

Octoraro Hotel, Oxford, PA

I would guess it opened around 1910, though it definitely had some work done in the 40's or 50's. I'm not sure if it was still being used as a hotel at this point, but was definitely closed by the end of the year. It burned down fall of 2014. I think the building is for sale now, if anyone is interested in starting their own hotel.

Gulf, Ridley Park, PA

I'm not sure what this was, but a lot of local buildings with this design are Getty's, so I would assume that's what it started as.

Domino's, Ridley Park, PA

Another retail fossil from Ridley! Probably built in the 50's, most likely as a gas station, but has been a Domino's for a long time now.

Pike Deli, Ridley Park, PASeems to be from the 60's or 70's. I would bet this was the original tenant.

McDonald's, West Chester, PA

This is the old store, which was torn down and rebuilt last year.

 Rite Aid, Philadelphia (Fairmount)
Probably built in the 80's. I think it has the first wellness remodel.

Divine Lorraine Hotel, Philadelphia (North)

Built 1894, abandoned in 1999. It has not aged well. As of last week, ground had broken on converting it into apartments.

 Shell, Conshohocken, PA
This looks like it could have been a Sunoco at one point, but it would have been a bit of an anomaly in design.

Oldsmobile, Conshohocken, PA
Probably from the 50's or 60's, lost its franchise in 2008. It is currently being used as a service center and used car lot.

 Amoco/BP, Philadelphia (Port Richmond)
I think it's strange how they have the canopy goes over the store. Seems like a waste of material.

 Abandoned School, Philadelphia (Port Richmond)
And another! I actually found a video on YouTube a while back where someone explored this building. I wish I could remember what it was called.
Update: Is now being converted to apartments as of 2018.

Abandoned Factory, Philadelphia (Port Richmond)
This was an abandoned factory along the rail line.