Drive-By Photos 17
Please be warned this post, like the others, has a ton of broken links. Most of them link back to now-deleted Flickr photos and I have bigger things to worry about right now (Like moving the next 4,420 photos off my page) than hunting down which photos they went to. Sorry about that!
Wells Fargo kept the old Wachovia sign frame here when they took over in 2008. They (tastefully) didn't reuse the old signs at most other locations.
This looks like some kind of bizarre cross between one of Wawa's older locations and their newer ones. I would guess this was a transitional store while they were still moving from the old design to the new one. This may have been the first one to receive a gas station. Update: I have confirmed that this was a fuel center Wawa originally.
This originally opened in the 60's with the mushroom canopies. Unfortunately, all that remains from then are the poles holding up the canopy. I think everything else was rebuilt in the 80's or early 90's.
I believe this opened in 2013. Unlike most restaurants, Sonic has actually been getting fancier with their designs recently.
A&P opened here in the 60's. By the late 70's they had closed, and Genuardi's had taken over. In recent years, it had been a Dollarland, which then became a Jomar before Save-A-Lot moved in last year.
Target, Lionville, PA
This was built in 2008. I think this was supposed to replace the nearby Exton location, but it was ultimately decided they would keep both. The following year, they completely gutted out and redid the Exton location.
Grand Sport/Service King, Chester Springs, PA
This building began life as a warehouse, but in 2010, work began converting it into a Grand Sport Auto repair shop. It came out looking a lot nicer than it had before. In 2015, Service King bought out Grand Sport. Within a month after this picture had been taken, everything blue was repainted red.
Coastal/Michelin, Lionville, PA
There's some more Rite Aid design on this building. You can see a bit of the former pharmacy on the right. Compare to this view from 2013.
I was out buying puppy food and walked by the fish display. I thought it looked pretty cool, so I took a picture.
This store still seems stuck in the past, despite the upscale area it is in. It was built in the 70’s and hasn’t changed much since.
This was built around 2005. I’m not sure if they went with the red brick to fit in with the area more, if towards the end they had switched from that horrifying white brick design. Apparently, they used this store design for a long time! Check out a branch from 1978 here.
I’m surprised this store has managed to stay this original given its age. It is the only open Mobil station I know of in the state. I would reckon it has been here since the 50’s. Correction: It actually did become a Lukoil for a while before switching back in 2011. There's also a sprinkling of about half a dozen other Mobil's in the Philly area.
Opened in the 90's.
This photo sums up the inside pretty well. The décor is very sparse.
I'm not sure whether this falls under Paoli or Malvern, but it looks like the majority of the property falls under the Paoli side of the sign. A restaurant called Basil was built here around 2002. It closed in 2009 and was demolished shortly thereafter. I think there may have been a fire. Citadel was built here afterwards. I think the retaining wall and parking lot are left over from Basil. This site gives a good description of what Basil was like.
A clearer photo of this place.
I think this was a bank originally. DD opened around 2013, adding their own details to it. It's a pretty bizarre building as a result.
This opened in the late 90's. I used to go here a lot. It closed in 2015 when a replacement opened down the road, as seen in the next photo.
An update to this picture. Starbucks really came out nicely here.
This opened as Rocco's, a walk-up Italian place around 2007. It didn't last too long. It then became a car dealer for a couple years (they added the door in front), and as of last year, had become some other kind of restaurant. I think it's a yogurt place.
This was built as an infirmary for a nearby orphanage in 1902. More recently, it had served as offices. In 2015, it was gutted out to be turned into a new home for the Chester Springs Library. That narrow door is how we got in. I don't think it is even able to be locked.
Around this time, Commerce Bank was really kicking off their expansion. Ten years later, the entire area would be smothered in them. Around 2007, TD bought them out. They had a very distinct store design so it is easy to tell where they were.
A nighttime view of the Kimberton Wawa. This location opened in 1986. The tie-dye thing over the checkout was for Hoagiefest, an annual event where featured sandwiches are put on sale. Update: Closed Summer 2016. It was less than a mile away from the newer, larger Phoenixville store, but it's still unusual for Wawa to close without replacement. I'm guessing they had a 30-year lease that ran out.
An update to this photo. Temple University has started work restructuring and converting it into their boathouse.
Franklin Plaza, Philadelphia
The Sheraton was originally Franklin Plaza Hotel. The building on the right was previously the headquarters for GlaxoSmithKline, which moved to South Philly in 2015. The building has since had its concrete façade stripped off and replaced with glass.
This was formerly known as the PNB Building. Here's is an article on the sign being removed.
I know I've already posted a ton of photos of this, but this one is sepia-toned. I took this picture by aiming my camera through a floppy disk. I'm happy with how it came out.
It's hard to believe this city once looked so small. The former Four Seasons Hotel now stands in the plot of land on the bottom left. A highway goes in front of the library on the right now.
There used to be an opening in the center of this. The concrete thing used to go up through it. It was under construction for the last couple years, finally reopening in 2015.
Fun Fact: There are Cold War fallout shelters still stocked with food and medicine down here.
Wanamaker Building, Philadelphia
This is the subway entrance for the Wanamaker building. It looks like it hasn't had anything done to it since the department store went under.
This was previously the site of a Snellenburg's store. It opened in the late 1800's, and closed in the mid-1900's. It had since been divided up. Last year, it was demolished to make way for a new highrise. This picture shows it coming down.
This is probably Philadelphia's most elegant department store. Naturally, Macy's kept this one instead of the Strawbridge's when they bought May Co. See some pictures of the inside here.
This store opened in the early 80's. It has the current décor (Like literally all but one of the Rite Aids in Center City), but retains the older 90's/early 2000's exterior signage.
A couple years ago, this building was completely redone to keep it up with code. In doing so, Wawa was given an opportunity to expand their store. It originally took up just the left half of the building. In keeping with the restoration, the 90's Wawa logo was replaced with the one that the Wawa Dairy used. Despite this effort to make the outside seem old, the inside is very modern.
This opened as an Arco in the 60's, and closed as a Citgo in the early 2000's. Despite being abandoned for so long, it has actually been preserved very well- it still has the original canopy and lights!
This is a Chinatown entrance gate facing Market Street. You can see a bit of the Gallery behind it.
I have no clue what this was originally. It was built in the 20's or 30's, and has been a Rite Aid since 1994. This is what it looked like before it received the latest Wellness remodel. Update: "A McCrory's was located at this location back in the 1980's and early 90's before it closed and replaced by Rite Aid in 1994. Rite Aid were the ones to put the black tile and clock up on the building" -mrambojr.
McDonald's surprisingly closed this location in 2016. It didn't sit vacant for long- Panda Express took over months later, completely redoing the building. (Also if you don't recognize this picture from Flickr, that's because I forgot to actually upload it an it never made its way up there).
The building was very run-down, but it still has a lot of that 60's feel to it.
The said lookout platform provides a nice view of the Delaware. In the background, you can see the Battleship New Jersey. The building on the right is an apartment complex designed to look like a boat.
There's a large lookout platform at the end of South Street. On it, they have this bizarre statue. It reminds me of something out of a sci-fi movie.
Thrift Drug opened in 1992. They later sold out to Eckerd, which Rite Aid bought in 2007. It closed shortly after this picture was taken. It had the original Wellness décor, but kept Eckerd's blue ceiling brackets. This store was small and Wawa needed the space.
This opened in 1992, and was expanded/remodeled in 2016 into half of the former Rite Aid space next door.
This is definitely the world's most unique CVS store. While this end of it was probably built in the 80's (CVS opened in 2000), the back of the store is situated in a colonial-era storefront. World's oldest CVS building?
This sign has to be at least fifty years old. It has held up remarkably well over they years. Update: Unfortunately, this was removed sometime in 2018.
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