Flickr Photos 40
This place has been closed up as long as I can remember. For a while, it was used as a seasonal Halloween Adventure store, but I don't think that has opened since 2010 at the very latest. They still have their sign, complete with the old logo, out by the road.
Howard Johnson's opened here in the 60's, and was later converted to Best Western. I want to say that happened in the 90's, but can't say for sure. Howard Johnson started out with one traditional style motel, with entrances to the rooms on the outside. Towards the end of their time here, they added a second wing (you can see a bit of it on the right), with an enclosed hallway connecting the rooms. In the early 2000's, Best Western razed the original hotel rooms and built another new wing on the site. I think the middle of the building with the lobby and restaurant may still be original.
This is one of the few locations still sporting the old logo as of September, 2017. Update: Has the new logo as of mid-2018.
Speaking of struggling restaurant chains, here's another. Peace A Pizza was a local hippie-themed pizza parlor, which had about a couple dozen stores at its peak in the mid-2000's. Most of them started closing between 2014 and 2016. A few stragglers held on for a while, but now there's only one left (Catonsville, MD). Six of their former restaurants, which I'm assuming were all owned by the same franchisee, reopened as a new upscale pizza restaurant called Snap Pizza. I'm not quite sure how that all worked out, since Exton was closed for over a year before Snap opened.
This location is still vacant, but will probably be taken over by something sooner or later. It's unusual for a building like this to sit vacant for long in King of Prussia, but we'll see an anomaly a two pictures over.
As you can probably tell by the roof, this was built as a Lone Star Steakhouse. It closed around 2010. Plaza Azteca opened in 2012 after giving the building a thorough makeover. Plaza Azteca is a local Mexican restaurant chain, primarily operating out of reused chain restaurant buildings. I'm struggling to come up with another restaurant I can compare it to, maybe like a more authentic version of Chi-Chi's?
And while we're on the topic of Lone Star, their last location anywhere near us (Wilmington, DE) finally closed. It looks like the chain is down to 16 restaurants total (Now 4 as of January 2019).
This was built in 2013 as the first (and so far only) CarMax in the Philadelphia area.
We got a new car earlier this year, and got the one we were replacing appraised here. We got a solid $380 for it. :P
I thought this place was interesting- The building was obviously built as a Sunoco station, but it has an Arco sign frame. That would indicate that they lost this store to Arco at some point, then got it back when they bought Atlantic.
I like seeing companies return to stores they've left behind. Correction: "Believe it or not, this was never an ARCO. The sign frame looks similar, but it is more square. This was built as a 60s colonial stytle Sunoco, just as you said. However, in the mid-80s, prior to buying Atlantic, Sunoco began converting a few of these to convenience stores, using the rather generic "Sunoco Food Mart" name. That's what this is. The Sunoco Food Mart sign was square. Those signs didn't last long because they took the A plus name after buying Atlantic, since they didn't have a convenience store name of their own. I wish I could find a pic of one of those signs, but I couldn't locate any online."-pauled8no1
This was one of two Exxon stations in town. The other one was kicked out and replaced with a Chipotle. Around the same time, they fixed this one up. I think that must have been in an effort to draw back the customers they lost with the other one closing.
Demolition is progressing along slowly but surely. So far, they've ripped down about 1/3 of the main building.
Looking towards the front end. That shelf normally holds seasonal impulse buys. I guess they were getting ready for back-to-school here. Not sure what else they would be setting up in late July.
I first got some photos of this store in 2013 and 2014, but they were all of promotional signage and not the actual store. (Which, by the way, is also referred to as the West Chester store. I'm probably going to wind up calling it that at some point, so keep that in mind.
This store opened in 1962, although you wouldn't be able to guess by the way it looks now! It was expanded in the late 70's and mid-90's. Both times, they pretty much gutted out the building and started fresh. It was also the first store to get this decor, back in 2011. The look has since been retired for the most part, but was still being put into some (mostly smaller, older) stores that needed a cheap refresh as recently as early 2016. Update: This store will be remodeling sometime in 2019. And through 2019 I will still keep mistakenly referring to this store as West Chester even though the welcome signs say otherwise.
The pharmacy has aisles running perpendicular to the rest of the store. This was common in 90's stores, but many, if not most, stores took these out when they added a PSFS-Mellon or Citizen's Bank. PSFS-Mellon Bank was built into the new front end as part of the expansion, so they didn't need to make any changes here.
Construction for this church started in 1916, but was stopped about a year afterwards due to WWI. After the was ended, construction began again, and the church moved in mid-1919. It is really a magnificent building, this picture doesn't do it justice.
This fountain sits between the old court house (A new one was built down the road in 2007; this one now serves as extra county offices), and main county office building.
I liked this picture.
Around 2010, a developer bought out these three buildings, along with the former Chester County Courthouse Annex (not pictured- would be to the right of these) with plans to build an apartment complex on the site. While they were waiting for the right time to build, these buildings have really started to fall apart. You can smell the mold inside them from the street. The city wants them taken down, but the developer is trying to put that off until he's ready. There are some demolition permits on one of the buildings, but they're dated 2014. Update: Demolished December 2018.
This part of West Chester is packed to the brim with Italian restaurants (including but not limited to pizza parlors, wine bars, and gelato shops). This one is a small chain; there are two others in Philadelphia.
I liked the building this was in.
Univest is primarily based up north from me, in Bucks and Montgomery counties. This location is the only one I've seen in Chester County, let alone the southern end of it.
This is one of the nicest post offices in the area, and among the older ones, too. I can't find a date on this, but I want to say early 1900's.
In case you were wondering what's going on with the top right corner of the picture, it was raining when I took this.
Grand Sport Auto was a local chain of repair shops. I believe they were headquartered out of West Chester. They were bought out by Service King a few years ago, who got rid of the name. I noticed this place right next to the West Chester Service King. Either they neglected to change the sign, or this wasn't part of the sale.
When I got this photo, it had been only three months since Kmart closed their doors. Now, the elevator shafts and some of the masonry walls are taking shape. They're supposed to open this fall, after a year and a half of construction.
This was built as a Pier 1 Imports store in the early 90's. In 2003, they relocated to the Main Street at Exton center, and the old location was almost immediately remodeled into Friday's. Update: Friday's closed late 2017; as of early 2019 the building has been peeled back to the beams and is in the process of becoming a Chop House Grille.
It's all painted over and sealed up. I bet it will be a while until something happens here. CVS recently began construction of a new store in town on the site of another former restaurant. My guess is that something similar will happen here. Update: As of 2019 is being split between Zoe's Kitchen and First Watch.
Even though they closed in late July, 2016, the signage remained up for over 6 months before they removed it. Of that time, it still lit up for about 2 months.
Some of the fixtures were left on the sidewalk awaiting pickup
This store opened in the mid-60's, and hasn't had much done to the exterior since then.
This store used to have the complete logo, with the goose/sunset and "Food Market" signage. That was removed sometime after 2012 in what I guess was an attempt to modernize. I'm curious what they have planned for this store. It's small enough I'd be surprised if they remodeled, there's no room for expansion, nor is there a place to relocate to.
This station always seems busy. I'm not sure how, since it's next to impossible to get in. It's located at the intersection of two very congested roads.
The shopping center was redeveloped in 2007, adding a few new tenants in some long-vacant spaces. This Family Dollar was one of them. I believe that was also the same time Amelia's opened up in the old Save-A-Lot space.
This store opened in 1962 and was one of ACME's older style pitched roof stores. They relocated in the late 70's to the former Penn Fruit down the road. The space then became a Save-A-Lot. That closed at some point, and became Amelia's Grocery Outlet, which was bought out by Grocery Outlet fairly recently.
Wawa, Woodlyn, PA
This store opened in the late 70's or early 80's. It looks like it was expanded/remodeled in the mid-90's. This store was renovated last winter to the new prototype, but interestingly did not have the bathrooms redone from their c. 2010 look.
This station still has the 60's Amoco building in back, but most of the operations are done out of the small room under the canopy.
KFC closed this location in early 2016, but reopened it as a Taco Bell last July (among the last to open with the pink bell logo). The "Available" signs would indicate this was not part of the original plan, although maybe the company still owned the building.
Is it just me, or does this look like an old Denny's (or, as l_dawg suggested, an old Sambo's)? I think there's a good chance this was built as a bank, but the resemblance is uncanny.
I don't know what the deal is with that light pole in front. Doesn't look like there's parking lot anywhere near it.
This looks like an older restaurant. That sign indicates that it's been here since the 70's at least. Update: "According to what I found out this is store #397. That puts it late 70's or early 80's. A new Wendy's near me just opened and has store number #16986! I'm not sure how Wendy's numbers their locations but I know they don't have that many of them." -coolcat4333
This looks like a 30's or 40's Gulf station that had a roof put over it at some point. Even though the pumps are still here, I think they've been closed for a while. I missed getting it in the picture, but the original sign post is still out by the road.
This store opened as an A&P in the late 60's, and most likely closed when they pulled out of Pennsylvania (before returning as SuperFresh) in the early 80's. This store was not reopened, and was instead divided up into an assortment of low-end tenants. The center and right spaces were more recently combined again and turned into a Family Dollar. I believe the front of the building was all A&P originally, but it goes pretty far back. I'm assuming there's some sort of mall back there.
This store opened in the late 70's or early 80's, and was one of the first stores to come with a roof peak built over the entrance. Later stores had much wider peaks. While this store has avoided remodeling for the full year this picture was sitting in my photo stockpile, construction begins on the 25th.
MacDade Mall opened in 1969 as a very small enclosed shopping center. It saw immediate success and was expanded close to 7 times its original size. Unfortunately, when I-476 opened in the early 90's giving easier access to the larger Springfield and Granite Run Malls, MacDade started to fall on hard times. By 2009, there were only 4 tenants left: ACME, Kmart, Fashion Bug, and Citizen's Bank. The interior portion of the mall shut down shortly after that, leaving only the two anchor tenants. In 2015, the mall was reopened as a strip mall. This sign is about all that's left of the original design. Here's what the inside used to look like.
This opened with the mall as Woolco, which was basically Woolworth's version of a Kmart. That closed and became Kmart in the mid-80's. The facade of this store was recently repainted and given the new logo, probably as part of the center's redevelopment. This is one of Kmart's highest-performing stores in the region.
This opened with the mall in 1969, and was expanded in the 90's. It still had the Albertsons Marketplace decor up until shortly before I came here, and was one of the (hopefully) last stores to get the leftover SuperValu décor.
I'm not quite sure what to make of the fact that the awning has been swallowed up entirely by the dining space. I would have assumed they just expanded, but doing that on all 4 sides is just practically rebuilding the place.
The back of the restaurant was recently repainted to a newer color scheme. I like how it looks.
This location opened in the early 2000's, and is a near clone of the Lionville branch. Those are the only two I have seen built in this style, but I'm sure there's more.
Thought this was a weird building- it's almost a perfect cube and clad entirely in diagonal wood paneling. Update: History courtesy rwcar4 on Flickr "The was originally a Jack in the Box in the 1970's. A murder took place in the drive thru lane on Dec 13 1973, and the restaurant was closed after that. In the late 1980's it was a used CD store. In the late 90's and up it was Lee's Hoagie House."
This store opened in the early 70's. Like most Swiss Farms, it spent the next 40-plus years without remodeling or any form of updates. It was remodeled and given a new logo just two months before I got this picture.
I thought the store here was interesting. It's a very small two-story building. I'm pretty sure this started out as something other than a Sunoco- the roadside sign reminds me of the ones Exxon has been using. I could also see the canopy as being left over from Exxon, too. That being said, it looks like Sunoco has been here for a while now. Correction: Was actually built as a Coastal, which Sunoco took over in 2002.
I'm pretty sure this was built as a Denny's, although I also feel it sorta looks like a later Howard Johnson's. I've seen multiple Denny's with this look, so I'm going with that.
For the longest time, I thought Red Roof Inn was just this one location. Turns out, it's a chain. :P
I'm guessing this was built as one, since the logo matches the actual roofline of the building.
Essington borders Philadelphia to the south, and is actually where about half of the Philadelphia Airport is located (the other half falls within city limits). As a result, Essington is packed with hotels and diners like this.
BHCU is a credit union for employees of Boeing, which operates a large plant here. I could be wrong, but I think this is where they build all of their helicopters.
This is one of my favorite old Pure Oil buildings, mainly because it still has those tiny 1930's garages. I also really like the roof line over the third garage door and the arched door in the main building.
One of many abandoned buildings around town. This one in particular caught my eye. I'm not sure whether it was the building or the name.
The masonry actually appears to still be in good shape. Maybe somebody will fix it up someday.
Chester has an interesting history: it was first settled by the Swedes in the early 1600's. They named it Upland after Uppland, Sweden. After English colonization took over, the city was renamed after Chester, England. There still is a town called Upland at the fringe of the city. The City of Chester was incorporated in 1682, making it the oldest city in Pennsylvania. It served as the county seat of Chester county (now you know where that name came from) until 1788, when it was moved to a more central location in West Chester. However, the following year, Delaware County split off from Chester County. Chester then became County Seat once again, until it was moved to Media in 1851. By that point, it was a moderately successful industrial town. As the industry went away, the town began to fall on hard times. It had been growing worse since the 60's, but only became as bad as it is now in the early 90's when the last major business, Pennsylvania Shipyard and Drydock, left town. I know I've mentioned this before, but Chester is considered to be one of the worst cities in America in terms of crimes per capita. The entire city looks more or less like this, it's pretty scary to be in.
Any trace of what was here after Arco has been removed. It looks like they began trying to fix up the building but gave up before they got too far. The planters blocking the driveway are thing's I've seen at several different stations, although I feel like there was only one company that actually had them made.
At first, I thought this place was totally abandoned. After looking into it, I think I'm wrong. The house next door and the second floor of this building were both restored in 2012. They did a nice job fixing it up, but completely ignored the plywood disaster at street level. I guess they're waiting to find a tenant before they do that.
This is actually one of the nicer parts of town. Rico's is one of few surviving businesses near the waterfront. I think I remember reading that this has been here since the 40's, which would make it the oldest as well.
This part of the factory was added on in the 50's. It currently houses some local community organizations, which I doubt take up all of the space.
Sun Oil Co. changed their official name to Sunoco several years ago. The logo painted on this tank has got to be at least 30 years old.
Fun fact: all the fuel used in NASCAR is refined here.
Usually, I'm able to figure out when these were built just by the store number, but I'm positive they renumbered this at some point, there's no way this is their 811th store. Judging by the size and the fact that there is no bathroom, I'm inclined to think this was done in the early 70's, and had the façade redone in the 90's. Edit: Looking back on this, I'm skeptical they would have renumbered this. I still don't have an explanation. Maybe just a very small early 90's store?
Tri-State opened in 1970, anchored by a Grant's (more recently Kmart), and Wilmington Dry Goods (Later Value City, now Burlington). The enclosed mall was a fairly small cross-shaped area. There was a staircase that led outside and down the hill to an attached strip mall and a couple outparcels. The interior portion of the mall closed at the end of 2015. The strip mall is still completely occupied, but mostly with some very low-end tenants. Plans are in place to demolish the mall and put housing on the site, but it looks like that is a long way from happening.
If you are wondering where the name came from, Pennsylvania is about 100 feet behind the mall, and New Jersey is less than a mile east.
This was built in 2015 on the site of a former Howard Johnson's restaurant.
Everything I can find says this was built in 1969, but the shape of the porch matches the ones used in the 50's.
This was actually ACME's first Super Saver discount store, and as far as I'm aware, was the only one to be built as one.
1969 was around the time they stopped using the pitched-roof look, so perhaps they were still experimenting with new looks when they built this.
It closed in the early 90's when the Wilmington store just down the road was rebuilt and tripled in size.
This was built in the late 60's as an Eckerd. I really wish I got some interior pictures, since this store still has the 80's neon Eckerd decor. I don't believe it is in any jeopardy of being remodeled, but I'm definitely going to get some pictures next time.
I thought this place was interesting. It looks like it still had the original canopy. Two of the service bays were turned into a convenience store, while the last one became a car wash.
Shortly after I got this picture, this was demolished. Shell is currently building a new station on the site. I'm interested to see what it will look like.
CVS opened here in 2015 on the site of a couple of vacant houses. I'm not sure if it's the angle of the picture, but this looks a lot shorter than most of their stores.
An old Arco station that somehow still has the spire up top intact. Now the question is, does it still light up?
The A-Plus store was one of the last ones to be built while they still used this decor. They switched to a new, fancier look after this was built.
I want to make it clear that I do not want 7-11 to buy A-Plus. Voicing my opinions seemed to work with the Walgreens/Rite Aid merger, so now I'm hoping it works here. :P
This store opened in 2006 with the center. The other anchor is another department store: JCPenney (funny how they went back to trying to be a strip mall store). With the two in direct competition of each other, I'm surprised that JCP is holding on.
This was first built in the 90's on the site of what looks like an old department store, which would have opened in the 50's or 60's. There used to be an old arched-roof supermarket at the other end of the center. That was demolished in 2006 and replaced with a large empty space with a roof over it. My guess was they were going to build it out as it was leased, but over ten years later it is still nothing more than a roof.
Giant opened here in the late 90's/early 2000's. The store was expanded in 2010; everything to the right of the sign is new. It seems like a lot of these 2000-era stores were expanded around the same time.
When the center was first built, there was an ACME on the site here. It looks like it could have been turned into the Giant, but more likely, it was a total rebuild.
I'm pretty sure this was built as the Capital Plaza Hotel, which had a steakhouse operating next to it. The hotel became an EconoLodge in 2012, by which time the steakhouse had closed. It rebranded again in 2014 to a Clarion, who invested a decent amount of money in fixing up the building. The steakhouse is still empty.
Hardee's doesn't have much of a presence in Pennsylvania, but there are still a few locations scattered around. This was an older one that was redone three times after the Carl's Jr. merger. It was first redone around 2000, given a repaint between 2008 and 2012, and was in the process of a more in-depth remodel when I drove by.
The building used to be a Shell convenience store, whose gas pumps were located much closer to the building. Around 2010, it was redone into a Pilot. The building was redone into a restaurant/truck stop, and the gas was entirely rebuilt.
This field is where Penn State plays. When the stadium is filled, State College is the third most populated city in the state (after Philadelphia and Pittsburgh). Any other time, it is the sixth largest.
This location opened in the 90's with one of Exxon's first Uni-Mart convenience stores. The convenience store was replaced with a Dunkin Donuts around 2010.
This hotel was built in 2012. Despite only being a couple years old, it was among the first to get the new logo.
This opened in the early 90's. I was never really a fan of this design, but at the rate they are remodeling these, I feel obliged to get as many pictures of this style of Hampton Inn as I can before they're all gone.
This opened in the early 90's as a Damon's Bar. It was renamed and remodeled in 2015. I thought the building looked interesting.
Eat N Park's name always bothered me. Shouldn't you park before you eat?
They're primarily a western PA/midwest thing. We don't have them where I live.
View of Altoona from the highway.
The JCPenney in the background first opened as an addition to the Logan Valley Mall in 1966. That store burned down in 1994, along with about half the mall. It was rebuilt in its current location shortly afterwards. The mall was owned by PREIT up until it was sold a few weeks ago. Their stores are mainly along the east coast, so this mall was a little out of their range. They also sold of another one all the way out in Michigan, which i don't know how they even wound up with in the first place.
This station gave up the Citgo branding over a decade ago. It is in fact still operational, even though it doesn't look like it.
By the way, Loretto has a fascinating history. You can read about its founder here.
I think this station is a lot older than it looks. The canopy used to have some 80's style red paneling going around the perimeter. It looks remarkably modern, oddly enough.
As evidenced by the orange teepee (if that's what you want to call it), this was built as a Howard Johnson's motel. It has been operating as a personal care facility for a while now. The motel room portion has been remodeled heavily, but the teepee hasn't seen any exterior changes whatsoever.
KFC built this in the 90's. There would have been something else on the site originally. The parking lots are original to when the center opened in the 70's. KFC closed by 2013, and was turned into a Dairy Queen in 2015. The tower over the entrance is original, but the peaked roof on top was removed and it was covered in stone facing..
This was built as a CoGo's, which is a regional chain of about 40 gas stations. This location was sold to Giant Eagle around 2011 (they have a supermarket just down the road in Johnstown), and was rebranded as a GetGo station.
This location was built in the 70's. It was given a bare-bones remodel in the mid-2000's. The area with the slanted roof used to be a glass atrium. The new roof and masonry were put up around 2012.
Martin is a regional 11-store gas station chain. This particular location was built in 2007, and is their second newest store. Their oldest location happens to be the oldest continuously operational gas station in America, which opened in 1909.
This store has been remodeled heavily since it first opened. It is still one of the oldest Sheetz stores out there, having opened in the mid-70's. This is store #48. They were at 100 by 1983, and had 14 in ten years prior. Now, they are well past 600.
This was built around 2000 as a Supercenter, but was downgraded to a regular store during a 2009 remodel, in which they updated the exterior logo.
I've noticed that a number of Walmart signs have their a-holes plugged up (oh my, that sounds nasty). I never got the point of that. If anything, it detracts from how the sign looks. Especially on stores like Exton, where the facade is red but the plugs are still the same tan color.
….aaaand on that note, I'm gonna wrap this post up.
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