Flickr Photos 45
Here's the finished look! A lot has taken place since July.
This store is much narrower than others, so the entrance looks a little too big for the building. Despite that, it's a huge improvement over the old look!
PLCB had a poorly maintained store here, which moved to a new shopping center down the road in 2013. Last year, it was taken over by a gym, which really fixed up the building. It doesn't look much like this anymore!
Kresge opened this store in the 30's. Judging by how clear the labelscar is, I'm guessing the sign stayed around a while after the store closed. They have a handful of other closed locations throughout the city that actually have the name set into a concrete panel that can't exactly be removed from the building.
Rainbow took over at some point afterwards, and added the blue metal facade. They closed shortly after I got this photo, although the banner beneath the sign is for a different chain-wide sale that has nothing to do with the closure. More recently, Beauty Town has relocated from the former ACME across the street, which is currently being renovated. Beauty Town did nothing to the building aside from adding their sign. I'm guessing this is just a temporary location, the area is rapidly gentrifying and I can't imagine a lower end tenant in a run-down building sticking around too long.
From the records I found, this was either built in 1956 or 62. It's been abandoned as long as I can remember. Plans for building a new apartment/retail complex here have been floating around since 2010, but they have yet to do any physical work here.
This banquet hall closed down around 2000. a few restaurants had operated out of parts of it for a while after, but the building has been vacant entirely since 2007. It was demolished mid-2017 for an apartment complex. This place allegedly filled up with homeless people and drug addicts in its last couple years, so the neighborhood is pretty happy to have this gone.
This is one of the few surviving former Arco stations to still have the original canopy. The station has outgrown it a little bit, but I'm glad to see they're keeping it anyway.
I've heard that this place has been open here since at least the 60's, although the building obviously predates that. It was most likely built as a house. Judging from the sign post, it looks like it has been used commercially for a very long time.
Even though the address is Spring City, it is well outside where most people would consider the city line. There are only a couple houses around here, and no competition.
I like the view from this bridge. The northern end of this river is much calmer than the parts around Philly.
Former Bebe store. It closed during their 2016 bankruptcy, and was replaced by a Michael Kors outlet in 2017.
Looking inside. They missed a spot while soaping over the windows!
I haven't been inside the new Kors store, but I'm pretty sure they didn't move too much around here.
The Philadelphia Premium Outlets also offer a nice view around sunset. This complex is all built up on a hill, giving clear views to the south and west.
This store looks like a normal newer Costco both on the inside and out. It opened in 2011.
This side of the store has appliances, office supplies, hardware, flooring, etc.
Gatorade pallets serve as a barrier between food and the rest of the store. The area just beyond this has clothing, books, and furniture. Anything else you can think of that I haven't mentioned yet is along the other wall.
Yeah, this store sells just about everything. You can get milk, a car, and a new granite countertop all in the same trip.
Despite their decor shortcomings, I love this store anyway.
Rear entrance to the former Village Pharmacy. This layout here was less than ideal, which is probably one of the reasons they bailed out and moved to Springhouse Village II.
The remaining end of the center. Starbucks and Arpeggio were the only two tenants left. After this was knocked down, they both reopened in the new building.
A lot of the parking lot here was covered up with dirt. They were raising the grade for the new center. I guess this lot is still buried under there.
I was hoping to ask one of the construction workers if I could take a sheep mosaic, but somebody had already come through and stolen the heads.
Here's what it used to look like.
And speaking of Starbucks, here it is! I believe this opened in the early 2000's, but was somewhat recently remodeled to current standards (I'm 100% sure that ceiling was black originally).
I guess they're kicking themselves for spending the money on that now. :P
The new location is really nice, though. It has an open ceiling and a lot of wooden accents, which is different than their other new stores. I think it may have been designed specially for the shopping center.
The office portion of the center is gone, but a little section of foundation remains. I'm pretty sure this dates back to the original barn the center was built around.
As much as I support the new development here, it still bothers me that they did so much work saving and restoring the historic barn here, only for it to get pulled down 47 years later.
This was the East mall entrance. Starbucks and Glam didn't have an entrance to the entrance to the enclosed part of the mall, although they did have entrances that let out just outside of it. The space to the right was Beneficial Bank, which was being used as construction offices.
Speaking of the construction company, their website has a lot of neat photos and renderings of buildings they have built.
This building is left over from when Jack in the Box had a small presence in the region back in the 70's. It's now home to Jack's. I'm not sure if that's just a coincidence, or a nod back to the building's history.
It was also restored a few years ago- up until recently, the roof was covered in metal siding, which was replaced with wooden shingle like it would have had originally.
The inside is mostly original, as well. There are a couple pictures available on Google.
Add this one to the list of strange restaurant conversions! Prior to Pizza Hut moving here in 2012, replacing a sit-down location down the road, this was a Rita's Water Ice.
This location opened in the 90's. It originally had a full-scale playplace, which was downsized in an early 2000's remodel. About 3/4 of the old playplace area has been converted into seating, although they didn't really do any remodeling. They literally just added some tables and hanging fluorescent lights and called it good.
DQ opened this stand in the 50's. Aside from updating the logo in the 70's, I don't think they have done anything to this place. I'm glad to see they haven't pulled this down for a Grill & Chill.
Apart from the kitchen in back being gutted out, the rest of the restaurant hasn't changed much.
I see sunlight coming in through the kitchen walls, which probably isn't a good thing.
This began life in the 40's as a steel streetcar-type diner. It was expanded/renovated/ruined in the 70's or 80's. Despite the seriously screwed-up exterior, the inside of the original portion has been preserved beautifully. The inside of the addition is pretty cool, too. It hasn't seen much change since it was added on and still has a classic diner feel to it.
This place probably hasn't sold gas since the 80's. Like the Gulf further down the road (in the previous picture), it remains operational as a service center.
This was built as a YMCA in 1893, which relocated to a larger facility on the edge of town in the 80's, probably because there was no way to fit a gym or pool in here. Afterwards, another business moved in and covered the facade with an awning. They've been closed for at least ten years; more recently the awning has come down, revealing a 30+ year-old labelscar from the original tenant. Efforts are currently underway to restore the building.
There are a lot of neat old buildings in Downtown Coatesville, which I really need to get out and photograph.
This station is still listed as Mano's Gulf on Google Maps, however it hasn't carried the Gulf branding since at least 2008. I believe they sold gas independently for a while, before stopping the sale altogether more recently. The service center is still operational.
Lipkin's opened here in 1947. It was a popular store for a while. Over the years, they grew out and built a couple new stores. They went out of business in 2012. I remember they wouldn't stop with the radio ads about the closing sales. It got annoying after a couple months. This building, on the other hand, was pretty well liked by the people in town, and I believe was on a couple historic registers. Unfortunately, that was not enough to save it when plans for a new mixed-use development on this block were made. It was knocked down in late 2017
Lukens Steel Warehouse, Coatesville, PA
Most of the former Lukens Steel Plant is still in operation, although there were a handful of buildings that were shut down. It wasn't so much downsizing operations as it was trying to move everything onto the same side of the creek. I imagine the museum/park wants to turn this building into something before it falls apart too much.
The area surrounding the original headquarters or Lukens Steel has been turned into a museum/park. Lukens Steel was a Coatesville-based company that was at one point one of the largest steel producers in the country. They fell apart and got bought out a over the years, but their former plant is still in operation here under the name ArcelorMittal. The largest and most famous project to use Lukens Steel was the World Trade Center- every steel beam for the complex was made here. To commemorate the 10th anniversary of 9/11, one of the beams from the first floor was brought back here and turned into a memorial.
There are two numbers on the cornerstone here- 1924, most likely the year it was built, and 3084. I'm not sure what that second number means, but it isn't the address. The Hebrew tablets above the entryway might mean it was built as a synagogue, but I can't find anything on the history of the building to confirm that.
I really like the entryway on this building.
Wawa jumped across the street from the store in the previous picture. This relocated in the mid-2000's, and is now home to A-Mart.
Walgreens opened here in 2010 on the site of a small strip mall. It looked like the old center was anchored by a tiny supermarket or pharmacy store, although I couldn't make out the name of it. Although, I can be sure it wasn't a Walgreens.
This is one of Turkey Hill's earlier fuel stores, from when they were partnered with Amoco (hence the sign).
Now that Kroger has sold off their convenience stores, I'm curious to see how things will be changing.
Kroger is holding on to the Turkey Hill dairy, so I think the product line available here will be changing quite a bit.
Not much has changed here since 2013. They painted the boards over the windows, but that's about it. When it was still operational, it was part of a larger collection of dealerships. For whatever reason, they knocked the rest of them down right after closure, but kept this one around. Now, it's surrounded by a large vacant lot which is probably prime for development.
Wawa opened this store in the mid-60's. I believe it was among the first Chester County locations. It was replaced in the 80's by another store nearby, which was then replaced in the mid-2000's with the current location.
Pizza Hut closed this location when they opened a smaller take-out only one in Coatesville. I was actually planning on eating here, which is what brought me out here in the first place. I wasn't aware they moved. Oops.
Wawa opened here in the 60's. It was replaced with a new store just down the road on New Years 2017 (or maybe it was still 2016? I don't remember whether it was December 31 or Jan 1).
This building currently sits fenced off and vacant. You can find some interior pictures from when it was open here.
This opened in the mid-60's. Following the relocation of the original Folsom store, this became the oldest Wawa in the chain (I believe it was store #6). It was expanded and renovated several times over the years. The rear entrance pictured here was added on in the 90's. The front logo was replaced during a 2011 remodel, but they must have forgotten the back one.
In late 2017, Wawa bought the adjacent property, closed this store, and demolished both buildings. A new Wawa with a gas station should be opening here soon.
This closed as a Getty in the early 2000's, and later operated as Gentile Automotive for a while after that. They went out of business around 2010, and it sat vacant until another service center moved in about 5 years later.
Dick's opened here in the mid-90's. It was given a slightly fancier-than-usual facade to match the shopping center (which looks much newer than 1995- that design was really ahead of its time!)
I'm surprised Dick's hasn't tried to relocate this. There are quite a few large vacancies nearby, and they seem to be in a push to get rid of their smaller 90's stores.
This store was given a slight refresh around 2013, but other than that it is mostly original to when it opened.
Those drop ceilings over parts of the store usually get pulled out in remodels. I don't know why they stayed here.
I've posted a few pictures of this place over the years. In case you didn't see the update I posted to one of those, I finally found out what this was! When the developer that owns this property was applying for demolition permits, they referred to this as the "former Exxon-Mobil." It looks more like an old Mobil than an Exxon, so that's what I'm going to label it as. I'm positive it never carried both brands.
This picture was taken shortly before it came down. The surrounding brush and fences were just pulled down, and a chain fence put around the building itself. Wawa's supposed to be one of the new stores going on the site here.
Wawa, Glen Mills, PA
The wall by the bathrooms has some decals giving the chain's history. This store is pretty close to their headquarters, which probably has something to do with this.
I already have a picture of this place up, but I figured I'd post this one too since Sleepy's isn't around anymore. Update: Closed 2018.
I'm pretty sure this building predates Starbucks, but this was one of the first to open in the area. It was actually the first one I had ever been to, and for a while was the only one in the area. In 2015, they relocated to a much larger space in a former Burger King.
It sat vacant for a little while, before becoming Buena Vista, a local Mexican restaurant chain. This location didn't last long. It became El Limon last year. I'm not sure why places keep moving in here, since this building is slated to be demolished as part of the rebuilding/expansion of Paoli's rail station, which this shares a parking lot with. Inside, it is still all 90's Starbucks. I really should get some interior pictures for you guys. Aside from a few minor updates, Starbucks never did any kind of remodeling on this space.
A large section of roof has fallen in since 2015. I think at this point, it's beyond repair. It couldn't be used for anything anymore since there's no racetrack in front of it, but I still don't like seeing such a beautiful building go to waste.
Here's how it looked in 1923.
While they don't have a website, I found listings for a couple of these, so I'm assuming they're a chain. It looked really good, and has a lot of positive Yelp reviews. I definitely should have tried it out.
This may be the largest Domino's I've ever seen. That second floor makes me think they might have a dine-in option here, which is also a first or me.
I'm gonna be honest here, Pizza Hut's menu down here looks a lot more appealing to me than what I usually get. I want some Pizza Hut lasagna!
Carolina & H is a small (25 locations) drugstore chain serving the Guatemala City area. Even though they call themselves a supermarket, they're more of a pharmacy. They're roughly the size and carry the selection of a Rite Aid or CVS. This one apparently also sells paint.
Domino's Pizza in a gas station. I was a little surprised to see that here. It looks like there's a little outdoor seating area off to the side, which would be nice when it's not raining.
Maxi Despensa is a central American hypermarket. I don't believe they have any formal ties with Walmart, but this one was using Walmart bags. This one is one of the anchors for Pradera Chimaltenango, a small-ish enclosed mall that opened in the early 2000's. Unlike in the US, malls are still thriving down here!
Correction: They are owned by Walmart.
This was my first time in a mall outside the country. It was a little different, but it surprised me how many familiar tenants it had.
I think this station's open, despite the lack of prices listed. I think this one might have rebranded recently. All the Puma signage looks newer than the rest of the building. Those are also some weird pumps. Most stations down here use ones like we have in the US.
I'm not sure where the name comes from, but that's what they call these buses. These are all old school buses that are usually owned by the driver, each of which are uniquely painted.
And yes, that's a roll bar surrounding the picture. I got this picture out of the back of a pickup truck.
A little house on the edge of the valley. It looks pretty rustic, but judging by the boxes by the roof's edge, I think it at least has electricity.
That road off in the distance is the same on I got this picture from. It snaked around a lot of the mountains to make it easier to drive up, but also adds a lot of distance.
I was also a little surprised to see pine trees and banana plants in the same place.
I'm curious what those sticks around the brown cow's neck are. I was gonna guess it was some way to keep it from roaming away, but none of the others have it.
I think this area is used for grazing cattle. I like how they cut the road on the left. They just cut away the rock and left it natural.
...or maybe Have You Ever Seen the Rain?
The rainstorm on the day I got these photos was pretty bad and caught us off guard. It took about 40 minutes to walk up from the jobsite, during which they rain shorted out my unprotected camera. Thankfully, I still had my cell phone, with which I got the pictures for the next few uploads.
And yes, I did just make 3 CCR song references in the same set. Don't judge, they fit the pictures.
The reason I was in Guatemala was for another mission trip. This time, we were rebuilding another bridge. This one wasn't as big as the last, but a lot more work needed to be done.
Apparently this little fella makes a trip across the river several times a day. It's a little strange seeing such a small dog crossing a fast-moving current like this without a problem.
Taco Maya, which opened in 2013, already outgrew its original location and is now moving to the former Brothers Pizza nearby. I believe Brothers was shut down by the township on behalf of the landlord for not keeping up with rent in late 2016. The new Taco Maya opened here last Thursday (April 19).
...on the topic of things from 2013 being taken down, Exton's Sports Authority had it's entire facade pulled off so it could be divided between HomeSense and Sierra Trading Post, both of which are owned by TJX. I understand some work would be necessary to get the place ready for 2 tenants, but this seems a little excessive.
This remodel also exposed some of the original ceiling color, which was painted over in white around 2008, the same time the mercury lights were replaced with fluorescents. I liked the old interior look better, it seemed so much less generic. I'll reserve my judgement of the exterior for after the new/third done, but between the two facades I've already seen, I like the 2013 one best.
In other news from the shopping center, Big Lots placed a bid on the Toys R Us!
On a side note, the small sign listing the hours still says "come in, we're open!"
Inside, the kitchen equipment, decorative hanging lights, and stone facing were stripped out, which is pretty impressive work for only 2 days. I'm not sure if they're going to bother removing the decorations left behind. If they were going to move them into the new location, they probably would have done so before the move.
The flooring and back counter are left over from this building's previous life as a burger restaurant.
And of course, no mall is complete without a Payless! This mall was built around 2004, which I think was when the new logo came out. This must have been among the first to get it.
Just because they can't use the restaurant building during construction doesn't mean they're closed. They set up a kitchen tent and a bunch of outdoor tables! You would think that since they have a location in the food court, they could have just redirected people there.
Pollo Campero has apparently been on a big remodel push lately. My estimate is about 75% of their locations are up to the current design standards. This one was closed for a remodel when I stopped by.
This was on the way back from the project, so we stopped at the Pradera Mall again. The one inside the food court was also being remodeled, but it was still in operation so we ate there.
This is an older, much more run-down Don Arturo. I think this probably opened in the 70's or 80's. Things age pretty fast in this climate.
Blue Oil is a somewhat small regional gas company, even though the English name would have me think otherwise. There's another company down here called Pacific Oil, which i think this may be a knock-off of.
This appears to be a fairly new station. The canopy design sorta reminds me of Citgo, but I don't think the two are related at all.
I thought this was a neat Shell. Not just because of the vintage canopy design, but it had some unique brick arches along the front of the store.
Kinda weird story about how I wound up here- the head engineer for the bridge project we were working on is a friend of my dad. He was saying they needed a new place to get cable for the bridges here, and my dad mentioned that one of his clients recently built a port here. The cranes need to have their cables replaced every few months, so they were able to set up a meeting with the manager here and make an agreement for them to donate their used cables to the mission. The guys here were very generous; they even offered to give us any of their surplus construction materials. In addition, we also got a tour of the port, which was supposed to receive it's first ship in about a month after our visit.
It struck me as a little odd that the ad here was entirely in English. I know this area gets a lot of travelers, but I doubt they'd be the ones coming all this way to eat at a chain restaurant.
There were a surprising number of familiar hotel names down here. Clarion, Radisson, Hilton, and Westin all have hotels within a couple blocks of here.
I thought this was neat. I don't know of any other 2-story McDonalds' out there. The glass tower was a nice touch, too.
The dining area, complete with a full-size living tree! I guess they built the building around an existing tree, since there's really no way they could have brought this inside.
San Martin is a popular local chain of bakery/cafe's. They have them all over the country here. It also made me have a hard time researching for my photos of the town of San Martin, since every "San Martin Guatemala" google search brings up these bakeries.
This particular location was built in 2015, and is pretty impressive inside.
Daytime view from another angle. Here, we can see there's another mansard roof over the second floor outdoor seating area.
I'm gonna be honest here, this is a nicer McDonald's than anything in Philadelphia.
If I remember correctly, this hotel started out as a hacienda. The city grew up around it, and it later served as a house before being converted to a hotel. It feels really out of place now, since it was intended to be a farmhouse but is now in the most built-up part of the city. Skyscrapers surround it on all sides.
The back of the building. It's missing all of the windows. I'm not sure if that was done by vandals or is just the beginning of demolition.
This opened in mid-2016 as Carl's Jr's first restaurant in the country. Two more have since opened, one in a former Burger King, and a new flagship location in an old steakhouse. This one has two floors.
La Riviera, Guatemala Ariport
La Riviera was a duty-free airport shop operated by a Panama-based company. In late 2015, it was discovered that the company was using them to launder money. All locations were immediately shut down and remain fully stocked. It was a little creepy to see it locked up and covered in dust with everything still inside.
This was built as the Christ Memorial Episcopal Church in 1883. It is considered by many to be the most architecturally prominent church in the city. Unfortunately, the 120-foot stone steeple was struck by lightning in 2007, causing it to fall on the church's roof. It never reopened. The rectory in back later served as low-income housing, and the chapel became some sort of small Hispanic church. The sanctuary just sat empty. There was an attempt to stabilize the building in 2014; they repaired the foundation, replaced the roof, and fixed some of the stonework. This kept it from falling apart even more, but the building is still considered unsafe. As a result, it was condemned to be demolished this month. Currently, they are doing lots of salvage work before they bring in the bulldozers. I'm gonna try to see if they can let me inside to take some pictures before it's too late.
I'm gonna kick off today's uploads with a few updates/news pictures- 2 good things, 2 bad ones. From 1947 to 2007, this was home to the Frankford Chocolate Company, which is the world's largest producer of chocolate Easter Rabbits. Frankford is an area in North Philly, so it's a little strange how they were in the south end of the city. However, they did move their factory up to the namesake part of town when this one closed. It sat abandoned since then, with many plans for the property coming and going. The first plan was to turn this into a Vietnamese center (this area has a high south Asian population). As recently as two months ago, there were plans to convert this into apartments, which I think would have been really cool. It was even listed on the NRHP last December. Unfortunately, it was sold to another developer with a horrible track record for historic preservation. Less than a week after closing the sale, demolition was underway. I believe they actually started ripping into the building hours after the permit was approved. They were working fast because there's a huge opposition to the demolition in the neighborhood, and stalling might cost them the project.
Even though Frankford opened in 1947, this building is actually much older. What's pictured here was built while Lincoln was president. Of this entire complex, about 15% of the building will be saved, as part of a compromise.
This store was from a mid-90's short-lived intermediate phase of style, as they were transitioning from the classic design to the first generation of fuel center stores. The store number (254) implies it was actually built in the mid-70's and remodeled to this design.
This store was remodeled again last fall, and no longer looks like this.
I stopped by after this place first opened. Of course I forgot to take an exterior pic.
I know I said this last time I posted a photo of this old Mobil, but you can never have too many pictures of history. After what feels like my seventh time putting up a picture of this place, I'm starting to question my philosophy. :P
This part became a brewery, like just about everything else in Phoenixville.
Inside, they had quite a selection. I think I remember them having a lot of novelty foods, like a yellow watermelon.
This is a produce market run by the nearby Westtown School, selling the stuff they grow in the fields surrounding it.
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