Drive-By Photos 26
Looking at the roof line, I think this would have been a house originally, probably from the late 1800's. It was converted to a hardware store within the last 30-40 years, and has had some awful things done to it in terms of architecture.
This opened in 1993, but was closed by the early 2000's.It sat empty for about a decade before Dollar General moved in. It looks like they kept most of the interior intact.
This was one of ACME's more unusual stores. It opened in 1953 as a standard 50's styled store (two porch heights, brick, boxy façade). In the 60's, it was renovated to what it looks like currently. They originally built the place with a gable roof, which they uncovered, since that was what their new stores at the time looked like. They also replaced a lot of brick with fake windows. As a result, it looks nothing like either of the styles it was supposed to be. It closed in the 80's, and was taken over by a Thriftway (Possibly Murry's?). After that left, it sat empty for awhile before Family Dollar opened in 2/3 of the store in the early 2000's.
Wachovia had a tendency to buy a lot of these large, independent banks. In most cases, they left the name chiseled in stone at the top. They decided to cover it with their own sign here. "This location is most likely either Germantown Trust Company (Acquired by Pennsylvania Company for Banking and Trust in 1947) or Germantown Savings Bank (Acquired by CoreStates in 1990's)" -mrambojr
Just an FYI: the website billed on the tarp is nonexistent. I checked.
If you were wondering about the caption in the photo- I edited that in when I used the picture in a school report since I was to lazy to deal with formatting in Word. And now that I'm uploading it again I'm too lazy to edit it back out.
Both parts of the building seen here were originally part of a clothing and shoe store. After that closed, the right side was divided off and turned into what appears to have been a restaurant. That didn't last, but the space was taken over by the adjacent business, Neighborhood Bike Works. The left side still sits empty, with traces of signage from what the original store was.
I'm not sure what the deal is with rowhomes in Philly. It seems like the nicer they were to begin with, the worse shape they are in now. It appears the architecturally bland ones are now all owned by very rich people, while the elaborate ones sit empty like these. Unfortunately, many of these are being demolished rather than fixed up. These are probably too far gone to save, but it would be nice to see an effort being made.
This building hasn't sat abandoned nearly as long as it looks. It was occupied up until 2008. Most of the damage seen here was done when construction began and the building was gutted out. I believe this is being converted to apartments.
Another Germantown architectural disaster. It looks like four smaller buildings were just stuccoed over and formed into one large one.
I was thinking this was an old Rite Aid when I took this picture, but research proved this was not the case. It is an interesting building, so I decided to upload it anyways. It appears the sign has been replaced recently. The labelscar was easier to see in person. The old sign was just a smaller logo, with "Equipment and Apparel" under it.
Murry's is a local grocery store chain, with stores mainly in the Philadelphia and Baltimore area. They don't have a website, so I can't get an accurate count on the number of locations. It looks like they have about 15. While the supermarket on the first floor is thriving, the second floor sits abandoned. I would imagine that they would need to do something about it before it gets in too bad condition. Update: As of 2017, this is Murrys' only remaining location in operation.
In case you aren't familiar with the Fresh Prince, West Philadelphia is not the nicest place. Due to the lack of money in the area, there are a lot of places like this remain preserved. Unfortunately, that also means a lot of these buildings sit abandoned. Recently, there has been a push to revitalize the area. Although this part of town is still very run-down, it has become a lot safer in recent years. Hopefully this trend leads to this place reopening! I absolutely love the architecture.
This opened as an Eckerd a couple years before the Rite Aid buyout. I would assume it has already been redone, since the pill-shaped sign frame has been removed.
This was built as an Esso in the 50's. It most recently was Lei's service center, but was abandoned by the time I got this photo. It was demolished and paved over by the business next door in early 2017.
This is definitely one of your more unusual conversions. I thought Checkers was a drive-thru only restaurant, but this would seem to prove otherwise. I'm not sure what the seating situation is inside.
This is the first time I have seen BP reuse the Amoco sign pole. Besides adding some green trim, it doesn't look like BP changed anything here. Update: Now a Conoco as of late 2017.
This dates back to the 90's. I'm not sure the peak on the roof is original. Bases on the number of cars in the parking lot on a Saturday morning, I think this is a very busy store. Update: Remodeled late 2017.
The office building this was associated with closed about 40 years ago, and the building became city offices. They did not repurpose the power plant, which sits abandoned. I don't know what the plans are for this building, since the main building is undergoing a massive restoration project currently. Since this sits in the corner of the relatively small property, I would imagine it would be razed. Considering the amount of time it has been since I last went by here, I think something would probably have been done by now. Update: Still there as of late 2018.
This is an older 80's-era McDonald's. It has been redone within the past ten years, thankfully not to the eyebrow look. Update: Has been redone as of late 2018.
I think this is easily the cheapest and cheesiest store I have ever seen.
Unlike the other Rite Aid seen in this set, this one was given the standard design, and, if I remember correctly, has been remodeled to the current décor.
I'm amazed that someone could have afforded to build this as recently as the 1800's. This building is on par with some of the things I saw in Europe. A Hispanic community church opened up in the chapel portion recently, but the rest of the building sits empty. Thankfully, it looks like they plan on keeping the building up. The steeple over the entrance collapsed a couple years ago, which is what you see lying in the grass. Even though they did not rebuild it, they fixed the entryway, so you couldn't really tell anything was ever there. Update: Unfortunately, this was demolished in late 2018.
The building it is in is pretty old, dating back to the 20's. I doubt there would have been a need for a parking garage that long ago, so this may have been some kind of factory. The Starbucks on the bottom floor is very nice. It was redone last year. Update: Was originally a Texaco. Update 2: Will be demolished before too long for an apartment tower.
Aside from painting what was green red and putting up new signage, this hasn't changed at all since Hess sold out.
As we get closer to Center City, you'll notice more Rite Aids have been remodeled to the current décor. I believe this is one of them. Most sores were remodeled a little more heavily than this, but it still looks a lot better than it used to.
Don't be fooled by the design- this opened in the mid-90's. They must have been trying to recreate one of their original restaurants here.
It looks like enterprise redid the entire building, yet neglected to cover the roof like they do in most conversions. It would probably look better with the roofline all the same height, but at least this makes it easier to tell what it was.
This is definitely an older Penske. I'm not sure if it was built as one, but they have certainly occupied it for a long time. The thought crossed my mind that it may have been an Amoco, judging by the roof, but it really doesn't look like a gas station.
An early 2000's store. I can't figure out how they found the room to build all these freestanding buildings along Washington Avenue, given how densely this area is built up. They would have had to bulldoze a lot to make room for these and their parking lots.
It is unusual to see a 7/11 of this style without a gas canopy, although I suppose there really isn't any room for one. There isn't a Wawa nearby, which would indicate that this does decent business.
This is another remodel that came out nicely. The thing that bothers me is how they stuccoed over the cupola. It looks like something is missing.
This opened in the mid-80's. It was remodeled to the wellness décor in 2009. Being the smallest and most outdated store in center city, I have a feeling it will be replaced. Rite Aid has opened several new stores in the area this year, which may replace it before too long. The parking garage next door was demolished last summer. Possibly a replacement could be in the works there?
This Wawa opened in late 2015 in what used to be a Robinson Luggage. It is a huge store. It even has seating!
I already have a picture up of this station, I'm just adding this to have 10 in the set. I like how this looks lit up at night.
Our truck's antenna was in the way, which spoiled what could have been a great picture. :P
Germantown has two sides to it- most of it is on the poorer end, although there is a section filled with nice houses right in the middle of the neighborhood. This was one of them. It appears to be used as a store now.
ACME opened here in the late 30's, and relocated nearby in 1953. The building appears to be some kind of day care now.
I love the entryway and signage on this building. It appears to still be used, despite the condition of the sign.
It looks like the original Arco sign frame has been preserved, unlike with most other conversions. It looks like the store and gas signs switched places. The Arco logo would have originally been where the Aplus is now. Correction: Aplus' sign is where Arco's AmPm sign would have been.
The sign would indicate that it was something else after KFC closed, but I don't have any information on what it was. All I could find was that it has been vacant for over a decade. Update: This was built on the site of a former Gino's, which explains the sign.
This is the only X-Press I have ever seen. There has to be some kind of history behind this. I would imagine they bought the station from somebody else, and inherited the name. It looks distinctly 90's styled inside.
Standard Lowe's interior.
This was built in the 1850's as a private residence. When Rt. 422 was built right next to it, this building was taken over by the government. It was leased out to a restaurant from the late 70's until 2006, and has been vacant since. You can see a tour of the inside here. The video description does a much better job at describing this building's history than I do.
The store in the very back was built in the 50's as an ACME. The rest of the shopping center was built in following years. Most of it was either built or remodeled in the 70's. I only recently learned that this is actually a full shopping mall. There is a small hallway lined with stores in the corner next to the old ACME area. Not much is inside- a small Asian supermarket, a karate studio, and a bakery.
This store was located in a strip mall that is part of the Coventry Mall. It relocated to a freestanding store in the parking lot, built on the site of a former Lone Star Steakhouse, in late 2015. There are now two stores left in this shopping center, which I think will be moving into the mall proper before too long. Giant is considering razing this center to build a replacement for the former Clemens down the road.
This is still part of the mall property, despite being only one building across the street from everything else. This moved up the road in 2015 and is now vacant. If I owned the mall, I would have tried to sell this property. It makes no sense to have, especially now that it's empty!
Sad store directory. It looks like they wrote out the names in caulk before they put the signs up. Correction: Maybe they were actually done in cutout letters instead originally?
That's terrible to hear about the Christ Memorial Church demolition :( Also, it appears you copied the KFC/Checkers description twice.
ReplyDeleteIt was a sad loss. What makes it even worse is that there isn't even a plan for the site yet. The demolition process is going pretty slowly, the former seminary building in back is still standing. I managed to get inside and explore what was left, but was a little too late to get in the actual church part.
DeleteThanks, I'll fix that! The description for the Esso must not have copied.
Ouch! I thought for sure it would have been demolished for a reason. That just makes it worse.
DeleteAnd you're welcome!