Remodels, Openings, and Demolitions

 Former Ludwig's Corner Veterinary Hospital, Ludwig's Corner, PA
This was built in the early 70's, and served as a vet up until the mid-2000's. The hospital moved to a former restaurant down the road around 2005. This building then operated as a lab for a while, but their sign came down a few years ago. I had assumed the building was vacant, but the cars in the lot would indicate otherwise.

 Chester Springs ACME Remodel!
This remodel was announced back in mid-2015, but things didn't get rolling until early 2017. I think they were waiting on the liquor permit to get approved before beginning work.

 Signage in the main entrance has been stripped down. The wood paneling was left in place. The signage in the exit vestibule was left in place.

 Future Frosted Mug department, the white thing on the wall is for the decals they're applying.

 Blurry look at the deli. I didn't catch the remodel until it was already mostly completed.

 Even though this décor looks much flatter than what was here previously, I like the look a lot better.

 The gray on the walls looks much bolder in person. This décor definitely wasn't made to match the green ceiling, but it fits in pretty well.

 Some local historic photos on the wall. The former back room door was taken out and is being replaced with a second set of bathrooms.

 ACME kicked out the Citizen's Bank branch that was here to make room for the alcohol sales and relocated customer service desk. I'm pretty sure those frozen cases to the left were new too.

 Former Customer Service area, which Floral was relocated to.

 Floral had some space along the front of the store in addition to the main counter in the middle of the floor. The middle area was just filled in with more shelves, while the area I'm standing in was converted to seasonal. Interestingly, the restrooms sign from the old décor was kept up. Since they were adding more bathrooms in back, I was half expecting the ones up here to come out. They didn't, and were actually remodeled.

 A look at the front of the store. The Citizen's Bank sign was already down. Later in the remodel, they'd give Sav-On the ax too and make the main ACME sign larger. Not sure why the Sav-On sign was here in the first place, since the left entrance already had "Pharmacy" above it.

 Penn Fruit, Norristown, PA
I'm labeling this Penn Fruit, when though they only occupied the area under the arched roof. Most of what you see here were other small stores with offices on the second floor. This was built in 1956 alongside a Sears store. In mid-2017, the remaining tenants were evicted and the building demolished. Royal Farms is planning on putting a store on the site, but that hasn't begun construction yet.

 Rite Aid, Norristown, PA
This opened in the early 70's, was expanded and remodeled in the 90's, then shut down in 2017 when the center was demolished. Rite Aid plans on building a freestanding store on the site, but like with Royal Farms, work still hasn't started. This building dates back to 1956, and was most likely another independent pharmacy prior to Rite Aid buying it. It finished out its life with the red/blue stripe décor, which is becoming a rare find nowadays. I believe the space next door was originally a Woolworth.

 Mobil/Lukoil/Small Town Pharmacy, Norristown, PA

 This closed as a Lukoil in 2014. The pumps and canopies were torn out not long after. After sitting vacant for a few years, it was turned into Small Town Pharmacy's second location (their other one's in Quakertown). It's a rather unusual conversion, but not too dissimilar from the Kimberton Lukoil, which is now home to a medical marijuana dispensary.

 Clover Mall/Clemens/SuperFresh/McCaffrey's, Blue Bell, PA
A little over a year after SuperFresh closed here, I finally got around to seeing the new store that replaced it. Despite totally gutting the place out and starting fresh, it doesn't look all that different. it's still got a big wooden spotlight lattice hanging over produce, wood paneled walls, and fake windows.
One thing I thought was weird was that the PLCB store still has its old name as opposed to Fine Wine & Good Spirits. I guess the architect who designed the remodel didn't get the memo.

 This store looked really nice inside. Almost nice enough for me to forgive them for gutting out once of the coolest stores I'd ever set foot in. :P

 The areas with the lower ceilings were originally smaller mall stores. In the Clemens/SuperFresh days, they had a drop ceiling, which McCaffrey's did away with.

 Looking down the frozen aisles. One thing I forgot to check was if the old mall skylights were still up above here.

 Looking at the front of the store. I'm really happy they kept the Clemens façade up.

 Sproul House, Frazer, PA
This was an abandoned house I'd drive by fairly often. I always wondered what the history behind it was. It's right up against the road and built three stories high on a small footprint, despite there being no shortage of open land around it. There's also a staircase going up the side to all three stories, making me think it could have been apartments at one point. I haven't checked on it recently, but it looked like they were starting to remodel it last I passed by.

 Sad Giant Hours
No use putting off the inevitable. Demolition's now underway at the former Westtown Giant. It looks like they started with the Futurestore atrium and are working their way in from there. I thought it was funny how Giant left their banners up on the walls.

 The former dollar store a few spaces down has been split in half. Everything to the right will stay, the stuff to the left is coming down.

 The Rite Aid and the half of the Dollar Store that won't be saved.

 Zooming in a little through the hold in the front of the Giant. It looks like the interior was left more or less the way it was when they closed. I was expecting/hoping they would have at least gone through and done some salvage.

 Former Customer Service area, now reduced to a tangle of wires, ducts, and lights.

 Another look at the hole. I was so tempted to climb that fence but the rest of the shopping center was busy enough I didn't want to risk it.

 Looking at the demolition from the road.

 The side back of the site, as seen from the Jaguar dealership next door. They flattened/filled in a lot of land to make way for the new store.

First and Last Look
The former Winner's Circle and Riverstone restaurants in  Exton were fenced off, so I decided to get a picture while driving by. Surprisingly, this was the last shot I had at it as the next time I passed by it was already being torn down. CVS opened a store on the site.

Entemann's Outlet, Exton, PA
This building used to serve as an Entemann's Pastry distribution center with an outlet store in front. They closed the center and moved the outlet to a nearby shopping center in 2016. As of 2019, plans are to knock this down and build a Wawa on the site with a few smaller stores behind it.