A Drive Along Ridge Avenue
I'm on Spring Break this week, so I'm going to try to get a post up every day.
When this location opened in the early 2000's, it was originally cobranded with a Baskin-Robbins. They dropped the BR branding in 2009. They kept the larger panel sign on the building for a while with the Dunkin' logo centered in white space, but upgraded to a cutout sign when they remodeled in 2016.
This location opened in the early 2000's, and was remodeled in 2018. The new logo was the only exterior change. I'm really not a fan of these 90's/2000's style stores so I'm hoping at some point they begin to do exterior renovations too.
Given how historic this building looks, I was expecting to be able to find more information on it online. I was barely able to find the name of the place. :/ Ridge closed about a decade ago, and this space briefly operated as Whiskey Girl Bar until around 2013.
Turkey Hill opened here in the mid-2000's. I believe this was among the first built in the newer design and also among the last to open with the teal/purple logo. By 2012, the logo was updated. I think Kroger tried to update the logo on the outside of every location, but there were still a couple stragglers at least as of 2015.
This restaurant began as a drive-in in 1952, and was expanded into a full service restaurant in 1958. They advertise being a 3-time Tri-County Award for Best Chicken winner, so I'm assuming they're pretty good.
This opened as an Eckerd in 2003, and closed as Rite Aid in 2010. It has since been turned into a dialysis center, which hasn't bothered to invest in a permanent sign. I'm not sure how much I'd trust them.
Kmart had this location from 1974 to 2014. It made headlines in the early 90's when President Trump stopped here to buy school supplies for one of his kids. In 2016 it became Liberty, a religious furnishings and thrift shop.
This opened as a Thriftway in the late 90's, and closed not long before the rest of the chain was sold. It did not sit vacant for long, Landis opened in the space shortly afterwards. They're a local 5-store chain. Salon ranked their corporate training video as one of the "most outrageously cheesy" ones out there (the video itself isn't up anymore but the thumbnail is still the top picture for the article).
This location opened in 1999 with a modified design to better fir in with the town. The different design actually makes the store look a little more modern than the other ones they were building at the time.
This was a mid-90's location that was remodeled to current standards in 2017. They covered over the black tile on the side with the wood grain stuff, but on the drive-thru side the red tile was left intact.
A few years ago, Firestone went around and replaced the old neon signs on several of their locations. Fortunately, this one was spared. I'm guessing the fact that the roof itself wasn't holding the sign played a role in the decision. It would be a lot harder to put up new supports to hold the different sign.
I think this location opened in the 70's. It was given a blue roof at one point, but that was painted brown again around 2012. Aside from that, it has somehow avoided any kind of exterior remodeling.
Like the one featured earlier today, this location was originally co-branded with a Baskin-Robbins. They dropped the brand and were remodeled at the same time too. The only difference is that I think this location was built as something else originally.
What I really like about this location is how Sunoco kept Arco's glass garage doors. I feel like those are pretty hard to find now.
This was a 70's Mission-Style Taco Bell that closed in 2009. When it closed, it still had the old logo on the building but the pylon had been updated. Popeye's replaced it not long after. Despite all the work they did to the building, it's still vaguely recognizable. The windows are all still in the same places. Even stranger is that they still have TB's 70's parking lot lights.
I really like all the windows on this building. Even if it is a plainer design than most new banks have today, I think I like it better.
This store was built in 2012 on the site of an old office building. This store looks much smaller than the building it replaced, but comparing the two they're actually about the same size (even though the office building was 2 stories!)
It looks like this was originally 3 separate smaller tenants. The two on the right combined when Rent-A-Center opened. RAC closed sometime in 2018.
This building probably predates Levitz, but they were the ones who put the concrete façade on. If you look closely, you can still see their labelscar. This location opened back when they were still a relatively local chain. The listing I found for it is from 1961, although I think the store was open for a little while before then. It closed prior to the rest of the chain in the 2000's. PLCB took the bottom floor, and the upper levels were divided up into offices. About 1/3 of the façade was peeled off around 2013 so they could restore some of the windows to the offices.
I'm not sure what exactly that name meant, but I'd guess it was a barbershop. If not that would be a really creepy name for a store. The old Coke mural appears to have been touched up over the years, the colors are still very bright.
Most of this old motel's currently operating as America's Best Value Inn. The office is now in what used to be a room and the original lobby/restaurant was left empty. I tried to find what this was originally but wasn't coming up with anything. I'm assuming this was something independent.
The way it sounds, "The Pottstown Blade" first struck me as a newspaper name. But "blade" is still strange even in that context, so I doubt I'm correct :P
ReplyDeleteI could see that, I'm sure there are papers out there with even stranger names.
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