Abandoned Farms, Museums, and an Open Giant

Welcome back, everybody! Let me preface this by saying towards the end of high school, I was really getting into distance walking, through which I discovered some abandoned farms a few miles from my house. I brought my camera along this time to photograph a few of them. Once I got to college I realized how much easier and more interesting walking was in the city, and now I've lost the motivation to walk through four miles of nothing but grass and trees  to get to this place. :P

I swear I don't live in the middle of nowhere, it's only like this in one direction. 

 Flint Road
This was a small back road that went through one of the farms. It was notoriously rough. Last summer, this part of the farm was turned into a nature conservancy to prevent it from being developed. Ironically, since one of their trailheads and main parking lot is on this road, they still had to widen and repave.

 Farmhouse
This farm was actually several small farms that were bought up by the founder of Luden's Cough Drops. He did it to stop them from being built on, but what he didn't realize was how hard it would be to maintain all of this. Several of the old farm buildings are abandoned and falling apart (you may remember "Danger Barn" which I've featured on here a few times in the past). After he passed away, his heirs tried to sell it off to a developer but got a lot of pushback. After years (decades?) of going back and forth, a compromise was reached. Part of it would be turned into a preserve, and the rest would be sold off for extremely low-density development (I think it averages out to one house per 20 acres or something). This house happened to be on the land turning into the preserve, and will actually be turned into park offices or a visitors center. The outbuildings in back weren't so lucky, and have been pulled down.

 Same house, different angle.

 St. Matthew's Farm
This farm was much smaller, but it caught my attention. From what I could find, it was built in the 1850's, and hasn't been lived in for over a decade. The property was sold last year, but the new owners haven't done anything with it yet.

 The fields in front are still being used to grow hay. The entire time I was here I was worried about running into an angry farmer.

 The buildings themselves at the bottom of the long driveway.

 From the front, the barn looks like it's also abandoned. We'll see in a few photos that's actually not the case.

 Side view of the house. The stonework is starting to fall apart towards the top. The new owners should act fast if they want to save the house.

 Looking in the bottom floor of the barn, where the animals would have been kept. This was vacant, but again not abandoned. I would/should have explored this more.

 Around back, the siding of the barn had all been replaced very recently. Under the overhang I could see several of the beams had also been replaced. I'm assuming they still use the upper floor to store hay.

 There was a smaller building between the two. I'm guessing this was like a carriage house?

 Front view of it. Of the building here, this was in the worst shape.

 Looking at the house itself. I thought this place looked really cool.

 Some rusty toys on the front porch, as if this place wasn't creepy enough by itself.

 One of the two front doors. I highly doubt this place was built as a duplex, so I'm not sure why the doors are like this. I tried to get some pictures through the windows, but there was screen on the outside which not only obstructed the view, but held my camera far enough away from the glass the sun glare made it impossible to see inside.

 One of the electric meters is still in place, even though the wire to the house was cut. It's also sitting there on the porch.

 Around back, the cellar door was just completely missing. I would have gone inside but between being here alone and bees buzzing around everywhere, I decided today would not be the day. I made a return trip, which didn't yield the results I wanted but makes a funny story to tell. You'll hear about that in a couple weeks.

 It looks like they built out under the original back porch, then added a new porch off of that. I would have investigated more, but decided against it. I don't mess around with bees.
I also thought I heard a thud come from inside, but that was probably just paranoia from being here by myself.

I would really like this photo if it didn't come out crooked.

 Franklin Mint Museum, Wawa, PA
I haven't been out this way in a while, but there's a strong chance this was torn down last year.  I've seen quite a bit of stuff about new development on the property, and Google maps shows several new roads on the site (although satellite and Streetview don't show any changes). It opened in the 70's, and closed down in 2004. This happened to be the day when most seniors commit to a college, so I was out here getting my picture taken in front of the Wawa University sign across the street (which is hands down the best thing on my Instagram). Since I was here I decided I'd snoop around the old museum a little bit.
UPDATE: This post made me curious so I stopped by again June 15; the museum appears to have been very recently demolished. The photo below is of the site.

 Neat old sundial was outside the entrance. I'm surprised they let this place get so overgrown, considering the actual mint building is still being used for offices.

 Plaque next to the sundial explaining it.

 Museum's entrance. If it wasn't so dark out I probably would have been able to get some pictures through the window.

 Looking towards the Mint itself, which is connected to this via footbridge.

 On the other side of the entrance was some sort of pergola.

 I'm guessing it was just a seating area.

 Downhill it looked like one of the back doors was open. I would have gone inside if it wasn't almost nighttime and I had a flashlight.

 Genuardi's/Giant, Edgmont, PA
I first covered this store back in 2015, but my pictures from then came out horribly. I returned a couple years later for redemption.
To recap: Genuardi's opened here in the 90's and closed down in 2011, shortly before the Giant buyout was announced. They apparently still had the lease, so Giant still picked it up and reopened it in 2013. They put in the Ahold décor, but otherwise didn't change much.

 This store has a very narrow produce department, typical of Genuardi's. This store is much smaller than the average Giant, which also being typical of Genuardi's is probably why three Giants have already relocated out of them.

Floral had a small area towards the front of the store.

Blurry look at meat and seafood. Notice here they kept the old Genuardi's spotlights instead of using the smaller LED ones they had over produce.

Back of the store. This décor had two different versions, one with fake stone and another with brick. I usually like the stone better, but the brick looks good in stores with darker ceilings.

I'm sorta surprised Giant didn't at least change out the flooring, which was original to when Genuardi's opened here.

Semi-drop ceiling over frozen. They would have had coffin cases here originally, which were probably replaced with uprights when Giant moved in. It probably would have looked better if they just removed the lattice.

Looking down the other side of the store towards the a la carte department. Bakery is to my right but I neglected to get a picture of that.

Since we were looking at a lot of farms today, how about some country music?