Some stuff from Southern Chesco and the Day I Passed my Driver's Test

Hey everybody! We've got a long post coming up today. There's really no logical way to break this up into two posts so here we are.

Shops at Brentwood, Exton, PA
At this point, the existing facade's been pulled off entirely and the RadioShack space effectively demolished. The old façade didn't look terribly old; I've got no explanation as to why they felt it necessary to redo the entire place. They probably could have turned the RadioShack into a mattress store without ripping off the walls and roof.

Arco/Sunoco/Exxon, West Chester, PA
This station was in the middle of converting to an Exxon here. It's interesting that they used the old logo on the temporary sign, especially considering the permanent one that's there now is the new (well if 2012 still counts as "new") logo. I'm not sure if Exxon totally rebuilt the canopy or just redid the fascia, but not it looks like their standard square-edged one.

Wawa, West Chester, PA
Wawa opened this store in the mid-60's (Store #25), and haven't given it too much attention since then. It received the new logo in 2011 after the interior décor was swapped out, but as of now it hasn't made any big remodel lists.

Pizza Hut/La Tolteca/Rams Diner, West Chester, PA
I'm not sure if this is still the original Pizza Hut building... This was my first time driving down this road in a while, last I saw the Pizza Hut/Tolteca building was still there. It has the same footprint and parking lot, but if this is the same building the walls and roof would have had to be totally reframed. La Tolteca, a local Mexican restaurant that'd been here for years, closed here in 2014 and by 2015 this had taken its place.

CoreStates/First Union/Wachovia/Wells Fargo, West Chester, PA
This style of bank was built by CoreStates from the 80's up until they got bought out in the 90's. The design aged pretty well, unlike a lot of other designs used by their contemporaries.

Thrift Drug/Eckerd/Rite Aid, West Chester, PA
What I've found says Thrift Drug opened here in the 60's, although I know the center dates back to the 50's so there's a chance it could have opened earlier. It became Eckerd in the 90's and Rite Aid ten years later. Despite its age, it seems very modern inside. Why don't we take a look?

Like most former Eckerds, it's been remodeled to the Customer World décor. It also has the same lighting Customer World-era Rite Aids do instead of Eckerd's standard open-bulb fixtures, making me think that they might have been replaced, or at least given shades, in the remodel.

I'm assuming this store was expanded at some point over the years, it's huge for a 60's store and actually fairly close in size to their newer stores.

The photo counter, which I'm positive is an Eckerd holdover. It doesn't look like Rite Aid's used it very much.

RadioShack, West Chester, PA
Sorry my two pictures of this place are both terrible, but it's RadioShack and thereby I am required to post them. What's strange about this store is that rather than adding a Sprint store inside this, they walled off a section of the store and opened a totally independent Sprint in about half the space. That is still open, despite the RadioShack being long gone (and as of now still vacant). The area behind the left wall is where Spring set up shop.

The outside of the store. Usually my interior pictures come out worse because I'm trying to be discreet. It happened the opposite here. Don't ask me why.

Hampton Inn Remodel, Lionville, PA
This hotel was given a much-needed remodel in the spring of 2017. They redid the exterior to their current style, but honestly just peeling off the mansard roof would have made it look a thousand times better. As part of the remodel, the streetside signs were also updated to say "By Hilton" at the bottom. The black part below the sign was for Hoss's, which operated as an outparcel here until they closed in 2011. I miss them. :(

Trestle Bridge, Downingtown, PA
This was built as a railroad bridge in the 1920's. It for a freight track that branched off of and reattached to the Main Line to serve the factories back here. It's been out of service since the 80's. It's fallen into serious disrepair, hence the net keeping stuff from falling onto the road. However, between it being a local landmark (an office park to the side of it's called Trestle Place, their sign out front is a model of this bridge) and the sheer cost of removing it, I doubt it's going anywhere. They will have to do something about it soon though. It's where high schoolers go to drink. That paired with being a decrepit deck 60 feet above the ground is a recipe for disaster.

Landhope Farms, Unionville, PA
Terrible photo, but I felt like I have to share it too since how often do you see gas stations operating out of old dairy barns? Landhope farms is a chain of 4 (only 3 until Oxford opened couple months ago) convenience stores that started as a way for the actual Landhope Farm to sell their dairy products. This was the first location, which opened in 1969.

Landhope Farms, Kennett Square, PA
This was their second location, which definitely looks like it began life as another gas station. It's been altered enough that I can't tell what it was. I want to say Mobil though, which segues us to our next photo...

Mobil/Getty/Gulf, Norristown, PA
A blurry update to my previous photo. I think the day I got these photos I was driving (actually this picture was en route to taking my driver's test), so whoever was unlucky enough to be my passenger got stuck on photo duty.
At this point, the old tanks and pumps have been removed from the Norristown Getty as Gulf prepares to open. They did a ton of work to this place.

Stray&P Cart
There was a thrift store in the same shopping center as the DMV who had carts from an assortment of defunct stores. This A&P one happened to have wandered over towards where I parked.

Logan Square Center, Norristown, PA
I got here a little early, so I wandered around the center a bit while I waited. This strip mall originally opened in 1950, anchored by Penn Fruit and Sears. As you can probably infer from the pictures, it has fallen into tough shape. There were only 4 businesses left in the original center at this point, although Sears' larger relocation in the parking lot was recently turned into offices, alongside a few stores in the bottom. Ultimately, the owners decided to knock this down to make way for a Royal Farms, freestanding Rite Aid, and a smaller shopping center. This was all pulled down by the end of summer 2017, but the replacement stores have yet to break ground.

There were a lot of closed stores here, but most had their windows covered. Some were opened back up once demolition started, which you'll have to wait and see.

The entrance to the old Penn Fruit, which was a thrift store most recently. They moved to part of the 1969 Sears building.

Interior demolition was already underway. Before they could pull the full building down, they had to go through and remove all the asbestos. At the time I was unaware this building was supposed to come down, rather I assumed they were clearing out the space to make it easier for a new tenant to move it.

Perhaps the most exciting thing I found here was Penn Fruit's logo cast into the Terrazzo in the vestibule. Unfortunately, it would have been physically impossible to salvage this.

Please ignore my reflection in the window. I have no idea what I was doing there, but I was probably afraid of getting caught taking pictures.
They also were taking out all of the fluorescent lighting prior to demolition, as seen on the ceiling here. I think they have something in the ballasts that makes them hard to dispose of. What's even more interesting is that they uncovered the original can lights, which probably hadn't been used since Penn Fruit was here.

Looking across the front side of the old Penn Fruit towards Rite Aid, who was the last tenant to leave the center. Don't worry, they'll be back. That is assuming they ever rebuild the center.

Now here's the part you've all been waiting for- the barrel roof in all it's exposed glory! Way too many of these places have put in drop ceilings over the years, this one was thankfully spared. I don't know too much about what this place was between Penn Fruit and Impact Thrift, but I get the impression some pretty ghetto businesses made their way through here over the years

The arch roof here would have been a dark stained wood originally. Later variants of the design had the stringer beams covered with tile and were always white. I'd guess Impact painted the ceiling when they moved in, since they did replace the lighting. Penn Fruit's hanging fluorescent lights were still here up until they opened. I'm thinking PF put in the fluorescents sometime in the 60's. Based on what we saw a few photos back, we've got reason to believe this store opened with incandescent lighting.

Rite Aid opened this store in 1972 and expanded into the adjacent storefront in 1995, which was also the last time it was remodeled.

A look at the rear of the Rite Aid. It had an entrance on this side which went down a somewhat long hallway to the rest of the store. We'll be taking a look inside later this post.

The taller building here was the original Sears. I think the near part may have been a Woolworth, just based on the shape of the entrance alcove.

Another lost A&P shopping cart I found wandering around the parking lot.

I would call this side of the Sears the front, even though both sides look the same. This faces the parking lot, while the other side faces the road. Sears was originally located on Norristown's Main Street. After this location, they moved to a much larger store in the parking lot in 1969, which then moved to King of Prussia in the 80's. I believe both this and the possible Woolworth were both being used as offices up until the end here.

The 1969 Sears building is on the far left in the background. The other 2-story building was attached to the Penn Fruit building. It had smaller strip mall stores on the bottom and offices up top.

The rectangles in the Terrazzo have to be where the original tenant's name was. Remember the Woolworth we saw a couple weeks ago? I think that's what this would have looked like originally.

Looking along the 2-story side of the Penn Fruit building. The developers tried to model this center off of Ardmore's Suburban Square Shopping Center by combining offices and retail into the same complex, and having the center broken up into a couple building with sidewalks connecting them.

Texaco/Citgo, Norristown, PA
Taking a quick glance across the street, Citgo's paneling fell off the canopy revealing the previous tenant's décor. I'm surprised they didn't remove this when Citgo put theirs up.

Rite Aid, Norristown, PA
Heading back inside, the Rite Aid looks more or less the same as it did in 1995. It even still has the original aisle markers, which Rite Aid has made an effort to replace in most unremodeled stores.

I always thought the panel signs for this décor didn't really match the rest of the look. They look a little too traditional for the otherwise modernist décor.

One thing I've noticed about Rite Aid is that they've never totally gotten a new décor. Every time they've come out with a new one, it carries over several elements of the previous. This décor is more or less just their 70's/80's rainbow décor with a different color scheme, and their subsequent décor drew pretty heavily from this one. The one major change between those was that instead of Prescriptions, the department was renamed Pharmacy.

Speaking of the stripes, here they are now! It's literally the same pattern as the rainbow décor, which made its debut about 20 years prior, although they went from several colors to just Rite Aid's corporate colors.

Looking down the store's center aisle. It was a lot bigger than I was expecting it to be. Despite that, I'm anticipating its replacement still being double its size.

More stripes. This might be my all-time favorite Rite Aid décor.

The Dunkin' Donuts in the parking lot, which was not demolished. If I were to guess, I'd say this is going to get relocated elsewhere in the center once they actually start building stuff.

The walkway between the Penn Fruit and Rite Aid buildings, which were also heavily influenced by Suburban Square. The key difference between the two centers is that unlike here, Suburban Square did a fantastic job maintaining and modernizing the center. It also helps that it's in a much nicer area than here.

While we were here, my dad stopped in Kenny's Shoe Repair (we happened to be in a really convenient place for the sole to fall off of his shoe), one of the building's other 3 remaining tenants.

Starburst Café, KOP
This was IMO the coolest storefront in King of Prussia. Unfortunately it was closed and replaced by something fancy not long after I got this photo.

Justice was in the process of opening a store on the lower level. I don't explicitly remember one here before, but I feel like that's too common of a mall store to have not already been here.
I'm assuming the construction is what I was going for with the photo here, yet the photo's from just far enough away to make me wonder if there was something else I was trying to capture. It's been 2 years. It doesn't help that it's 11 at night as I'm looking at these pictures and writing this. I really don't know at this point. :P

The mall's remodel has since passed through this hallway. It looks pretty generic now but at least they haven't screwed around with the skylights. They're not done yet so I'm afraid to say if it's in the clear yet or not.

The Penn Fruit's got me in a 50's mood. Have some Frankie Lymon: