My Biggest Retail Regret, The Photo That Almost Got Me Shot, Amishland, and More!

Now if that title didn't get you excited, I don't know what will. After over a month of driving through Chester on my way to and from my internship, I finally decided to get out and explore the downtown after work on my last day. You would think being a downtown area, it would be fairly nice even if the city mostly consists of a smattering of crackhouses with the odd dollar store in between. I was wrong. Very wrong. I haven't been outside the car in Chester since then. That doesn't mean I don't still love the place, but there aren't too many nice things to say about it either.

This is Avenue of the States, Chester's "Main Street" area. I don't believe anything new has been built along here since the 50's. Several of the storefronts are vacant, and many others are occupied by check cashing and hair braiding places. More recently, there's been an effort to clean up the area by filling some of the vacant spaces with work by local artists.

This storefront had been vacant for a while. It was originally Lloyd's Men's Shop, and more recently served as King's Jewelry. The left is now a hair braiding place, and the right is now home to "SoulStreet Lounge," which seems to be a restaurant targeted towards older people; I believe it's part of the nonprofit arts district they're trying to create here.  It actually looks a lot nicer on the inside than you'd expect.

This pathway leads back to the old Chester City Hall, which has been abandoned since the new one opened in 2002.

Here's the best shot I got of the old City Hall. This courtyard had me a little wigged out so I didn't stay long enough to get a better photo. I believe this one was built in the 1920's. Unfortunately, it's in bad enough shape I think it's going to have to be torn down before too long.

Some more vacant storefronts along States.

I'm reasonably certain this was an addition built as an addition to First National Bank (later Delaware County National Bank) next door in 1919. After sitting boarded up for the last 15 years, it appears somebody has finally begun restoring it.

Next to that is the original First National building, built in 1889. It's in notably better shape than the annex but has also been vacant for years. I don't remember who used the keystone logo but they've been gone longer than I've been alive.

The original City hall and courthouse, built in 1724 (yes, you read that right- Chester's the oldest city in Pennsylvania, beating Philly by only a couple months). While it hasn't been the city's main courthouse or city hall in nearly 100 years, it's still used on occasion to maintain its status as the oldest active municipal building in the country.

Cambridge Trust Co originally opened here in 1903, and rebuilt the right half of the building in the 20's- see how it originally looked here. It later became PNB>CoreStates>First Union>Wachovia>Wells Fargo, which it operates as to this day.

It may not look like much but this photo brings me an unimaginable amount of pain. This is by a landslide my biggest regret when it comes to photographing stores. This was Chester's second McCrory store, which lasted all the way up until the chain closed. It still had the sign up on the front until 2016, but missing that's not what I'm beating myself up over- rather, I had the opportunity to get a great photo through the window of a perfectly preserved 60's McCrory interior and missed it. In my defense, I didn't know the building's history at the time. Once I found out, I told myself it's fine, I'll be in town again before too long and I can get another picture then. Then, the unthinkable happened. A DTLR store opened in here. The project was sponsored by rapper Jahlil Beats, so they had the budget to completely gut out and redo the interior. I am so sorry I failed you guys; what happens 7 photos from now was probably karma for this.

The older half of the Cambridge building, which had served as the Cambridge Restaurant for a while. It reopened last year as Sunny's Cambridge Diner.

MJ Freed was a furniture store that opened here in 1950. They closed in the 70's or 80's and it became a shoe store. Miraculously, they didn't bother taking down the sign. Instead, they just covered it over with a flat panel of their own. After they closed and the building sat vacant for a while, they uncovered the sign and reopened it as the MJ Freed Performing Arts Center.

This building was once home to Messick Men's hats and Furnishings, and later the first Woolworth's in town, but has sat abandoned for a while. It came back to life for a brief stint in 2015 as the campaign headquarters for Wendell Butler Jr, who was running for a third term as mayor after one off. Chester's a strange place politically; they go very blue in presidential elections but when it comes to local elections generally they lean more toward the Republicans. I believe the mayor is up for election again this year and I'm curious to see if Butler makes a comeback.

Former Flagg Bros Shoe Store. The company went under in the 80's, so I would assume that's when this store closed.

Flagg's (black facade) shared a building with Kresge (green facade). This building was abandoned and looking a little worse for the wear when I visited, but the most recent Streetview shows it is now being restored.

While the building now houses real estate offices, the sign from the dry cleaner that once operated here still graces the front of the building.

Here it is. This photo almost got me in some serious trouble. First, you need the history- Avenue of the States was created more recently (sometime within the past 50 years) to make a road going straight through downtown from one of the major roads leading into downtown. To do this, they claimed the entirety of what was once Market Street, which ended at the sharply angled intersection of Edgmont Ave. They blocked off this end of Edgmont (seen here), and turned the next several blocks of it going in the other direction into Avenue of the States. That project kinda killed this end of the street and also makes it a lot harder to figure out where businesses were since there are now three names that can be applied to one stretch of road. The cut-off end of Edgmont is now abandoned (there used to be an abandoned Sears in the empty lot back there, but it was torn down due for safety reasons).
I noticed these three neat looking abandoned buildings and decided to check them out. Basically as soon as I turned the corner onto here and snapped the picture, I noticed there was another pickup truck parked to the left of the picture with 4 or 5 people sitting in the back. They were passing baggies of something. I'm almost positive it was a drug deal. At least a couple of them, if not all, had guns. I came to the realization they noticed that I saw them, and were all looking at me. The white kid with the camera. I'm pretty sure they drew some conclusions, so I booked it back around the corner. Keep in mind, this is less than a block away from Chester's main street. I think that tells you all you need to know about the city. I would joke I risked my life to bring you guys some exciting content, but let's be real; I would have done it anyway because I'm dumb like that. :P

I found a listing for Rodger's Department Store here, which there's not much information on other than an address and that it was expanded sometime after 1939, and was still in business as of 1972.

This was Chester's original McCrory, which I believe opened in 1910. I'm assuming it closed around the time the other one opened in the 60's. It's been home to a discount furniture store for a while now and has not only outlived the buildings on either side of it, but also the stucco applied when they were torn down in 2007.

The McCrory name is still proudly showing up top! What I found odd about this store is that it's a floor taller and almost twice as wide as the 60's store.

Weinberg's Department Store, which was the last department store to operate in Chester. They opened in 1920, expanded/remodeled to the current look in 1950, and ultimately closed down in 1975. The building is now a beauty supply store. I'm guessing the upper floors are abandoned, like the rest of the places we've seen today.

 This was Woolworth's newer store, which replaced the one seen earlier in the 60's or 70's. It's now one of Chester's three Family Dollar stores.

I couldn't find anything on the Cricket building, but the one with the tile front just beyond that is what was originally Lincoln Store, later York Store, and more recently a Value Plus which closed before the Rainbow acquisition.

I found a listing for Ches-Penn 5 & Dime on this block. I'm guessing that's what this place was, but there's really not much other information out there on it. Prior to a 2010 remodel, the exterior was still covered in bright aluminum tiles. If you feel like sleuthing, oldchesterpa.com is a great resource.

This was built as the Imperial Hotel in 1914, and finished out its life as the Midtown Inn. The large sign on the corner was still intact as of 2012, advertising Beef 'N Beer restaurant, who had occupied the ground floor for decades but has also been closed for the last few.

Lisa's Water Ice has the tiny building in the triangle. I'm guessing it was a newsstand originally.

The Weaver Building was built in 1919, featuring two storefronts on the bottom floor and offices up top. Both storefronts are still filled, but the office portion has been vacant for about 15-20 years now.

Dollar General opened here in late 2016, on the site of what looked like an old 1930's discount store. I can't find any history on this one in particular, and Chester already has most of the major chains accounted for, but see for yourself.

St. Michael's Church opened here in 1842, though I'm fairly certain this building was rebuilt in the late 1800's. It closed in 1993 when in an effort to cut losses, the Archdiocese of Philadelphia shuttered several parishes in North Philly and Chester. 5 parishes in Chester were merged into one near Widener University; though two of the vacated buildings are still used by the church as a community center and a chapel. The other three were sold, one of which was later demolished. The other two are now churches for other denominations. This one is now St. John's AUMP (African Union Methodist Protestant- I Googled it) Church. The former parish school behind this became a Catholic Social Services Center.

 Popping Back Over to Westtown
Since my last visit, approximately one week before, the rear and side walls have been put up, and roof nearly completed. I was shocked how quickly this came together, but now that I think about it metal siding should go up pretty fast.

 Red Caboose Motel Silo, Ronks, PA
It's been a longtime tradition for some friends and I to take an annual trip out to Lancaster County. This one motel converted an old silo into an observation deck. There's some nice views from up here.

 I was going to remark on how amazing it is this is so close to Philadelphia, but then I realized it's not really. I live about halfway between here and Philly so both feel very close to me, but to get from here to Center City it would take about an hour and a half. For perspective, it takes 2 hours (in good traffic) to get from Philly to NYC.

 The motel also has a farm animal petting zoo, whose animals are seen in the field below the silo.

 Not sure this was meant to be a walking path, but we went down it anyway. This area grows a lot of corn and tobacco, as seen here. Turkeys and cattle are also not hard to find here.

 Strasburg Railroad, Strasburg, PA
After the Strasburg Railroad announced it was suspending operation in 1958, a historic preservation group bought it and revived it as a recreational line. It's become a huge tourist attraction for the area and is pretty famous in the railroad fandom (Yes, I did just call it that. No, I'm not sorry. Perhaps, I may be part of it). It also served as a filming location for several movies, most notably Thomas and the Magic Railroad.

 And no, Harry Potter was not one of those movies.

 I don't think any of the trains they have now are original to the Strasburg, although they are all historic. Most were bought from Pennsylvania Railroad/NY Central when they folded.

Some farmland behind Red Caboose. The Cabooses here serve as the motel rooms. 

Today's song feels appropriate for a post mainly focused on Chester.