I Want to Wake Up in the City that Never Sleeps

We're going out-of-state yet again today, this time to a place that I should have represented on this blog long ago. Where is that exactly? Well, if you couldn't tell from the title, read on to find out. Or cheat and just scroll halfway down this post. I can't stop you with this block of text. But first, let's take a look at some empty strip mall space.

Monkey Joe's/Giant, North Coventry, PA
This space butts up right next to the Clemens/Giant. It's the same depth and height as it too, indicating either it was designed for them to expand into, or Clemens downsized their plans at the last minute. It opened as Monkey Joe's, an indoor trampoline park, which closed sometime in the early 2010's. Giant took it over in 2017, but has not expanded their sales floor into it. Instead, they turned this into a distribution center for their Peapod delivery service. I get the impression this is only a temporary setup until they can get a full distribution center running in the area, at which point they will probably expand the store into this space and finally remodel from the Clemens décor next door.

Tile & Design, North Coventry, PA
This space was a tile store and showroom, which I believe was an original tenant to the center. It closed around 2015, and remains vacant. This center doesn't have too many vacancies relative to its size, but the vacancies it has seem to stick around forever.

Picasso Salon & Spa, North Coventry, PA
This space has been vacant since around 2012. Their name didn't help them out- if you're going to name a salon after an artist, how about you pick one that isn't best known for their distorted figures?

I couldn't find what this space was originally, but evidently something large enough to subdivide.

The lighting here's a giveaway that this was originally a RadioShack. It must have been a short-lived location, as I have no recollection of one ever being here. Obviously it was something else after RadioShack closed, but I don't know what.

24-Hour Blinds, North Coventry, PA
I don't believe this was an original tenant, but nonetheless they operated here for several years. They closed in early 2016 if I remember correctly.

Caribbean Hot Spot, North Coventry, PA
Despite its name, this place was not a Caribbean restaurant, or a restaurant at all for that matter. It was a relatively short-lived tanning salon.

They didn't gut out the full interior here, but the partitions separating the tanning beds have all been removed.

Namco, North Coventry, PA
This Namco was a pool/patio/entertainment supply store, and to my knowledge has nothing to do with the video game company. It closed back in 2013, but the company is still around. All of their stores are up in New England, so this one was an outlier. Dollar Tree moved into half the space in 2015, but the rest remains vacant.

Namco left their signs up when they closed, and Dollar Tree only bothered to remove the ones on the side of the store they took.

Blockbuster/Sportsman's Liquidation/Tower Health, North Coventry, PA
This outparcel was original to the shopping center, and closed in 2011 as the company started falling apart. It became a discount sporting goods store for a little while, but they didn't change much on the building. As of earlier this year, it has become a Tower Health Urgent Care clinic.

Lionville Apartment Update
It's been forever since I've shown you this old building, which I theorized was originally the village's namesake Red Lion Inn. One of the more recent additions in back had been ripped down, and replaced with the part wrapped in Tyvek. I've recently learned that the one story portion of this building was home to a barber shop at one point, which moved to the strip mall nearby when it was built in the 80's.

Delaware River Turnpike Bridge, Bristol, PA/Burlington, NJ
This bridge was built in 1955 as a joint venture between the PA and NJ Turnpike Commissions, and as you could probably guess, connects both states' respective turnpikes. Due to increased traffic, their original plan was to build a second bridge next to this and make this all one way. However, in early 2017 a beam cracked in this bridge and an emergency repair had to be made (hence the construction in these photos), spurring the decision to replace this bridge as part of the project.

The cables the bridge's deck hangs from were replaced in 2013, back when the plan was to keep this bridge in service. They're probably regretting that decision now.

Former TPNJ Headquarters, East Brunswick, NJ
The short, modern building in front here opened in 1951 as the headquarters of the NJ Turnpike Commission. The Commission merged with the New Jersey Highway Authority (operators of the Garden State Parkway, which is basically a second turnpike) in 2003 and subsequently moved into a new headquarters. I don't believe the building has had a permanent tenant since then and will likely be demolished in the near future, but for now it is being used as construction offices for a major interchange project nearby. The two taller buildings in the background are Tower Center, a large office complex.

New York, New York
Despite living less than 100 miles away from NYC, I hadn't been here since 2013. Last time I was up, I didn't bring a camera, so this is the first time I'm covering the city! (I say city even though we're only covering a small part of Manhattan)
The thing that really caught my attention coming into town was the amount of construction going on. The building going up to the right is a small (by NY standards) apartment building; to the left is one of the new Hudson Yards towers- this one now houses the Shops at Hudson Yards, which currently holds the title of America's newest mall.

Hudson Yards Carnage, NYC

Good news- this block will soon be home to another skyscraper. Bad news- that means everything currently on the block has been demolished.

Westside Car Wash, NYC
This is one of the more luxurious car washes I've seen. It's as fitting as a car wash could be in this area. They've been operating here since 1947 but have obviously rebuilt at some point. They have since closed and I can only assume they got bought out for development.

Via 57 West, NYC
Now this is a bizarre building! It doesn't really have a roof, the front wall slopes in all the way to the straight back and side wall. The cutout in the middle is for a courtyard. It was built in 2014 on what was a mostly vacant lot.

Staples, NYC
I was thinking it would be easy to pinpoint the location of this one on Maps, but I severely underestimated the number of Staples stores in Manhattan alone. I then overestimated how much information I could find on this building once I got the address, since it looks like an old downtown department store which is usually pretty easy to find information on. 2246 Broadway doesn't turn up much, but I can tell you it's old and Staples takes up most of it.

Chase, NYC
While Chase has a large presence in NYC, I took this picture as a novelty since (in 2017) we didn't have Chase's in the Philly area. Ironically, they arrived in 2018 and have since opened up a location on just about every vacant corner they could find. I'm posting this photo instead because it has some historic value- the circa 1950 granite panels have recently been removed in favor of a more modern finish.

Infinity on Madison, NYC
The "Open during Renovation" sign refers to the facelift the building was getting rather than a renovation of the store itself. It used to be clad in a green stone tile, but now has a 3-D Corten Steel treatment. The project temporarily exposed some of the original brick that had been hidden behind the tile.

Metropolitan Museum of Art, NYC
The Met is the 4th most visited art museum in the world and holds over 2 million pieces. They have been located here since 1872, but have expanded several times over the years. It's got everything so even if you're like me and not terribly interested in paintings, there will be something there to hold your attention, whether its suits of armor or detached building facades.

...or, an entire ancient Egyptian Temple. This was the Temple of Dendur, constructed near Aswan in the 15th century BC. The decision to transplant it here was made in 1963 when the Aswan Dam was announced, which would have submerged the temple. Rather than sink the artifacts at the site, Egypt donated them to other countries. So yeah, I'm going to go out on a limb and guess this is the oldest building in the US.

American Museum of Natural History, NYC
Here's something you might recognize as Night at the Museum's namesake museum. It, like the met, opened in the 1870's and has been expanded several times over the years. The main entryway, seen here, was added on in 1936. It's also one of the world's most visited museums. They've got basically every animal you can imagine stuffed inside there. Up until earlier this week, it also housed a famous statue of Robin Williams Teddy Roosevelt which was controversially removed in light of recent events. Not to get political or anything but like WTF.

Cleopatra's Needle, Central Park, NYC
This granite obelisk dates back to 1450 BC and originally stood in ancient Egypt. Over the years, it was toppled and buried by sandstorms before being discovered in 18 AD and moved to Alexandria, where it stood outside of Cleopatra's palace (hence the name). There are two of these- Egypt sold this to New York in 1879 after gifting the other to London the year before. The years of New York weather had taken its toll to the point where Egypt was threatening to repossess it, but they negotiated to let it stay in Central Park after a thorough restoration.

Duane Reade, NYC
Duane Reade is a small but iconic pharmacy chain. Despite having only ~250 locations, they have by far the most thorough coverage of New York City. Walgreens bought them in 2010 initially planning to rebrand them, but as a result of the fierce brand loyalty decided compromise and let them operate as Duane Reade by Walgreens. Their final independent logo, seen on this store, first rolled out in 2008 and is still being used but has unfortunately been mashed with Walgreens'. This store was remodeled to the new logo in 2012, before the names got combined.

Dublin House, NYC
Despite the ornate entry and massive neon sign, this is actually just a bar. It's a cool one though- they've been here since 1933 and haven't altered it much, inside or out. Not going to lie, I was a little disappointed by the interior pictures, but the sign alone is cool enough to make this a destination.

Sheetz, Birdsboro, PA
Sheetz opened this store in 1999, and relocated to a new store in 2018. It didn't feel terribly old, but this store design is quickly circling the drain- at this point I think at least three quarters of them have been rebuilt, replaced, or remodeled beyond recognition. It currently sits vacant; its leasing brochure has a lot of neat information and better pictures.

The inside for the most part still looks typical for a store of this era. It's had some light remodeling toward the prepared food area though.

Terrible picture, sorry. I would've pulled this had it not been of a now-closed store. I think this corner here was redone in the early 2010's.

KFC/Taco Bell, Reading, PA
(For what it's worth, the city's pronounced "Redding," not like how it's spelled. Same goes for Reading Railroad if you happen to be playing Monopoly)
This combo restaurant opened in the early 2000's. It still hasn't been remodeled as of my last time by, probably about a month ago.

Burger King, Reading, PA
This location was originally built in the 80's, and remodeled to the current look in late 2016. It used to have an atrium along the front and entry sides, which was removed and replaced with regular dining space during construction.

Arby's, Reading, PA
I wish I got this picture from more of an angle- while it has their common 90's façade on the side facing the highway, the rest of the building still has their original 70's red roof. You can see a little bit of it off to the left. The inside was remodeled to 90's standards when they redid the façade, but I'm sure the wood paneled ceiling is still hidden in there somewhere.

Turkey Hill, Reading, PA
Reading's fortunate enough to have the entire Holy Trinity of Pennsylvania convenience stores- Wawa, Sheetz, and Turkey Hill. Wawa's primarily in the southeastern corner of the state, Turkey Hill in the north, and Sheetz to the west. Reading is one of very few places where they all overlap- Lancaster's the only other city I can think of with all three.

Mobil/Lukoil, Wyomissing, PA

Here's another old mushroom-canopy style Mobil that Lukoil picked up after the merger. Like with most of their locations, they haven't done anything to it since they moved in.

I know I say "this is the only acceptable song for this post" a lot but that's especially true for this one. An instrumental version of it was literally being played on repeat in the Met's gift shop.