Ames-lessly Wandering

Hey folks! Welcome back to Journey up the Schuylkill: Part 4! Today, we're going to be taking a look at two of northern Pennsylvania's most famous abandoned landmarks. First up we've got what's probably the unluckiest town in the world, followed by the kind of shopping center that us retail geeks dream of.

Centralia, PA
This town, which currently has an estimated population of 5, was once one of the many coal mining towns in the area. While many towns have experienced a population decline as the industry went away, none have been nearly as dramatic as Centralia's. You can blame that on the fact that the land the town sits on has been burning continuously since 1962. There's some debate as to how it started, but the commonly accepted theory is that when they burned the town landfill to clean it out, it ignited a massive coal seam that went under the entire town. It burned slowly but steadily, causing sinkholes and releasing gases. Somehow, it took until 1979 for anybody to realize it was happening. By 1983, it had gotten bad enough that congress offered to buy out everybody's homes. Almost all of the town's ~1000 residents accepted, but 63 holdouts decided to stay. The town was condemned in 1992, shaking a few more people out. There were 11 homes left in 2009 when the governor began once again to evict the remaining residents. They are some extraordinarily stubborn people. Eventually, a deal was reached in 2013 with the then 7 residents that would allow them to live out the rest of their lives here under the condition that they turn their property over to the state once they pass. Even though they no longer have a post office or police force and their last mayor passed away in 2014, Centralia remains incorporated as a borough. Currently, it is the least populated incorporated community in the state.
The home pictured here was once part of a row, but is now the last house on its street. As of the most recent aerial, Centralia still has 5 houses, three cemeteries, an abandoned municipal building, and a church. Byrnesville, the village down the hill from here, was also affected by the fire. Due to its smaller size, it has been wiped out entirely. A shrine off the side of the highway is all that remains.

These two houses are the only surviving attached structures. I feel like bringing in a trailer like the guys on the right did is cheating the system a little.

Graffiti Highway was the most famous part of the town. Even though it technically wasn't open to the public, it was still a huge tourist draw. It was actually hard to get any people-free shots. It was originally the path of Route 61, which had to be rerouted in the 90's because constant sinkholes opening made it impossible and unsafe to maintain this stretch. By the time I got these pictures, the fire had moved away from this area, but the first time I was here (2011?) you could still see steam coming out of the ground. After it was rerouted, PennDOT turned this land over to the mining company who owned the adjacent property. Ultimately, they plan on mining this out, but in the meantime thought they could get away with piling dirt at either end to stop people from driving on it. Prior to quarantine, the police didn't patrol this and is was generally accepted as okay to walk, bike, or paint here. Sadly, when lockdown began people started swarming here (since it was basically the only thing open) and as a measure of safety the police began patrolling it. The owners quickly mobilized to get rid of the road, and a week later they had it completely buried. I'm glad I got to see it when I did, but it is sad to see it go.

Some rather large trees were growing out of a sinkhole here. They must have sprouted shortly after the road closed.

It was weird seeing the median, storm drains, and striping still intact here.

This road is significantly wider than the one that replaced it. The rerouted highway is just the old road that went through Byrnesville. I don't know why they didn't bother widening the new road to four lanes as well, since even without Centralia on it the destinations further up are still there.

Reading through the graffiti on here was fun. You could find basically any name, meme, or politician imaginable painted on here. Along with multiple depictions of genitalia in varying levels of detail.

Shamokin PA's Forgotten Shopping Center
Shamokin is a tiny city of about 7,000 people in the heart of the coal region. Despite its small size, it gets a ton of attention from the retail community thanks to three abandoned buildings lining the road into town- a Kmart, and ACME, and an Ames. Today we'll be taking a look at two of them through the windows. I have all of them photographed inside and out, but that was on a subsequent visit when I was feeling a little braver. The one not seen today was a Kmart, which closed in their 2002 bankruptcy and sat vacant until it was demolished this Spring.
I don't believe anybody's been able to piece together a full list of never-reoccupied Ames stores, but most people agree there are about a dozen left. Of them, this is the only one I'm aware of that has their older red logo. It's only on the roadside pylon; the storefront signage has been removed which is just as well since my picture of it this time didn't come out... so you'll have to wait until next year to see mine (or, alternatively, you can click here).

But before we look at the Ames any further, let's check out the building they share a parking lot with! In the 70's, American Stores didn't do in-store pharmacies but was big on sticking their Rea & Derick pharmacies next door to their grocery stores. I don't know if this ever made it to the CVS days- they bought the chain in 1991, the same year they opened the current store in downtown Shamokin which would have replaced this.

I haven't figured out what moved in here after Rea & Derick left, but I would guess maybe a small gym was here last. There was allegedly a craft store here in the 90's, but the way the store looks now would indicate it was last something less retail-y. Whatever it was, it's been closed since no later than 2010 and didn't really fall into an "abandoned" state until somewhat recently- relative to when I got these pictures, at least.

It looks like they didn't change too much on the inside- just added some partitions and built what looks like a receptionist's desk.

I'm willing to bet this vestibule is all-original. Almost all of the damage seen here is due to vandalism, not weathering.

Heading down the the ACME, which was among the stores sold to Bi-Lo in 1995. Neither Bi-Lo nor the grocery outlet that most recently occupied it bothered remodeling. It might be hard to believe given the building's state, but it was still an operational supermarket only 4 years prior to my visit. Based on the pictures I've seen online, it didn't get broken into and torn apart until just a few months before my visit.

I wasn't brave enough to step inside this time, but I totally could have. That was the driving force behind my revisit the following year.

There were two vestibules here, one for entering and the other for exiting. It must have been standard issue for ACME's at the time, but I think just about every store of this model still in operation has merged the two.

To my knowledge, this store is the only surviving example of ACME's 70's colonial decor. Obviously I had to see it in person whether the store was still open or not.

I think most of the damage was done here by scrappers, not just people looking to break stuff. Just about all of the pipes and wiring had been ripped out of the walls. For such a rural area, the coal region's got a surprisingly large drug problem. I'm relatively certain drug money was the driving force behind the scrapping here.

The ACME clock is still up, and even still has their early 90's "Thank you for shopping with us" sign in place of where the ads used to go!

The frozen cases on the right were  a couple aisles in from where they originally were. I think BRL tried to downsize cheaply.

Looks like the looters even got into the ceiling over here. It's the lowest part, so getting up there would be a bit easier.

Other stores of this era have delivery doors in front like this, which in just about every store I've seen were for the produce department. What mystifies me here is that it's on the side of the store opposite produce. It lines up with where Frozen was, but I doubt they would have their own delivery door. I also would have considered they moved produce at some point, but this store was never remodeled.

The store's parking lot has been taken over by what looks like a contractor's storage yard. There's a lot of small construction equipment and pipes being stored here, which at first made me think they were doing something to the store- but they were still there the next year. And the year after that. We'll find out about this year when I return hopefully next month, but I'd bet it's still here.

ACME's façade is also exactly how they left it. Not bad for 25 years.

Let's head around back, shall we?

The damage back here looked more like it was done by nature than by man... if I were to guess, I'd say BRL didn't use these loading docks while they were here. That's gotta be more than 4 years of growth.

If that spray paint is any indication, at very least they didn't use the one on the right.

The one on the left was open, giving me another opportunity to go inside. I almost did, but chickened out at the last minute. There's a chance that cart was left over from ACME, but I'm inclined to think it was brought in by Bi-Lo.

The reason I say that is because there was another lying outside. The handle was tightly wrapped in duct tape so I couldn't catch the name on it, but that blue seat flap better matches Bi-Lo's color scheme. No clue how or why a coaches' board got in there.

Heading over to the Ames. They've been gone since 2002, but this graffiti's clearly more recent. It's interesting that they had teal panels in the window even though the store never got the teal logo.

Disclaimer: Vines are NOT real memes, and Plaza ACME's finding humor in them does not equal endorsement. The same applies for TikTok, which if you happen to have please go to @papatonyspizza and become my 7th follower before the app gets banned.

Back when it was first built in 1970, this store was home to Big N, a small Ames-esque chain operated by a local department store company, prior to them getting bought out in the 80's.

Aside from the customer service counter, just about everything's been cleared out of here. When I revisited and got inside I was hoping there would be something left with the Ames logo on it I could take as a souvenir, but left empty-handed. Either they did a really good job cleaning the store out, or every Youtuber that visited this place before me had the same idea.

The ceiling was lower over this corner, making me wonder if there was a snack bar or restaurant here at one point. The pegboard lining the wall indicates it was last used as retail space. The picture looks a little weird because I had to censor some graffiti... usually I'll let this stuff slide but this was a particularly bad one... the "Big N" if you will. I'm not tryna get cancelled here.

There was only one open window at camera height, so these were the only views I could get. Honestly I would understand if you thought this store was boring. If it weren't an untouched Ames I'd probably feel the same way.

There's some kind of technology stuffed under the customer service counter. It looks like it's built-in, which is why it was left. No clue what it could possibly be though.

Heading around back, here's how I could have gotten in if I were feeling slightly braver that day. You can see through all the way to the window I was just looking in. Just a little something to keep in mind if you're ever up this way.
Another disclaimer: I assume no responsibility should you enter these buildings and injure yourself or get arrested. Save that for the dumbasses like myself.

Given this area's heritage, this would be an appropriate song for this post.