Turning Back the Clock

This week is our final instalment of the Journey through Jersey. This leg of the trip hits a lot of old retail relics including one of my all-time favorite accidental discoveries.

Burger King/Scotto Pizza, Berlin, NJ

Burger King opened this location in the 80's, and closed by the mid-2000's at the latest. It's been operating as Scotto's Pizza, a local chain, ever since. While Berlin itself is currently Burger King-less, the neighboring town of West Berlin got one in 2017.

Wendy's/New Chinatown, Berlin, NJ

Wendy's has been gone even longer than the Burger King next door. I don't believe they were open here any later than the 90's. Even though the Chinese restaurant that took its place completely redid the inside, the exterior has been left more or less unaltered. Similar to Burger King, Wendy's has a newer store over in West Belin as well. Theirs looks like a 90's build, making me wonder if it replaced this one.

Wawa/Speedy Mart, Berlin, NJ

There are a few other Wawa's out there with this design, but it was somewhat rare. I really don't know if it was a transitional prototype (since it bears some resemblance to both their 2000's newer and older model stores), or if this design was just used to better fit "main street" areas. It didn't last long here; a new store a few blocks away replaced it in the mid-2000's. It is now an independent Speedy Mart.

Arco/Coastal, Berlin, NJ

I was surprised to find this- a still-operating Coastal station! There are still quite a few stations around that have their canopy design, but this is the only one I know that is still selling under their name. Coastal as a company went under in 2002. This station was originally built as an Arco in the 60's. I'm not sure if it was still around when they sold to Sunoco, but if it was it didn't operate for very long. 

Clementon Center Site, Clementon, NJ

Up until late 2011, a long-abandoned shopping center that was at one point anchored by a Shoprite-turned-ACME and Grant's stood on the site. ACME Style has some good coverage of both stores (two links). The center was torn down for housing, which so far remains mostly unbuilt. The first phase, which takes up about 1/8 of the site, was built in 2017. As far as I'm aware, nothing else has been done yet.

Builder's Emporium/Channel/A&P/Big Lots & Bottom Dollar, Clementon, NJ

So I've got more names here than I do dates and am a little unclear on what happened here. What I can say is that it opened as a Builder's Emporium hardware store in 1973. It has become a Channel Home Center by the 80's and supposedly was an A&P Plus Discount store after that. There's not much history out there on A&P Plus, but I doubt it stretched into SuperFresh territory too much. That leads me to assume maybe Channel and A&P split the space in the early 80's, and then they vacated when this area went to SF. After Channel closed, what I'd guess was their half became Big Lots, which closed in 2014. The side I think A&P used later became a church, then in 2011 a Bottom Dollar. Bottom Dollar closed with the chain in 2015, and is one of several that still hasn't been refilled.

Rite Aid, Lindenwold, NJ

This store opened in the mid-90's, and was remodeled to the Wellness décor in 2015. We're far enough from the shore at this point that this store was safe from rebranding.

Wawa, Lindenwold, NJ

This location opened in the mid-2000's, replacing an older store down the street. As a result of it sitting on a shallow but wide lot, it actually has gas pumps next to the store as opposed to being in front like they usually are. It has since been remodeled. Prior to the remodel, it still had the old halide parking lot lights, which have been all but extinct from gas-selling Wawas since they went LED in 2011.

Paree 1-Hr Cleaners, Lindenwold, NJ

This building was from the 50's or 60's, and was home to Paree Cleaners up until the 2000's. The space to the left of them was a pizzeria that pulled the plug around 2010. The building sat empty until it was demolished in 2018. I sincerely hope somebody saved that sign.

Weber's Root Beer, Stratford, NJ

Weber's was a Tulsa-based drive-in chain that at its peak has 67 locations. By the 2000's, there were 4 left- their original in Tulsa, and 3 in South Jersey. This was one of them, but as you can see it sadly didn't make it. They closed in 2015 after a 56-year run, following Brooklawn's the year before. Pennsauken and Tulsa remain open. There were plans to reopen this, which appear to have fallen through as it is now listed for sale.

CVS, Stratford, NJ

This location opened around 2000, replacing an 80's store nearby. The box next to their logo indicates it was at one point a 24-hour store, but has since scaled back.

Stratford Plaza, Stratford, NJ

This center was first built in the 60's, anchored by JM Fields and Food Fair- yes, you read that right. Penn Fruit wasn't the only one doing arched roofs back in the 60's! The center's fallen on hard times in recent years, as you'll see below. There's some pretty exciting stuff in here!

Across the parking lot was a former 2-screen Eric Theater, which interestingly finished out its life as a Chinese Buffet. It had been closed at least 15 years at this point, and finally got torn down shortly after my visit. I regret not taking a closer look at it, but something else had my full undivided attention...

....that being one of the final 3 vacant Bradlees! It was originally home to JM Fields, and became Jefferson Ward in 1980. Bradlee's picked this up alongside most of Jefferson's other stores in the region in 1986, and closed with the chain in 2001. It still had its sign up until somewhat recently.

Part of the façade is being held up by a tangle of 2x4's, standing in for a column that had come off its pedestal. I'm amazed this place hasn't been condemned yet, especially considering how two of the center's inline spaces already are.

I was also amazed the skylight outside the entrance hasn't been smashed to pieces yet. This would have looked so cool at night back when they were open.

By some miracle, a couple of the windows weren't boarded, giving me a little glimpse inside. The Bradlees décor is still intact, which I wasn't expecting. Needless to say, I stared through here for several minutes before I could get myself together and move on.

In 2008, they began turning the right half of the store into a medical center, but for whatever reason those plans fell through after construction started. That unfinished wall off to the side of the picture was just about all they completed of it.

Plenty of broken windows were covered up, one of which with the old roadside sign advertising the medical center. Not long after my visit, the rest of the windows got boarded up too so I'm glad I got here when I did.

The vestibule's looking a little rough. Moisture getting in has caused the recessed lights to all pop out of the ceiling. I believe the stack of cracked glass came from the windows that are already boarded.

I'd hazard a guess and say these boards are covering up where more recessed lights have popped out.

The other vestibule is having the same problem, but overall looks to be in much better shape.

The sign may be gone, but you can still see the scar if you catch it at the right angle.

There's an open Mexican restaurant in between Bradlees and this inline space, but it was pretty busy and I didn't want to attract attention. I'm not exactly sure what this spot was, but the walls make me think some sort of clinic. It really doesn't look all that bad, but it is one of the condemned spaces. This and the other are both flagged with the red square with a full X inside, indicating there are some serious dangers here.

Another former store in between the two condemned ones, which as far as I can tell, isn't condemned. This space and the last have been vacant for well over a decade.

This is the other condemned storefront, which was operating as a hair salon as recently as 2013. It doesn't look exactly deadly either, but I'm guessing there's some kind of serious structural issue behind the walls.

Next to that was formerly a Mexican store, which more recently consolidated with the restaurant at the other end. It looks like they're still using this area for storage.

The Food Fair later became Rx Place (Woolworths' pharmacy chain), which was bought by Phar-Mor in the 90's. Phar-Mor closed with the chain in 2002, and was quickly filled by Goodwill. Somehow through all those changes, the original interior was for the most part left alone.

This store wasn't built with public restrooms, but Goodwill opened up the employee ones to the customers when they opened. You've got to go into the back room and up a flight of stairs to get to them, but if you've been on the road as long as I have it's worth the trip. These don't look like they've ever been redone.

The high ceilings and large windows really made the place feel open. It's a neat design, I wish stores still built places like this.

The roadside pylon no longer has the Bradlees logo, but there's still a labelscar which imo is the next best thing.

CVS/Dollar Tree, Stratford, NJ

This was the original 80's store replaced by the one seen earlier in the post. Dollar Tree moved in pretty quickly after the space opened up. Aside from repainting it, not much has been changed.

Swiss Farms/G&G Pizzeria, Somerdale, NJ

This was Swiss Farms' first and only Jersey location. Evidently it was not a success. It opened in 2012 and closed the following year. G&G has been here since mid-2013. What strikes me as odd about Swiss Farms is how wildly popular in their Delaware County homeland, but every single store they've tried to open outside of Delco has failed. Even stranger is that they have never closed a Delco store either.

Eckerd/Family Dollar/Dollar General, Magnolia, NJ

Eckerd built this store in the mid-90's but closed it up after a short run. It was a surplus store for most of the 2000's, and became Family Dollar in 2009. This location has since converted to Dollar General- I'm still a little confused by that whole dealio. Is the goal to phase out Family Dollar entirely? Right now it just seems like they're rebranding random stores without any kind of reasoning.

McDonald's, Magnolia, NJ

McDonald's is infamous for their lack of regard for historic preservation, which made this an interesting find. They have only been at this location since the 90's (it was eyebrow-ed in 2012), but they went through the effort of moving their original early 60's sign from the restaurant's previous location.

Rite Aid, Barrington, NJ

I get the impression this is a pretty high-volume store. It was built in 2008, replacing an 80's store where their parking lot is now. It was made a 24-hour store in 2017, and Wellnessed in 2018.

Bottom Dollar/Aldi, Bellmawr, NJ

Bottom Dollar built this store in 2010 on the site of a Colonial-style A&P-turned-SuperFresh-turned-Thriftway. It closed with the chain in 2015, and was one of the locations then picked up by Aldi.

Eckerd/Rite Aid, Brooklawn, NJ

This store opened around 2000, and was sold to Rite Aid in 2007. I have a feeling that smaller "Pharmacy Dept" sign under the main oval is left over from Eckerd, since their main oval never said Pharmacy. With Rite Aid adding that word, the little sign becomes redundant.

Pennant Nightclub, Bellmawr, NJ

This building opened in 1956 as Dick Lee's Nightclub, and changed its name to Pennant in 1992. It closed for good in 2011, but the sign was still a locally famous landmark. It was demolished for a self-storage facility only last week.

Wawa, Marcus Hook, PA

If you remember my first post from this series, I snapped some pictures of buildings that were going to fall victim to the Conchester Highway widening project. On the way home, I pulled over here to get a closer look at the Wawa and John's Doggie Shop- and I'm glad I did, as they were some of the first buildings to come down.

This was store number 32, meaning it opened in the 60's. It looks like they tried to shoehorn the deli and coffee counters in, but either couldn't or were too lazy to move the lowered ceiling out to the counter. Speaking of the ceiling, you can see up where the tile's missing that the original drywall ceiling is still intact! The red paint and wallpaper are from the 2011 remodel that swiped through the entire chain, but to be honest with you I have no idea what that wood paneling's from. It almost looks like it could be from their 2012-14 décor, but by that point this location was already in the process of being replaced.

The cigarette bulkhead over checkout got taken down when they closed, but it would seem they left some of the signs that hung around it.

Most of the refrigerated cases have been taken out, with the exception of the built-in dairy/tea cooler. Some promotional signage is still left up in there.

John's Doggie Shop, Marcus Hook, PA

Unlike Wawa, John's didn't have the opportunity to relocate and was forced to close. This was the last location left of a popular Chester-area chain. Their other locations closed over the years as Chester worsened, but this part of Marcus Hook has stayed pretty stable. Their chili dogs were supposed to be incredible, I'm sad I never got to try them.

This location opened in 1978 in a former luncheonette they had acquired. I'm gonna go out on a limb and say they didn't ever bother remodeling it, this looks straight out of the 40's.

The inside's still pretty well intact. They had only been closed a couple months when I got these pictures, I'm assuming they eventually did some salvage before the building came down.

It looks like they could easily just go back in and start cooking. Not sure why they got forced out so long before construction on the road began- they're not even supposed to get to this section until 2022.

I couldn't get over how tiny this place was! It hardly looks big enough for a kitchen, let alone that and a dining room.

If only Cher had a song relevant to today's post from 1989... oh wait, she does!

This post is in memory of fellow retail enthusiast Steven.

Fly high man.