Going Walnuts

 We're heading back downtown today and are going to spend quite a bit of time on Walnut Street, but first we gotta make a grocery stop!

Wanamaker's/Hecht's/Genuardi's/Giant, Wynnewood, PA

This store first opened as a Wanamaker's department store in 1956, and was sold to Hecht's in 1995. It closed not long after when they merged with Strawbridge's, as they already had a store nearby. The building was split between Genuardi's on the first floor and Bed Bath & Beyond on the second floor in 2000. It got Lifestyled post-Safeway buyout, and remodeled again after Giant took over in 2012. The original façade was left more or less intact, but with Genuardi's standard entryway added on in front.

As you'd expect, there's nothing left of the old department store décor inside anymore. However, it does have an interesting mashup of the three supermarket decors- That red lattice over the entryway is from Genuardi's, the Starbucks/flooring/beige ceiling are from Lifestyle, and the signage and wall colors from Giant.

This store also had many more arches throughout it than the standard Genuardi's did. While they were a part of the decor, there usually weren't any going over the sales floor. I have a feeling they were trying to cover up some of the bigger beams this way.

I haven't been able to find any photos of the inside during the Genuardi's days, but I can tell you it had the same décor as the Lionville one. I saw it on an episode of Dinner Impossible years back. That show aired in 2007, so the Lifestyle remodel couldn't have been any earlier than that. There are pictures of the store with that look though.

Giant's remodel here consisted of little more than adding their signage and repainting the walls. The wall tile in back here is also left over from the Lifestyle look. It's a shame Safeway replaced it, I think the Genuardi's black tile would have gone well with Giant's look.

There were even more arches over checkout, which isn't something they usually did. I think it supports my beam theory. What's also of note is the exposed brick walls, which I believe may be a holdover from the Wanamaker's days.

Giant reconfigured the produce department here more recently. They replaced the cases and lighting, but surprisingly kept the Lifestyle faux wood flooring in place. It looks good from a distance, but that tile is not in good shape. Unfortunately for you viewers, it happens to be completely blocked from the shot by the potato display.

The store does have a pharmacy, which I suspect was added in by Safeway. Genuardi's seldom had them in their stores pre-merger.

Since there's a floor above us, the ceiling in here is on the lower end. It might be an illusion created by that, but the Nature's Promise sign here looks freakishly huge.

Wynnewood and the surrounding communities have a huge Jewish population, which this store caters to with its own separate Kosher deli and dairy. Pro tip: if you're buying horseradish, the stuff sold over here is much better than the stuff in the general grocery aisles.

22nd St, Rittenhouse Square

I thought this street had an interesting view. The new tower doesn't clash with the old rowhomes as much as you'd expect.

WPEN Building, Rittenhouse Square

This Art Deco beauty was put up in 1929 as the studios for WPEN, an AM radio station which originally played live classical music and children's shows. The station changed owners a few times, from the original owner to Bulova (yes, the watch makers), The Bulletin, and then to Sun-Ray Drugs (who then opened a pharmacy on the ground floor). In 1973, it was sold again and became an oldies station. They moved to Bala Cynwyd in 1978 (sharing a building with WMGK, my favorite station), changed to FM, and are now a sports talk radio station. The building then changed hands a few times and is now used for offices. Thankfully, the sign is not only maintained, but even still comes on at night.

Midtown II, Midtown Village

I showed you this diner a few weeks ago, but it looks a lot different now than it did then. The granite cladding was pulled off the façade in preparation of turning it into a boutique hotel, a project that never came to fruition. The building is still awaiting demolition for a much larger hotel. As part of this work, the Le Mars Luncheonette's sign was uncovered. I don't have an opening or closing date for them, but it was definitely open in the 50's and 60's. The sign looks old enough it could be from the 30's, and they could have been open as late as the 70's.

This article has all you would ever want to know and more about the building, but incorrectly states that Midtown II opened in 1985. I say that because sister restaurant Midtown III opened in 1976 and they sure weren't counting backwards. However, I believe they expanded into the 2-story part of the building then and won't question that Charter House Restaurant operated there into the 80's. Looking at the two different parts of the diner, I am convinced they expanded. It also appears they remodeled at some point. The brick arches were a common theme between the different Midtowns, but this one covered up most of them at some point with the granite panels.

The inside's pretty well gutted out, but apparently the second floor was still intact here, untouched since the Diner moved in downstairs. (side tangent- you wouldn't believe how many apartments above active stores here have been sitting vacant and perfectly preserved for the last 40 or 50 years. One day I'll have the balls to ask around and see if I can get someone to let me up into one). Remodels over the years did a good job disguising the building's age, but once that's all pulled away and you can see the old growth wood floor joists and thick brick walls, you can really appreciate how old it is. A lot's changed here in the last 150 years, that's for sure!

Snellenburg's Garage, East Market

Snellenburg's Department Store was a huge building facing Market Street that took up nearly half the block. In 1942, to add some much-needed parking to the store, they developed a garage taking up the Chestnut Street half of the block. It contained four levels of parking, their Men's Store, and a Lane Bryant. After Snellenburg's folded in the mid-60's, Mandel's Department Store then took up most of the upper floor space, and divided the ground level between smaller tenants. I can't make out the name of whoever got the Chestnut Market part, but I can direct you to an old photo. Mandel's was later taken over as an annex of the city's Family Court, and vacated when they got a new building in 2014. They slowly began emptying everyone out after that, and finally tore down the garage earlier this year to make way for two new towers- one apartments, another as part of Jefferson Hospital.

Airs Appliances was next door to that, in what had become a Sun-Ray Drugs post-Snellenburgs. While the department store did go all the way to the roof at either end of the building, the bulk of the middle was all parking garage.

Rainbow, East Market

I showed you this long-closed Rainbow a few weeks ago, but figured I'd include it again since I finally found that picture I tried to reference last time, before the 1940's fire eliminated the top 5 floors. Like Midtown, the remnants of this also sit awaiting the wrecking ball, but here it's for a new apartment building.

Woolworth, East Market

This building contains the Blick store I posted a little while ago, but I figured I'd show you the outside too. It opened as a Woolworth in 1949 and closed with the chain in 1997, coexisting with another Woolworth only a block away in the old Grant's for its last two decades.

Olive Garden, East Market

Olive Garden opened here in the 90's, and closed in 2015. It kept the old plain-text logo up until the very end. This is an upscale office building in a great location, so it's a mystery why it's sat vacant for so long. The three floors of office above it are also empty, making me wonder if there's a larger plan for the bottom part of the building, perhaps waiting out the end of Capital Grille's (on the Broad Street side) lease.

CVS, Rittenhouse Square

Despite its appearance, this store was never a theater. It began life in 1903 as Jacob Reed's Menswear, which closed in the 80's. It then became a Barnes & Noble for a short time, but they moved closer to the actual Rittenhouse Square in the 90's. CVS opened up not long after, and has one of the most unique interiors I've ever seen. I've got it photographed and it's in the pipeline for posting in the future.

McDonald's, Rittenhouse Square

This building began life as a house in 1872. McDonald's opened in 1982 and was scheduled to be remodeled earlier this year. However, it and the two buildings to the right of it were burned during the riots in June. Originally, the plan was to save the facades since the buildings were historic, but last month the historical commission determined they're not stable enough to stand alone and all three will have to come down. Hopefully McDonald's rebuilds, as it is their only remaining location in Center City.

Wanamaker House, Rittenhouse Square

This condo tower opened in 1988, and was named after the Wanamaker (as in the department store owner) Mansion that stood on the site beforehand. The mansion burned down a few years prior to the tower being built.

Horn & Hardart/Thrift Drug/Eckerd, Washington Square

H&H opened here in the 30's and was replaced by Thrift Drug in 1985. It was sold to Eckerd, who closed it in 2000. More recently, they restored H&H's original neon sign, which for ages had been covered by the later tenant's flat sign. Also of note is that the white panel over the entry still has holes from Thrift Drug's neon.

Mercantile Library, Washington Square

This library opened in 1952, and was closed in 1989 due to asbestos concerns. 31 years later, it sits abandoned and looking a little worse for the wear. More recently, the facade's been covered in plywood with a mural of how it used to look painted over it.

Jeweler's Row, Washington Square

This one block of Sansom Street has lured in a large number of Jewelers, hence the name. I've always kinda liked Lauria's ground level façade here.

The four buildings seen here were slated for demolition for an extremely controversial 29-story apartment building, developed by Toll Brothers. After a few years in legal gridlock, they came down in late 2019. Work on the tower began this year. The building on the left was most recently another jeweler, but the arched windows and globe lights are left over from its days as Midtown I, which opened in the early 70's. I read the original was on this block, but I didn't realize it was this building until recently- you'll see where I mistakenly thought it was shortly.

Here's another view of the buildings that came down. The one on the very end was saved because it was historic; it is the last remaining unit from a 1799-built rowhome that lined this block, which was developed by William Sansom, who the street is now named after. It's believed to be the first speculatively built housing development in the country.

Paul's Pizza, Jeweler's Row

Here's the space I thought was the original Midtown I. It's got the same arches, beams, and wood paneling that other Midtowns had, so I thought it was the one. Turns out, it was just a really popular design. Paul's Pizza closed in 2017, and as of the following year had become another pizzeria.

Here's another ground-level view of one of the buildings that came down. The façade appears to have been redone in the 70's.

Strawbridge's, East Market

This was Strawbridge's flagship store, which opened in this building in the 30's. Following the Macy's merger, this was closed in favor of the old Wanamaker's by City Hall. The upper floors became offices, while the lower floors sat vacant for a while. Century 21 opened in the second floor and half of the first in 2014, but is now closing as of this year. Burlington moved into the basement in 2017, and rumor has it Giant will be opening a Heirloom Market store in the remaining part of the ground floor soon.

Burger King, East Market

This 2-story location opened in the 80's, and was remodeled in the mid-2000's. A couple years ago when Burger King had a cheesesteak (Nobody in Philly calls it a "Philly" cheesesteak. In fact, most of the time we even leave the "cheese" part of the name out) promotion, they filed the advertisements for it at this location. Ironically, this location refused to serve them. Their reasoning was something along the lines of "it's an offense to cheesesteaks to call this thing one".

GNC, Washington Square

I didn't realize GNC still had locations with the full General Nutrition Center branding on them!

Storefronts, Washington Square

Walnut and Chestnut streets are two of Philadelphia's main shopping streets. They're both lined with older buildings, but there's a noticeable difference between the eastern and western ends of them. The buildings east of Broad Street generally look more like they were built for commercial use, while the ones on the west side mostly started out as large townhomes, and were adapted into stores during the early 1900's. The ones seen here are pretty clearly on the eastern side.

Same group of buildings, but from a different angle. The one clad in gray paneling looks new, but isn't really. It just had a new façade put on in early 2017. The one to the left of it was part of the same project (I guess they were able to take out the wall between them), but didn't have its exterior redone. It was the better-looking of the two to begin with, so I guess it makes sense they would want to leave it, but at the same time I have to wonder how they thought the gray paneling would pair with it.

One Reading Center/Aramark/Jefferson Tower, East Market

Reading Railroad, who was headquartered in the building to the left, began construction of this tower shortly after Conrail took over their rail lines in 1976. Since they had so much extra land that didn't get sold, the company changed focus to property development. Somehow, down the line they got involved in the theater business, moved their headquarters across the country, and now build and operate the Reading Cinemas chain in California, Australia, and New Zealand. 

Yeah, that surprised me too.

Anyways, Aramark leased the majority of the building, making it their corporate headquarters, when it opened in 1984. Because of this, they got the naming rights and got to put their logo on top of the building. They moved their headquarters to Market Street in 2018, and Jefferson took over their share of the building. I'm not entirely sure what they're doing with it. It is an office building, but Jefferson is both a hospital and a university, so they could be using this tower for any of the three purposes as I'm sure they have a need for all of them. Their logo went up on top almost immediately after Aramark moved, but it took them a while to renovate the building before Jefferson finally moved in. The entryway pictures has been totally rebuilt.

Rite Aid, East Market

While this store has their 80's façade, there's a chance the store dates back even further. Pictures I've seen of this block from the 80's inconveniently cut out the name of the Pharmacy that was here before, but nonetheless confirm that there was a pharmacy here before the current façade was added. Maybe it was Rite Aid, maybe it was someone else. The building was last sold in 1982, which could either mean that Rite Aid bought the pharmacy from someone else, or that the landlord just changed hands. Despite its age, small size, and being two blocks down from a much newer Rite Aid, the store does pretty well. It was one of the first in the city to get the second Wellness décor.

Lit Bros, East Market

This was Lit Brothers' flagship store, the first part of which opened in 1891. Over the years, it quickly expanded. By 1907, they had the entire block. Surprisingly, they did not build most of the store themselves. It's actually a collection of 33 smaller buildings, the earliest of which dates back to 1859, that were combined as the store grew. Their exteriors were renovated to give them all a more or less uniform look from the street, which has earned it the title of being the only entirely Victorian-style block in the city. Lit's closed in 1977, and the building was left vacant for several years. Finally, in the late 80's, Mellon Bank took it over and turned the upper floors into offices and the ground level into a mini-mall, which kept its 80's look up until they remodeled in 2018. Plans were made in 2014 to carve out a portion of the back of the building to build an office tower. While that hasn't materialized, the plans haven't been officially cancelled yet either so I suspect they're just waiting for the right time to act. Same goes for the towers the Gallery was supposed to get that were never built- renovation mock-ups showed them there, so even though they're approaching 50 years of being planned they're still in the pipeline.

One of my favorite parts of this place is the fact that the signage is still in place. Strawbridge's next door had the signage scraped off quickly after they closed, but their label scars are still very obvious. 

Midtown III, Rittenhouse Square

At the time I got these photos, this was the last remaining Midtown. It opened in 1976, and was one of the last authentic diners left in Center City. We used to eat here a lot because of that, I absolutely loved it. Sadly, this fell victim to Governor Wolf's coronavirus lockdown and closed its doors for good this summer. Now the South Street Diner is Center City's only remaining 24-hour one, and that's hardly Center City. Little Pete's, Foods on First, and maybe Silk City (It's in an old Diner building, serves diner food, but is incredibly expensive and has a hipster bar attached to it) are the only other diners in this region of the city I'd consider "authentic," but none of them are open 24 hours.

Wawa/Old Nelson, Rittenhouse Square

This was one of Wawa's oldest stores, which closed in 2008 after they made a now greatly regretted decision to close most of their downtown stores as they've got no potential to add gas pumps. They've spent the last few years rapidly opening up stores across the city to make up for that mistake. It became an Old Nelson not long after, which is sort of like a franchised knock-off Wawa. They kept Wawa's interior mostly intact.

Midtown II/El Rey, Rittenhouse Square

I got all four Midtown's covered in the same post and am weirdly proud of that fact. This opened sometime in the mid-70's, and closed its doors in 2009. El Rey, a high-end Stephen Starr Mexican restaurant, took over not long after. Starr's restaurants are well out of my price range, but their food is delicious and every one of them has a great design too. Here, they tried to preserve the diner aesthetic. Most of the Midtown design was kept intact, and everything that did get changed was done with some crazy attention to detail to match the style. I hope Starr can one day take over the old Midtown III as well!

Reebok Building, East Market

I don't know the full story behind this sign, whether Reebok had their own store here or if the sneaker shop that was operating here prior to PREIT's buyout was just really proud to be carrying the brand. For a while it was cool seeing the old logo up, but now that the company has reverted to it the sign's lost a little of its magic. It's still cool though. PREIT's plan is to tear these buildings down for more mall space, which while it will be sad to see these go I'm excited to see what they'll put here.

H&R Block, East Market

I always thought this late 60's building had a neat design. The funky windows really make it unique.

For this week's song, I'm gonna go with one of my all-time favorites, courtesy of Janis Joplin.