Getting into the "Weird" Stuff

 

A little while ago I took you guys on a trip down to an area I called Weird Delaware- not that the whole state isn't weird, but this part in particular stood out. We're going back there today, but first we're going to check out an abandoned farm.

Church Road Farm, Malvern, PA

This horse farm dates back to 1790 and was last occupied around 2010. The barn, seen here, was destroyed by fire a few years prior to that. Toll Brothers bought the property and began building a luxury development here in 2018. The original part of the farmhouse was saved, but most of the outbuildings, barn ruins included, came down.

This cinderblock garage was a more recent addition to the property. I'd guess it dates back to the 1950's.

While I get that the barn itself was gone and there probably wasn't much they could do with the surviving walls, it was kinda sad to see these come down. They were cool.

I suspect this outbuilding was a cellar at one point in time. It's funny seeing how they crazy they went boarding up the door, while not even a foot away there's a hole in the wall plenty big enough for someone to get through. Not sure why they bothered, since there's not much damage trespassers can do to a single underground stone room.

Barn ruins, as viewed from another angle. The fire seemed to have left the wooden addition on the side intact.

Here's the farmhouse itself. The taller part is the original 1790 portion. The shorter side was an addition put on in the earlier part of the 1800's. Apparently the historical protection only applied to the original part, as the addition was removed and replaced. I'm glad they were able to save some of it at least. The finished product looks great.

The building was accessible, but since daylight was fading fast I decided to come back later. I did not realize just how imminent the construction was, so that never happened. Fortunately, another explorer made a video of it, which is the next best thing.

Old House, Malvern, PA

Not too far away from there, another development was getting underway. I'm a little salty about this one. It involved the demolition of this 170-year-old house, which was one of the last remaining structures from Bacton Village. The village was first settled in the mid-1800's by escaped slaves who had made their way north. By my count, there are 9 buildings and one ruin left from that now that this is gone. 

Ebenezer AME Church, Malvern, PA

Across the street from that was a former AME church, which was an original part of the village. It closed down in the 60's. By the 80's, it still had a roof but was badly decayed. I'm estimating the roof caved in the 90's. The ruins and graveyard were cleaned up by community volunteers in 2016, but were overgrown again not long after. But there's good news- as part of the development, it has to be cleaned up again, and there is talk of putting further protections on the property.

Rite Aid/Rent-A-Center, Wilmington, DE

Rite Aid opened this location in the mid-80's, and relocated up the road around 2000. It later operated as Rent-A-Center, which closed in 2013. Even though it looks like it's still vacant, it is actually home to a mosque now. They kept the old sign frames up and never take the gates off the windows, but it would appear they've been here for several years now. It would also appear the building hasn't been repainted since Rite Aid left.

Arco/Mobil/Getty/Sunoco, Wilmington, DE

This building has elements from both Arco and Mobil's 60's designs, making me think it began as one and quickly changed to the other. Since Getty took over several Mobils in the area, I'm assuming they came second. Getty operated here until the company went under in 2014, at which point it switched over to Sunoco. More recently, in addition to the pizzeria the store already had, a Krispy Krunchy Chicken was put in. Krispy Krunchy seems to operate exclusively out of gas stations in bad neighborhoods, but they're so delicious it's worth the trip.

Merchant's Square, Edgemoor, DE

There have been some big changes in this center since my last visit, but lets start off with the end that's been mostly left alone. Original plans for this end were to remodel and retenant it, but apparently it has fallen into bad enough shape that they're now marketing it as a rebuild. The ACME/Save-A-Lot seen here has been empty since the 80's so I can't really blame them.

Evidently the roof hasn't gotten any worse; there don't appear to be any new cave-ins.

I think I missed my shot at this decal last time. Really old Save-A-Lot logo. 

Save-A-Lot didn't seem to make any big changes when they took over the space. Aside from their stripes along the top of the wall, I'd say this is all still original to when ACME opened in 1951.

The 1/3 of the store on the right had been subdivided by someone else that came and went, hence the wall. There wasn't any way I could get a picture of it, but some ceiling tiles were missing on that side and you could see they had a similar curved part like the other corner did up above. Between that and the mysterious "other door" Save-A-Lot's sticker mentions, it would be safe to assume the store had two entrances originally.

Woolworth's logo in the pavement a few doors down from there. We'll be checking that out more a little later.

One of the more decayed inline spaces. What I thought was cool about this was the fact that you can see the original ceiling up above the drop- all the lights and vents were just covered up! A lot of the stores in this part of the center were being used temporarily by an office furniture reseller.

The old JCPenney was an exception. It was just too rotten for them to keep furniture inside. Frankly, after 30+ years of sitting empty, I'm surprised any of these stores are clean enough.

The vestibule is the only part of Penney's we can see inside. Believe me, I looked for a way in. Maybe one day...

The center on the other side of Food Lion is a different story. If you remember my last visit, the middle section of stores on this strip was half-demolished. In its place, DD's Discounts has arisen. The rest of this stretch is getting a facelift too. Currently, there are only three relatively small vacancies left in this end.

One of which is the former Horn & Hardart on the end, which is going to be hard to market with its entrance bricked over. 

This space was last home to Eckerd, which opened with the center in 1951 and closed in 1984. After sitting vacant for nearly 40 years, City Trends was finally able to make use of the space. This was another store I wish I got to see inside pre-renovation, but I'm glad to see something finally make use of the space.

The office furniture reseller in the old Woolworth was open. I wandered in under the pretense of buying a new chair for my desk at school, and furtively snapped a couple pictures while I was there. Ultimately, I did wind up getting the chair. It was cheap enough and much more comfortable than the wooden ones the dorm came furnished with.

Going off what happened with the rest of the center, I'm assuming Woolworth didn't make it until the end here and probably pulled the plug in the mid-80's. The lattice ceiling in back is probably original, but looks like it was well ahead of its time. I'm awestruck with how well this place has held up.

The abandoned theater across the street is technically still part of the center as well. It opened in 1969, well after the rest of Merchant's Square, and had an incredibly short run. The last movie played here was Apocalypse Now, which ended in 1980. The theater has been abandoned for 40 years now, after only operating for 11. 

The building is totally sealed up now, but apparently was accessible in 2012. The inside looks amazingly clean. 

An old Firestone was also part of the center, on the Cine Mart side. I'd assume this one also opened in 1969. The intactness of the sign makes me think it was open a little more recently, but it's still been vacant at least two decades.

Mr. Steak, Edgemoor, DE

Gonna be honest here... this looks like an old chain family restaurant but I have no clue what brand it would have been. My best guess is a 70's-model Howard Johnson's. They had a restaurant in town whose location was only listed as the highway that runs perpendicular to this street.

Correction: Turns out this was originally a Mr. Steak! Thanks Tenpoundhammer for the info!

Sears/SuperFresh/Forman Mills, Wilmington, DE

This building opened as a Sears in 1956, which relocated to the Concord Mall in 1992. SuperFresh opened in the bottom floor not long after, relocating from a Centennial-era A&P store a few blocks away. The second floor became offices for the state department of labor. SuperFresh closed in the early 2000's. It sat vacant until 2012, when Forman Mills relocated here from the old Penn Fruit behind it.

Penn Fruit/Forman Mills, Wilmington, DE

Here's where they relocated from, and if you won't take my word for it their offensively yellow façade should be proof enough. Penn Fruit was the developer and anchor of this small shopping center, which opened in 1956. Their store was in the middle, and was flanked by smaller stores on either side. Forman Mills may have been the only other tenant this space has had, but I think it's more likely there was something in between. Over the years, the stores on the left slowly emptied out. By the time Forman Mills moved out, the right was home to a variety store, a beauty supply, Jackson Hewitt, and an unnamed liquor store. That lineup should tell you all you need to know about the neighborhood. Jackson Hewitt was the last of those to close in 2017. Since then, the building has been sold and fenced off. Plans call for it to be demolished and a self storage facility to be built on the site. I'm glad I got here when I did!

The variety store looks so much like it could have been part of Forman Mills. It's a wonder they could coexist.

The façade was redone at some point, presumably when Forman Mills opened, obscuring the arched roof.

The half-uncovered windows along this side were the only way to see in, and they were above my height- I swear I'm not that short! This awning is taller than it looks!

As usual, just because I couldn't see inside doesn't mean my camera couldn't either. Lifting it above my head did the trick again. Very little has changed inside since the Penn Fruit days- the arch is still open, and the V-shaped fluorescent lights still hang. Looks like one of them was left on for security, but I'm willing to bet that's out now. The building doesn't look too hot these days.

The area to the left of the arch would have been perfect for Penn Fruit's service departments, but I actually think that's where their refrigerated cases would have been.

The stores on the left, which had been vacant for much longer, were painted over and used by Forman Mills as advertising space.

There were some spots I thought I'd be able to see through, but either it was too dark or there was something blocking the holes on the other side.

Peco's Liquors, Wilmington, DE

Peco's first opened in 1936 as a grocery store, but changed to selling wine and liquor exclusively in 1942. Their website doesn't mention if/when they moved, but I doubt this is their original location. This part looks very 50's. You can't see it in the picture, but it looks like it was added on to the front of a circa-1930 house. I love their logo!

Amoco/BP, Wilmington, DE

Many areas saw a quick die-off of BP's following the 2010 oil spill. The Philly market was not one of them. Strangely, most of our BP's went away in 2017 (most rebranded to Conoco, a few went independent, and a few just closed outright). That's a long enough gap I'm not sure what the cause was. This location was one of the lucky ones. Not only did it survive, but it was remodeled in 2019.

I just so happened to stop here for gas on the way. I'm glad I did, otherwise I would have missed this! These pumps must have been installed shortly after the merger, before the Amoco name was phased out.

Wawa/El Tapatio, Wilmington, DE

So I don't have a closing date for this Wawa, but one up the road from here opened in the early 2000's. That might have replaced this one.... or this closed before and they returned. It looks like a 60's location so it could have been one of the franchised locations that got the ax in the 80's. The Mexican restaurant that has since taken over the store totally redid the inside, but left the exterior more or less intact.

SuperFresh/Extra Space Storage, Claymont, DE

This was a mid-90's relocation from a 60's store up the road from here. They closed in 2015 during A&P's first round of bankruptcy closings, and sat vacant until a self storage facility opened in 2018. In this photo, they were in the process of converting it. The new façade is mostly up, but SuperFresh's roadside sign is still up.

Wawa, Claymont, DE

Wawa opened this location in the early 2000's, possibly as a relocation of the one we saw a few photos back. This part of Claymont must have some special building codes, as they went with a brick exterior instead of their usual stucco. It was remodeled to the current standards in 2018.

Since this is my last post before Christmas, it would be wrong not to get festive with the music selection. I'll throw in a few recommendations. Consider it my present to you.

Merry Christmas everybody!