Original Tenant: ShopRite
Address: 164 Speedwell Ave, Morristown, NJ
Opened: 1959
Closed: 1983
Later Tenants: subdivided
Photographed: June 2020
Address: 164 Speedwell Ave, Morristown, NJ
Opened: 1959
Closed: 1983
Later Tenants: subdivided
Photographed: June 2020
Our second post of the day is this former ShopRite at Speedwell and Sussex Avenues in Morristown. JoshAustin610 lists the ShopRite as 164 Speedwell, and the convenience/dollar store seen at the point of the triangle lists its own address as 158 Speedwell.
My assumption, though, is that the ShopRite probably took most of the first floor of this roughly triangular building -- because even if it took every single square inch of the building's first floor, it would be just barely over 10,000 square feet. Especially for a ShopRite that lasted until 1983, anything much smaller than that would be awfully small. I assume this store was a Village Super Market-owned location, since its replacement in 1983 was Village-owned. This corner entrance looks to me like a supermarket entrance, though the space currently has several tenants.
The tiny Longfellow's Sandwich Deli takes up a small part of the building's first floor these days also, with what seem to be offices in the back part. This ShopRite may be long gone, but there's still a supermarket nearby -- LC Supermarket just down Speedwell Avenue. Tomorrow, we're going to see three stores -- two chain stores north of town on The Market Report, and a former supermarket here on Grocery Archaeology!
The research I did on Newspapers.com did confirm that this ShopRite opened in 1959; to be more precise, it either opened in late November or early December of that year. However, this ShopRite actually closed in August 1974.
ReplyDeleteIt was erroneously believed that the ShopRite at 30 Lafayette Avenue opened in 1983, which led to the incorrect belief that the Speedwell Avenue store closed that year. The Lafayette Avenue store actually opened on November 2, 1977 (so even though the Lafayette Avenue supermarket was very likely intended to be a replacement location, over three years had passed since Speedwell Avenue closed).
Regarding the Lafayette Avenue location, Village had initially intended to close it in February 1993 but waited until September 25, 1993 to shut that supermarket's doors. On September 27, 1993, a new supermarket--Giant Supermarket Shop n Bag (which I don't believe had any relation to the large Giant-Carlisle or Giant-Landover chains)--opened in the former ShopRite space. The Shop n Bag was very short-lived, apparently closing in April 1994. A March 30, 1995 article in the Daily Record stated that Staples agreed to occupy 18,500 square feet of the former 30,000 square-foot ShopRite/Shop n Bag. Though I couldn't ascertain an exact opening date for the Staples, it was definitely open by September 13 of that year.
--A&P Fan
Interesting, thanks for the history!
DeleteWasn't aware that Shop n Bag had any significant presence this far north, but I suppose they had at least one location in Newark, so Morristown isn't all that far off, plus it is farther west.