Original Tenant: ACME Markets
Address: 25 S Union St, Lambertville, NJ
Opened: 1951
Closed: 1997
Later Tenants: Raspino's Supermarket (1998-99) > Lambertville Municipal Courthouse & ACME Screening Room (2001- )
Photographed: January 2021
Welcome to Lambertville! This is a favorite tourist stop along the Delaware River that separates New Jersey from Pennsylvania, and the small town is home to 3900 residents and a
beautiful downtown along Bridge Street which, you guessed it, brings you to the
bridge between NJ and PA. It's directly across from New Hope, PA, and while Lambertville was once home to two supermarkets -- this ACME and
an A&P -- today it has none and the nearest is across into New Hope, where we'll be making a stop on our travels through Pennsylvania!
Acme Style has extensive history on this store, along with photos of the store in business, at their post
here. Sadly, the building was not open at the time of my visit so I had to settle for interior pictures through the front windows, but the sign is still pretty amazing.
The building today is only about 3700 square feet, and the back 2/3 or so of the building were demolished when the supermarkets closed. It was originally closer to 10,000 square feet or slightly over, and would've extended much farther back into what is now municipal parking.
I love the tower that's still intact! So here's the thing: this is our farthest-south store in Hunterdon/Warren counties, and I'd love to just move on to the next group of stores to the east about 20 miles. But first we have five more stores to visit as we circle back up northwest and stay directly along the river and the dividing line between NJ and PA. Then we'll clumsily jump from Milford about 32 miles to the southeast to South Brunswick for our next group. For now, we're going to head to the northwest to check out a very cool store in Stockton on
The Independent Edition!
There isn't much I can add about the former Lambertville Acme that hasn't already been mentioned. A March 11, 1997 article in The Courier-News reported that Twin County Grocers was planning to open a Foodtown in the former Acme building by Labor Day. Of course, the Foodtown never opened, very likely as a consequence of Twin County's scandal and bankruptcy.
ReplyDeleteAs Zachary mentioned, the Raspino's Supermarket was very short-lived. In fact, it was only in operation from August 1998 to April 1999. After Raspino's closed, the city of Lambertville sued the owners to recover nearly $400,000 the city had loaned to Raspino's at a low interest rate. (According to a July 15, 1999 article in The Courier-News, the loan was contingent upon the Raspinos making a good faith effort to operate a supermarket and create 15 full-time and 30 part-time jobs.)
Regarding the Lambertville Acme itself, the store was certainly an absolute treasure, and it's great that a portion of the building--along with some remnants of the Acme supermarket--still survive. In my opinion, the "Acme Markets" logo--in blue cursive lettering--remains one of the classiest supermarket logos I've ever seen. An of course, it's very cool that one can find the old tiling and the "Super" logo in the building's interior, along with an "ACME Screening Room" (that features the letters which were on the tower).
--A&P Fan
Thanks for adding some detail here!
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