Grocery Archaeology

Original Grocery Tenant: A&P Address: 701 Main St, East Hartford, CT Opened:  between 1950 and 1955 Closed:  between 1964 and 1977 Later Tenants:  subdivided Photographed:  March 4, 2022 It's not all that exciting, but today's store is a former A&P, now subdivided, just east of downtown Hartford in, well, East Hartford. Thanks to Groceteria , we know that the 24,000 square foot space was constructed as an A&P between 1950 and 1955 -- placing it just before the Centennial range -- and it closed at some point between 1964 and 1977. East Hartford has a ShopRite in a former Shaw's in a former A&P, but from the 90s or early 2000s, so I'm not sure if there was another A&P in town between this store's closing and that store's opening. There's no longer a supermarket here, but there is a CTown just under a mile south and a new Key Food opened recently around a third of a mile north. We'll be touring that store tomorrow, over on The Market...

Original Grocery Tenant: A&P Super Foodmart Address: 235 Queen St, Southington, CT Opened:  ca. 1980 Closed:  unknown Later Tenants:  subdivided Photographed:  October 7, 2023 This facade is pretty easily recognizable to me, even though I don't think there are any supermarkets left with it. It dates back to the 1990s or so, when this A&P would've been renovated and expanded into an A&P Super Foodmart. At the time of its closing, the store totaled 43,000 square feet. (The store may also have been a Waldbaum's at the time it opened.) For comparison, here's a look at this facade on the Newington location , which later became a Best Market and then Local Market. The distinctive angled edges and circle accents over the columns are easy to spot, although of course this one has been painted. A&P closed most of its central CT locations by about 2005, although some remained later . Quite a few of the southwestern CT locations lasted until the 2015 bankruptcy...

Original Grocery Tenant: A&P Address: 41 NY-59, Nyack, NY Opened:  between 1953 and 1964 Closed:  unknown Later Tenants:  subdivided Photographed:  March 8, 2023 From the parking lot of the Old World Food Market across the street, we can get a look at the former 9,000 square foot A&P of Nyack! This store was built between 1953 and 1964, and my initial assumption was that at some later point, A&P moved across the street into what's now Old World, but actually the two stores were built around the same time which makes me think Old World was a competitor, like possibly Safeway or a Foodtown or something like that. But I'm not really sure. Up next, we're headed into downtown Nyack on The Independent Edition tomorrow for a small store in town!

Original Grocery Tenant: A&P Address: 107 Jersey Ave, Port Jervis, NY Opened:  between 1957 and 1963 Closed:  unknown Later Tenants:  Subdivided - Save-A-Lot > Port Jervis Marketplace > non-grocery tenants Photographed:  February 3, 2021 Port Jervis these days has only one supermarket, a Save-A-Lot in a strip mall downtown. We'll check out that store tomorrow, but here's a look at another former supermarket just down the street from yesterday's . This 15,800 square foot A&P Centennial was expanded later to its present 25,000 square feet, but I'm not sure whether A&P did the expansion or not because I'm not clear on when the A&P closed. We do know, though, that it opened between 1957 and 1963 based on aerials. I also unfortunately don't know what occupied the space when A&P closed, but it later was subdivided with Save-A-Lot taking the largest spot. Save-A-Lot closed in 2008 but later reopened, then closed again between 2015 and 2018....

We've spent plenty of time in Elizabeth, NJ, but we're back to check out some old family photos! My grandmother had literal boxes upon boxes of original pictures anywhere from 1950 or so up until recent years, and these come from the earlier side of that. First we have my great-grandmother and my aunt outside the local A&P, although I'm not positive exactly where this was. I do know that it was an A&P, though. Now a picture of my aunt outside of some store, although I'm not sure if it's the same one... I love these stacks of groceries in the window! Now we're headed back up to Massachusetts tomorrow for some more historical photos.

At an antique store in Brooklyn, I found a few prints of very old pictures of New York City. The prints themselves weren't that old, but they were reproductions of some wonderful old pictures. I chose three of grocery stores that I had to have, and we're going to see them over the next few days! Unfortunately, I don't have locations for these pictures, beyond this one having been labeled as Brooklyn. I wouldn't be surprised if this were in a neighborhood like Bensonhurst or Bay Ridge, but I'm not really sure. While I'm far from an expert, the car looks like a late 1930s or early 1940s type, meaning this is likely to be from the 1940s or so. Come back tomorrow to check out the next picture!

Original Grocery Tenant: A&P Address: 5684 PA-115, Blakeslee, PA Opened:  unknown Closed:  unknown Later Tenants:  Ahart's Thriftway (open by 1976) > Ahart's Market Photographed:  October 15, 2023 Time for a little bonus post! A commenter on a Flickr photo says this 15,000 square foot was originally an A&P, but by 1976, it was Ahart's Thriftway. By 1998, it was still a Thriftway, and the following year, the newer location had been opened across the street. I'm not clear whether it opened as a Thriftway and later switched to Great Valu, or if it has been a Great Valu since it opened. Now for a look at what's next door... A 45,000 square foot former Jamesway at the other end of the strip mall is now a somewhat strange indoor flea market, but it definitely has signs of its Jamesway past, including the fact that the flea market sign is a banner over the old Jamesway sign. In the bathrooms, we have a more explicit indication... The strip mall is now mostly...

Original Grocery Tenant:  A&P Address: 3516 Birney Ave, Moosic, PA Opened:  1960s Closed:  1969 Later Tenants:  A-Mart (1969-after 1971) Photographed:  August 12, 2020 Today's snapshot is the former A&P of Moosic, where we visited a store that's held a parade of different banners, ending up with The Fresh Grocer , just down the street. As we can tell in the above picture, the roughly 17,000 square foot store was a centennial store when it opened in the 1960s, then became an A&P-owned A-Mart Discount Foods location in 1969, which was in business at least through 1971 (although I can't find any ads that list the location after that year). After A-Mart, I'm not sure if there was another grocer here, but it eventually hosted a variety of other tenants including a mattress store and a car dealer, which it remains today. I mentioned the ShopRite in Moosic a lot in the Gerrity's post, and tomorrow we'll see the ShopRite just before it opened on The Market ...

Original Grocery Tenant: A&P Address: 500 Scott St, Wilkes-Barre, PA Opened:  by 1962 Closed:  1970s Later Tenants:  assorted non-grocery tenants Photographed:  December 22, 2018 Today's snapshot is a not-particularly-good picture of a former A&P to the east of downtown Wilkes-Barre. The 12,000 square foot store was built between 1959 and 1962, making it one of the earlier centennials. It was definitely closed by 1985 but most likely by the previous decade. Here's a better look at the store. Interestingly, a little grocer called La Isla Fresh Market has opened in a tiny sliver of the old A&P (or actually maybe in what used to be a bank next to the A&P?). But tomorrow we have a much more in-depth look at a larger former supermarket very close to this store right here on Grocery Archaeology!

Original Grocery Tenant:  independent grocer Address: 380 Bucknell Ave, Johnstown, PA Opened:  1892 Closed:  1924 Later Tenants:  A&P (1924-1939) > ACME Markets (1939-1950s) > Tioga Street Market (1950s-2017) Photographed:  January 14, 2023 Here's another snowy Johnstown shot from our contributor, who grew up around the corner from this store. We're at the corner of Bucknell and Tioga here in the Westmont section, to see a roughly 2,000 square foot store that opened in 1892 as an independent grocer, later purchased by A&P in 1924 before closing in 1939 and becoming, believe it or not, a very early ACME in the same year. ACME moved to the Bi-Lo location I mentioned in yesterday's post in the 1950s and it became the Tioga Street Market, which finally closed in 2017. There has been talk of reopening the store, but no progress that I can see. Tomorrow we have one more store in Johnstown, a snapshot of a recently-closed store over on The Independent ...

Original Grocery Tenant: A&P Address: 435 River Ave, Loyalsock, PA Opened:  1960s Closed:  early 1980s Later Tenants:  subdivided Photographed:  August 18, 2022 It's had some modifications, but the bones of this 13,000 square foot A&P Centennial are clearly visible enough, even at dusk. Nowadays it's home to The Eye Center, but from the 1960s through at least 1982 A&P sold groceries here. By the late 80s, the property was home to a car dealer and as of 2010, The Eye Center moved in. Note that this is referred to as Faxon, Williamsport, and Loyalsock, but we're technically in Loyalsock Township. Many if not most of the A&P stores in this part of Pennsylvania were closed or sold in 1975 (see Hepburn Street ) but this one lasted longer, with almost no expansion or renovation. It even competed with local favorite Weis just a block south. But that Weis was built before this store and is still going strong these days. Just to the east about a mile we hav...

Original Grocery Tenant: A&P Address: 431 Hepburn St, Williamsport, PA Opened:  1950s Closed:  1975 Later Tenants:  subdivided Photographed:  August 17, 2022 The southern end of this strip mall on the northern side of downtown Williamsport originally housed an A&P, having been built in the 1950s and, it seems, never being converted to a centennial-style store. The A&P then closed in 1975 and was put up for sale, although I'm not sure whether another grocery operator purchased it. It was later subdivided into two spaces, the larger of which was an A&A Auto Parts store and now Billtown Binz, a discount/surplus type general merchandise store. The full space is around 23,000 square feet. Tomorrow we're headed about a mile and a half east of town to tour a chain supermarket in the Faxon section of Williamsport on The Market Report !

Original Grocery Tenant: A&P Address: 1000 Market St, Bloomsburg, PA Opened:  1960s Closed:  late 1970s Later Tenants:  Dollar General Photographed:  August 9, 2022 A very quick look today (bonus snapshot!) at the former A&P of Bloomsburg, which I know is a terrible picture. JoshAustin610 has a better picture and a little more history, although I'm not sure I agree with his assessment of the barrel roofs. I think it's more likely it was a pre-1960s A&P of about 8500 square feet, built with a barrel roof, and later expanded with a second barrel roof next to it. The space was ultimately expanded to around 18,000 square feet. Don't forget to check out today's tour also, at the Boyer's in Berwick !

Original Grocery Tenant: A&P Address: 220 E Diamond Ave, Hazleton, PA Opened:  1950s Closed:  after 1976 Later Tenants:  Dollar General Photographed:  December 22, 2018 Just a few doors down from yesterday's Mi Tierra , we see this 15,400 square foot Dollar General, the building of which was originally occupied by A&P. It appears that the A&P was built as a roughly 9,000 square foot barrel-roof building in the 1950s before closing at some point after 1976, probably in the 80s. I'm not sure if there was another grocery store here between A&P and Dollar General, or what else was in the space during that time. Up next we're headed towards West Hazleton, about a mile and a half northwest from here, for the Boyer's in town on The Market Report !

Original Grocery Tenant: A&P Address: 429 N Enola Rd, Enola, PA Opened:  1960s Closed:  1983 Later Tenants:  SuperFresh (1983-2002) > ShurFine (2002-2017) Photographed:  August 15, 2022 Quick look today at a former supermarket in Enola, PA, built actually as a Centennial A&P and later converted to SuperFresh in 1983 before closing in 2002. A ShurFine operator opened later the same year and closed in 2017, the same year the new Weis opened about two and a half miles west. The 30,000 square foot store has been split between a Family Dollar and a PennDOT facility. That's all for Enola, and our final store in this area is about 16 miles north along the Susquehanna River, tomorrow on The Independent Edition !