Grocery Archaeology

Original Tenant: Penn Fruit Address: 6150 N 5th St, Olney, Philadelphia, PA Opened:  1940s Closed:  by 1979 Later Tenants:  CVS (ca. 1985- ) Photographed:  July 2021 Quick stop here just west of yesterday's H Mart . This roughly 13,000 square foot building has been a CVS since at least around 1985, and according to JoshAustin610 , it was built on the site of a demolished Penn Fruit. Looking at Historic Aerials, we can see that there's been a building here since at least 1948, but I can't find any evidence that the building was demolished at any point. In fact, there's a pretty clear progression of the building staying exactly as it is and being expanded several times. The original structure appears to be a 6100 square foot Penn Fruit with a 2400 square foot smaller store next to it. An addition of roughly 3200 square feet was built out on the other side of the property, towards the parking lot. If you look carefully, you can actually see the seam between the Penn F...

Original Tenant: Food Fair Address: 766-776 Adams Ave, Lawncrest, Philadelphia, PA Opened:  1950s Closed:  by 1980 Later Tenants:  car dealership > Strauss Auto > STS Tire > Advance Auto Parts Photographed:  July 2021 We're starting out in Lawncrest with a few drive-by photos of this former Food Fair store on Adams Avenue at Roosevelt Boulevard. I got lucky with a very beautiful sunset sky as I was going by on a summer evening. Unfortunately, I don't have much more information on this store's history, beyond the fact that it appears to have opened in the 1950s and closed by 1980. Not sure if it ever was a Pantry Pride, but it doesn't seem to have been. Once it closed, it was a car dealership building before becoming an auto parts store. The store looks to have been originally around 15,000 square feet and later expanded by roughly 4600 square feet. If I had to guess, I would bet that that was done after Food Fair closed and not by Food Fair. In the first ...

  Starting next week, we are onto our second-to-last group of Philadelphia neighborhoods. (Remember when I told you I don't have a whole lot of coverage in this city? In just 18 more posts we'll have seen all of my Philadelphia stores.) We begin in the southern part of Lawncrest near Roosevelt Boulevard for three stores, then checking out some independent stores in central Lawncrest. Once we finish those, we're crossing the Tacony Creek to Olney for two chain supermarkets and a former supermarket there. Monday will be our first stop here on Grocery Archaeology!