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: Quaker Market Address: 443 S 5th Ave, Clarion, PA Opened:  1968 Closed:  1972 Later Tenants:  Comet Food Warehouse (1972-2019) > Faller's Furniture (2023- ) Photographed:  July 1, 2023 Hope you had a great weekend! Today we're taking a look at the former Comet Food Warehouse in Clarion, PA, about 60 miles northeast of Pittsburgh. It was previously owned by a company called Jefferson Grocery, whose Clearfield location we saw on Friday. This store closed in 2019, following struggles with everything from road closures to union issues (a case was brought to the NLRB in 2017 and closed in 2018 regarding this store). Here's more coverage on the store's closure. The store opened in 1968 as a Quaker Market, a chain or independent I know nothing about. Quaker closed just four years later when the store became a Comet Food Warehouse (store #12, in fact, and I have read elsewhere that Jefferson owned 13 stores in total at their peak). Today, th...

Original Grocery Tenant: ACME Markets Address: 3055 Park Pl, Clearfield, PA Opened:  1963 Closed:  unknown Later Tenants:  CVS > Buck's Pizza Photographed:  June 23, 2023 I think this is the first time we've seen a former ACME that's now a pizzeria! (Although we did see a former A&P become a pizzeria up in Elizabethtown, NY .) The unmistakable pitched-roof design tops this 11,500 square foot store opened in 1963 replacing an older store at 110 E Market St that appears to have opened around the 1930s. While I'm not clear on when ACME closed or who occupied the space thereafter, I do know that it became a CVS, which eventually moved to a new-build store closer to the street, and the space is now a large pizzeria, with a church apparently taking up the back half. Sadly, it doesn't look like there's any suggestion of the high ceiling inside. By the way, we're looking at this store from across the West Branch of the Susquehanna River, though we're a...

Original Grocery Tenant: Hall's Market Address: 491 E Sycamore Rd, Snow Shoe, PA Opened:  ca. 1990, 1948 in previous location Closed:  2020 Later Tenants:  vacant Photographed:  July 2, 2023 I stopped for gas and a bathroom at the Snow Shoe, PA exit along route 80, and stumbled upon this sadly vacant 20,000 square foot carcass of Hall's Market. Having been in business since 1948 and here since 1990, Hall's was a fixture in Snow Shoe, a tiny town of around 700. The store closed in 2020 (paywall) after an electrical fire destroyed most of the building's interior, and while the owners originally planned to reopen, those plans were ultimately scrapped. But the sign remains out on the street, and interestingly enough, the convenience store at the nearby Sunoco seems to have expanded their grocery selection, likely to attract customers who would otherwise have to leave town and travel about 13 miles east to a Weis in Bellefonte for a full supermarket. Tomorrow is a look...

  I admittedly haven't spent a whole lot of time in the western part of Pennsylvania, but we are going to nevertheless take a little bit of time to look around this part of the state! On the map above I've placed the large cities (Erie and Pittsburgh) for reference, but we're going to be spending our time in Snow Shoe, Clearfield, Clarion, and Johnstown -- the first three along the I-80 corridor in northern PA, then Johnstown roughly 1/3 of the way from Pittsburgh to Harrisburg. Unfortunately, I've never been to Johnstown, but I have a friend from there and we have a quick look at two interesting stores from there thanks to them. We're going to start in Snow Shoe, with a look at a former supermarket (the only grocer in town) here on Grocery Archaeology tomorrow!