Grocery Archaeology

Original Tenant: Mayfair Foodtown (?) Address: 430 Springfield Ave, Berkeley Heights, NJ Opened:  unknown Closed:  1990s Later Tenants:  Kings Food Markets (1990s-2013) > New York Marts (planned, never opened) Photographed:  November 2020 Tucked away behind the Stop & Shop and former A&P in Berkeley Heights is a second strip mall, once home to a Mayfair Foodtown and later Kings Food Market at the far back. I don't know much history here, but Kings closed up shop in 2013, moving down the street about two and a half miles to a former Pathmark in Gillette . As far as the origins of the building, I know nothing beyond looking at Historic Aerials to find that the building was constructed between 1963 and 1970, then expanded at least once. The main thing that intrigues me is the building's large size -- at 39,000 square feet, it would be easily one of the largest Kings stores out there and much larger than what most supermarkets were building in the 1960s. I...

Original Tenant: A&P Address: 410 Springfield Ave, Berkeley Heights, NJ Opened:  1960s Closed:  ca. 1970s Later Tenants:  Drug Fair (closed 2009) > subdivided Photographed:  June 2021 It might have a lot of modifications done, but you can recognize that A&P centennial facade from a mile away! This 16,000 square foot store was built as the anchor of this small strip mall in what might be considered to be the center of Berkeley Heights in the 1960s. A commenter on Flickr writes that A&P built in the 1970s the 36,000 square foot replacement store for this location at the other end of the strip mall, which later became Grand Union and then Stop & Shop, but JoshAustin610 says that the space was instead a Mayfair Foodtown before Grand Union. (To me, the store has neither the hallmarks of a 1970s A&P nor a 1970s Mayfair Foodtown, but that more likely means that Grand Union did extensive renovations after moving in. You can tour the store here , our ...