Grocery Archaeology

Original Grocery Tenant: Great American Address: 100 Pike St, Port Jervis, NY Opened:  mid-1990s Closed:  late 1990s Previous Tenants:  WT Grant > Kmart (closed 1993) Later Tenants:  subdivided/non-grocery tenants Photographed:  February 3, 2021 Next to the Save-A-Lot we saw yesterday is this 46,000 square foot former WT Grant, later Kmart which ultimately relocated to Matamoras . For a brief period in the mid-1990s, the space was occupied by a Great American supermarket. It sat vacant until work began in 2015 on the renovation of the strip mall. These days, the space is occupied at least in part by a VA clinic. That's all for the city of Port Jervis itself, and up next we're headed northwest along the PA/NY border and the Delaware River for a couple days' worth of independent supermarkets. Our first is on The Independent Edition on Monday!

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....

Original Grocery Tenant: Grand Union Address: 191 Jersey Ave, Port Jervis, NY Opened:  between 1957 and 1963 Closed:  by 2001 Later Tenants:  Dollar General/subdivided Photographed:  February 3, 2021 Our first Sullivan/Orange county store is here in Port Jervis! Remember when we saw Matamoras just recently, with the Grand Union and the Price Chopper ? We're a little over two miles east, across the river, from Matamoras. This building bears some similarities to A&P Centennials, but is just different enough that we can place its lineage to Grand Union and not A&P. The 23,000 square foot store, which is close to a square rather than the more typical rectangular building shape, was built between 1957 and 1963, and may have closed when the more modern Matamoras store opened in 1993. At some point after that, it was subdivided and now is mostly occupied by a Dollar General. So as far as I can tell, this was never an A&P, something that apparently confused Jo...