Grocery Archaeology

Original Grocery Tenant: ACME Markets Address: 250 Reily St, Harrisburg, PA Opened:  1940 Closed:  unknown Later Tenants:  assorted non-grocery tenants Photographed:  August 14, 2022 Midtown Harrisburg is home to this 10,000 square foot building today housing the Midtown Cinema, but originally a 1940-built ACME. The building's facade was recently renovated, and here's a look at what it used to look like. The building is long and thin in the style of ACMEs of that era. I don't have a closing date for this store, and I also don't know if it relocated somewhere nearby or just closed. There's a grocery store just a few blocks away from this building still in operation today, and we'll be checking it out on Monday on The Independent Edition !

Original Grocery Tenant: unknown Address: 2300 N 3rd St, Harrisburg, PA Opened:  unknown Closed:  unknown Later Tenants:  assorted non-grocery tenants Photographed:  August 14, 2022 Now I'm not sure that this building ever contained a grocery store, but what's now the Emerald Chinese Restaurant at Emerald and N 3rd in Harrisburg has some of the markers I look for in early 1900s grocery store buildings. The sign and awning have some similarities to early grocery stores, but I think more important is the windows along the left side wall of the building that look a lot like windows that run down the side of grocery stores elsewhere. On the other hand, I'm sure that tomorrow's stop was a grocery store -- come back to check it out tomorrow as we move towards downtown Harrisburg!

Original Grocery Tenant: Weis Markets Address: 2304 N 3rd St, Harrisburg, PA Opened:  1960 Closed:  1999 Later Tenants:  Emerald Food Market > Eagle Supermarket > Uptown Food Market Photographed:  August 14, 2022 A quick look at what used to be Uptown Harrisburg's largest supermarket, a 16,000 square foot former Weis that later became a series of independent grocery stores, Emerald Food Market, Eagle Supermarket , and Uptown Food Market . Today, it's split between a Family Dollar and a laundromat, but the distinctive tower is still there. Next door, we have a building I suspect is also a former grocery store, but a much earlier one than this. Come back tomorrow to check it out!

Original Grocery Tenant: Miles D. Fry Address: 3200 N 2nd St, Harrisburg, PA Opened:  by 1921 Closed:  by 1925 Later Tenants:  assorted independent grocers Photographed:  August 14, 2022 While walking around uptown Harrisburg, I spotted this house with the telltale box built out of the side of it. This is a classic design for old grocery stores, primarily built from around 1900-1930, as the owner of the grocery store would also own (and live in) the attached house, or sometimes house with apartments rented out. While this was not a grocery store in any recent history, it was in fact a grocery store in the 1920s. Between 1921 (the earliest record I can find online of this address) and 1925, it was owned by Miles D. Fry, then R.E. Hoverter in 1925. By 1930, the space had been taken over by Harry Loper, who ran a pharmacy at the corner store. (In 1932, the attached house advertised an apartment for rent.) And as recently as 2014 , the remnants of a Family Pharmacy sig...