Central PA questions

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JoshAustin610
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Central PA questions

Post by JoshAustin610 »

Hey everyone, one of my most recent projects (I have many at once, haha) is compiling information on former stores in central PA for some upcoming trips I'd like to take out there in the spring and summer. I've been able to find information and locations for quite a few stores over the last few months, a few here and there, but there are a couple of stores for which I've found information that they existed (primarily through Google News Archives), but can't find the locations for. Since I know a few of you are familiar with this area I thought I'd ask for help.

Carlisle - Acme

I'm thinking Spring Garden St? There is a new Giant at 255 S. Spring Garden, but next to it is a Dollar General that used to be a very old Revco (store 179, or CVS 3179).

Carlisle - Safeway

An article from western PA in the late 70s lists the only four PA Safeways as being in Carlisle, Dover (Weigelstown), Shrewsbury, and Chambersburg. The Weis at 351 E. High St has a slightly arched roof that definitely isn't Weis prototype; perhaps this was it?

Chambersburg - A&P

I've found two Acmes, a Food Fair, an old Food Lion, and a really old Giant accounted for, but nothing as far as A&P goes.

Chambersburg - JC Penney

Info says that the JC Penney in the Chambersburg Mall opened in 1995 and relocated from somewhere else in town. Maybe downtown?

Harrisburg - Safeway

A post on here said there was a Safeway in Harrisburg, unless that just referred to the Harrisburg area in general.

Red Lion - Acme
Red Lion - A&P
Red Lion - Peoples Drug (probably downtown)

I can't find any info on the older stores in Red Lion, although there was an 80s Super Fresh at Dairyland Square that's now a Great Valu.

Waynesboro - Acme

One person on a Facebook page about Waynesboro history said it was "behind the Sheetz downtown", but that would make it the former Rea & Derick/ CVS at 40 S. Broad St, which was a former Safeway (unless that's incorrect).

York - Safeway

One of the two York Safeways is accounted for, the one in West York (currently Super Shoes). The other I'm not sure about; one post said it was where Ollie's used to be on S. Queen St, but I can only find the one at 2142 S. Queen St, which looks like it used to be part of a much larger store. Maybe it was the Price Rite in the same center? In an obituary it was mentioned as East York, but I'm not sure if that area of town counts as "east".

I also have a few mysteries:

Cleona - I thought the former Zayre was currently the Big Lots/ Rite Aid, but a commenter on my Flickr said that the Zayre was the current Giant. The dates match up, as the Zayre closed in early 1990 and the Giant was early to mid 90s, but that then adds the question as to what was the current Big Lots building? And if it actually was the Big Lots, then what was there before Giant if anything?

Lancaster - The East Towne Mall once included a Grant City and a Revco, but what was the other anchor that's now Staples & Burlington? There's also a building on the end that's now partially Dollar Tree; I wonder if that could have been a grocery store.

York - Yorktowne Mall, 133 N. Duke St downtown used to have a Revco that became a CVS for a few years before closing; it also had a grocery store next to it. The store was a Save-A-Lot from 1995 to 2007, and previous to that was a store called Kash & Karry (I'm assuming no relation to the stores that are part of Food Lion) that closed in 1986, being vacant in between. Would it have been anything else before that?

York - Any other info on the center at 2142 S. Queen St? Regardless if it included a Safeway it looks like it had both a department-size and supermarket-size store at one point.

Sorry for the lengthy post, but I wanted to spread things out to keep it less confusing. Thanks in advance for any help!

Josh
Ephrata1966
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Re: Central PA questions

Post by Ephrata1966 »

I heard on this site that JCPenney had a store in Chambersburg where the Big Lots is now. Perhaps this was a 1950s "J. C. Penney Co." store? Probably in the 1980s it moved to the local mall.

And what is the ancient Giant in Chambersburg?
mjhale
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Re: Central PA questions

Post by mjhale »

The downtown Chambersburg JCPenney was in the Southgate Shopping Mall (its a strip mall not enclosed). Southgate is located on W Washington Street of US 11 south of US 30 in downtown Chambersburg. My recollection is that it was the right-hand of the two large free standing buildings in the complex. I was in college at Shippensburg U (next town north from Chambersburg) from 1991-1995. The 1995 date for JCPenney moving to the mall sounds right. I remember shopping at the downtown Penney's up until I graduated from Ship.

The old (original) Giant in Chambersburg is on US 30 east of I-81. I believe it is a shoe store now. Going east I think it is on the left side of the road. It has a small tower and the building has the look of a grocery.

Some other things to look at (but not as old as former Acme and Safeway stores):

- In Shippensburg at the KMart Shopping Center, there is a closed Weis store. It has the brown 1970s awing.

- Off I-83, Exit 34 there is a slant front SuperFresh. It closed and then reopened and is now closed. Last I heard there is a Wal-Mart Supercenter going in. Not sure if construction has started yet or not.

- The first "supermarket" sized Giant Food store in Carlisle is at Routes 74 and 641. Since Giant moved to Spring Garden Street it is now OfficeMax and something else. When it was still a Giant there was a plaque at the entrance detailing the history of the building and the founder of Giant Food (PA).

Mike
JoshAustin610
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Re: Central PA questions

Post by JoshAustin610 »

My one friend went to Shippensburg from 1997 to 2001, and for a time worked at the Kmart there, so I got to see some of that area in 1999 and 2000. At that point the Weis still had the brown and tan design inside; apparently it later remodeled but then closed anyway. There was also the CVS next door that had just converted from Revco, so it had the pharmacy up at the front with the registers in front of it (so pharmacy and front customers were in the same line). For a while at the west end of town there was another CVS (former Peoples Drug) next to Cressler's, but that closed in early 1998 after the Revco merger. I never saw that part of town, but I was in the Food Lion on the south side once. Mostly we'd just go to the Sheetz when I'd visit, which at the time was one of the busiest stores in the chain (and probably still is).

I got to see a few things in Chambersburg on the different exits; Chambersburg Mall (saw a movie at the theater there), the Blockbuster near Giant and CVS (a former Fay's), and the Wal-Mart on Lincoln Way. That was at night though, so I never saw any of the other buildings. In 2000 I went to the AMC in Hampden Commons in Mechanicsburg; that at the time had Karn's (former Super Fresh), CVS (former Rea & Derick), and still had a West Coast Video! We also ate lunch at Capital City Mall in the old front food court that's now additional stores.

Josh
Lenny
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Re: Central PA questions

Post by Lenny »

If you go to weisproject.com there is a listing there of former Weis Markets stores. If you plan to go to the Allentown area, I could probably help you out in finding some former supermarket locations.
Served 10 years at Weis Markets (June 1995-July 2005)
catnapped
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Re: Central PA questions

Post by catnapped »

I think I was the one who posted about the former Ames (Zayre) in Cleona. Found that snippet on Pennlive:
Giant to build supermarket

Date: May 4, 1994
Page: B5
Giant Food Stores Inc. plans to build a 40,000-square-foot supermarket in Cleona on the site of the former Ames department store in the Cleona Square shopping center at Route 422 and Mill Street.

The store, which would be Giant's second in Lebanon County, is scheduled to open in early 1995. The Carlisle-based chain has a supermarket at the east end of Lebanon on Route 422.
No clue what Big Lots might've been in the past.

As for East Towne Mall, there was a Jamesway at one time right around where Staples is now, and there supposedly was another store called Maxwells in there somewhere (likely part of Burlington...which appears to take up at least part of what was the enclosed mall itself). There was also a tiny Weis Market where Dollar Tree is now. Weis turned that into a "Big Top" market for a time before they decided to bail on the small locations that were useless to their growth strategy.
JoshAustin610
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Re: Central PA questions

Post by JoshAustin610 »

catnapped: I've since found out from a visitor to my Flickr page that the Big Lots/ Eckerd was an IGA; it was added later in the Zayre/ Ames days and closed after a few years (late 80s to early 90s). It would have already been gone by the time Giant started building.

Lenny: I'm actually from the Lehigh Valley (born in Easton, live in Bethlehem Township), so I think I'm pretty well caught up on the local Weis history; I know the first two stores locally were at Airport Plaza and Whitehall Mall. I also work near the former Weis on the South Mall property, so that was one of my first pictures (although I had no idea about the former Acme across the street until years later).
catnapped
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Re: Central PA questions

Post by catnapped »

I'm still trying to figure out the original makeup of the East Towne Mall in Lancaster. Unfortunately what there is of the Lancaster Intelligencer archives is paid, save for short summaries, so that's not much help. We know Kmart was Grant City originally, confirmed there was a store called Maxwells where Burlington sits now (not sure if it was there from the beginning), Jamesway was next door to it (from 1984-on) where Staples sits now, Weis Markets was on the end where Dollar Tree and the vacant Odd-Job is, and OP mentioned there was a Revco at one time. One of the (summary) articles mentioned something about the mall having gone through seven anchors since it opened in 1974 but I have no clue what the rest of them were. Anyone know for sure (or care to take a guess)?
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