These are the latest blog updates. Click on the title to read the full article.
More regular updates can be found on the Bluesky/a> and the Message Board.
New content
I’ve been quietly working on new content as I’ve had time the past few months (which regrettably has not been often) so I guess I should mention some of it here:
New location lists:
Also, I’m almost done with the 1950s section of the revised Safeway history section. And coming soon will be a new LA photo gallery which will include lots of stuff from my recent trip to SoCal.
Groceteria does Toronto
For your reading and viewing pleasure, a new section on Toronto and Southern Ontario, featuring over 200 photos plus a location list. As Toronto is one of yer humble host’s favorite cities, you can count on additions.
Adding Ottawa
Just a quick note to reveal a new section with some new photos and a location list: Groceteria does Ottawa.
More to come…
More new stuff
New pages for Indianapolis and Burlington NC with location spreadsheets and photos. Pittsburgh and Columbia SC still to come, as promised earlier.
Much new content
Sorry for the long lapse in content around these parts. My personal life has been less than optimal the past few months (long story) and I’ve also been very preoccupied with work.
Anyway, I’m happy to present the following for your amusement today:
- Atlanta: A location spreadsheet covering 1930-1991 and a new photo gallery. I envision some narrative here soon.
- Boston: A location spreadsheet covering 1955-1974.
- Los Angeles: A location spreadsheet covering 1932-1942.
- Portland (OR): A location spreadsheet covering 1956-1962.
Tomorrow (if my enthusiasm holds out), I’ll be posting location spreadsheets and photo galleries for Pittsburgh and Columbia SC.
And soon, I really will be completing the updated history of Safeway that I started a few months back.
Golden Gate Harris-Teeter closing
This is kind of sad. One of the two oldest continuously operating chain supermarkets in my hometown is closing. The Harris Teeter location at Golden Gate Shopping Center opened in 1961 as an A&P. A Kroger opened simultaneously at the other end of the center. The Kroger was replaced about 1975 with one of Greensboro’s first Food Town (now Food Lion) stores. The A&P lasted until the late 1970s and became a Bestway (local chain) and then Harris Teeter in 1988. Centers with two supermarket anchors were common at the time but are rarely seen anymore.
The view above is from 1999. Below is a 1961 “grand opening” photo from the Greensboro Daily News:
Along Highway 70
Just got back from a conference in Morehead City NC and thought I’d throw up a few pictures I grabbed in cities along the way back. I only had my phone camera with me, so the quality is somewhat lacking. Above is a beautiful former Colonial store at 1201 Broad Street in New Bern. It was closed so I was unable to determine if there were any interesting interior remnants.
This former A&P is at 919 Broad Street, also in New Bern.
Colonial Stores/Stop & Shop, Indianapolis, late 1950s
Contact sheet (click image above to enlarge) of several Indianapolis Stop and Shop locations after they were purchased by Colonial Stores in 1955 (but before they were subsequently unloaded in 1959). Colonial purchased the Albers chain in Ohi0 at about the same time and had much better luck with those stores. Colonial did similar co-branding with both chains.
These are from a large collection of construction archives I recently acquired. They’d been sitting in the abandoned Colonial Stores HQ in Atlanta for probably twenty years. Lots more to come.
Colonial Stores Treasure Trove
This is big.
A very observant member of an Atlanta architctural firm (who’s now my hero, by the way) contacted me a few weeks ago to tell me about some materials he found while working on a client project, wondering if I might be interested. I picked the stuff up today. Turns out it came from the former headquarters of Colonial Stores and was apparently material that was simply abandoned upon the demise of the company in 1988 and had been sitting in the office ever since.
The take: twelve boxes and more than a dozen rolls of blueprints, sign plans, mechanical drawings, lease information, and other material. It seems this may be most of the records of the real estate and/or construction department of the chain. There are layouts and fixture plans dating to at least 1952, proposals for the conversion of the Albers stores in the Midwest after that chain was acquired by Colonial Stores in 1955, and lost of materials on the conversion of stores to the Big Star format in the late 1960s and early 1970s. This is incredible stuff and I am really grateful that it was saved from the dumpster and that I was able to get my hands on it. I’m just starting to go through all the boxes and I’ll keep you posted.
It’s amazing what you can fit inside a 2002 Buick LeSabre when you try really hard:
