Pacifica, California: Safeway sites

TheStranger · Post by **TheStranger** » 26 Sep 2006 02:37

Just updated my Peninsula Stores site with stuff on Pacifica (and some updates in SF)...

http://dtcwrt.earlracing.com/stores/pacifica.htm - Pacifica page

Specifically, I have a few questions on the two Pacifica Safeway sites (former store near Linda Mar, current one at Manor Center) that my photo-taking inspired me to ask:

- for Manor Center, was that store originally a Safeway, and did the Chinese restaurant with a bubble roof originally serve as a supermarket in a past life? Despite the in-store sign asserting that Safeway has served Pacifica "since 1970," the older looking architecture of the Manor store makes me think it was something else in the past, I want to say Purity, but I'm not for certain.

- When did the gable-roofed store on Route 1 open and close? Located just a block away from the current Linda Mar site, that gable was probably shuttered when the Linda Mar Center (where Safeway is now) was located.

Post by **Groceteria** » 26 Sep 2006 10:16

I can't remember for sure, but I think I've been told at some point that the Pacific Manor store was originally a Mayfair or a Brentwood -- or a Mayfair and subsequently a Brentwood and Safeway -- which wouldn't be unusual since Brentwood purchased so many Mayfair locations and was later acquired ny Safeway. Again, I'm not 100% certain on this one.

That center strikes me as too small ever to have had multiple supermarkets. Could the other unit maybe have been a drug store or variety store?

You didn't ask, but my handy 1964 guide to American shopping centers states that Linda Mar was originally anchored by a Purity store. I have no idea where it was located or if that part of the center is even still standing.

That same guide shows that the Sea Village Shopping Center across the street (where the Safeway you mention was located) opened in April 1963.

Re your Diamond Heights photos: I think the Safeway and Super S were both located in what is now the Safeway store. If you look at it closely, especially inside, you'll see it was pretty clearly two separate units to begin with.

TheStranger · Post by **TheStranger** » 26 Sep 2006 11:56

Groceteria wrote:I can't remember for sure, but I think I've been told at some point that the Pacific Manor store was originally a Mayfair or a Brentwood -- or a Mayfair and subsequently a Brentwood and Safeway -- which wouldn't be unusual since Brentwood purchased so many Mayfair locations and was later acquired ny Safeway. Again, I'm not 100% certain on this one.

That's an interesting theory and considering the bubble-roof, it makes me think of the similar situation at Broadmoor Center (Junipero Serra/87th) at what is now Kukje Market.

How large was Brentwood's Bay Area reach anyway by 1983? Amazing for a chain that started up in my suburban hometown...

Groceteria wrote:
That center strikes me as too small ever to have had multiple supermarkets. Could the other unit maybe have been a drug store or variety store?

I was thinking more that that other unit was the original grocery store for the site, then the newer building came along. The Pacific Manor center does seem very old but, that's all conjecture on my part.

Groceteria wrote:
You didn't ask, but my handy 1964 guide to American shopping centers states that Linda Mar was originally anchored by a Purity store. I have no idea where it was located or if that part of the center is even still standing.

One plausible explanation is that Safeway moved from the Route 1 location to Linda Mar at some point and replaced Purity, though it's hard to tell with the current facade for the Safeway building.

Groceteria wrote:
That same guide shows that the Sea Village Shopping Center across the street (where the Safeway you mention was located) opened in April 1963.

Given the gable architecture, that's probably right on track.

Why can I imagine Justin K. chiming in with more on this entire topic? :)

Groceteria wrote:

Re your Diamond Heights photos: I think the Safeway and Super S were both located in what is now the Safeway store. If you look at it closely, especially inside, you'll see it was pretty clearly two separate units to begin with.

Did that Super S ever operate as a Thrifty (like the one on Market/Duboce) or a seperate drug store, or was it immediately incorporated into the Safeway space?

bru682 · Post by **bru682** » 26 Sep 2006 20:55

I grew up in Pacifica in the 80s and 90s and can fill in what I know.

At Pacific Manor, the Safeway was indeed a Brentwood. I don't know if it was something else before that. The chinese restaurant opened in the 90s after extensive remodeling of the site. Previously, there was a Bank of America branch on the corner and a smaller restaurant next to it (adjacent to what is today an antiques store). In the 80s, a fire gutted the restaurant and the bank branch closed. The site sat empty until the chinese restaurant took over and consolidated both parcels. I believe the roof was the result of that remodel. Evidence of the bank remains in the form of two BofA ATMs that remain at the site.

At Linda Mar, the current Safeway was previously a Bell Market. The Purity must have originally existed in another part of the center as the large building currently housing the Safeway, Rite-Aid, and Ross was built later. Some time in the early 80s, Safeway took over the larger Bell Market store and abandoned their location across the highway on San Pedro Rd. That location remained vacant for many years until the health club opened.

At one time, Pacifica used to have a third Safeway. Besides locations at Linda Mar and Pacific Manor, the other Safeway store existed at Park Mall at Terra Nova and Oddstad (at the other end of Linda Mar Blvd). Architectually, it resembles the former Safeway at Westborough Square, so it is probably from the same time period. That store closed when the Linda Mar Safeway was enlarged around 1998. It has since been partitioned into offices and a smaller market.

justin karimzad · Post by **justin karimzad** » 27 Sep 2006 21:18

Sorry I took so long; I've been busy. Obviously, the former Purity in Linda Mar was expanded greatly when it became Safeway (on the front and right side, maybe?) but I think that at least part of that building is original, because the left wall still has some old bricks that look like the original architecture (and I've read that this shopping center dates back to 1956). On an off-topic sidenote, there was also a WT Grant in that shopping center until the 1970s, which someone told me was where the current Rite Aid (former Thrifty) is, and there was supposedly a Ben Franklin where Ross is now. I was told that the Safeway in Pacific Manor started out as a Super X market (there's a photo of one that was in San Francisco on this site) before it was Brentwood. I'm guessing the "serving since 1970" sign is referring to a mistaken assumption on Safeway's part that the former Safeway in Park Mall shopping center that opened in 1970 was Pacifica's first Safeway. The Pacific Manor supermarket building is definetly pre-1970 (if nothing else, the ceiling speakers, ceiling grid and barrel roof prove it); there are engravings in various places in the front sidewalks that say 1954, 1955, and 1956, so it could be from any of those years. (though I think the sidewalks closet to the supermarket say 1954 and 1955). The music store next door was originally a drug store. As for the Diamond Heights Safeway Super S, the Super S was listed in city directories as far back as 1965, and if I remember correctly it was at the same address (5260 Diamond Heights Blvd) as the current Walgreen's. Yes this did operate as a Thrifty, for quite some time. It lived to become a Rite Aid, which closed around February 2005. When it was Rite Aid, the pharmacy had wood paneling, lighting, and a prescription symbol that screamed 1960s. In fact, the whole place was morphed out of the 1960s. With those statements, I strongly believe that the Safeway Super S was indeed where the Walgreen's is now. But Groceteria's guess was a valid one :) To tell you the truth, I don't know what was in the space where Safeway expanded into. I haven't been to the place since Rite Aid closed, although I sincerely doubt that Walgreen's kept the drug store retro. The San Francisco public library has a couple of really cool images looking towards Diamond Heights shopping center here;
http://sflib1.sfpl.org:82/search/Xdiamo ... 23%2C23%2C
http://sflib1.sfpl.org:82/search/Xdiamo ... D&3%2C3%2C

Post by **Groceteria** » 27 Sep 2006 22:35

justin karimzad wrote:I was told that the Safeway in Pacific Manor started out as a Super X market (there's a photo of one that was in San Francisco on this site) before it was Brentwood.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I think Brentwood and Super X were connected anyway. The 4175 Mission Street store in SF (later a Cala) was listed in the 1970 city directory as "Brentwood Super X" according to my records.

justin karimzad · Post by **justin karimzad** » 28 Sep 2006 00:06

I can't confirm or deny that connection, but I believe you. As long as we're on the topic of Pacifica Safeway's, the Albertsons/Rite Aid (former Lucky/PayLess) combo in the Fairmont shopping center listed on the Peninsula Grocery Stores site was originally a Safeway/Super S that opened between May 1966 and April 1967. The interiors and outside back wall still have the original architecture.

TheStranger · Post by **TheStranger** » 28 Sep 2006 00:22

justin karimzad wrote:I can't confirm or deny that connection, but I believe you. As long as we're on the topic of Pacifica Safeway's, the Albertsons/Rite Aid (former Lucky/PayLess) combo in the Fairmont shopping center listed on the Peninsula Grocery Stores site was originally a Safeway/Super S that opened between May 1966 and April 1967. The interiors and outside back wall still have the original architecture.

Wow, thanks for the info! (I'll have to update the site) I've been in each store once but it was years ago and I would have never known it's a former Safeway.

When did it become a Lucky/Payless combo?

justin karimzad · Post by **justin karimzad** » 28 Sep 2006 02:48

I'm guessing it became Lucky/Payless in the 1980s, but I'm not certain. I do know that even though this has always been a neighborhood shopping center, with services like a shoe store and a restaurant, it originally had (like Park Mall) an enclosed mall of shops. Maybe they got rid of this around the same time that Lucky and Payless came in.

TheStranger · Post by **TheStranger** » 28 Sep 2006 02:54

justin karimzad wrote:I'm guessing it became Lucky/Payless in the 1980s, but I'm not certain. I do know that even though this has always been a neighborhood shopping center, with services like a shoe store and a restaurant, it originally had (like Park Mall) an enclosed mall of shops. Maybe they got rid of this around the same time that Lucky and Payless came in.

I do know that some family friends of my parents' owned a restaurant in the early 90s there, called "Giselle's" but that didn't last very long.

Other than the gable, Linda Mar, Park Mall, Manor Center, and Fairmont, there's Eureka Square, which I didn't have time to hit up when I was in the Bay Area recently...a Yahoo yellow pages search does list a market in that area, was that something else in the past?

justin karimzad · Post by **justin karimzad** » 28 Sep 2006 03:16

Ah yes, I almost forgot about that one. Yes there is currently an independent market, Food Town, and it appears that the shopping center was remodeled in the 1980s (However, the inside of the market is, happily, still old). Originally, this was one of a chain of bay area markets known as Lee Bros. This location opened between May 1961 and Apr. 1962.

TheStranger · Post by **TheStranger** » 28 Sep 2006 03:18

justin karimzad wrote:Ah yes, I almost forgot about that one. Yes there is currently an independent market, Food Town, and it appears that the shopping center was remodeled in the 1980s (However, the inside of the market is, happily, still old). Originally, this was one of a chain of bay area markets known as Lee Bros. This location opened between May 1961 and Apr. 1962.

Haven't heard of Lee Brothers before...what were their other Peninsula locations, and whatever happened to this chain?

TheStranger · Post by **TheStranger** » 28 Sep 2006 05:33

And going back to the original topic, here's a very nice find: the City of Pacifica's own page on shopping centers, with some vintage photos.

http://pacifica.ca.us/ECONDEV/centers.html

the Eureka Square Food Barn:

Fairmont Center Payless and Lucky:

(Now knowing that that Lucky is a former Safeway, the front-sign architecture is very reminiscent of the still-standing Berryessa Road Safeway location in San Jose photographed on Charles Hathaway's site)

Linda Mar, I wonder if this is the former WT Grant:

Park Mall Safeway, with the white letters (which seem to be much more common in Washington, D.C. than out here):

The former gable Safeway is located in what is now called "Pedro Point Shopping Center":

TheStranger · Post by **TheStranger** » 18 Oct 2006 02:50

Here's a better shot of the Manor Center store:

http://s24.photobucket.com/albums/c3/ha ... C00506.jpg