The timing of this feature was perfect! I've been feeling oddly nostalgic about Kentucky (and southern Ohio) lately, and have a hankering to relive some of the road trips I took through that part of the country 10 years ago. Blame it on winter...and being sequestered in Thunder Bay for the last two years.
I immediately tore into the Kroger listings. Could there have been a Black Widow Murderer store in Louisville's past? Maybe, maybe not...but here are the highlights:
1162 S 1st St:
A well-preserved brick building of two storefronts, later combined as one, that might predate the supermarket era. The neighbourhood it's in is almost too charming for words, and a three-story turn-of-the-century building with a corner tower lies across the street.
2605 W Market St:
A well-preserved 1930s-era mid-block supermarket, in every sense. Even the display windows look like they date to that era!
2730 Frankfort Av:
Another mid-block store, that probably wasn't built specifically for Kroger. Features unusually ornate brick patterns, with a strange symbol on the upper storefront that resembles a compass rose...or maybe the Zodiac Killer cipher. (Well, that's a creepy thought.)
3721 Lexington Rd:
A 1940s bowstring-truss roof store with a rather skinny and narrow footprint...and a 1970s-style exterior makeover, possibly added by a later tenant. In front, the store has an oval-shaped sign atop an odd, zigzagged pole that is surely a Kroger leftover!
1244 S Shelby St:
Another decent specimen of a 1940s store, although less original than the others.
4700 S 3rd St:
A smallish store from the late 1940s or early 1950s, set back from the street with front parking, that still bears the framework over the parapet that once supported a vertical sign. It may have once looked identical to 1145 S 4th St, below.
1145 S 4th St:
Another early-1950s store, and probably the best-preserved Louisville Kroger building from this era with original, unpainted blonde brick and glass block side windows.
http://maps.google.com/?q=2208 W Jeffer ... fferson St:
A good example of a circa-1960 store. Looks a bit forlorn nowadays, with covered-over windows, but the canopy is original.
I'm surprised by the lack of any intact 1970s Superstores...
5618 Bardstown Rd is the only one that still looks even vaguely Kroger-like, and even then only if you squint. But, the next decade spawned lots of material artifacts:
9123 Galene Dr:
An early-1980s greenhouse store, still standing vacant with an original exterior. The closure must have been fairly recent; the 2019 GSV footage still shows a Kroger logo on the vestibule wall.
924 S 2nd St:
A strange variation on the greenhouse, done in brick rather than block and with a slanted pseudo-mansard (which may or may not have been original) grafted on. It closed in 2017, although it doesn't look as though the building's been modified since then.
4251 Outer Loop:
Hey, it's a
Chillicothe-style Franken-Kroger! This has
got to be seen to be believed. There was once a SupeRx-paired "dual greenhouse" store on this site: The SupeRx half is still intact (as a still-extant CVS), while the Kroger half has been re-facaded and renovated beyond recognition (or possibly rebuilt entirely) into a giant Best Buy electronics store. A newer replacement Kroger store stands elsewhere in the same shopping centre today.
5533 New Cut Rd:
A late-1980s "flattened greenhouse" that's still in operation and open for business.