Former location: 22 Main Street, Asbury Park NJ
There's nothing left to see here of the Asbury Park Acme. It was a 40's era store which closed in 1969, just before the downfall of the town began. I originally had the wrong building picked out as the former Acme and had planned more extensive coverage. Decided to include this location on the tour even though it's pretty much a dud. Asbury Park was a huge tourist destination on the Jersey Shore for many years and I do want to document Acme's presence in this town. The Seaview Square store, which opened in 1977, was just two miles west of the former Asbury Park store.
Acme's building long gone. Now the site of a gas station.
Historical Aerials...
1979
1963
Not sure which structure is the Acme.
1940
I would guess that the Acme was the building with the darker roof.
Could they have gotten that Asbury store any closer to being out of Asbury?
ReplyDeleteSince Wesley lake is the divider between Asbury and Ocean Grove, it's just about on the line - actually I believe the building in the bottom of the modern photo (with the reddish awning) is a Windmill hot dog stand, which if so per their website (http://www.windmillhotdogs.com/oceangrove.html - photo there to compare, click back to locations for the addresses) is actually listed as 18 South Main Street, Ocean Grove.
I'm not sure if Acme's goal was to be outside of Asbury Park or if they just wanted a store closer to Ocean Grove since there are no grocery stores in that town (which is actually part of Neptune). I'm pretty sure there was also an Acme not too far from here at the intersection of Routes 33 and 35 (the site is now fairly vacant except for a McDonald's that looks to have been there quite some time).
ReplyDeleteFurther north on Route 71 in Asbury Park is an old A&P- a streetfront store that was given the Centennial look at some point (a look that the building retains today). Maybe Acme wanted to distance itself from the A&P?
Neptune is home to a Stop & Shop that was formerly a Foodtown- the store was expanded at some point but the original part of the building has a barrel roof- it's open and you can see the roof structure above the produce aisle. Very cool.