Classic photo provided by Greg P.
Greg picked up this photo at a flea market. I haven't been able to identify it's location. Here's what he had to say about it...
"The photo is dated February, 1960, and was entered into a photo contest sponsored by the Diamond Camera Club of Wilmington, DE. The location is not identified, but the seller thought it might be Price's Corner. Evidently Acme took the corner space in this shopping center to maximize floor space and minimize the storefront. The photo is dated February, 1960, and was entered into a photo contest sponsored by the Diamond Camera Club of Wilmington, DE."
I was JUST talking to someone the other day about the Prices Corner store. I will have to show him this photo and see if he can identify it. He did tell me that the store was tore down when they did some road improvements in the area.
ReplyDeleteHi, I don!t think so. The current Prices Corner Acme was built in 1959. But, I think it could possibly be the old Acme Market set in the Newark Shopping Center. It closed in the late 60!s, early 70!s
ReplyDeleteI again it also be the small store in the old Merchandise Mart in Wilmington. Acme operated two stores at each end of this plaza for at least ten years. A large styore near the Foodlion and a small store down by the Woolworths. Dollars to Donuts that's what this photo is off. This was the first center in the state of De and it was visited by people from all overt De, South Jersey and Maryland. Today it is and Eyesore with a Foodlion in it. The small store closed first then the larger after a gun Battle in its lot. Gerry
ReplyDeleteThe store in this photo is the older store in Wilmington's Merchandise Mart (left side of the plaza). This Merchandise Mart store list I found from 1960 exactly matches the order of the stores in the bottom photo: http://www.oldwilmington.net/oldwilmington/mm-stores.html
ReplyDeleteThanks Ross for confirming Gerry's hunch! I have only lived in Delaware since the early 00's, so the Merchandise Mart has always been a dead mall to me. I haven't even been back up there to see the Food Lion since it opened. There were plans for a bunch of new stores to go in there, I guess that never came to fruition.
DeleteHere is a pic of how it looks today:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/62355920@N00/5744949511/in/photostream/
Scroll forward to see a pic of the second MM Acme. Forward again for the former Acme in Claymont. I have been to that shopping center, it never occured to me that it was an Acme.
If you scroll back one photo from the link, you will see the current north Wilmington Acme, in an area called "Fairfax" It's right across the street from the sprawling AstraZeneca campus, and does a good amount of business with no local competition (you have to go further up Concord Pike to get to the ShopRite).
You're welcome Gary, and thanks for the extra info! The Merchandise Mart has an interesting history - maybe it'll find its second chance one day.
DeleteThe mystery is solved! Thanks, Ross!
Delete-Greg (purchaser of the photo)
That looks like the ACME on Route 13, south of Wilmington-very close to the on-ramp of I-95. I remember my mother doing her Passover shopping there one year during the '70s. It wasn't our regular ACME however.
ReplyDeleteAw how many of the stores in that photo are no longer around today? :( Woolworth, Kinney Shoes, etc. I'm glad Acme is still around, which is why I opt to shop at Acme, to keep the name in business.
ReplyDelete-- Rebecca