Sunday, November 22, 2009

Updates to Wyoming Valley Posts



Image courtesy of Wyoming Valley Blog

I have posted some more pictures in the Wyoming Valley Acme collection. Post with updates include:

Shickshinny: Unbelievable image of what the store looked like originally.

Luzerne: New street level picture.

Kingston: The Acme building is still standing! Street level pictures have been added.

Avoca: New street level picture showing the facade that now disguises the pitched-roof.

The advertisement above shows Acme's special Sunday hours after the Wyoming Valley flood of 1972. Several locations were damaged during the flood and had to be closed for repairs. You can see flood damage in the Edwardsville and Midway Shopping Center pictures.

The ad also lists the new Super Saver store at the Wilkes-Barre Mall which was not yet built when the "There's a friendly Acme Market near you!" was printed in 1969. It's a bit of mystery why the Pittston store was not shown on the map but is now mentioned in this ad of '72. The Pittston store was a pitched-roof store which replaced a smaller store located on Main Street.

11 comments:

  1. It's easy to tell that the Kingston one was a classic, white porcelain fronted store.

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  2. Tremendous! I loved the Acmes in W-B. The one at the Wyoming Valley Mall was my favorite. I think the ones on the Ashley Bypass and South Main Street lasted until 1990.

    Now that I live in Pottsville, here are a few more former Acmes...

    22nd & West Market Streets, Pottsville... later an Insalaco's, now a local WayMart.

    Route 61, Schuylkill Haven... now Denney's Electric Supply

    East Washington Street, Shenandoah... later a Bi-Lo, not sure now.

    Route 61, Shamokin... later a BRL Grocery Outlet, now empty.

    West 3rd Street, Mount Carmel... now a Boyer's Food Market

    Route 209, west of Tower City... now vacant

    Route 443, Pine Grove... now BG's Value Market

    Route 54, Mahanoy City... now vacant

    Route 209, Lansford... now Family Dollar

    just off Route 903, Jim Thorpe... now Jim Thorpe Market

    I think there was one in the Church Hill Mall in Hazleton, now it's a Thomas' Family Market.

    I think the one in downtown Palmerton is now a Country Harvest Market.

    There was one on Route 11 in the west end of Berwick, and another on 11 between Berwick and Bloomsburg.

    Other searches showed ones on Route 15, north of Lewisburg; Clarks Summit; Montrose; Carbondale; Scranton; and Greenwich Street, Reading.

    Great memories! The Acme Black Cherry Soda was the best!

    Thank you,
    Travis

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  3. Thanks Travis for the list of all these former Acmes! The only one I am familiar with is Clarks Summit. I have it photographed for an upcoming post. It's hard tracking some of these down since Bing Maps doesn't offer "Birds Eye" views in alot of these Pennsylvania towns. Hopefully I will some some photographed and up on Acme Style!

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  4. There's also a pitched roof model in Hallstead right off of I-81 almost on the NY state line. It became a Bi-Lo (Penn Traffic) and last I knew it is now a Big-M (an independent supplied by Penn Traffic). It sustained damage in the '06 flood so I don't know what happened to the interior. The once or twice I was in it it still had all the characteristics of a classic pitched roof Acme.
    PS: If you want to talk about NE Pa. Acmes, don't forget Dunmore on the O'Neill Hwy. This store too is right off I-81 and is now home to an Advance Auto Parts.

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  5. I have Hallstead photographed for an upcoming post. This location is one of the rare pitched-roof stores that was half pitched, half flat roofed. Also got some interior shots through the windows. I was in the store a couple of times when it was a Bi-Lo. Very small but well maintained.

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  6. The flat-roofed part would be the addition to the building added sometime in the 70's. I passed it many times on 81 sitting in the back seat while my parents drove back and forth to upstate NY. Travis mentioned Carbondale and as I recall that was a early-mid '70's new build in the shopping center right as you entered the city along Route 6. I think that also became a Bi-Lo and if I recall correctly, is now a Weis? And even though the building isn't standing, there was a classic porcelain tiled Acme complete with tower on Moosic St. in Scranton where it intersects with Meadow Ave. It closed in '73 I believe and became a Panelrama and after that I kind of lost track of it until '88 when it was some kind of discount grocery operation. It was torn down early part of this decade to make way for a CVS.
    PS: Allow me to introduce myself: I'm TW-Upstate NY from the Groceteria board (aka anonymous in the Hallstead post.) I lived in NE Pa. as a kid from late '66-mid '80 and am very familiar with Acme. My Mother shopped in that Dunmore store I mentioned all the time. That one was a flat roofed script lettered Acme and had a stone facade with little if any brick if I recall correctly. They were good stores-everyone of them.

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    1. My father's company (Faller and Feeney) did the engineering work for the Moosic St store in Scranton. I remember going to the construction site every couple of weeks in the early 50's. And then we attended the store opening when it was completed.

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  7. The carbondale store changed to insalacos in 1993 when acme sold off the region. It closed for a little bit to be expanded to its current size (still insalacos) and later became a weis market.

    That acme was at one time a super saver and it had the 80s remodel to the end. I do not know what year they started the 80s look, but I think that this store got it relatively early (84 or 85?)

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  8. FROM K.a.S TO ACME STYLE I WOULD LIKE TO RE TALK ABOUT Sunday, November 22, 2009 (OLD POST) ABOUT !!! WHAT THIS PERSON HAS SAID
    Nintendo85 said...
    It's easy to tell that the Kingston one was a classic, white porcelain fronted store.

    November 23, 2009 3:38 PM
    Anonymous said...
    Tremendous! I loved the Acmes in W-B. The one at the Wyoming Valley Mall was my favorite. I think the ones on the Ashley Bypass and South Main Street lasted until 1990. THIS IS WRONG WHAT THIS PERSON HAS SAID TO YOU ABOUT Route 61, Shamokin... later a BRL Grocery Outlet, now empty. I KNOW THIS FOR A FACT PLEASE THIS STORE DID NOT CLOSED DOWN AT ALL IN FACT JEFF P. YOUNG THE OWNER OF IT JUST IN FEB 2009 OR 2010 SIGN A 5 MORE YEARS LEASE WITH THE REALTY WHO OWNS THE BUILDING SO YOU MAY COME AND TAKE LOTS OF PHOTOS OF IT (PLEASE NOTE IF YOU WANT TO BUY FOOD OR DRINK CHECK THE DATED) BECAUSE OF BEING A GROCERY OUTLET IN FACT SO SO COOL THEY SELL SOME ACME ITEMS LIKE LOTS OF ACME BOTTLE WATER THERE PLEASE GO ON OUR WEBSITE AT: http://www.buyriteliquidators.com (BRL)
    NOW ONTO BOYER'S FOOD MARKETS THEY TOOK OVER SOME OLD ACME'S IN MY AREA THAT I KNOW FOR A FACT !

    PLEASE CLICK ON THIS WEBSITE TO LOOK AT PHOTOS OF BOYER'S FOOD MARKETS STORES
    http://www.boyersfood.com/store-locator.php OR GO ON THERE WEBSITE AT: http://boyersfood.com AND ONE MORE LAST THING ABOUT East Washington Street, Shenandoah PA... later a Bi-Lo, not sure now. (THATS WHAT THIS SAME PERSON WROTE ABOUT BRL I AM NOT SURE BUT THERE IS A FOOD MARKET ON East Washington Street, IN Shenandoah PA
    I DON'T KNOW IF IS THE SAME ONE THAT YOU GUYS WHERE TALKING ABOUT OR (THAT PERSON WAS) BUT PLEASE CHECK THIS OUT SO HERE IT IS:

    Capitol Food Market
    102 East Washington Street, Shenandoah, PA 17976-1748 (570) 462-0265 ‎ P.S. THERE IS NO WEBSITE FOR THIS AS OF LATE 2010 IT'S STILL OPEN THANKS FROM K.a.S

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  9. Let's not forget the former Acme grocery and perishable warehouse in Forty Fort, near the Kingston/Forty Fort exit of the Cross Valley Expressway, PA 309. It still sports the ASCO on its smokestack!

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  10. I remember the Acme training center for cashiers in the Gateway shopping center in Edwardsville. Also the Acme bakery on Race Street in South Wilkes-Barre. It was served By The Delaware and Hudson Railroad bringing in raw materials. It served both the Forty-Fort warehouse and partial Philadelphia warehouse zone. The Forty-Fort warehouse was served by the Lehigh Valley Railroad 6 days a week, except Saturday. They would recieve 5 to 8 boxcars daily. From frozen food to peat moss,it ALL came by rail. Rail service ended in 1991 due to poor service by the new rail operator, Pocono Northeast Railway. Also, ALL stand alone Acme Markets within the Forty-Fort warehouse district were owned by Kenneth Polick Enterprises. The only Acme owned property was on the Rt. 309 Ashley by-pass. The stores in shopping centers were shopping center owned. The first store to open new ( within Forty-Fort zone) as a Super Saver was the Wyoming Valley Mall store. The current manager of the W-Bee credit union in Wilkes -Barre is a former Acme Market auditor,Rodger, and the treasurer of the same is a former Acme butcher, Rich, with 38 years Acme service.

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