Happy Thanksgiving from Acme Style!

Acme Style will be taking a breakthis Friday...

The "Big Post of the Week" will return on Friday December 3rd.

Abandoned Acme! Kennett Square, PA

Location: 345 Scarlet Road, Kennett Square PA

Abandoned since closing back in February 2008. It's last upgrade occurred in the early 2000's with this new facade, which included a small addition to the front, and the Industrial Circus remodel to the interior. A Giant Food store just across the street was expanded and remodeled around the same time and  ultimately proved to be too much competition for the Acme. A replacement store was built nearby which we will visit down below.

This section to the left of the store appears to be an addition which may have happened around the time of the 80's remodel. I have no idea when this store was first built. Evidence at the back of the store reveals it may have been built as far back as the late 60's.

The lighter colored bricks are covering over the original windows. 

Interior shots were impossible with the sun glare on the inside doors. Some lights were still on in the store. If I had arrived here later in the day, we would have some interior views. Good interior shots are all about the timing. I'm hoping to swing by here again on an upcoming road trip. 

This is as much interior detail I was able to capture.

  

This lone satellite photo shows the addition to the left side of the store. Birds eye view on Bing Maps is not available for this area.

And there we have the second floor door with the steal beam above as seen on many old Acmes. The section to the right appears to be a newer part of the store.

A section of the original building with the widows on the second floor. Loading dock to the right is a newer section. You can see an outline of an old loading door under the windows which has since been sealed over. 

Google Maps street view still shows the Acme open for business. 

The Kennett Square Acme looked to be doing some decent business back in 2002. No other historical aerial views are avaiable.

The Giant right across the street. Not sure how long these two stores were in competition with one another. 

Image above shows the close proximity of both stores. 

The Avondale Acme is located 5 miles west of the Kennett Square store at 851 Gap Newport Pike. Avondale opened in October of 2007 with Kennett Square closing 5 months later. The company played off the closing of Kennett Square by saying that the Avondale store was a replacement to the older store. That doesn't appear to be the original plan since Kennett Sqaure was not closed the day before the new store opened which is generally the case when a replacement store makes it's debut.

The interior here has the original deluxe version of the Premium Fresh and Healthy decor. The pictures below have been previously seen in the Decor Directory.

  

  

  

Although the Acme is located in Avondale, the signs in the foyer welcome shoppers to the London Grove Acme.

This is the only aerial image currently available on Bing. The Acme still under construction with the Lowes next door not started yet. 

Acme – Wayne PA

Location: 311 East Lancaster Ave (Route 30)

Wayne, Pennsylvania.

Status: Open for business. There was alot of speculation about this store closing back in 2009. If you Google "Wayne Acme closing", you will see talk of it's demise on several message boards. The store remains open and was looking good and busy upon my visit in January. There are several other Acmes along this stretch of Rt. 30. In fact, there is another Wayne Acme just down the street from here. We'll check out that store down below. Other former Acmes along this stretch of road will be featured in upcoming posts.

As we'll see in the satellite photos, the original store was built sometime between the late 60's and early 70's. In the 90's, the store expanded into a neighboring building and received the ultra-deluxe pyramid treatment to the exterior. This atrium area is actually located to the right side of the original Acme building. You will be able to see this more clearly in the satellite photos.  

As far as the 90's remodels and expansions went, this location got the royal treatment. The only other store I can think of that got a similar treatment was the Elkton store on Rt. 40 in Maryland. The standard pyramid treatment can be seen on the old Succasunna store.

The Acme expanded into the section here on the right. There was also a Rite Aid next to the Acme but that store closed sometime in the past couple of years. I believe it was abandoned when I was here taking pictures. The Acme may be the only store left in this strip. 

I was in this store a couple of times in the mid 90's. I seem to remember it having the Red/White/Blue decor but I could be wrong. The store now has the Alberton's Marketplace decor package. Sort of the mid-level version. It is far nicer here than what many larger stores received.

The huge column to the right of "Meat & Seafood" may be the dividing line between the original store and the expanded section. 

A surprisingly nice store for it's age and for all the online closing rumors. Clearly a very successful location during the 90's and early 2000's to have received such significant upgrades.  

The aerial shots below give us a good look as to how the store was expanded...

About 2 miles west on East Lancaster Ave is the other Wayne Acme.... also known as the Devon Acme. 

Paired up with a very cool looking Kmart, this Acme had the basic pyramid entrance in the 90's and was expanded and extensively remodeled in the early 2000's.

The sections with the angled back wall is the addition to the original store.

Just one interior shot here... showing the deluxe version of the Albertson's Marketplace decor. 

A visual to show how close the two Wayne Acmes are located to each other. There are two other former Acmes not much farther west. They will be coming to Acme Style in the future.

And now a closer look at the Kmart...

Not sure is this was always a Kmart. The exterior lends itself more towards a 70's higher-end department store. 

The interior is disappointing after seeing this exterior. It hasn't been updated much since the "Big Kmart" days. 

And now back to the Acmes...

311 East Lancaster Ave.



New or very new as of 1971.



Something was torn down to make way for the Acme.



The 700 West Lancaster Ave location had not yet been expanded in 2002.



Contrsuction appears to be underway in 1971.



If you click on this image, you can slide over to the left and see the drive in theater that used to be next door to the shopping center.