Photos courtesy of Ben from Delaware
Location: 117 South East Front Street, Milford DE
For the second part of our 3 for 1 Friday, we're heading over to Milford Delaware to look at two former Acmes. The first is a pitched-roof store tucked away in a neighborhood setting. This Acme opened back in 1964.
Views from the former meat department out into the store still looking very Acme-like...
The meat case flood lights still working! This view is from the former meat room. Ben reports that the Salvation Army sales floor extends all the way back to rear exterior wall.
There's a very good chance that the old mod-Acme sign is still behind the white paneling. The sign tiles offer support to the front of the store and cannot be removed easily unless other support options are put into place. Hard to know for sure but the old windows and sign may have just been covered over here. Certainly looks they way from the outside.
The old Produce spot lights still intact. Looking rather shinny and new here yet going unused. The Clayton Acme still has these lights but remain dark there as well.
The brick room in the front corner is the former bread delivery room. Customer Service would have been next to it with Dairy running along the right wall.
Acme's emergency exit door with the former Produce aisle just inside.
Produce receiving here. First time I've seen a platform in front of these doors. Usually the doors are level with the sidewalk.
Back outside with a tour around the store...
Interesting location here. Pitched-roof stores were often built on the outskirts of town and included massive parking lots. Here there's parking for about 30 cars.
The image above show the pitched-roof store with a former A&P in a nearby shopping center. The second Milford Acme shown with the red-oval logo here although it probably had the fish-eye logo as well. The newer Acme looks to be the replacement store, which was certainly in a better location but not much larger than the old store. The original Acme may not have had a very long run with the replacement store looking quite old school as well.
The former A&P as it looks today. Now let's head over to Dupont Boulevard...
The former Acme is the last section on the left end. Ironically, it's now a Sav a lot...
Location: 696 North Dupont Boulevard, Milford DE
Looks as though the Acme took up the space under the darker section of the roof. Additional evidence of this can be seen in the photo above this one... if you look closely at how the windows and doors are set up. The image of the back reveals that all the loading docks are located within the dark-roof section. Looks as though the "SuperSaver" awning was located right where the wall is painted white. May have left behind those marks on the roof.
Hi, The original Store tookmup where the dark roof is. Sav A Lot as it often does only took about half of this stores original space. This stor was once a high volume store. But Acme refused to put much money into it. First the Food Lion hurt it then, the Last newly built Safeway, before the chain pulled out of the state was built( Now A super fresh) on the other part of town. Then Walmart built a Super Center across the street from the Acme.
ReplyDeleteThis still didn!t kill it. The failure of the expanded Milsboro store the expiration of the Eastern Shore contract and the decision to close Cambridge,Saulisbury Acmes put the knife into the heart of this store.
My records show the Front Street store opened on 2/26/64. It must have replaced a store on nearby Montgomery Avenue that opened on 2/12/48 and closed on 9/1/62 because of a fire. Weird that a new store opened that wasn't much larger than the old one- I wonder if a lack of parking led to that decision? The roof scars lead me to believe the Dupont location definitely had the Super Saver facade.
ReplyDeleteEvern more interesting is the fact that Acme and Save a Lot have the same parent company - Supervalu
ReplyDeleteJust a few additions; the first Acme in Milford was actually on Walnut Street. It moved, as noted, in 1964 to the Front Street location and then out to duPont Highway when Milford Plaza was constructed in the late 1970s.
ReplyDeleteAcross the street is the Milford Village Shopping Center which had a Super Fresh up until this past fall.
Food Lion didn't come to Milford until the 1990s when it was built in conjunction with the first WalMart site.
The A&P in the downtown shopping center on Front Street co-anchored that center along with Woolworth's and Safeway. The A&P was converted to a Super Fresh in the late 1980s and Safeway closed.
The Acme in the Milford Plaza took up the entire building you have photographed, the dark and light roof. The area with the lighter roof was where produce sold and you were forced to move clockwise through the store because of a series of walls which led you to the back where the deli and meats were sold. It was a great store ... in fact, you could smoke in this story up until the late 1980s, which seems so gross now.