Location: 1 Route 37, Toms River NJ
Once a free-standing store, now surrounded by a strip mall. The Toms River Acme opened in December 1954. Closing date unknown. It may have been gone by the early 70's.
Close-up of the Acme now split into 2 smaller stores. While I don't have 100% confirmation that this building was the Acme, the historical aerial photos offer proof that this is the case.
The awnings over the back delivery doors were pretty standard on this era of Acme.
Historical Aerial images starting from the oldest...
1956
Acme opened in 1954 and as of 1956, it remained the only building on the property.
1963
Stores added to the left side of the Acme.
1972
Massive buildings added to the right side with an alley between the Acme building and the new section. The building to the rear, which can be seen more clearly below, is currently a Super Foodtown.
1986
Booming shopping center in the 80's. I'm guessing the Acme was long gone by this point.
Interesting the Acme gave up on this area of the Jersey Shore. The Seaside Heights, which was closed as of 1986, was exactly due west of the the Toms River store.
The Toms River Shopping Center store replaced a metal front Acme on Main Street in downtown Toms River. The store was expanded in the late '60's with about a 15' addition on the right side, which can be seen in the photos. The signage was changed at that point from the signature to the fisheye logo. The massive building to the right and in the rear was W. T. Grant/Grant City.
ReplyDeleteBack in 1961, when the Barnegat store closed, being the last Asco Service Store in Ocean County, the groceries were transferred to Toms River.
ShopRite was across Rt 37. It closed about ten years ago, and ironically, a new Saker ShopRite is being built on that site today, even though the other ShopRite's in Toms River are Perlmutter stores. Not sure how they work things out on that score!
I have picture of the old Acme in Downtown Toms River from 1950, as well as present pictures of the remnants of this replacement Acme. Are you interested in seeing them?
ReplyDeleteOf course! You can email them to acmestyleblog@gmail.com
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