Photos courtesy of Charlie T.
Location: 115 Bellevue Avenue, Penndel PA
The Penndel Acme opened in August 1941 and closed in March 1966.
Update 11.30.11: It's looking from the comments that this store actually opened in 1951.
Below is an image of how this store would have looked...
This illustration is from Acme's 100th Anniversary Calendar which you can view in its entirety by clicking here. An actual photo of this style of store can be seen below...
(Photo courtesy of the Wildwood Historical Society/
George F. Boyer Museum.)
This store was located in Wildwood, New Jersey. You can check out the full Wildwood post by clicking here. And now back to Penndel...
Update: 12.05.11: Here's a look at the pitched-roof replacement store, which is now a Planet Fitness...
Photos courtesy of Steven W.
Location: 1405 Lincoln Highway, Levittown PA
Steven reports that this store opened in 1966 in the Langhorne Square Shopping Center. Acme later replaced this location with a new store in Lincoln Plaza across from the Oxford Valley Mall. That building no longer stands. It was torn down to make way for a Circuit City which has since become a hhgregg.
A Redner's Warehouse Market is now located next to the former pitched-roof Acme.
2002
1971
1965
The towering photo of (what I assume to be) Big Marty is hilarious. Nice to see a pre-supermarket Acme still relatively intact 45 years after closing. I bet it was quite a sight driving down Main Streets in the 40's and 50's with those tall glowing neon signs.
ReplyDeleteAmazing that this still exists. Another one was at Wayne: http://www.radnorhistory.org/bulletin/2010-acme-images/13-1949Acme4.jpg
ReplyDeleteActually this store opened in 1951 not 1941. The Penn Fruit in Darby PA was also a Big Marty's for a while (after being a Kiddie City toy store) that closed around 1993. Now the place is a driver's license center.
ReplyDeleteTower stores were built in the early 1950's, so I would agree that Pendell opened in 1951, along with Hatboro and Lambertville. It WAS quite a sight to see those tall glowing neon signs, and in Lambertville it glowed until 1999. What a sight crossing the New Hope bridge over to Lambertville. The letters from that sign have been preserved and can be seen mounted inside the old store which now serves as court rooms, and the Acme Screening Room.
ReplyDeleteRob, I might have to disagree with your "pre-supermarket" adjective. As far as I know every Acme (and A&P for that matter) built from 1950 on was a self-service store. The later 50's Acme prototype really wasn't that different at all from these stores. Some examples of the mid 50's Acme would be the Egg Harbor or Sharon Hill or Woodstown stores.
ReplyDeleteBy the way I think there might be only one grocery store in America that has stayed in the same building after converting from counter service to self service. This would be the A&P at 701 Royal Street in New Orleans, which opened in the 20's and stayed an A&P (with the old circle logo) along with a group of more modern stores until recent years, even though there were no A&Ps between New Orleans and New York not counting the Super Fresh division (whose closest store to New Orleans would still be the only one in DC which just closed with their Baltimore division). Now this classic A&P is part of the local Rouses chain. You can see the store in this video at about 35 seconds: http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xcx8m7_bela-fleck-the-sinister-minister_music
ReplyDeleteThis store relocated further up Business Route 1 in the Country Club Shopping Center, now called Langhorne Square. It was an A-frame store that is now Planet Fitness. When the A-frame store closed, it relocated further up Business Route 1 in Lincoln Plaza, in front of the Oxford Valley Mall. That store closed in the late '80s or early '90s and is now HH Gregg.
ReplyDeleteAfter this Acme closed, and before Big Marty's moved in, this location was a Kiddie City store. Here's the link to Slade1955's newspaper ad from the Bucks County Couirer Times 1970: http://www.flickr.com/photos/smokey2006/2247042968/in/photostream/
ReplyDeleteHow about a picture of Flannery's (I think) airplane cocktail lounge right near Big Marty's! I haven't been through that area for about thirty years, and I always had to look for the plane.
ReplyDeletethe planes gone now parts went towards restoring a flying constellation if memory serves
Deletespeaking of Redner's, the old superfresh in Lionville, PA is now one. It is surprisingly old fasioned, although the center was built in the mid 1990's. you really should check it out.
ReplyDeleteThe Hatboro former Acme still stands as well. It was also a Big Marty's, but it closed up in the past 5 years and is currently vacant. I think Penndel is the only surviving one from the chain.
ReplyDeleteAcme's long-closed "tower" stores in North Jersey included one on Central Avenue in East Orange (a second Acme in town was a smaller location near Main Street) and one on Jefferson Street in Passaic -- marvelous iterations of "Acme's Styles"!
ReplyDelete