Former Acme Pick of the Day!
Location: 2501 Putty Hill Avenue, Baltimore, Maryland
Opened February 23, 1963. Closing date unknown. Currently occupied by Tall Cedars of Lebanon... "an appendant Masonic organization devoted to fostering friendship and fellowship among Freemasons and to all mankind" as explained on their website. Acme's sign remains largely in place with some alterations done by the current occupants. I discovered this store years ago through my satellite searches. The images above are from Google map street view.
1971
1966
1964
How did they leave the original sign up?!
ReplyDeleteAcme closed all their stores in Baltimore and Central PA in 1982 due to union troubles. A&P closed their Philly division at the same time, but started Super Fresh later in the year. Another Acme pitched-roof in Baltimore is a "Meals on Wheels" office now, and is across from a Great Valu which I think might have been an A&P.
ReplyDeleteWhat is Freemasonry? I don't understand any of the definitions on Wikipedia or other websites. What do Masons actually do?
That sign is very cool!
ReplyDeleteThe former Acme that Mango Starr mentioned above (at the corner of Eastern Ave. and Haven St.) which is now a Meals on Wheels center was actually a location of the short lived (1979-1983) A&P Plus chain until 1983 when the chain was discontinued (A&P Plus was A&P's early version of a price impact, Aldi like store) sometime in between its Acme and Meals on Wheels days. I discovered a photo of the store from its A&P Plus days on The Baltimore Sun's eBay photo archives by accident a few weeks ago. I tried finding it again to provide a link, but I think the listing expired.
ReplyDeleteWhile I was trying to track down the store in the photo by going off a bent street sign in the picture, I also found another former pitched roof Acme at 2801 Foster Avenue in Baltimore (which I thought was the store mentioned above until this afternoon), not far from the Acme/A&P Plus/Meals on Wheels center. That store is currently a Rite Aid, and it still looks like it's in mostly original condition from its Acme days. I don't know if it was anything else in between though.
Maybe the Great Valu was actually a Food Fair/Pantry Pride instead of A&P.
ReplyDeleteThe inside of this location has not changed much from its Acme days. The next time they have a toy show or some other "open to the public" event, I'll grab some pictures.
ReplyDeleteI've been to this location and never realized it was an ACME. I should have paid more attention to the sign!
ReplyDeleteHere's an interesting page I found. It has a few Baltimore Acme newspaper advertisements, one of which shows a picture of a then-new location on Harford Avenue.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.kilduffs.com/Supermarkets.html
I used to live in Baltimore for many years. That city is just teeming with really cool, old, relatively well-preserved buildings that hint of ages of yore. I had no idea that quite a few of these such buildings had been Acmes. We need to start getting more in depth postings of these almost forgotten locations. I am more than happy to contribute photos that I can take on my periodic visits
ReplyDeleteIf you get pictures, I will post them! Baltimore is not area I will be visiting for this blog.
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