Location: 2nd and Monmouth Streets, Lakewood, NJ
The former Lakewood Acme still shows the blue script logo on Bing Maps! This despite the fact that Acme has been gone from this location for many years. I discovered this last September when doubgbalt, a frequent contributor here at Acme Style, had found an ad listing the address of the store. I immediately went to Bing Maps to survey the situation and was stunned to see the Acme logo still on the building. I then jumped over to Google to get a street level view only to find a more recent view of the building with the logo gone. So back to Bing Maps I went for some screen grabs in case they updated their aerials any time in the near future. Last week I received an email from someone else pointing out the logo on Bing Maps so I decided it was time to get this building up on the blog!
Acme opened here on March 17, 1954. Originally the building had the tower sign right above the entrance. A portion of the base of the tower appears to remain on the awning. The tower is clearly visible in some of the historic aerials. It is so clearly seen in the 1986 image that you see "ACME" is no longer on the tower. Judging from earlier historic images, the store may have closed in the 70's.
A photo on flickr of the building with the Acme logo. I had seen this photo on flickr when Acme Style was in its infancy but wasn't sure of its exact location.
HISTORIC AERIALS
2007
2002
1986
The tower still standing in 1986 without the ACME letters. Wonder why no one painted over the front of the store.
1979
Hard to know if it was still an Acme at this point.
1970
1963
Judging from the parking lot, the place was getting a nice crowd back in 1963! The rear parking lot was also reconfigured by this point as you can see down below in the next available view.
1956
1953
Looks as though a train station stood here originally.Below are some screen grabs from Google Maps...
Logo gone :(
I wonder what happened to the sign....
ReplyDeleteI is unbelievable that there is an image of the Acme signature in those photos. It is my belief that the store closed in 1972. I knew the final store manager, he was the manager who opened Beach Haven in 1958! At age 47, when he was told that the store would close, he also was told that he was out of a job, after 30 years with the company! It truly was a strange looking store. In 1954, the thinking must have been that shoppers on Second Avenue would walk across the street to shop at the Acme, because parking was awkward in the rear, although it looks like there was a side entrance in the rear. The picture of the train station is amazing. The Central Railroad of New Jersey was finally able to end passenger service on the "Barnegat Branch" in 1952. The service went from Barnegat to Jersey City, where you took a ferry over to lower Manhattan. The morning train left Barnegat at 6:00 am and the evening train arrived in Barnegat at 8:15 pm. Between Barnegat and Long Branch, Lakewood was the busiest station. I never knew where the station had been located!
ReplyDeleteBill, it's been a while! Thanks for sharing some of the history of this store and beyond!!
DeleteI just love Bill Haines's contributions to the Ocean County Acme posts! It's possible that I could do a more in depth study of this location. Perhaps I could get someone to let me into the building, and I'll do research at the library.
ReplyDeleteIt's a popcorn factory now
ReplyDeleteThey must have painted over the Acme sign somewhat recently. I drove past it maybe a year or two ago and it still had the Acme script logo on the facade.
ReplyDelete