Inside the Egg Harbor City Acme!

Photos courtesy of Gary in DC

Location: 111 New York Ave, Egg Harbor City, NJ

Despite numerous plans to tear down this abandoned Acme, it is still standing today. The store was originally covered on the blog back in April 2009. A follow-up was done in January 2012 which included a peek inside. At the time, the roof hadn't begun to cave in so there was very little light in the store. While we could see the dilapidated condition of the interior, it was impossible to see any details, particularly with the decor. Well, here we are in 2014 and the roof has sufficiently allowing the light to illuminate the store! Lucky for us, right?


The Egg Harbor store opened November 14, 1956 and closed in 2002. The store remains a landmark, as well as an eyesore, in the area as the giant sign out on Route 30 remains standing.

AN ACME STYLE EXCLUSIVE...

Check out the 70's Colonial Decor lettering on the walls!


The actual letters have been removed exposing the original paint on the walls. The store appears to have been painted white without an update to the department signs. A similar situation played out at the now abandoned Brown Mills Acme. You can jump to that post here or have a quick look inside by clicking here.


"Lancaster Brand Meats" along the back wall with "Corner Deli" in the right-hand corner...


According to comments left under the original post, the Deli was added during the 70's remodel. It was not here when the store first opened. As we have seen in recent remodels, the "Corner Deli" is making a triumphant return to Acme Markets!




Crazy how it looks like there are actual lights on in here! Just some holes in the roof letting sunlight in.


"DAIRY" along the left wall. The red and brown paint you're seeing along the wall was part of the 70's Colonial Decor. The Dairy wall was often designed to look like a simplified barn roof. The brown stripe to the rear is probably left over from the "Smoked Meats" department which was located in the back corner. Most stores had these departments by the Deli but according to a layout description that was left under the original post, the smoked meats were in this corner.

I still have burning questions about Customer Service! Gary mentioned that he wasn't able to angle his camera to see if the clock was still in the building. Here's the thing… Acme was famous for not one, but TWO clocks back in the day. We are all familiar with the clock that hung over the entrance that included a panel for advertisements. The other clock, which was only put into select Acme locations in the 50's, was built into the wall above customer service. Similar to this but in black and no numbers.




Portions of this sign were replaced over the years. The original "ACME" panel has the block-letter logo on it...


Look closely and you can see the red letters under the brown paint.

Some close-up shots of the back of the store...




Store #1105!








I believe this was a timer for the exterior lights.


When I visited this store back in 2009, I discovered pieces of the sign scattered all over the parking. Actually TONS of pieces. The poor thing had been busted up pretty bad by vandals. I grabbed some of the larger pieces for souvenirs...


We're looking at what was the back of the sign. The front was painted brown just like the one on the side of building. The other side of these pieces are brown as well. A pictures of the assembled sign below...




The huge sign out on Route 30.

A special thanks to Gary for the update and the spectacular pictures of the interior!

A peek inside Egg Harbor...

An Acme Style team member was able to get a camera through a small hole in the front of the abandoned Egg Harbor store. Even with a flash the pictures turned out nearly black, reveling little detail. A run through Photoshop helped lighten up the photo revealing the mess inside. Can't spot any definite clues as to the decor on the walls but it was most likely the Convenience Store package. 

Abandoned Acme! Egg Harbor City, NJ

Perhaps "World Famous Abandoned Acme" would be a more appropriate title. Pictures of this store can easily be found all over the internet. A favorite among Acme fans. It's simply amazing that this property has remained completely intact since Acme went out of business sometime in the mid-90's. Evidence of this can be found on the sign of the side of the building. The latest version of the Acme logo was incorporated into the fish-eye logo.


One very odd aspect of this store is that it sits far back from... and doesn't even face... the main road. The large Acme sign to the left is out on Rt. 30. The store front is located on New York Avenue which is actually a dead end. Houses are located directly across the street, to the right side and behind. I have included aerial shots as the final pictures below to show how the area is.

I would assume this store started out with the script style logo. I believe the fish-eye logo was rolled out the same time Acme retired this building style in favor of the pitched-roof design. Unlike most updated stores from this era, Acme did not install the metal awning to frame the new sign, instead just sticking the new sign right to the building. (The awnings I am talking about can be seen in the Newton Acme pics where it had since been painted green). So I wonder... did this store get the new sign before Acme decided on adding those awnings or did they just got cheap on some locations?


Produce receiving door on the right corner.


The windows up top are the employee break room and bathrooms.


Grocery receiving.


Sadly the sign is completely gone. Destroyed by vandals. It lies in a million pieces to the right side of the store. Picture below...


The colored pieces are the back side of the sign. When the store was closed the sign was painted over in dark brown. I picked up several larger pieces and took them as souvenirs.


This style of Acme Market was everywhere back in the day. Like A&P, Acme had a standard store building design that was duplicated in hundreds of locations. Nearly every element in the same exact spot. The continued on with this tradition when this style of store was retired for the pitched-roof version of the late 60's.






Enter on the right, exit on the left. So tempted to pry a board off to take a look inside.




You can see the most recent version of the Acme logo was added to the old fish-eye sign. Looks like only the center section was replaced.


Took a close-up so you can see what color these blocks used to be. Blue on top, red in the middle and yellow at the bottom.


Dairy and frozen food receiving.


Former sign by the entrance.


In and out.


Fascinating how huge these signs were for such a small grocery store. They're always a dead giveaway to a former Acme location. So often they were left standing with new signs put on for the store or stores that took over these old Acmes.


You can miss this sign when driving by. Although you can miss the building as it is tucked back off of the highway.


One final look at this classic location.


If this store remained a success Acme had plenty of room to expand.

UPDATE 11.10.09: Nintendo85 commented that this store actually closed in 2002.