Coal Township Acme Revisited!

Photos courtesy of John from WISL1480.com

Today we're returning to the former Coal Township Acme four years after our first visit. The BRL Grocery Outlet has since left the building and it now stands abandoned. John stopped by the store earlier this year to find it still a remarkably intact Acme inside and out A second batch of photos below will unfortunately reveal vandals have finally broken in and have begun to trash the place.


This store was a classic 33M model.


If you look closely, you can see Acme's original Produce letters still on the wall.


Views through the windows along the front of the store...


This wooden structure in front of the checkouts still baffles me. What on Earth was it's purpose? Definitely added after the Acme left. Have to wonder if someone had hit one of those columns with a full cart could the whole thing come crashing down? What is the point of it all??


The crazy thing about seeing this store and being a person of a particular age, I can remember walking into Acmes identical to this (layout and décor) back in the early 80's thinking... "Wow, this store is huge! And so modern!!" How times have changed.






Bakery Department tile here on the right.




Acme's clock still above the exit. We'll have a look at the front of it down below.


Could these seriously be the original ceiling tiles? They are in extraordinary condition throughout the store. The lights are ALL Acme. Standard issue in stores built in late 70's and early 80's.

FAST FORWARD TO SEPTEMBER... 

Photos courtesy of @

Better view through the front door thanks to vandals who have now gotten in the place. Still blows my mind that Acme's Produce Department has barely changed four decades later.


The place is sadly getting trashed.






The refrigerated cases you're seeing here are not left over from the Acme. They were added later a and place several feet from the Dairy wall.

READY FOR A FULL INTERIOR TOUR? 

HANG ON TO YOU HAT
AND HIT PLAY!  

Step inside this spectacularly preserved Acme!

Classic photos courtesy of John from WISL1480.com

A few weeks ago John treated us to some classic photos of the former Coal Township Acme. Today, we're going to have a tour of the interior which has changed very little since its Acme days. Three different stores... BiLo, BRL Grocery Outlet and Buy Rite Liquidators, which now operates in the space.. have occupied the space since the Acme closed back in 1995. Unbelievably, none of the the 3 companies have made major changes to the interior. Much of Acme's decor remains intact!

Above photo courtesy of JoshAustin610's flickr collection

After the exterior photos went up on the blog, John returned to the store to get some interior shots. The deluxe 70's Colonial Decor package still going strong in 2013! Here we're looking at the virtually untouched Produce Department. You can compare it to the photo below from the 1978 Annual Report, which has been previously featured on the blog. The Produce signage and decor are nearly identical in both pictures, right down to the cases and plant departments on the left side of the photos. A paint job at the Coal store has neutralized the former color scheme but you can still clearly see the framing around the Produce sign is an exact match to the one below. The faux slate floor, always one of Acme's most distinctive features in the 70's and early 80's, remains above and can also be seen in the image below. As nice as the 80's remodel was, it was hard seeing these floors go. The only Acme I know of with this flooring still in place is the Manasquan store. That store is also the last to have the fish-eye sign. 

Notice the interesting wooden archways near the rear. The right side of the aisle would have been lined with Produce cases as well but have since been removed here. The single tiered brown cases were replaced in the 80's remodel with multi-tiered green and beige cases on both sides. The ceiling lights were popular in late 70's and early 80's Acmes. 

The corner treatment above is identical to the Acme below, where you can only see a snippet of it above the Deli sign. Sadly those awesome light fixtures are long gone. They were probably yanked off the walls by BiLo. I had been in other BiLo converted Acmes that kept most of Acme's decor but ditched the lights. 

Close-up of the Deli area flooring as it is today. 

Looking along the back. Not sure how the signage was set up here. There are three sections which would have worked for "Lancaster Brand Meats". 

Single tiered meat cases would have run along the back here with an aisle behind them for employees to stock the cases and assist customers. Recessed lights above to light the cases. Orange panels would have been along the back wall, now painted cream. See the former Rockaway store for how this wall would have looked. 

Looking back down towards the Deli. The beams along the awning are a really nice touch. I don't recall seeing these at other Acme's of this era.

Looking up to the front. 

Former Dairy Department along this wall. Looks like these cases were set up away from the wall, perhaps to stock from behind. Former Bakery up in the front corner under the curved drop ceiling section. The area looks too small to have had an in-store Bakery. 

Front-end with the old Acme clock still hanging above the exit. We've seen these clocks in Manasquan and Fallston. Not sure what the purpose of the wooden structure is in front of the registers.

Thanks to John for getting these incredible pictures! Keep your eyes pealed for more of his contributions which will be coming to Acme Style soon!

Former Acme — Coal Township, PA

Classic photos courtesy of John from WISL1480.com

Vandals did not attack the sign! The destruction you see here was done on purpose. Bi Lo Foods was preparing to mount their sign OVER the old Acme sign. You can see the bar along the top that was installed to hold the new sign. Hard to believe they left the old Acme sign otherwise intact. As you will see below, parts of the Acme sign are still visible after Bi Lo took over. But before we check that out... let's take a look at the Acme sign fully restored...

All fixed!

A little help with Photoshop and the classic fish-eye logo sign... the finest of all grocery store signs ever... is back to its original beauty.


And the Bi Lo is open. Old Acme sign peaking out from behind the new sign. Bi Lo took over this site after its parent company, Penn Traffic, purchased 45 Acme locations in 1995. John tells me very little was done to the interior before Bi Lo opened.

Photo courtesy of JoshAustin610's flickr collection

Josh reports that this store was a replacement for the 50's style store in Shamokin. You can view an image of that store by clicking here. And be sure to check out a photo of the very first Shamokin Acme by clicking here. Thanks to Josh for the tip that these photos were in his collection. He got a sneak peak at this post when it was accidentally published ahead of schedule.


You can see the former Shamokin store, now home to an Ace Hardware, on the left with the 70's replacement store just a bit down Route 61 on the right.


The former Acme/Bi Lo/BRL Grocery Outlet is currently home of a Buy Rite Liquidators. Satelite images for the area are limited. The building sits down a slight hill behind some other buildings along Route 61 and cannot be seen from the street view on google maps.

Coverage of this former Acme will continue. John will be getting some additional pictures of the store to share with us. He is also donating his collection of Acme memorabilia to Acme Style! We'll be checking out those items in the coming months.