Safeway, Charlottesville, 1972

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TheStranger
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Safeway, Charlottesville, 1972

Post by TheStranger »

http://www.railpictures.net/viewphoto.p ... 47&nseq=90

Wonder if anyone here knows more about the store; it's the "pylon" type sign from the pre-Marina era.
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Re: Safeway, Charlottesville, 1972

Post by NewsLynne »

I had to look at the picture twice to get my bearings. That's Main Street, going towards UVA. More likely than not, the building's gone, but I'll head down that way this weekend to see what's there now.

Charlottesville had at least 3 Safeways at one point...one on River Road (now a Tractor Supply), one on Seminole Trail (Whole Foods) and now this one...
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Re: Safeway, Charlottesville, 1972

Post by Rob72830 »

That was a very nice picture. Thanks for sharing. I was intrigued to see if I could find out anything so I did a live search and I think the building still exists. If you look west past the amtrac station about 2 blocks, on the right is a building that looks like a Safeway that is being used for something else. It even has a 2 door loading dock. As far as the Safeway sign, it could have been on the North side of Main and was taken down when the 3 story building was built because it looks a lot newer than the other building and it looks like it could have been built over the original entrance. I did a google search for grocery stores and nothing came up for that site but did turn up a Tom Thumb. Don't know if it is connected to the ones in Texas though. Google for Safeway turned up nearest one in Culpepper, VA.
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Re: Safeway, Charlottesville, 1972

Post by Groceteria »

Here's a link. I'm nost sure if I'm prepared to call it a Safeway; the roof looks wrong, since this would have been a pylon store. But maybe:

http://maps.live.com/default.aspx?v=2&F ... &encType=1
Rob72830
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Re: Safeway, Charlottesville, 1972

Post by Rob72830 »

I saw that building too and I am having a hard time imagining it as a Safeway store. With all the garage doors and the odd shape I wonder if it could have been a distribution center. Part of the building looks like a freezer. There is a railroad track running along the southside of the building. I worked as a security guard at the old Safeway/Harvest Foods warehouse when I got out of the Navy. It too had lots of garage doors and a railroad siding. Here is a live link to the old Safeway/Harvest Foods distribution center in Little Rock if you are interested.

http://maps.live.com/default.aspx?v=2&c ... E2MTYzNDg2

What do you think?
danielh_512
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Re: Safeway, Charlottesville, 1972

Post by danielh_512 »

Charlottesville had a Safeway at the Barracks Road Shopping Center which was one of the newer units there. It probably opened in the 70's. Closed in the 1985 dwindling of the Mid-Atlantic region. Kroger took that Safeway, and still operates in there now.

If I remember correctly, it was remodeled just recently to Kroger's new interior. Before that, there were still some Safeway-type elements visible in that store.
xsafeway
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Re: Safeway, Charlottesville, 1972

Post by xsafeway »

I think the Kroger at Barrocks Road is actually on the old Super Fresh site. I believe the Safeway was on the south end of the center (closest to the college) where Old Navy is now.

Yesterday I was in Charlottesville and got a quick look and from the side you can see where the building has been built out, you can still see the original fascade above the roof line. Around back the loading dock has been filled in and the bay bricked over.
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Re: Safeway, Charlottesville, 1972

Post by pseudo3d »

kg4peq wrote:1968 aerial imagery (historicaerials.com) very clearly shows a building situated at approximately 850 W Main St in Charlottesville, with a large parking area in front and on two sides. That building is no longer there. The current structure at 853 W Main St ("Blue Ridge Wine Excursions" according to Google Maps) sits in the parking lot of the 1960's structure, and the parking lot immediately in front of Blue Ridge Wine is where the former structure (probably the Safeway) was located.

Aerial photography skips from 1968 to 1982, and in the 1982 photos, the 1968 building is gone and the modern-day building is in place. What was there in 1982? Anyone's guess. This article from 2013 refers to the current building as a "former Safeway store" so my guess is Safeway operated a small store at that location into at least the late 1960's before building a somewhat larger store right next door, demolishing the old one.
It's not out of the question, my own town had a Safeway built right on the street corner in 1950 (had a basement too) then for whatever reason just 15 years later razed it for a newer structure (slightly larger but still extremely small by today's standards (less than 30,000 square feet), then just 20 years later abandoned it in favor of a newer location a few miles away.
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Re: Safeway, Charlottesville, 1972

Post by NoVa Grocery Buff »

I lived in Cville for 3 years, tracking down info on that Safeway is not easy but here is the info I have

Best picture of the store I've found:
https://cville-images.myshopify.com/pro ... et-safeway
CvilleImages_ERJuly1957SafewayWestMain-Version-3_1024x1024.jpg
A Then-And-Now picture of that section of the street with the Safeway sign (Ctrl-F "West Main" it should be the third one, about halfway down the page)
http://www.cvilleimages.com/portfolio/then-now/

Unfortunately, the site is now demolished for a high rise mixed use building, the City BAR deemed the buildings not historically significant:
https://www.cvilletomorrow.org/news/art ... -approval/
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Andrew T.
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Re: Safeway, Charlottesville, 1972

Post by Andrew T. »

NoVa Grocery Buff wrote: 08 Aug 2018 11:21 I lived in Cville for 3 years, tracking down info on that Safeway is not easy but here is the info I have

Best picture of the store I've found:
https://cville-images.myshopify.com/pro ... et-safeway
That really is a great picture! It's a jolt to see just how tall and massive the Safeway sign was...it absolutely dwarfs the Pure Oil sign next door.

The store itself is very interesting, too. It's of mid-1950s construction; just barely new enough to have the circle-S symbol on the facade. No pylon (with the massive sign out front, it wouldn't have been necessary), and no attempt made whatsoever to hide the tall barrel roof. A shame it's been decades since it last stood!

Judging by the Virginia license plates, the picture was taken in 1955; which surely coincides with the opening year.
"The pale pastels which have been featured in most food stores during the past 20 years are no longer in tune with the mood of the 1970s."
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Re: Safeway, Charlottesville, 1972

Post by rich »

The circle S used to carry a 1956 trade mark, so more likely the following year. Barrael vault ceilings often were visible in 50s safeways and other chains also often barely disguised them.
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Andrew T.
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Re: Safeway, Charlottesville, 1972

Post by Andrew T. »

rich wrote: 11 Aug 2018 08:49 The circle S used to carry a 1956 trade mark, so more likely the following year.
Actually, Safeway was using the circle-S symbol in advertising as early as 1953, and on store exteriors at least as early as 1954.

Also, license plates are something of a passion of mine...the ones in the picture are clearly black-on-white with the date followed by "Virginia" on the bottom. This format was used only in 1955, 1961, and 1967, and I doubt you'd see a pristine circa-1948 Dodge followed by a 1955 Buick in a typical street scene in either of the latter years!
"The pale pastels which have been featured in most food stores during the past 20 years are no longer in tune with the mood of the 1970s."
Andrew Turnbull
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