Richmond, VA

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Dave
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Post by Dave »

I took some photos last week and thought that a couple might be of interest - though both the photos and the site design I threw together are of dubious quality. Anyway, it's a work in progress.

http://mysite.verizon.net/d.mcgrann/
danielh_512
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Post by danielh_512 »

Nice site. Didn't recognize the former grocery stores on Broad down there before. The one Safeway really didn't look like one. Keep up the good work, can't wait to see more from Giant and Safeway's Richmond presence, as well as some old A&P's. I noticed you've focused on what chains have left, any chance there will be some old/new Ukrop's pics?
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Post by Dave »

danielh_512 wrote:Nice site. Didn't recognize the former grocery stores on Broad down there before. The one Safeway really didn't look like one. Keep up the good work, can't wait to see more from Giant and Safeway's Richmond presence, as well as some old A&P's. I noticed you've focused on what chains have left, any chance there will be some old/new Ukrop's pics?
Sure, all in good time. I wanted to begin with relatively unmolested buildings for now; for example, the new Ukrop's built on the site of a demolished A&P is going to wait.

The A&P on Broad Street surprised the heck out of me. It was a Pep Boys for what seemed to be forever and I remember the interior of the Pep Boys being very 1940's in design and displays - but it was an A&P until sometime in the '60's.
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Post by Dave »

I've added a few pictures to my site, including some Ukrop's pictures.

Question: I took a picture of a neon sign on an older local store. You can see it here: http://mysite.verizon.net/d.mcgrann/id8.html

There seems to be the letter "V" on the guy's hat in the sign, but as far as I can tell, the place was always called Lafayette Foodland. Could this be a logo for a chain or franchiser? If so, does anyone know who?
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Post by Dave »

I added a new page of old Pender's/Colonial/Big Star locations to my website today, and will be adding some others very soon.

http://mysite.verizon.net/d.mcgrann/
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Post by Dave »

Dave wrote:I added a new page of old Pender's/Colonial/Big Star locations to my website today, and will be adding some others very soon.

http://mysite.verizon.net/d.mcgrann/
If anyone's interested, I added 20 or so photos and a little text to this site today.
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Post by dcgrocery »

Hi Dave. Thanks so much for sharing your photos with us. I know the work involved and it was a pleasure viewing the new ones. You solved two of my mysteries. I never knew Ukrops was in that very old store on Hull St Rd. I was in that store last year and it still had some old wall decorations that appeared ancient. Also, it was nice to see you identified that original Giant location. Do you know what anchor store sat in the parking lot? It looks like it is now some type of government agency, but definitely was a dept store in a past life.
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Post by Dave »

dcgrocery wrote:... Do you know what anchor store sat in the parking lot? It looks like it is now some type of government agency, but definitely was a dept store in a past life.
Are you referring to the Giant location in Southside Plaza or Willow Lawn? Southside Plaza is just up the street from the original Ukrop's, but I suppose it really doesn't matter..both centers had Miller & Rhoads as free-standing buildings; the one at Willow Lawn is part of the center now as it used to be separated only by a driveway, the Southside Plaza one is out in the parking lot.

Both stores are pretty much identical, and, interestingly enough, both now have government uses - the Southside Plaza location is the City of Richmond Southside Community Services Center.

The Willow Lawn Miller & Rhoads has an Old Navy opening onto the enclosed center, but a good chunk of the rest of the building is the Virginia Department of Health Vital Records division.
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Post by Dave »

Here's a picture of the Southside Plaza Miller & Rhoads:

http://i57.photobucket.com/albums/g210/ ... splaza.jpg
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Post by dcgrocery »

Thanks Dave. Southside Plaza and the shopping center directly across from it are very interesting to me. At the other center I saw the remains of an old colonial A&P and a huge anchor that was a flea market. What was that originally? Was there ever a second grocery in Southside (besides Giant)? One of the thrift stores in there looked kinda big, but I didn't venture inside. Any info would be appreciated.
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Post by Dave »

dcgrocery wrote:Thanks Dave. Southside Plaza and the shopping center directly across from it are very interesting to me. At the other center I saw the remains of an old colonial A&P and a huge anchor that was a flea market. What was that originally? Was there ever a second grocery in Southside (besides Giant)? One of the thrift stores in there looked kinda big, but I didn't venture inside. Any info would be appreciated.
The shopping center across Belt Boulevard is the Circle Shopping Center. The colonial A&P (A&P from 1962-1975; Farm Fresh 1976-1978) is now a Save-A-Lot - here's a picture: Image

The store next door was a Mason's discount department store; next door to Mason's was a Thalhimer's department store. Mason's was the earliest conversion of a former discount store to flea market that I remember! I put a picture of the Mason's store on the Remebering Retail site: http://ph.groups.yahoo.com/group/rememb ... /97d7?b=29

The area around the intersection of Hull Street Road and Belt Boulevard was known as McGuire Circle after the McGuire VA Hospital a few blocks away. Thre was a Colonial Store across Hull from the Circle Shopping Center at 4601 Hull Street Road from 1957-1975, but there wasn't another supermarket in Southside Plaza other than Giant.

The thrift store you saw was formerly JC Penney. It was the second Penneys in Richmond (after Willow Lawn), opening in 1959. Here's a picture:

http://i57.photobucket.com/albums/g210/ ... splaza.jpg

There was also a Sears in Southside Plaza which also opened in 1959 which was Sears' first location in Richmond other than their central 1940's era store on West Broad. Southside Plaza was originally developed by Giant and is on 40 some acres - essentially a long strip surrounding a big parking lot in the middle. It also had what was the first Virginia ABC store in Chesterfield County and a drive-in theatre. The area was annexed into the City of Richmond in 1970 and newer commecial development along Midlothian Turnpike to the west (especially Cloverleaf Mall in 1972; now perhaps more dead than Southside Plaza) pretty much killed Southside Plaza as one of the two "big" shopping centers in Richmond (the other being Willow Lawn).

Here are some more Southside Plaza pictures:

Sears http://i57.photobucket.com/albums/g210/ ... splaza.jpg

Plaza Drive-In Theatre sign http://i57.photobucket.com/albums/g210/ ... ive-In.jpg

Self Service US Post Office http://i57.photobucket.com/albums/g210/ ... splaza.jpg
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Post by dcgrocery »

Dave, thanks for the info. It was just what I was looking for. The JC Penney fooled me because of the awning that was added. We had atleast 2 of those late 1950's JC Penneys here - Eastover Shopping Center and Penn Mar Shopping Center, both in MD. Interestingly, both of those centers had both a Grand Union and Consumers Co-op Market.
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