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Frankenstein Kroger store (St. Albans, WV)

Posted: 10 Jul 2011 13:56
by Andrew T.
I recently had a chance to go back to West Virginia for a few days, and came across this bizarre Frankenstein-like spectacle of a store in St. Albans while I was there:

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Evidently, this was built as a Kroger superstore/SupeRx pair in the 1970s. Then in the 1980s, the Kroger half was either razed and rebuilt or expanded and renovated beyond recognition into a greenhouse store...leaving the SupeRx-turned-Revco-turned-CVS with superstore windows, superstore columns, and two covered-over archways' worth of a superstore parapet.

According to satellite imagery, this was a normal-looking greenhouse until not long ago. But now it's been renovated; 3/5 of the greenhouse glass has been covered over by a boxy facade, and 2/5 is still in place. Weird...

The rest of the shopping center has "turrets" at the ends topped by superstore-facade notches:

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Re: Frankenstein Kroger store (St. Albans, WV)

Posted: 10 Jul 2011 14:21
by Groceteria
That's wonderful and headache-inducing. You can just sort of view the passage of time from left to right.

Re: Frankenstein Kroger store (St. Albans, WV)

Posted: 18 Jul 2011 14:24
by krogerclerk
Judging from the Food & Pharmacy signage, the store has received its own pharmacy during one of its expansions/renovations. All traces of the superstore design have been removed from Kroger while the CVS soldiers on its thinly disguised superstore era SupeRx exterior.

Personally I think the latest iteration would meld better with a superstore exterior than a greenhouse exterior. That the remainder of the shopping center retains its superstore design elements, the Kroger would have looked less out of place as a superstore hybrid with the last remodel.

Re: Frankenstein Kroger store (St. Albans, WV)

Posted: 09 Jan 2012 04:17
by TenPoundHammer
The turrets used to be entryways to a small mall.