Cary Court Park & Shop, Richmond, VA - 1947

Dave · Post by **Dave** » 27 Jul 2006 11:04

Cary Court was Richmond's first "shopping center" in the modern sense. It was opened in 1938 and has been restored to much of its original art deco glory. It is on the National Register of Historic Places.

The owners have a plaque on the center with a photo they got from the Valentine Museum (Richmond History Center) showing Cary Court in 1947.. It shows two of the original tenants, A&P and Safeway (Sanitary), which were located next door to each other. Safeway lasted until around 1952 or so, when the built a new store a couple of blocks away - the Safeway later became a series of markets until into the 1980's (Black & White, Richmart, Convenient Food Mart). The A&P lasted a little longer, and was replaced by a new colonial style store a few blocks away around 1959.

Here's a picture of the plaque. I hope it is somewhat legible.

rightstorerightprice · Post by **rightstorerightprice** » 27 Jul 2006 11:28

In the 40's Louisville,Ky had 50,000 sq ft Park and Shop (The largest supermarket in the USA!). Do you know if the Louisville and Richmond stores were related?

Dave · Post by **Dave** » 27 Jul 2006 15:07

rightstorerightprice wrote:In the 40's Louisville,Ky had 50,000 sq ft Park and Shop (The largest supermarket in the USA!). Do you know if the Louisville and Richmond stores were related?

No. Cary Court Park & Shop is the name of a shopping center, not a store.

Post by **Groceteria** » 27 Jul 2006 16:26

Dave wrote:No. Cary Court Park & Shop is the name of a shopping center, not a store.

Park & Shop (and variations like Park-n-Shop) is quite possibly the most common name ever used for supermarket chains in the US. There have been dozens of small (and some large) chains, and probably hundreds of individual stores with this name throughout the US. And it was a fairly common name for shopping centers as well.

Some other common names used by many different chains:

Thrftimart/Thrifty Mart
Big Bear
Food Town
Food City
Foodland
Big Apple

rich · Post by **rich** » 01 Aug 2006 13:40

"Park & Shop" was the name used for some early plazas in other cities. The 1939 "Park & Shop" on Connecticut Avenue at Ordway in Washington, DC's Cleveland Park neighborhood is still in use and its 1990s remodling kept it true to the original architecture.