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I remember a market called Crawfords in Alhambra CA in the Crawford's Corner shopping center at the corner of New Ave and Valley Blvd, I used to get my hair cut at this shopping center in my younger days. I don't recall much else about it, I know they had another store in Whittierand that they turned these stores into Market Basket stores back in the later 70's. Anybody know anything else about these stores?

I grew up down the street from this store. In 1982, Market Basket (Kroger) pulled out of Socal and it became a Vons. It was a Vons until it closed a few weeks ago. See the end of this thread for more:
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I remember being told as a kid that Crawford's was either a department store or it was a combination department/grocery store. I was told that by the woman with the big hair who owned the locksmith in front. My recollection could be wrong, but do you remember if this was true?

Actually I think you're right. When you mentioned the locksmith on the outside of the store in front, I started to remember little shops, like a florist, a snack bar and stuff like that in the front of the store in front of the cash registers, and I think you were right about the department store stuff along with the grocery items. I just remember the shopping center having a riverboat New Orleans kind of theme, it kind of had a whimsical thing going on.

That shopping center still has that theme beleive it or not. I'll try to get pictures this weekend.

And no plans for the Vons site yet.

Also, there used to be a Crawfords Market in El Monte on Valley and Garvey, and one (which is still open) in Norwalk. I dont know if these were all the same or not.

Jeff wrote:That shopping center still has that theme beleive it or not. I'll try to get pictures this weekend.

And no plans for the Vons site yet.

That's pretty funny that it still has the same look 40 years later!!!

Vons just closed last year and now it is 168 Market (Chinese supermarket). Kroger Real Estate owns the buildings eventhough Ralphs never occupied. Vons just leased the site. Savon Drugs is now CVS.
The architecture is quite unusual, reminds me of the French Quarter.

socalgrocer

What about Crawford's Market/Corner in Montebello?

I have not been that way in quite some time...years.

It was on Whittier Boulevard.

Even tho Crawford's was gone...it was still called Crawford's Corner.

Think it had a combo grocery/drug store tie-in...even tho the chains in there were not "related"...think they used a common entrance.

Jeff?!

Jeff wrote:Also, there used to be a Crawfords Market in El Monte on Valley and Garvey, and one (which is still open) in Norwalk. I dont know if these were all the same or not.

I found a couple different sources out there that show "Crawford's Markets Inc., with stores in Norwalk, El Monte and Santa Ana."

Here's the addresses:
10951 Rosecrans Ave, Norwalk, CA 90650
11850 Valley Blvd # 2, El Monte, CA, 91732
3700 West McFadden Avenue, Santa Ana, CA 92704

Here are some additional locations from a 1953 ad for spray-on snow:
910 W Valley, Alhambra
800 W. Whittier, Montebello (I think that's the Montebello Crawford's Corner)
160 E Garvey, Monterey Park

The lease on the 160 E. Garvey store expired in 1957 since there's a ad for the auction of the fixtures.

Crawford's opened a new store on North Central Avenue in Glendale, just north of the 134 fwy. around 1968. The store was sold to Market Basket, then Ralphs when Market Basket left So. Cal. I beleive it is still a Ralphs.
As a little kid, I was fascinated by that store when it was new. It was a big store for those days, which lots of specialty departments and a "French Quarter" feel on both the interior and exterior.

Dean wrote:What about Crawford's Market/Corner in Montebello?

I have not been that way in quite some time...years.

It was on Whittier Boulevard.

Even tho Crawford's was gone...it was still called Crawford's Corner.

Think it had a combo grocery/drug store tie-in...even tho the chains in there were not "related"...think they used a common entrance.

Jeff?!

When Crawfords moved out of this location, Ralphs was the market (I remember the dark interior with dark pictures) and Sav-on took over the Drug store. Both had and enterance and shared an exit aisle in the middle of the store. When the Ralphs closed in the late 90's, Sav-on only used the one enterance for both exit and entry. A big wall was erected in the middle of the store to hide the fomer Ralphs They moved the checkstands to the front of the store. This store was never remodeled from the time it was opened, therefore it felt really dated. It closed in 2006 when a new Sav-on Opened in the parking lot.

Here is the updated chronology:

- Crawfords Corner opened post Alhambra Airport days (1950's) - it may have been the first grocery store in the new neighborhood that replaced the old airport (Valley/New)
- store closed and Market Basket took over, which explains why Kroger Real Estate currently owns the building but Ralphs never occupied it before Vons
- Kroger leased it to Vons over the last few years
- Vons closed in late 2006 and Kroger leased it to a subsidiary of 99 Ranch Market (Chinese), which reopened as 168 Market.

A Chinese grocer in a French Quarter-architecture is quite unusual. Vons looked better suited together with Savon/CVS (just like in Diamond Bar).

socalgrocer

socalgrocer wrote:- Crawfords Corner opened post Alhambra Airport days (1950's) - it may have been the first grocery store in the new neighborhood that replaced the old airport (Valley/New)

I believe the Alhambra Airport was south of Valley between Almansor and New. (I grew up on New just south of Norwood on the San Gabriel side of the street.) 604 homes were built on the old airport site starting in 1946 and the development of the shopping center on the south side of Valley at Almansor was approved in January, 1956. The grocery store in that center (originally Shopping Bag, currently Lucky) opened sometime between 1958 and 1962.

The land on the north side of Valley was the subject of a protracted legal dispute between the cites of Alhambra and Pasadena. They jointly owned the land and used it as a sewage farm from the late 1800s to the mid 1940s, and the dispute wasn't resolved until 1961. The area was known as Crown City Ranch and stretched from the railroad tracks to the north, Ramona and New to the east, and Almansor to the west. The current grocery store at Crawford's Corner opened in 1964, though I think it was a replacement store since I found references to Crawford's being there as early as 1956. Crawford's leased the land in 1961 from the City of Pasadena for 50 years and the monthly lease for the first 2 years was $1575. The LA Times pictures from the mid-60s are pretty much identical to what the place looks like today.

In researching this just now, I discovered that I went to elementary school, high school, and church all on land that was a sewage farm. That sure explains a lot.

Has Crawford's always been in that French Quarter style since the '50's/'60's? I thought it was built like that in the 1990's.

By the way, you are right about the old airport location. One other thing - the 10 Freeway was built as the Ramona Parkway 1951-52 (opened to traffic in '53). The New Ave bridge on the westbound is stamped with 1952. Governor Goodwin Knight was at the ribbon cutting on the westbound lanes at Walnut Grove Ave.

socalgrocer