NEW: Louisville KY, 1922 and 1946-2022

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Andrew T.
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Re: NEW: Louisville KY, 1922 and 1946-2022

Post by Andrew T. »

The timing of this feature was perfect! I've been feeling oddly nostalgic about Kentucky (and southern Ohio) lately, and have a hankering to relive some of the road trips I took through that part of the country 10 years ago. Blame it on winter...and being sequestered in Thunder Bay for the last two years.

I immediately tore into the Kroger listings. Could there have been a Black Widow Murderer store in Louisville's past? Maybe, maybe not...but here are the highlights:

1162 S 1st St:

A well-preserved brick building of two storefronts, later combined as one, that might predate the supermarket era. The neighbourhood it's in is almost too charming for words, and a three-story turn-of-the-century building with a corner tower lies across the street.

2605 W Market St:

A well-preserved 1930s-era mid-block supermarket, in every sense. Even the display windows look like they date to that era!

2730 Frankfort Av:

Another mid-block store, that probably wasn't built specifically for Kroger. Features unusually ornate brick patterns, with a strange symbol on the upper storefront that resembles a compass rose...or maybe the Zodiac Killer cipher. (Well, that's a creepy thought.)

3721 Lexington Rd:

A 1940s bowstring-truss roof store with a rather skinny and narrow footprint...and a 1970s-style exterior makeover, possibly added by a later tenant. In front, the store has an oval-shaped sign atop an odd, zigzagged pole that is surely a Kroger leftover!

1244 S Shelby St:

Another decent specimen of a 1940s store, although less original than the others.

4700 S 3rd St:

A smallish store from the late 1940s or early 1950s, set back from the street with front parking, that still bears the framework over the parapet that once supported a vertical sign. It may have once looked identical to 1145 S 4th St, below.

1145 S 4th St:

Another early-1950s store, and probably the best-preserved Louisville Kroger building from this era with original, unpainted blonde brick and glass block side windows.

http://maps.google.com/?q=2208 W Jeffer ... fferson St:

A good example of a circa-1960 store. Looks a bit forlorn nowadays, with covered-over windows, but the canopy is original.

I'm surprised by the lack of any intact 1970s Superstores...5618 Bardstown Rd is the only one that still looks even vaguely Kroger-like, and even then only if you squint. But, the next decade spawned lots of material artifacts:

9123 Galene Dr:

An early-1980s greenhouse store, still standing vacant with an original exterior. The closure must have been fairly recent; the 2019 GSV footage still shows a Kroger logo on the vestibule wall.

924 S 2nd St:

A strange variation on the greenhouse, done in brick rather than block and with a slanted pseudo-mansard (which may or may not have been original) grafted on. It closed in 2017, although it doesn't look as though the building's been modified since then.

4251 Outer Loop:

Hey, it's a Chillicothe-style Franken-Kroger! This has got to be seen to be believed. There was once a SupeRx-paired "dual greenhouse" store on this site: The SupeRx half is still intact (as a still-extant CVS), while the Kroger half has been re-facaded and renovated beyond recognition (or possibly rebuilt entirely) into a giant Best Buy electronics store. A newer replacement Kroger store stands elsewhere in the same shopping centre today.

5533 New Cut Rd:

A late-1980s "flattened greenhouse" that's still in operation and open for business.
"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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Andrew T.
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Re: NEW: Louisville KY, 1922 and 1946-2022

Post by Andrew T. »

Now, for A&P. They lasted till the 1980s here; what physical record did they leave behind?

786 Eastern Pkwy,
3110 Taylor Blvd:

Both of these are 1940s stores that were later given a 1960s pseudo-Centennial makeover. 3110 Taylor is still open as Pic-Pac, and still has the capsule-shaped frames for the A&P signs! 786 Eastern is listed as an A&P as late as the 1985 directory listings, which would make it Louisville's last operational A&P if true...but I have a feeling it already shuttered with the division by then.

More decently-intact pre-centennials, some of which David photographed on his Twitter account:

1140 Dixie Hwy: A must-see! A late-1940s or early-1950s shoebox store that still has labelscar visible from its original "SUPER (A&P) MARKET" sign!

4301 W Market St: A very quaint-looking corner store, hollowed out of the lower level of a two-story building, that is undoubtedly of pre-supermarket age.

2421 W Market St: Now Family Dollar, with a Kroger-like corner entrance.

1140 Bardstown Rd: Now Urban Outfitters, with some mighty strange modifications.

4038 Dixie Hwy: A deep and narrow store, with an A&P-like stepped parapet. Now a store called "Fashion Yes," with a logotype that Roger Dean's lawyer might want to know about.

2103 Frankfort Av: A well-preserved late-1940s or early-1950s store with a glazed block exterior, presently housing a restaurant called the Manhattan Project of all things.

Now, for the Centennials. Er, make that Centennial...

3419 W Broadway: Roof and canopy braces intact; now Family Dollar.

Honourable mention goes to 7855 Preston Hwy, which stood until being demolished a year or two ago.

A&P continued opening new stores almost to the end of its tenure; however, there don't seem to be much in the way of recognizable post-Centennial artifacts in Louisville to go around. I'm intrigued by the Thrif-T-Mart to A&P conversions that happened in the late 1970s: Was this an acquisition of a local chain operation, or was Thrif-T-Mart one of the many discount concepts (A-Mart, WEO, etc.) that A&P was throwing at the wall?
"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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Re: NEW: Louisville KY, 1922 and 1946-2022

Post by jleyerle »

Apparently Hinky-Dinky/Supermarkets Interstate had a couple locations in Louisville in the mid-60s incorporated in a couple of the more esoteric discount stores (Globe/Ontario/Arlans/National Bellas Hess...)...there is some evidence of this within the Hinky-Dinky corporate newsletter archives which are available online. It was an unusual business model where they apparently self-distributed and were largely national brands; no service departments.

https://hdt.stylesdeluxe.com/wp-content ... n_23_3.pdf
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Re: NEW: Louisville KY, 1922 and 1946-2022

Post by Groceteria »

jleyerle wrote: 18 Apr 2022 21:19 Apparently Hinky-Dinky/Supermarkets Interstate had a couple locations in Louisville in the mid-60s incorporated in a couple of the more esoteric discount stores (Globe/Ontario/Arlans/National Bellas Hess...)...there is some evidence of this within the Hinky-Dinky corporate newsletter archives which are available online. It was an unusual business model where they apparently self-distributed and were largely national brands; no service departments.

https://hdt.stylesdeluxe.com/wp-content ... n_23_3.pdf
Interesting. I’ll have to check the newspaper archives and see if I can find out anything more about this.

It’s not an entirely unusual model. As you ma6 know, Colonial Stores in the southeast operated grocery departments (usually not under their own name) in several different discount department stores (Kmart, Ridgeway, and Clarks come to mind). Some ads I’ve seen suggest that Colonial-run departments did carry their own store brands despite not using their own store names.
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Re: NEW: Louisville KY, 1922 and 1946-2022

Post by jleyerle »

Agree--but H-D seemed to go anywhere anyone would have them...everywhere from Wisconsin with Treasure Island/JCPenney; Rio Grande Valley with Globe/Walgreens (I think), Sioux Falls with National Bellas Hess (!); not either like Colonial (concentrated within their SE footprint) or Meadowdale/Abner Wolf (located in metro Detroit like K-Mart so they "knew" each other and what they were looking for.
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Re: NEW: Louisville KY, 1922 and 1946-2022

Post by BatteryMill »

Andrew T. wrote: 14 Apr 2022 21:21 9123 Galene Dr:

An early-1980s greenhouse store, still standing vacant with an original exterior. The closure must have been fairly recent; the 2019 GSV footage still shows a Kroger logo on the vestibule wall.
From what I know that one was only open for a few years, and served primarily as a maintenance site for store fixtures.
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Re: NEW: Louisville KY, 1922 and 1946-2022

Post by rich »

Park & Shop, Stop & Shop or both?
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