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This former Woolworth's store was built in 1939. Today it houses an Antique Mall, as well as an original Woolworth's Luncheonette.
Female Wanted T-Shirts 10th Ave 42st Boys & Bike Babe Boro Park/Sunset Park Brooklyn 1976 70s - "Females Wanted" T-Shirts Boro Park / Sunset Park area of Brooklyn NYC. Note the 10 ave boys, eyeballing the current girl of their dreams on a bicycle built for one and in shorts no less. Dig a classic: John's Luncheonette. Minolta lens/105mm SRT-102 Kodak Tri-X See it in larger size and comment after. TNX for looking and I'd like to say it was like yesterday man. Where the frig did the time go? Well it's frozen here. That right foot on the left will never hit the pavement. BTW: Yes, that is a tire on the corner. Not a particularly out of the ordinary sight at the time and perhaps even now to a much lesser degree. Just really zoomed in: His shirt reads, "KEEP ON THE GRASS" (no shit, really?) What is that guy on the left smokin'? The cops had better things to do than bother you in '76 for that anyway. Dig that Bicentennial grass man.
by Steven Swain: Roanoke-Salem Plaza opened in 1962 at the intersection of Melrose Avenue (US 11/460) and Peters Creek Road (Route 117) in the northwest section of the city near its border with the city of Salem. RSP was the third large shopping center to open in two years in the Roanoke Valley, after the enclosed Crossroads Mall, three miles east and two-level Towers Shopping Center, five miles south. Its developer was B.F. Saul. Original anchors were Leggett and Miller & Rhoads department stores, G.C. Murphy and Woolworth’s variety stores, Winn-Dixie supermarket and Peoples Drug. Other stores from the early days include Hofheimer’s Shoes, Radio Shack, First National Exchange Bank, Sidney’s (women’s apparel), Thom McAn, and Lerner Shops.
RSP’s deign was innovative for its time. The Y-shaped center faced Melrose Avenue and featured a long landscaped pedestrian promenade along its main axis. At the bottom end of the Y was Leggett, the mall’s largest store. The east end of the Y featured Miller & Rhoads and G.C. Murphy, which had both street and mall entrances. The west end had Peoples Drug and Winn-Dixie. Peoples had a prime corner position at the intersection of the Y. Winn-Dixie was next door and faced two parking lots on opposite sides of the store which gave them maximum exposure and led to a unique design featuring two banks of cash registers. Woolworth’s was in a prime position midway through the mall, with its large luncheonette visible to shoppers through the plate glass windows.
Despite being an open-air shopping center in a largely residential neighborhood, Roanoke-Salem Plaza was designed in the manner of an enclosed mall. It did not lend itself to a convenient shopping experience. Except for Winn-Dixie and Leggett, the stores at RSP had precious little storefront parking. Shoppers, in theory, would park in the front, rear or west side of the mall and leisurely walk down the promenade past the various shops, leading to uncontrolled impulse buying along the way. The design ideas made sense for a regional shopping center like Crossroads Mall, where shoppers came from as far away as southern West Virginia, but never quite worked for RSP, which had a more “local” tenant mix and customer base. The novelty factor of the mall worked for only about five years, and then the problems started.
By the late 1960s, “white flight” had led to most of the target shopping audience moving away to avoid the blacks that were settling in to the neighborhood. It should be noted that the blacks were displaced from other areas of Roanoke by urban renewal, and Northwest Roanoke was the easiest and least hostile place to relocate. A silent, largely racist, boycott of the center by white middle-class citizens helped cause store closures starting in the early ‘70s. The pace accelerated when the enclosed “state-of-the-art” Tanglewood Mall opened in 1973 and Leggett, G.C. Murphy, and Miller & Rhoads all opened stores there, making RSP less of a regional retail destination.
The writing was on the wall, Roanoke-Salem Plaza was in trouble. As the ‘70s progressed, every aspect of the mall began to suffer. Stores continued to leave, the landscaping and maintenance went to pot, and crime went up. People were afraid to walk down the promenade, especially at night, for fear of being mugged. Extreme heat in the summer and bitter cold in the winter led many to choose the enclosed Crossroads and Tanglewood malls rather than “rough it” at RSP. Were it not for the initial determination of Leggett and Miller & Rhoads to stay at the center (they still did decent business), the mall would surely have been dead by the late ‘70s.
In 1978, developer Henry Faison proposed Valley View Mall, a substantial new shopping center that would be built on a large tract of land at the intersection of I-581 and Hershberger within three miles of RSP. Miller & Rhoads was one of the first stores to sign to Valley View and announced plans to close their Roanoke-Salem Plaza and downtown Roanoke stores when the new mall opened. Valley View was located in the “clear zone” for the local airport and was hotly contested for many years but by 1982, Faison had won approval for his plans and prepared for a 1985 opening.
By the early ‘80s, it was clear that RSP would not be a viable retail location for much longer. G.C. Murphy pulled out in 1981, leaving a 55,000 square foot vacancy that sat empty for half a decade. Not long after, Leggett announced it was moving to Valley View. Many tenants complained that the mall’s owner B.F. Saul was intentionally letting the center go to pot. Saul countered that the mall would be renovated when Peters Creek Road was extended along the west side of the property. Previously, Peters Creek Road terminated at the west end of the mall near Winn-Dixie. The road project, proposed in the early ‘60s, was not completed until the late ‘90s, and Saul never renovated the center, even as substantially all of the anchor and chain tenants pulled out in 1985.
In 1986, Roanoke-Salem Plaza was sold to Walt Robbins, a developer who specialized in distressed shopping center properties. Robbins had renovated a similar center elsewhere in Virginia and turned it into a popular destination. He had a challenge on his hands with RSP, to be sure. Winn-Dixie, Peoples Drug and Woolworth’s were still there, but little else. Robbins renovated the center, adding a clock tower at its main entrance and new signage throughout, bringing in closeout chain U.S. Factory Outlets to replace G.C. Murphy. The name was inverted as well, to “The Plaza of Roanoke-Salem.” He based his renovations on what he thought was the impending Peters Creek Road extension, promising to bring in more new stores and even more enhancements when the road was completed. But the road project continued to stall, Robbins eventually sold the center and the factory outlet store closed almost as soon as it opened. The three remaining anchors were gone by 1991, leaving little more than a shell of a building.
A funny thing happened on the way to obscurity. Roanoke-Salem Plaza became a de facto “power center,” due in no small part to the Peters Creek Road extension which finally happened circa 1998. Now called Roanoke-Salem Business Plaza, it was brought back to relative life by a series of outlet and parts stores which all grouped along the highways for maximum visibility. Around 1995, Office Outlet, a used office furniture store, moved into the former Winn-Dixie. Business was good enough to justify an expansion into the former Peoples Drug a short time later. The former Miller & Rhoads became a fireplace accessory shop and then an appliance parts store. Woolworth’s became a carpet outlet, while Leggett briefly became a business college and then an auto parts warehouse. A series of smaller spaces were combined to create a space for Harbor Freight Tools in 2002, and smaller spaces are occupied by a computer store and a free-distribution paper
Roanoke-Salem Plaza missed out on being Roanoke, Virginia’s first large mall but it certainly became the area’s first dead mall. Even though is partially occupied, all is not well. The area still has crime problems and the promenade is still deserted. The whole east side of the center is empty and looks much like it did in 1981. Even though the Peters Creek extension has turned the site into a high traffic intersection, the neighborhood is too poor and too close to Valley View Mall to justify the development of chain stores. Unless something changes, Roanoke-Salem Plaza’s fate will be to limp along as a shadow of its former self.
Thanks to Unique Copy Center and Unique Visuals NY for their expertise and guidance in selecting a material (dibond) that could withstand all the New York seasons! Our tribute to all the small businesses like bodegas, coffee shops, luncheonettes, delis, and newsstands that used to be numerous in the Lower East Side still looks great after over nine months thanks to them.
Lagomarcino's, 1422 5th Avenue, Moline, Illinois. In 1908 Angelo Lagomarcino, an immigrant from Northern Italy, founded Lagomarcino’s Confectionery in Moline, Illinois. Angelo and Luigia worked with their children Charlie, Mary and Tom. During the depression Charlie purchased the equipment and recipes of the Meadowbrook Candy Company. Charlie and his cousin Joe Schenone learned the art of working with chocolate. Mary packed candy boxes, ordered retail merchandise and cooked for the luncheonette. Tom was the ice cream maker. After the death of his brother and sister, Angelo’s son Tom and his wife Betsy continued the Moline business, with the help of all six of their children. In 1981, Beth Lagomarcino joined her parents in running the family business and was later joined by Tom Jr. and sister Lisa. Currently a fourth generation is working in the business.
Homemade candy remains an integral part of the business. Until 2004, Anita Schenone, Joe’s widow, was the candy maker who oversaw the making of chocolates in the copper kettle candy kitchen. Now Beth’s husband Terry and Tom Jr. continue the tradition. At Easter, Lagomarcino’s continues the old European art of casting chocolate eggs filled with individually wrapped chocolates or children’s candies.
Many decades after Angelo’s initial venture, the business continues to improve and expand. The décor of the Moline store (the fourth location downtown) was carefully planned in 1918. The booths were custom built by Moline Furniture Works. The Tiffany lamps lighting each booth were designed in New York. Cassini Tile of Rock Island installed the hexagon terrazzo floor with blue flowers to compliment the lamps. The metal ceiling dates to 1894. The store's original cigar and candy cases are supplemented by candy cases crafted in the late 40’s or early 50’s by Vander Vennett.
See recent blog interviews with me at the following links...
dnainfo.com/20100712/manhattan/artist-creates-miniature-m...
vanishingnewyork.blogspot.com/2010/07/model-new-york.html
ny.curbed.com/archives/2010/07/08/classic_city_storefront...
www.nytimes.com/interactive/2013/09/29/nyregion/album-sto...
abclocal.go.com/kabc/story?section=news/local/los_angeles...
www.theatlanticcities.com/arts-and-lifestyle/2013/09/secr...
vanishingnewyork.blogspot.com/2013/09/new-work-from-randy...
ny.curbed.com/archives/2013/09/10/its_a_small_world.php
gothamist.com/2013/09/10/photos_amazing_miniaturized_nyc_...
by Steven Swain: Roanoke-Salem Plaza opened in 1962 at the intersection of Melrose Avenue (US 11/460) and Peters Creek Road (Route 117) in the northwest section of the city near its border with the city of Salem. RSP was the third large shopping center to open in two years in the Roanoke Valley, after the enclosed Crossroads Mall, three miles east and two-level Towers Shopping Center, five miles south. Its developer was B.F. Saul. Original anchors were Leggett and Miller & Rhoads department stores, G.C. Murphy and Woolworth’s variety stores, Winn-Dixie supermarket and Peoples Drug. Other stores from the early days include Hofheimer’s Shoes, Radio Shack, First National Exchange Bank, Sidney’s (women’s apparel), Thom McAn, and Lerner Shops.
RSP’s deign was innovative for its time. The Y-shaped center faced Melrose Avenue and featured a long landscaped pedestrian promenade along its main axis. At the bottom end of the Y was Leggett, the mall’s largest store. The east end of the Y featured Miller & Rhoads and G.C. Murphy, which had both street and mall entrances. The west end had Peoples Drug and Winn-Dixie. Peoples had a prime corner position at the intersection of the Y. Winn-Dixie was next door and faced two parking lots on opposite sides of the store which gave them maximum exposure and led to a unique design featuring two banks of cash registers. Woolworth’s was in a prime position midway through the mall, with its large luncheonette visible to shoppers through the plate glass windows.
Despite being an open-air shopping center in a largely residential neighborhood, Roanoke-Salem Plaza was designed in the manner of an enclosed mall. It did not lend itself to a convenient shopping experience. Except for Winn-Dixie and Leggett, the stores at RSP had precious little storefront parking. Shoppers, in theory, would park in the front, rear or west side of the mall and leisurely walk down the promenade past the various shops, leading to uncontrolled impulse buying along the way. The design ideas made sense for a regional shopping center like Crossroads Mall, where shoppers came from as far away as southern West Virginia, but never quite worked for RSP, which had a more “local” tenant mix and customer base. The novelty factor of the mall worked for only about five years, and then the problems started.
By the late 1960s, “white flight” had led to most of the target shopping audience moving away to avoid the blacks that were settling in to the neighborhood. It should be noted that the blacks were displaced from other areas of Roanoke by urban renewal, and Northwest Roanoke was the easiest and least hostile place to relocate. A silent, largely racist, boycott of the center by white middle-class citizens helped cause store closures starting in the early ‘70s. The pace accelerated when the enclosed “state-of-the-art” Tanglewood Mall opened in 1973 and Leggett, G.C. Murphy, and Miller & Rhoads all opened stores there, making RSP less of a regional retail destination.
The writing was on the wall, Roanoke-Salem Plaza was in trouble. As the ‘70s progressed, every aspect of the mall began to suffer. Stores continued to leave, the landscaping and maintenance went to pot, and crime went up. People were afraid to walk down the promenade, especially at night, for fear of being mugged. Extreme heat in the summer and bitter cold in the winter led many to choose the enclosed Crossroads and Tanglewood malls rather than “rough it” at RSP. Were it not for the initial determination of Leggett and Miller & Rhoads to stay at the center (they still did decent business), the mall would surely have been dead by the late ‘70s.
In 1978, developer Henry Faison proposed Valley View Mall, a substantial new shopping center that would be built on a large tract of land at the intersection of I-581 and Hershberger within three miles of RSP. Miller & Rhoads was one of the first stores to sign to Valley View and announced plans to close their Roanoke-Salem Plaza and downtown Roanoke stores when the new mall opened. Valley View was located in the “clear zone” for the local airport and was hotly contested for many years but by 1982, Faison had won approval for his plans and prepared for a 1985 opening.
By the early ‘80s, it was clear that RSP would not be a viable retail location for much longer. G.C. Murphy pulled out in 1981, leaving a 55,000 square foot vacancy that sat empty for half a decade. Not long after, Leggett announced it was moving to Valley View. Many tenants complained that the mall’s owner B.F. Saul was intentionally letting the center go to pot. Saul countered that the mall would be renovated when Peters Creek Road was extended along the west side of the property. Previously, Peters Creek Road terminated at the west end of the mall near Winn-Dixie. The road project, proposed in the early ‘60s, was not completed until the late ‘90s, and Saul never renovated the center, even as substantially all of the anchor and chain tenants pulled out in 1985.
In 1986, Roanoke-Salem Plaza was sold to Walt Robbins, a developer who specialized in distressed shopping center properties. Robbins had renovated a similar center elsewhere in Virginia and turned it into a popular destination. He had a challenge on his hands with RSP, to be sure. Winn-Dixie, Peoples Drug and Woolworth’s were still there, but little else. Robbins renovated the center, adding a clock tower at its main entrance and new signage throughout, bringing in closeout chain U.S. Factory Outlets to replace G.C. Murphy. The name was inverted as well, to “The Plaza of Roanoke-Salem.” He based his renovations on what he thought was the impending Peters Creek Road extension, promising to bring in more new stores and even more enhancements when the road was completed. But the road project continued to stall, Robbins eventually sold the center and the factory outlet store closed almost as soon as it opened. The three remaining anchors were gone by 1991, leaving little more than a shell of a building.
A funny thing happened on the way to obscurity. Roanoke-Salem Plaza became a de facto “power center,” due in no small part to the Peters Creek Road extension which finally happened circa 1998. Now called Roanoke-Salem Business Plaza, it was brought back to relative life by a series of outlet and parts stores which all grouped along the highways for maximum visibility. Around 1995, Office Outlet, a used office furniture store, moved into the former Winn-Dixie. Business was good enough to justify an expansion into the former Peoples Drug a short time later. The former Miller & Rhoads became a fireplace accessory shop and then an appliance parts store. Woolworth’s became a carpet outlet, while Leggett briefly became a business college and then an auto parts warehouse. A series of smaller spaces were combined to create a space for Harbor Freight Tools in 2002, and smaller spaces are occupied by a computer store and a free-distribution paper
Roanoke-Salem Plaza missed out on being Roanoke, Virginia’s first large mall but it certainly became the area’s first dead mall. Even though is partially occupied, all is not well. The area still has crime problems and the promenade is still deserted. The whole east side of the center is empty and looks much like it did in 1981. Even though the Peters Creek extension has turned the site into a high traffic intersection, the neighborhood is too poor and too close to Valley View Mall to justify the development of chain stores. Unless something changes, Roanoke-Salem Plaza’s fate will be to limp along as a shadow of its former self.
A Hummingbird Clearwing Moth ( Hemaris thysbe ) feeding on the nectar of a Gooseneck loosestrife ( Lysimachia clethroides )
by Steven Swain: Roanoke-Salem Plaza opened in 1962 at the intersection of Melrose Avenue (US 11/460) and Peters Creek Road (Route 117) in the northwest section of the city near its border with the city of Salem. RSP was the third large shopping center to open in two years in the Roanoke Valley, after the enclosed Crossroads Mall, three miles east and two-level Towers Shopping Center, five miles south. Its developer was B.F. Saul. Original anchors were Leggett and Miller & Rhoads department stores, G.C. Murphy and Woolworth’s variety stores, Winn-Dixie supermarket and Peoples Drug. Other stores from the early days include Hofheimer’s Shoes, Radio Shack, First National Exchange Bank, Sidney’s (women’s apparel), Thom McAn, and Lerner Shops.
RSP’s deign was innovative for its time. The Y-shaped center faced Melrose Avenue and featured a long landscaped pedestrian promenade along its main axis. At the bottom end of the Y was Leggett, the mall’s largest store. The east end of the Y featured Miller & Rhoads and G.C. Murphy, which had both street and mall entrances. The west end had Peoples Drug and Winn-Dixie. Peoples had a prime corner position at the intersection of the Y. Winn-Dixie was next door and faced two parking lots on opposite sides of the store which gave them maximum exposure and led to a unique design featuring two banks of cash registers. Woolworth’s was in a prime position midway through the mall, with its large luncheonette visible to shoppers through the plate glass windows.
Despite being an open-air shopping center in a largely residential neighborhood, Roanoke-Salem Plaza was designed in the manner of an enclosed mall. It did not lend itself to a convenient shopping experience. Except for Winn-Dixie and Leggett, the stores at RSP had precious little storefront parking. Shoppers, in theory, would park in the front, rear or west side of the mall and leisurely walk down the promenade past the various shops, leading to uncontrolled impulse buying along the way. The design ideas made sense for a regional shopping center like Crossroads Mall, where shoppers came from as far away as southern West Virginia, but never quite worked for RSP, which had a more “local” tenant mix and customer base. The novelty factor of the mall worked for only about five years, and then the problems started.
By the late 1960s, “white flight” had led to most of the target shopping audience moving away to avoid the blacks that were settling in to the neighborhood. It should be noted that the blacks were displaced from other areas of Roanoke by urban renewal, and Northwest Roanoke was the easiest and least hostile place to relocate. A silent, largely racist, boycott of the center by white middle-class citizens helped cause store closures starting in the early ‘70s. The pace accelerated when the enclosed “state-of-the-art” Tanglewood Mall opened in 1973 and Leggett, G.C. Murphy, and Miller & Rhoads all opened stores there, making RSP less of a regional retail destination.
The writing was on the wall, Roanoke-Salem Plaza was in trouble. As the ‘70s progressed, every aspect of the mall began to suffer. Stores continued to leave, the landscaping and maintenance went to pot, and crime went up. People were afraid to walk down the promenade, especially at night, for fear of being mugged. Extreme heat in the summer and bitter cold in the winter led many to choose the enclosed Crossroads and Tanglewood malls rather than “rough it” at RSP. Were it not for the initial determination of Leggett and Miller & Rhoads to stay at the center (they still did decent business), the mall would surely have been dead by the late ‘70s.
In 1978, developer Henry Faison proposed Valley View Mall, a substantial new shopping center that would be built on a large tract of land at the intersection of I-581 and Hershberger within three miles of RSP. Miller & Rhoads was one of the first stores to sign to Valley View and announced plans to close their Roanoke-Salem Plaza and downtown Roanoke stores when the new mall opened. Valley View was located in the “clear zone” for the local airport and was hotly contested for many years but by 1982, Faison had won approval for his plans and prepared for a 1985 opening.
By the early ‘80s, it was clear that RSP would not be a viable retail location for much longer. G.C. Murphy pulled out in 1981, leaving a 55,000 square foot vacancy that sat empty for half a decade. Not long after, Leggett announced it was moving to Valley View. Many tenants complained that the mall’s owner B.F. Saul was intentionally letting the center go to pot. Saul countered that the mall would be renovated when Peters Creek Road was extended along the west side of the property. Previously, Peters Creek Road terminated at the west end of the mall near Winn-Dixie. The road project, proposed in the early ‘60s, was not completed until the late ‘90s, and Saul never renovated the center, even as substantially all of the anchor and chain tenants pulled out in 1985.
In 1986, Roanoke-Salem Plaza was sold to Walt Robbins, a developer who specialized in distressed shopping center properties. Robbins had renovated a similar center elsewhere in Virginia and turned it into a popular destination. He had a challenge on his hands with RSP, to be sure. Winn-Dixie, Peoples Drug and Woolworth’s were still there, but little else. Robbins renovated the center, adding a clock tower at its main entrance and new signage throughout, bringing in closeout chain U.S. Factory Outlets to replace G.C. Murphy. The name was inverted as well, to “The Plaza of Roanoke-Salem.” He based his renovations on what he thought was the impending Peters Creek Road extension, promising to bring in more new stores and even more enhancements when the road was completed. But the road project continued to stall, Robbins eventually sold the center and the factory outlet store closed almost as soon as it opened. The three remaining anchors were gone by 1991, leaving little more than a shell of a building.
A funny thing happened on the way to obscurity. Roanoke-Salem Plaza became a de facto “power center,” due in no small part to the Peters Creek Road extension which finally happened circa 1998. Now called Roanoke-Salem Business Plaza, it was brought back to relative life by a series of outlet and parts stores which all grouped along the highways for maximum visibility. Around 1995, Office Outlet, a used office furniture store, moved into the former Winn-Dixie. Business was good enough to justify an expansion into the former Peoples Drug a short time later. The former Miller & Rhoads became a fireplace accessory shop and then an appliance parts store. Woolworth’s became a carpet outlet, while Leggett briefly became a business college and then an auto parts warehouse. A series of smaller spaces were combined to create a space for Harbor Freight Tools in 2002, and smaller spaces are occupied by a computer store and a free-distribution paper
Roanoke-Salem Plaza missed out on being Roanoke, Virginia’s first large mall but it certainly became the area’s first dead mall. Even though is partially occupied, all is not well. The area still has crime problems and the promenade is still deserted. The whole east side of the center is empty and looks much like it did in 1981. Even though the Peters Creek extension has turned the site into a high traffic intersection, the neighborhood is too poor and too close to Valley View Mall to justify the development of chain stores. Unless something changes, Roanoke-Salem Plaza’s fate will be to limp along as a shadow of its former self.
by Steven Swain: Roanoke-Salem Plaza opened in 1962 at the intersection of Melrose Avenue (US 11/460) and Peters Creek Road (Route 117) in the northwest section of the city near its border with the city of Salem. RSP was the third large shopping center to open in two years in the Roanoke Valley, after the enclosed Crossroads Mall, three miles east and two-level Towers Shopping Center, five miles south. Its developer was B.F. Saul. Original anchors were Leggett and Miller & Rhoads department stores, G.C. Murphy and Woolworth’s variety stores, Winn-Dixie supermarket and Peoples Drug. Other stores from the early days include Hofheimer’s Shoes, Radio Shack, First National Exchange Bank, Sidney’s (women’s apparel), Thom McAn, and Lerner Shops.
RSP’s deign was innovative for its time. The Y-shaped center faced Melrose Avenue and featured a long landscaped pedestrian promenade along its main axis. At the bottom end of the Y was Leggett, the mall’s largest store. The east end of the Y featured Miller & Rhoads and G.C. Murphy, which had both street and mall entrances. The west end had Peoples Drug and Winn-Dixie. Peoples had a prime corner position at the intersection of the Y. Winn-Dixie was next door and faced two parking lots on opposite sides of the store which gave them maximum exposure and led to a unique design featuring two banks of cash registers. Woolworth’s was in a prime position midway through the mall, with its large luncheonette visible to shoppers through the plate glass windows.
Despite being an open-air shopping center in a largely residential neighborhood, Roanoke-Salem Plaza was designed in the manner of an enclosed mall. It did not lend itself to a convenient shopping experience. Except for Winn-Dixie and Leggett, the stores at RSP had precious little storefront parking. Shoppers, in theory, would park in the front, rear or west side of the mall and leisurely walk down the promenade past the various shops, leading to uncontrolled impulse buying along the way. The design ideas made sense for a regional shopping center like Crossroads Mall, where shoppers came from as far away as southern West Virginia, but never quite worked for RSP, which had a more “local” tenant mix and customer base. The novelty factor of the mall worked for only about five years, and then the problems started.
By the late 1960s, “white flight” had led to most of the target shopping audience moving away to avoid the blacks that were settling in to the neighborhood. It should be noted that the blacks were displaced from other areas of Roanoke by urban renewal, and Northwest Roanoke was the easiest and least hostile place to relocate. A silent, largely racist, boycott of the center by white middle-class citizens helped cause store closures starting in the early ‘70s. The pace accelerated when the enclosed “state-of-the-art” Tanglewood Mall opened in 1973 and Leggett, G.C. Murphy, and Miller & Rhoads all opened stores there, making RSP less of a regional retail destination.
The writing was on the wall, Roanoke-Salem Plaza was in trouble. As the ‘70s progressed, every aspect of the mall began to suffer. Stores continued to leave, the landscaping and maintenance went to pot, and crime went up. People were afraid to walk down the promenade, especially at night, for fear of being mugged. Extreme heat in the summer and bitter cold in the winter led many to choose the enclosed Crossroads and Tanglewood malls rather than “rough it” at RSP. Were it not for the initial determination of Leggett and Miller & Rhoads to stay at the center (they still did decent business), the mall would surely have been dead by the late ‘70s.
In 1978, developer Henry Faison proposed Valley View Mall, a substantial new shopping center that would be built on a large tract of land at the intersection of I-581 and Hershberger within three miles of RSP. Miller & Rhoads was one of the first stores to sign to Valley View and announced plans to close their Roanoke-Salem Plaza and downtown Roanoke stores when the new mall opened. Valley View was located in the “clear zone” for the local airport and was hotly contested for many years but by 1982, Faison had won approval for his plans and prepared for a 1985 opening.
By the early ‘80s, it was clear that RSP would not be a viable retail location for much longer. G.C. Murphy pulled out in 1981, leaving a 55,000 square foot vacancy that sat empty for half a decade. Not long after, Leggett announced it was moving to Valley View. Many tenants complained that the mall’s owner B.F. Saul was intentionally letting the center go to pot. Saul countered that the mall would be renovated when Peters Creek Road was extended along the west side of the property. Previously, Peters Creek Road terminated at the west end of the mall near Winn-Dixie. The road project, proposed in the early ‘60s, was not completed until the late ‘90s, and Saul never renovated the center, even as substantially all of the anchor and chain tenants pulled out in 1985.
In 1986, Roanoke-Salem Plaza was sold to Walt Robbins, a developer who specialized in distressed shopping center properties. Robbins had renovated a similar center elsewhere in Virginia and turned it into a popular destination. He had a challenge on his hands with RSP, to be sure. Winn-Dixie, Peoples Drug and Woolworth’s were still there, but little else. Robbins renovated the center, adding a clock tower at its main entrance and new signage throughout, bringing in closeout chain U.S. Factory Outlets to replace G.C. Murphy. The name was inverted as well, to “The Plaza of Roanoke-Salem.” He based his renovations on what he thought was the impending Peters Creek Road extension, promising to bring in more new stores and even more enhancements when the road was completed. But the road project continued to stall, Robbins eventually sold the center and the factory outlet store closed almost as soon as it opened. The three remaining anchors were gone by 1991, leaving little more than a shell of a building.
A funny thing happened on the way to obscurity. Roanoke-Salem Plaza became a de facto “power center,” due in no small part to the Peters Creek Road extension which finally happened circa 1998. Now called Roanoke-Salem Business Plaza, it was brought back to relative life by a series of outlet and parts stores which all grouped along the highways for maximum visibility. Around 1995, Office Outlet, a used office furniture store, moved into the former Winn-Dixie. Business was good enough to justify an expansion into the former Peoples Drug a short time later. The former Miller & Rhoads became a fireplace accessory shop and then an appliance parts store. Woolworth’s became a carpet outlet, while Leggett briefly became a business college and then an auto parts warehouse. A series of smaller spaces were combined to create a space for Harbor Freight Tools in 2002, and smaller spaces are occupied by a computer store and a free-distribution paper
Roanoke-Salem Plaza missed out on being Roanoke, Virginia’s first large mall but it certainly became the area’s first dead mall. Even though is partially occupied, all is not well. The area still has crime problems and the promenade is still deserted. The whole east side of the center is empty and looks much like it did in 1981. Even though the Peters Creek extension has turned the site into a high traffic intersection, the neighborhood is too poor and too close to Valley View Mall to justify the development of chain stores. Unless something changes, Roanoke-Salem Plaza’s fate will be to limp along as a shadow of its former self.
Miracles of miracles! For some reason I woke up at 4:00 a.m. this morning (I don’t know how I got back on Army Time!) and decided to go out on the Jersey Shore for breakfast at 5:00. I seldom, if ever eat breakfast other than a piece of fruit or some yoghurt.
The quickest place was this little luncheonette near where I live that I’ve probably passed by a hundred times in the 15 years I’ve been stationed/lived on the Jersey Shore but have never visited. When I went in, I was amazed! It reminded me of some of the places I used to go when I was stationed in Georgia or Alabama. Except, of course, I could understand the English spoken by the people in New Jersey unlike many of the people I met in the Old South.
They had sausage gravy and biscuits on the menu which caught my eye. You almost never see that in Jersey! The had almost 20 different types of omelets including a “Nutella Omelet” which had Nutella, banana & blueberries tucked inside. Also interesting were the chicken fried steak omelet, omelet stuffed inside a pancake, fish omelet, sausage gravy omelet, broccoli garlic omelet, and grilled chicken omelet. There omelets were light and fluffy, unlike the flat, scorched ones which seemed to be the standard for Georgia!
Add to that selection 8 different types of Benedict, 7 different types of pancakes including pancakes stuffed with mascarpone cheese and fresh fruit topped with whipped cream and chopped hazelnuts and Nutella sauce or a “Smored” pancake with chocolate, marshmallows and graham cracker crumbs.
Best of all, they had GRITS!!!!
I went with the Waffle Sampler which is a Belgium waffle topped with corn beef hash, scrambled eggs, and sausage gravy (which was excellent) by the way and a side of grits on the side.
My low calorie/low cholesterol breakfast was truly an embarrassment of riches!
The building in this photo is located at the corner of Holland Avenue and Antin Place in the Bronx, New York City. Its address is 764 Brady Avenue, although the building does not have any street frontage on Brady Avenue. It is part of Brady Court, a Tudor-style apartment complex of four buildings arranged around a courtyard that is accessed from Brady Avenue.
The intersection of Holland and Antin was co-named Ben & Dotty Abrams Way in 2012 in honor of a local couple who owned a luncheonette and were active in various community organizations. They were also the parents of Robert Abrams, who served as Bronx Borough President and New York State Attorney General.
This would be Calle Escolta near Calle Nueva looking toward Plaza Goiti. From across the street from Simon's Custom Tailor is Savory Luncheonette.
Wayne, NJ
Located across from the NJ Transit Mountain View Station (Boonton Line), this diner/luncheonette (closed 2018) was used in a scene in the Castle Rock Entertainment film 'City Hall' (1995) with John Cusack and Bridget Fonda.
Burnt Ends Hash
Crispy potatoes, brisket burnt ends, poblanos, tossed with aioli and queso fresco, served with two eggs, scallions, and Texas toast. ($13)
Dove's Luncheonette
Chicago, Illinois
(May 2, 2016)
the ulterior epicure | Twitter | Instagram | Facebook | Bonjwing Photography
Until a couple months ago, I'd never heard of this little luncheonette and confectionery, but then I saw a mini-documentary of the place at the Sarasota Film Festival in early April (2017), and then just happen to run across it on my way home. I was driving along I-70 and exited not far from the airport into a neighborhood that seemed to have more than its fair share of dilapidated buildings--looking for subject matter for my camera. After dealing with an annoying flat tire, I roamed about and stumbled on Crown Candy. It is apparently iconic for many, with visitors from other countries dropping in with some regularity. The neighborhood in which it resides ("Old North St. Louis") seems to be an interesting one--with the aforementioned crumbling edifices mixed with some very nice old buildings. Talking with a gentleman who lived in the area, the neighborhood apparently saw some recent upheaval related to the Ferguson demonstrations. He also told me that they were about to experience some influx of federal government jobs (I can't recall specifically what I was told, but in any case, Homeland Security related).
Texas A&M Aggie Ring woke me up early this morning and had me take him to breakfast at the luncheonette which is a bit unusual as Aggie Ring and I don’t typically eat breakfast all that often.
Aggie Ring ordered a bowl of Yankee grits and a sausage, egg and cheese sandwich on a Portuguese bun. When I asked him why, Aggie Ring just said, “In Jersey, this is just the way we roll!”
Aggie Ring says, "Life moves pretty fast. If you don't stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it!"
by Steven Swain: Roanoke-Salem Plaza opened in 1962 at the intersection of Melrose Avenue (US 11/460) and Peters Creek Road (Route 117) in the northwest section of the city near its border with the city of Salem. RSP was the third large shopping center to open in two years in the Roanoke Valley, after the enclosed Crossroads Mall, three miles east and two-level Towers Shopping Center, five miles south. Its developer was B.F. Saul. Original anchors were Leggett and Miller & Rhoads department stores, G.C. Murphy and Woolworth’s variety stores, Winn-Dixie supermarket and Peoples Drug. Other stores from the early days include Hofheimer’s Shoes, Radio Shack, First National Exchange Bank, Sidney’s (women’s apparel), Thom McAn, and Lerner Shops.
RSP’s deign was innovative for its time. The Y-shaped center faced Melrose Avenue and featured a long landscaped pedestrian promenade along its main axis. At the bottom end of the Y was Leggett, the mall’s largest store. The east end of the Y featured Miller & Rhoads and G.C. Murphy, which had both street and mall entrances. The west end had Peoples Drug and Winn-Dixie. Peoples had a prime corner position at the intersection of the Y. Winn-Dixie was next door and faced two parking lots on opposite sides of the store which gave them maximum exposure and led to a unique design featuring two banks of cash registers. Woolworth’s was in a prime position midway through the mall, with its large luncheonette visible to shoppers through the plate glass windows.
Despite being an open-air shopping center in a largely residential neighborhood, Roanoke-Salem Plaza was designed in the manner of an enclosed mall. It did not lend itself to a convenient shopping experience. Except for Winn-Dixie and Leggett, the stores at RSP had precious little storefront parking. Shoppers, in theory, would park in the front, rear or west side of the mall and leisurely walk down the promenade past the various shops, leading to uncontrolled impulse buying along the way. The design ideas made sense for a regional shopping center like Crossroads Mall, where shoppers came from as far away as southern West Virginia, but never quite worked for RSP, which had a more “local” tenant mix and customer base. The novelty factor of the mall worked for only about five years, and then the problems started.
By the late 1960s, “white flight” had led to most of the target shopping audience moving away to avoid the blacks that were settling in to the neighborhood. It should be noted that the blacks were displaced from other areas of Roanoke by urban renewal, and Northwest Roanoke was the easiest and least hostile place to relocate. A silent, largely racist, boycott of the center by white middle-class citizens helped cause store closures starting in the early ‘70s. The pace accelerated when the enclosed “state-of-the-art” Tanglewood Mall opened in 1973 and Leggett, G.C. Murphy, and Miller & Rhoads all opened stores there, making RSP less of a regional retail destination.
The writing was on the wall, Roanoke-Salem Plaza was in trouble. As the ‘70s progressed, every aspect of the mall began to suffer. Stores continued to leave, the landscaping and maintenance went to pot, and crime went up. People were afraid to walk down the promenade, especially at night, for fear of being mugged. Extreme heat in the summer and bitter cold in the winter led many to choose the enclosed Crossroads and Tanglewood malls rather than “rough it” at RSP. Were it not for the initial determination of Leggett and Miller & Rhoads to stay at the center (they still did decent business), the mall would surely have been dead by the late ‘70s.
In 1978, developer Henry Faison proposed Valley View Mall, a substantial new shopping center that would be built on a large tract of land at the intersection of I-581 and Hershberger within three miles of RSP. Miller & Rhoads was one of the first stores to sign to Valley View and announced plans to close their Roanoke-Salem Plaza and downtown Roanoke stores when the new mall opened. Valley View was located in the “clear zone” for the local airport and was hotly contested for many years but by 1982, Faison had won approval for his plans and prepared for a 1985 opening.
By the early ‘80s, it was clear that RSP would not be a viable retail location for much longer. G.C. Murphy pulled out in 1981, leaving a 55,000 square foot vacancy that sat empty for half a decade. Not long after, Leggett announced it was moving to Valley View. Many tenants complained that the mall’s owner B.F. Saul was intentionally letting the center go to pot. Saul countered that the mall would be renovated when Peters Creek Road was extended along the west side of the property. Previously, Peters Creek Road terminated at the west end of the mall near Winn-Dixie. The road project, proposed in the early ‘60s, was not completed until the late ‘90s, and Saul never renovated the center, even as substantially all of the anchor and chain tenants pulled out in 1985.
In 1986, Roanoke-Salem Plaza was sold to Walt Robbins, a developer who specialized in distressed shopping center properties. Robbins had renovated a similar center elsewhere in Virginia and turned it into a popular destination. He had a challenge on his hands with RSP, to be sure. Winn-Dixie, Peoples Drug and Woolworth’s were still there, but little else. Robbins renovated the center, adding a clock tower at its main entrance and new signage throughout, bringing in closeout chain U.S. Factory Outlets to replace G.C. Murphy. The name was inverted as well, to “The Plaza of Roanoke-Salem.” He based his renovations on what he thought was the impending Peters Creek Road extension, promising to bring in more new stores and even more enhancements when the road was completed. But the road project continued to stall, Robbins eventually sold the center and the factory outlet store closed almost as soon as it opened. The three remaining anchors were gone by 1991, leaving little more than a shell of a building.
A funny thing happened on the way to obscurity. Roanoke-Salem Plaza became a de facto “power center,” due in no small part to the Peters Creek Road extension which finally happened circa 1998. Now called Roanoke-Salem Business Plaza, it was brought back to relative life by a series of outlet and parts stores which all grouped along the highways for maximum visibility. Around 1995, Office Outlet, a used office furniture store, moved into the former Winn-Dixie. Business was good enough to justify an expansion into the former Peoples Drug a short time later. The former Miller & Rhoads became a fireplace accessory shop and then an appliance parts store. Woolworth’s became a carpet outlet, while Leggett briefly became a business college and then an auto parts warehouse. A series of smaller spaces were combined to create a space for Harbor Freight Tools in 2002, and smaller spaces are occupied by a computer store and a free-distribution paper
Roanoke-Salem Plaza missed out on being Roanoke, Virginia’s first large mall but it certainly became the area’s first dead mall. Even though is partially occupied, all is not well. The area still has crime problems and the promenade is still deserted. The whole east side of the center is empty and looks much like it did in 1981. Even though the Peters Creek extension has turned the site into a high traffic intersection, the neighborhood is too poor and too close to Valley View Mall to justify the development of chain stores. Unless something changes, Roanoke-Salem Plaza’s fate will be to limp along as a shadow of its former self.
It certainly was a 'New World of Shopping' when this supermarket opened in November 1963. Located on the Princes Hwy in Dandenong, it was considered the largest free-standing supermarket at the time but not the first to show the rocket. That accolade went to the Frankston store.
At the time, the Dandenong store was the biggest supermarket in Australia with 14 checkouts and 160 feet of refrigerated cabinets. It had a large 'meat shop', a fresh fruit and vegetable department, a modern bakehouse and a cafeteria (luncheonette) with seating for 34 people. One of the main attractions of the new building was the four feature windows facing Princes Hwy depicting early landmarks of Dandenong over 100 years ago.
Coles has opened a lot of stores since, but this and along with Chadstone's '559' store, were two of my favourites. As a former employee of Coles during the 80's and early 90's as a storeman and manager, I was here between 1986 and 89. The staff and management were great and depending on what management team we had at the time, the huge storeroom out the back was used on occasion for indoor cricket. Such was the size of the building, it certainly handled all incoming deliveries with ease. During my time there, the cafeteria was gone but a liquor department was in operation.
In late 2000, the building was demolished. A new Coles was built along with an Officeworks and underground car parking. Officeworks later moved a couple of years ago to newer premises on the corner of Frankston Dandenong Road and the Dingley Arterial (Dandenong Bypass).
Photo: Robert Smith (2013)
Ice creams included cajeta and honey-vanilla.
Dove's Luncheonette
Chicago, Illinois
(May 5, 2015)
the ulterior epicure | Twitter | Facebook | Bonjwing Photography
Photo by Steven Pisano
Luncheonette next to the entrance to the Smith-9th Street subway station on 9th Street.
Wayne, NJ
Located across from the NJ Transit Mountain View Station (Boonton Line), this diner/luncheonette (closed 2018) was used in a scene in the Castle Rock Entertainment film 'City Hall' (1995) with John Cusack and Bridget Fonda.
Landmarked 19th-century rowhouses on tree-lined Kent Street.
Greenpoint in popular culture: Some scenes in the movie The Departed, including the scene where Jack Nicholson's character first meets Matt Damon's character, were shot in Greenpoint across from McCarren Park. The diner and grocery store scenes were both shot in the Park Luncheonette. Several scenes in the movies Donnie Brasco (where Dominick Napolitano portrayed as "Sonny Black" by Michael Madsen was born), Sleepers, Dead Presidents, Romeo Is Bleeding, In the Mix, Street Trash and The Siege were also filmed in Greenpoint. The television series Rescue Me and The Black Donnellys are also routinely filmed in Greenpoint, as are the television shows Third Watch, Boardwalk Empire, "Girls (TV series)", Lipstick
Jungle, as well as Person of Interest, Fringe, Life on Mars, Lie to Me, The Good Wife, Blue Bloods and Law and Order: Special Victims Unit.
An early cultural reference to Greenpoint is found in the first minutes of the film On the Waterfront, in which a minor gangster, after holding back money from Johnny Friendly, is told to "go back to Greenpoint".
"Danas doesn't like people taking pictures." That's what the old dude in the cap told me after I made this shot. I'm not sure, but something told me he was speaking in the third person.
But this place was so cool, and I was so hungry.
And... at 12:15 pm, it was so closed.
12:15? But the sign read "Luncheonette."
I wasn't about to argue. Todd's not hungry now anyway. Heh.
The Five and Dime Antique Mall in downtown Bakersfield has maintained the original Woolworth's luncheonette in the building.
"Queen of Resort Hotels," featuring the World Famous Whirlpool Thermal Baths, with guests going direct from rooms to Bathhouse in robe and slippers...400 air-conditioned rooms, including kitchenette, new Lanai Tower, and poolside Lanai Suites connecting with Hotel. Year 'round temperature controlled pool, with separate pool for the kiddies. European Plan, Dining Room, Luncheonette, Dutch Treat Grill, etc.
"PRICES TO FIT EVERY POCKETBOOK"
Mailed from Chicago, Illinois to Bozo's Circus at WGN TV in Chicago, Illinois on October 26, 1977:
Sherry Boser
xxxx N. Rutherford
Chicago, Ill. 60634
2 Yrs. Old
Pioneer Little Rock
Dexter Press
7488-C
CAPA-011422