Hut Hut!
What Do You Think You're Looking At? #173
I saw this on Reddit and I got excited:
Unfortunately, this image is about a year old, and the building has since been demolished, with no signage at the old spot. Apparently, it was a false alarm—there was a new Pizza Hut down the road and the old site was used for advertising, for old time’s sake I guess.
There is, however, the “Pizza Hut Classic,” concept: older Pizza Hut locations that are remodeled to closely resemble the restaurants in their 1980s heyday, stained-glass hanging lamps and all. I find this interesting: “So far, these stores appear to be limited to smaller markets, where these legacy stores have survived, the bones of the old buildings intact.” They’re not exactly completely new—they’re almost faithful renovations of older locations that simply never got updated to the point that an old-school renovation would be too costly.
I’m curious whether there are a couple of Pizza Huts out there that simply never got any remodel at all since the old days—totally accidental, unselfconscious Pizza Hut Classics.
Then I saw this, which I thought was very cool:
However, in reading the comments for any identifying details, it became clear it was just a house—where did the parking lot and commercial infrastructure go? How did the area get rezoned? Pizza Hut isn’t usually in a wooded area, the dimensions don’t match, etc. etc. Someone even lied about finding an old phone book that listed the address as a Pizza Hut.
But for something so insignificant, someone gave a real, informative answer:
One more for you which isn’t a strikeout. So may I introduce to you:
Not only do the trapezoid windows and the brickwork survive. Even the original pole and rectangle sign survive! It’s a funny thing: this structure, as a Domino’s, has more classic Pizza Hut architectural DNA in it than a lot of modern Pizza Huts.
The old view:
Now that Domino’s moved from a spot a couple of miles away, and its old spot was this:
It’s surrounded by car dealerships and service shops, it was there decades ago, and it has these garage doors in the rear and had a few auto-related businesses in it recently, as a strip plaza:
But I’ll be darned if it didn’t begin life as an auto dealership too. I can’t prove that with anything I can find, but it’s pretty certain, I think.
What I find fascinating about this is that in the absence of clear, obvious proof, which is sometimes the situation you’re in researching something on the internet, you actually have to weigh evidence. It’s a neat set of skills to dig into these histories. It’s low stakes but fun and engaging. Which is a combination we could all use a bit more of.
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I remember having this conversation with a friend some thirty years ago—what would happen if you made one a private home? We decided that you would need to post a sign: TRESPASSERS WILL NOT BE FED
There are two recognizable former PH buildings near me. One is now a title-loan place, and the other has been a succession of restaurants. While the signature roofline has survived on neither one, the distinctive oddly-angled pillars between the windows are a dead giveaway.