The Little Changes Over Time

What Do You Think You're Looking At? #148

Sometimes, in this series, I feature buildings whose uses or appearances have changed dramatically. Other times, I just like to highlight bits and pieces of the commercial churn you’ll find all over the American built landscape.

Today is one of those. I’m showing you a small assortment of simple structures along the commercial strip outside Chambersburg, Pennsylvania (to which we’ll be returning, in more depth, this coming Monday!)

I was out here (on Google Maps) because there’s a Rural King here, and I’m working on a story about that interesting retail chain. But seeing a somewhat older corridor of businesses along the main highway, I figured a quick tour would turn up some fun “used to be a…” examples. And it did.

Does this look a little familiar to you?

If you can’t quite place it, here you go:

This conversion raises an interesting point I’ve made before: the structure as it stands now has been altered a bit—unfortunately, the glass bubble is gone—but it still looks more like a Wendy’s than a lot of the Wendy’s restaurants operating today, because it went out of business before it could be unrecognizably remodeled. The best mechanism for the preservation of popular chain architecture is bankruptcy, followed by a new tenant happy to inhabit a brand-specific building.

Next:

I wasn’t able to confirm it, but I’m almost certain this was a 7-Eleven store. (The overhanging roof and brickwork in the front are new; previously, it was just the building’s exterior wall and a roof that ended there.) The restaurant is still open and has been there over a decade; it was just closed at the time the Google camera went by.)

Next:

You can tell from the big, patchy concrete area that this was a gas station, with the old gas pumps and canopy removed. But the building is interesting for a gas station building. It’s actually the rare big chain gas/convenience store that gets vacated, with some very nice remodeling done:

Newer Sheetz buildings are much larger, so this is also a previous iteration of a brand-specific building that may still exist only because the chain disposed of it. Sheetz moved, opening this just down the road not long after vacating the old one:

Bonus:

The shape of this building made me pretty sure it began life as something else. But, it’s actually new construction!

Before:

After:

I guess, like some folks like to people-watch, I like to place-watch.

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Related Reading:

A Little Bit Of Motel

What Do You Think You’re Looking At? #2

What Do You Think You’re Looking At? #5

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