Woolco

[amesman]

An Albany, New York(Menands) Woolworth store. The one half is now a Family Dollar, but the other half is still vacant. Here's a picture.

[amesman]

A rare find through the window..hehe

[amesman]

Inside shot

[Caldor1999]

Originally posted by amesman
Inside shot

was it sealed off

[AmesNewington]

This pic is a shot of the Webster Square Plaza where Woolworths used to be (and I do mean used to). Ocean State and the Billiards was Waldbaum's Foodmart and a Cinema. The extreme right gap in the building was Woolworths of Berlin CT. The blocked off part was the original design of the building and was partially destroyed by the Woolworth's fire. The fire was in 1997 two months before Woolworth's closed. To the right is a nice A&P Super Foodmart that opened in 1996 that was also almost destroyed by the Woolworth's fire. To this day there is nothing but the old floor there. Trucks are parked there.

I emailed the town of Berlin for some old pics of the plaza and I have an article somewhere on the fire and how the store looked at that point. It was awful. The Woolworth sign said -OOL-ORT-. The W W H were burned off. The ceiling collapsed. There was debris all over the parking lot, all sorrounding areas were boarded up, and it remained there for about a year and was demolished in 1998. It was sad. I remember begging to ride by the store all the time. There was Woolworths in Bristol, but that closed in the Fall of 1997 and now is a nice Dollar Tree.

One other thing to point out on Webster Square Plaza... in 1996, a pet store had a bad fire at the other end of the plaza (called Pets For U) and many animals died in the fire. This plaza is really bad luck. However, the Woolworths fire was the last fire to hit the plaza. As a result of the Woolworths fire, the neighboring movie theater was destroyed and forced to shut down (soot was running down the movie screens and there was major flooding).

I just thought I'd share this story. I do miss Woolworths and the lunch counter!!

The second pic is Foodmart next store that survived the fire.

[AmesNewington]

A&P Super Foodmart Berlin: Next To Woolworths

[XISMZERO]

Originally posted by Chris
The one in Berlin CT suffered a terrible fatal fire in 1997. I remember going for lunch there when I was small, and taking rides to see the store when it was destroyed. It is now empty and still is and is used for parking trucks.

So it's no longer around then?

[BillyGr]

This is the store on Central Ave in Albany - after Woolworth, it was run by McCrory as a McCrory Dollar for a short time (then they all went out as well) and is now offices.

[d_fife]

here is the former woolworth (notice the labelscar) muncy pa (pennsdale) just outside williamsport in the lycoming mall (the mall that the toys r us is near)

[store215]

woolco/woolworth commercial from very early 80's

http://www.retrojunk.com/details_commercial/1201/

[ameskmart1]

Woolworth

[retailfan]

I remeber Woolco well  i was the last shopper at the indianapolis store on Shadeland ave and I70 it was $15.00 a cartload And I had the cart so full  you couldnt see over the top I was the final person rang up in that store and also on N keystone  it closed an hour after Shadeland
They played the woolco son
we want to be your favorite store
It was a huge store with a cafeaterea on one corner that became a chinese restaraunt the woolco became Housemart
then Hills   and then Central hardware all long gone
they recently tore down the old store
I remeber when it was housemart  a lot of old sinage was in there  hidden by false walls
Hills covered it up then central hardware tore out the false ceilings  and i seem to remember some old woolco signs being able to be seen
The woolworth at eastgate had a lot of stuff left  in a clearance area from woolco after it closed

[tomasher]

Originally posted by amesman
Inside shot

It's my first day on this forum, and this is my first post.

These round air vent things in the ceiling are my first vivid memory of stores like Woolco, etc.  As a kid, I would frequent the Woolcos at Woodhaven Mall in Bucks County, PA (became a Jamesway, now a Home Depot - that's my pic a few pages back), and the Woolco (became a Clover, now a National Wholesale Liquidators) at Rising Sun and Adams Avenues in Philadelphia.

The Rising Sun Woolco was neat, as it had two entrances - one directly to the parking lot out front and the other to the strip mall that it anchored, along with an Acme, now a Chinese supermarket.

[Zayre88]

Originally posted by tomasher

It's my first day on this forum, and this is my first post.

These round air vent things in the ceiling are my first vivid memory of stores like Woolco, etc.  

I also remember them, sometimes they were quite large and made a lot of noise.  Woolco, Zayre, Kmart and Bradlees often had them.   Here is one inside a former Woolco (now demolished)

[Ameskid]

They have those vents in my Kmart. When you're standing near them, the hugeness is creepy! Also, about that interior shot a few posts above, isn't it weird how some stores seem so much smaller when they're vacant?

[amesman]

Originally posted by Ameskid
They have those vents in my Kmart. When you're standing near them, the hugeness is creepy! Also, about that interior shot a few posts above, isn't it weird how some stores seem so much smaller when they're vacant?

Well it probably appears smaller because that's not the whole store. Half of it was remodeled into a Family Dollar. Also, Kings had round vents just like those in the interior Woolco pic above.

[beachgal26]

I have life-long memories of shopping at F.W. Woolworth stores as a kid and eating lunch at their infamous lunch counters in the summer.  For any of you out there that are under 20, try to imagine that the lunch counter would be the only place in town to get french fries since they weren't that big of a deal back then.  You could also get a made to order Coke with real cherry, lemon or chocolate added with the whole patented reverse seltzer water added to make the drink fizzy!

:yup: :yup: :yup: :D :D :D :bigsmile: :bigsmile: :bigsmile:

[Ameskid]

Originally posted by amesman

Originally posted by Ameskid
They have those vents in my Kmart. When you're standing near them, the hugeness is creepy! Also, about that interior shot a few posts above, isn't it weird how some stores seem so much smaller when they're vacant?

Well it probably appears smaller because that's not the whole store. Half of it was remodeled into a Family Dollar. Also, Kings had round vents just like those in the interior Woolco pic above.

I'm not referring to that store. It's just weird when you look into it and it seems like it's smaller because it's completely empty. :dizzy:

[beachgal26]

Here I go showing my age again, but how many of you are surprised to find "air conditioned" on the front door handle of the older stores?  It seems so odd now, but it was a big deal back then to be able to find an air conditioned store to go to in the hot summer months.

:yup: :D :bigsmile: :yup:

[BillyGr]

Here's the former Woolworth in Schenectady NY on State St. (Route 5).

It's the building with the # 401 on it - now converted to office space (State, I think).

[BillyGr]

The first photo is a store on Market Street in downtown Wilmngton, Delaware - it was a Woolworth (they state that in the brochure), one of the larger ones (note that it has THREE sets of doors rather than the usual 2) and is now used as a museum of state history.

The second is a store in downtown Newark, Delaware - it may be a Woolworth or Newberry family store - not sure which - it still operates as a 5 and 10, though about 1/2 of the stuff is UofDelaware merchandise.

[d_fife]

here are remains of the woolworth in gloversville new york, as of May 31, 2006.

[d_fife]

Originally posted by d_fife
here are remains of the woolworth in gloversville new york, as of May 31, 2006.

more remains of the gloversville one

[d_fife]

Originally posted by d_fife

Originally posted by d_fife
here are remains of the woolworth in gloversville new york, as of May 31, 2006.

more remains of the gloversville one

more remains of the gloversville one.

[d_fife]

here is remains of the former woolworth in bethlehem pennsylvania.

[d_fife]

I have noticed the tj maxx / officemax plaza in brookfield Ct is called the woolco plaza and you could still tell it was a woolco. it was probably around 80,000 sq.ft. and closed late 1982 like all the U.S. ones did. Woolco could have made it.

here is what was the one in brookfield CT (near danbury line) on rt. 7.

[d_fife]

Originally posted by d_fife
I have noticed the tj maxx / officemax plaza in brookfield Ct is called the woolco plaza and you could still tell it was a woolco. it was probably around 80,000 sq.ft. and closed late 1982 like all the U.S. ones did. Woolco could have made it.

here is what was the one in brookfield CT (near danbury line) on rt. 7.

brookfield one

[d_fife]

Originally posted by d_fife

Originally posted by d_fife
I have noticed the tj maxx / officemax plaza in brookfield Ct is called the woolco plaza and you could still tell it was a woolco. it was probably around 80,000 sq.ft. and closed late 1982 like all the U.S. ones did. Woolco could have made it.

here is what was the one in brookfield CT (near danbury line) on rt. 7.

brookfield one

brookfield

[Ameskid]

Over the summer, I read a book called Nickels and Dimes: The Story of Frank W. Woolworth. It is from the 70's and is an awesome book. Be on the lookout for it!::goodidea:

[d_fife]

Originally posted by Ameskid
Over the summer, I read a book called Nickels and Dimes: The Story of Frank W. Woolworth. It is from the 70's and is an awesome book. Be on the lookout for it!::goodidea:

my dad and I own that book.