The Shillington Shopping Center has been around for many decades. It is located along Lancaster Avenue in Shillington. Pictured below is the Food Fair and W. T. Grant Co. stores from the 1950s. Did you ever shop here?
The only thing that appears the remain the same in the past 60 years are the entrance lights to the parking lot. Though one is missing and it is unclear whether they still actually light up.
I remember my parents taking me there every Friday night to do their weekly grocery shopping at Food Fair. If I recall correctly, the space between the Food Fair and Grant’s had a small stand alone building set back a little from the sidewalk that housed a Pet Shop. The Pet Shop had a little patch of grass in front of it. I believe a People’s Drugstore anchored the other end of the shopping center.
The pet shop you’re thinking of was down much further nearer Sears. Between Food Fair and Grants was Joy, a candy store, Hallmark store.
My father was the store manager for the Food Fair store when it first opened. At that time only Food Fair And Sears at the other end we’re open . The center of the shopping center were built in between later.
Do you remember the year Food Fair opened ?
Joe Ross was a butcher in the meat department at the Food Fair for many years. He lived on Mineral Springs Road with his wife, Pamela – an English war bride, and his daughter, Jennifer. Our family is from England, so my parents struck up a friendship with him, and he introduced us to Ocean City, Maryland, in the late 1950s. He was in the infantry and took part in the D-Day invasion, so he had a lot of fascinating stories to tell.
sears was at the opposite from food fair, every Saturday my parents would drive from Denver, pa to shop at sears, and of course we would walk the entire shopping center. what great memories.
Was there a buffet in the shillington shopping center