View Full Version : Businesses in your area that haven't changed in decades


Yong Fang
01-02-2023, 06:25 AM
Since it is Mew Years, time moves on and things change, and the landscape changes over time. But this is about things that have not changed in decades if not longer.

My parents moved from the city to a suburban community around 1982, Forty years later, many things have changed, but some has not.

For example, Wendy's is still there 40 years later in the same location. So is McDonalds, the same location since high school, but the old building was torn down for the modern version. The bank where my parents do their business has not moved or changed except the name of the bank itself.

There is a convenience store that has been there since at least the early 1980's. Hasnt changed at all. In the same area is a bar, the bar has changed owners (and has a different name) but the bar is still there. There is a Kroger store nearby, still there and the building has not changed since the 1980's (there is a nearer Kroger, but that is a new store, built about ten years ago)

I lived in Las Vegas in the early 1990's in a somewhat not so great area off of Paradise Road near Flamingo. There is a bar nearby I used to go to called "The Double Down". Still there and hasnt changed names after thirty years (or has changed themes, but I wonder how many owners that place has had.) There is a supermrket nearby, still there. The Jack in the Box fast food place is still there.

I lived in Jackson, Mississippi and worked at a retailer called Books a Million in 2000. The business was in a "strip mall", and upon looking at the area now on Google Earth has not changed the past 25 years. Books a Million is still there, in the middle of of Office Max on one end and a Kroger on the other side. By itself but on the same property is (another) Wendy's.

It seems that fast food businesses have a very long shelf life, but the architecture of the buildings are changing and the franchisee has to keep up with the changes, which is why McDonalds is still in its physical location but is a new building.

There is talk or a decision has been made to tear down my old high school which has been at the same location since 1910. They are going to change the location of the school. None of the buildings are from 1910 but there are some old buildings. Sort of sad about that because it is another thing from my past which will be erased from the landscape. I have been in the school recently and only one of the buildings should be torn down (because it is old and ugly). Nothing wrong with the other buildings although they are at least fifty years old now. Supermarkets also seem to be slow to change.


What in your neighborhood/community/city has changed and what has stayed the same?

GentlemanJim
01-02-2023, 01:30 PM
Since it is Mew Years, time moves on and things change, and the landscape changes over time. But this is about things that have not changed in decades if not longer.



What the heck is "Mew Years"? Are you and Ice Cream plotting a feline coup where the cats take over? :lol:

I thought long and hard about this thread's question. And reality is that even our local tradition-based entities have mostly changed. Our courthouse, (https://www.allencountycourthouse.org/) built before 1900, is lauded far and wide for it's historic significance....yet a purist can detect the all new windows, the sheetmetal roof (replaced slate), and the fact that the general public must now all enter through a single entry for TSA style scans. But the marble work and murals in the interior are magnificent


Then, there is the "Lincoln Tower" (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lincoln_Bank_Tower) built just at the onset of the great depression, and at the time the tallest building in Indiana (remained so for decades). But the purist will notice that the top of the tower no longer sports the rotating turret light serving as beacon atop the tower, nor does it still sport the 16 rooftop horns that were used to play christmas music

And, we've got high schools that have been in place since the 1920s, but most have been given new windows, new facades, and new mascots, so its disingenuous to claim they have not changed. We do have two modern high schools that were built in the early 1970s that remain remarkably similar to "as-built" condition, so I guess it's bit ironic that these two are more original than the legacy high schools we think of as "historic"

But, we do have one extremely original candidate ......someone else mentioned White Castle and Krystal hamburgers in another thread. We've got "Powers Hamburgers" which in my opinion puts all other contenders to shame. Built in 1940, it has remained a foundation stone in our downtown, ever since. Shredded angelhair onions carmelized in place while cooking give these burgers a distinction that others will smell on your breath HOURS afterwards.

https://i.imgur.com/PRVriEV.png https://i.imgur.com/WZmwlKQ.jpg

Caroline13
01-02-2023, 02:52 PM
Pinks in Hollywood, I see it's been a landmark since 1939. I've never been there a friend used to rave about her hot dogs from Pinks.

https://www.pinkshollywood.com/


The town where I was born and lived has died, I don't think there is a store there anymore. This was in PA.

Eat n Park was a favorite place when I lived in PA, and I went to the Monroeville location. Turns out that Eat n Park was founded in 1949 in Pgh area. And they are in many locatrions.

https://historicpittsburgh.org/islandora/object/pitt%3AUS-QQS-mss491/viewer


Oh and I believe Yong made a typo with Mew, we all make typos -- not the end of the world..