Original Grocery Tenant: A&P
Address: 720 Morris Tpk, Millburn, NJ
Opened: 1960s
Closed: unknown
Later Tenants: non-grocery tenants
Photographed: September 1, 2017 and November 19, 2017
Would you believe that what we're looking at is
not a former A&P? It's fooled many people, including me, but this building was never a supermarket. Instead, A&P opened in this mall in the 1960s in a centennial building on the left side of the mall, which you can see the edge of to the left above. The store was then expanded to about 25,000 square feet in the 1970s.
The entire mall was designed in the style of the A&P centennial facade, although only this storefront on the right side still retains the design.
Here we're looking from the decoy A&P, in the foreground, towards the newer one in the background. The other building became a gym after A&P left.
You can clearly make out the foyer at the center of the building here. Originally, it appears the mall would've been symmetrical, with two nearly identical storefronts on either end. The left side was the supermarket.
An overview of the whole plaza. The Springfield ShopRite, which we'll see a Snapshot of on Monday, is located directly across the street.
This post was updated on January 4, 2026 for formatting and accuracy.
While researching the history of the ShopRite of Springfield, I also researched the history of the former Millburn A&P. Below are the results of that research:
ReplyDelete*The Millburn A&P opened on August 20, 1957. While I am aware of other Centennials which opened during the second half of 1957, I am not sure I have come across a Centennial that opened this early.
*Though I myself may be wrong, it appears that this shopping center was never home to two A&Ps. Actually, I believe that the building which you identified as A&P's first supermarket in the shopping center was never a supermarket. Rather, historic aerials show that a shopping center was built alongside the A&P sometime between 1957 and 1966, and that this new addition was intentionally built to resemble the Centennial architecture of the A&P.
*Historic aerial images also show that the A&P was expanded during the 1970s, although I do not know exactly when the supermarket was enlarged. The beautiful Centennial facade was obstructed as a result of this expansion, although I cannot tell if the store subsequently had a mansard roof that was typical of many 1970s A&Ps.
*The Millburn A&P appears to have closed in March 1985.
*Google Street View shows that the entire A&P shopping center was painted blue (or blue-gray) sometime between June 2022 and June 2023.
Thanks for the details! No, you're totally right -- there was only one A&P here.
DeleteThe store at the far end was never an A&P, it was a Woolworth! One of the stores in the sc was Bond’s Ice Cream. And I always considered it as Short Hills, not Milburn. I know this as I grew up less than a mile from there!
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