Original Grocery Tenant: A&P
Address: 194 North St, Bennington, VT
Opened: ca. 1960
.png)
Just across from yesterday's former Grand Union is this former A&P. Behind all these multiple generations of facades, there's actually an A&P centennial store buried, constructed around 1960 at about 11,000 square feet. The space was later expanded (possibly in the 1970s) to around 30,000 square feet, though I'm not certain whether A&P occupied the whole building. Eventually, this store came under A&P's WEO discount brand before closing, though I'm not sure exactly when.
You can get a little bit of a sense of the centennial facade peeking through here, but it's much more apparent in aerial photographs. You can also see a little from the back, which has more recently gotten a stucco-type facade similar to what's now on the front. If I had to guess, I would say the shingled awning is likely left over from A&P in the 1970s.
The building is around 15,000 square feet and was constructed around the late 1950s, so it's very much in line with what I'd expect from a grocery store. I do know that it had a variety of non-grocery occupants, including a hardware store and the gym and appliance store that are currently in it.
Address: 194 North St, Bennington, VT
Opened: ca. 1960
Closed: unknown
Later Tenants: assorted non-grocery tenants
Photographed: August 8, 2021
.png)
Just around the corner from this former A&P is another possible former supermarket, though I don't recognize it and wasn't able to find any solid evidence online that this was ever a grocery store.
Original Grocery Tenant: unknown
Address: 120 Depot St, Bennington, VT
Opened: unknown
Address: 120 Depot St, Bennington, VT
Opened: unknown
Closed: unknown
Later Tenants: assorted non-grocery tenants
Photographed: August 8, 2021
Tomorrow is one more former supermarket here in Bennington before we go back to seeing the present-day grocers!
Shingled awnings were a 1970s cliche, although they began to appear in the mid-to-late 60s. The other store seems likely to have been a First National, but apparently their store in Bennington was in a plaza with Grant's.
ReplyDelete