The other thing that makes me think the weird flat-roofed section is original is that it holds the store's loading dock! I know that not all grocery stores had real loading docks when this one was built, but marina Safeways typically did from what I can tell. You can also see here how the river rock continues onto the back and right side of the Marina-roofed part of the building, where much more plain finishes would normally be. Honestly, I really don't like the river rock finish, but I can see how it could have looked more upscale back in the 60s.
I'm not sure what Safeway was doing in the NW, but they continued to use the river rock outdoor walls here in Houston through the late 1970s/early 1980s at the very least. My former local Safeway store that was built in that time frame, which is now a Food Town, has the river rock look. It doesn't have the river rock on the backside of the store though, but the back is not really visible to the public. Link: https://goo.gl/maps/r3ykGEkLLMzsbCzT7
ReplyDeleteThat Moneymaker ATM sign on the side corner of the store was something Safeway put up in the 1980s! It still survives today.
I don't love or hate the river rock look, but it's certainly a pretty defining feature of old Safeway buildings around here just like the Spanish tile facades (which you can kind of make out on the above Safeway/Food Town link). I suppose in that regard, it is pretty neat.
That's very interesting! Pretty much nothing about that store looks like a Safeway to me, so I guess Safeway really did have a lot of regional variety back then. If anything, that looks like an Albertsons to me, but even that's just from AFB's pictures of old Albertsons stores in his area, since I don't think they built ones that looked like that up here either.
DeleteAlbertsons did not enter Houston proper until about 1995 or so. I reckon Safeway's departure from Houston might have encouraged Albertsons to enter the market, but they didn't last very long even though they did build A LOT of stores here. That said, we did have Albertsons stores elsewhere in Texas in the 1970s and 1980s and they did look like the Albertsons stores AFB has documented in Florida.
DeleteIt's possible that the need for air conditioned stores here in Texas mandated different designs. I'm not sure if older, or newer, Safeways in the NW have A/C. Something like a Marina store likely would have led to high electric bills due to all that window space, but maybe not. I'm not sure. Also, most Safeway stores here were in shopping centers (usually with an Eckerd) and so that might have mandated certain design styles.
The two most common design styles Safeway used here in Houston is the one you saw above, which was common in the late 1970s/early 1980s, and then this style which also has Spanish tiles (painted green after Safeway closed in this case) and the river rock which was common from the early 1970s through the early 1980s (it might have started in the late 1960s): https://goo.gl/maps/VGELTjwLyLTeMMCF7
The tall columns with the 'plus' like design where they meet the facade are certainly the defining feature of that look. For whatever reason, this look and the above look have remained popular with ex-Safeway buildings even to this day. Most shopping centers did not redesign them after Safeway and Appletree, which was a short-lived attempt to continue Safeway's Houston division after Safeway pulled the plug, closed in the early 1990s. The end result is that Safeway still has a strong architectural legacy here in Houston.
That's an interesting theory regarding air conditioning! I'm pretty sure Safeways have air conditioning these days, but perhaps they didn't originally. And even if they did, they certainly wouldn't need to use it as much as stores in Texas would! On the other hand, the Marina design was common in California, and you'd think they would need more AC there.
DeleteIt's cool to hear that so many former Safeways still survive in their original form in your area! They certainly haven't around here.
Good call about California, I'm sure California stores would have had air conditioning and a lot of sun! I wonder if consideration had to be made not to use a Marina store facing the east or west to avoid all that sun at various times of the day.
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