In the county just north of where I live, there used to be a driving range. I never saw any golfers practicing there, but I only passed it when commuting to and from work, and almost never on weekends, so I never really thought about it. Apparently, it wasn’t a sustainable business because suddenly one day, the range marks were replaced with piles of hay bales. It had been converted into a paintball battlefield.
When we lived in Jacksonville, I seem to recall a large furniture showroom or similar retail establishment that became an indoor rollerskating track- not a mere rink - with lots of padded “walls” forming a meandering path thru the building. Lots more fun than the usual oval floor.
Have you encountered similarly unrelated business changes? I don’t count one type of restaurant becoming another or a shoe store becoming a jewelry store. That’s just boring. Surely some of us have seen interesting transformations… do share!
There used to be a bookstore in Houston that was located in what had previously been a movie theater. Movie theaters are very purposely built so this bookstore had a strange layout. The seats had been removed and rows of shelves replaced them so the main part of the store was laid out on a terrace of levels and each row of books was half a foot lower than the previous one. And there were other sections of the bookstore that were tucked away in what had been places like the screen area, the lobby, the ticket booth, the balcony, the projection booth, and the concession stand.
My longtime dentist retired and sold his practice, and his longtime staff all left with him. When I first went to the new guy, I checked in at the front desk, and was greeted by a receptionist with the same name, Claire. Except Claire was now a middle-aged black lady, not an older white lady.
Some years ago a theater miniplex (six screens IIRC) was changed into a Christian high school. I have no idea how the interior might have been rearranged. In the same shopping center, a former Wendy’s is now a funeral home. If you scoot right a bit you can see where the drive-thru window used to be.
Krispy Kreme Doughnuts tried to make it in my Northern town (and didn’t; in a cold climate people like their doughnuts and coffee to have some density). A bank took over the building, and even kept the same drive-up window.
This place was several restaurants before becoming an American Heart Association training facility.
Before the sandstone facade, it was all white and black marble.
There’s a building near me that used to be an Arby’s but is now a liquor store. Kind of unremarkable but it has this protruding front window like this and it just seems like an odd feature for a liquor store. Also it’s an outbuilding in a plaza parking lot which also for some reason seems odd for a liquor store. Then again, this is a very persistent liquor store. It’s their 4th location I can recall and it might even have taken the place of the cinema in the aforementioned plaza for a while. They didn’t use the cinema part of the building, just the lobby.
Hmm, now I’m thinking about that old cinema, and it was eventually replaced by regular stores. The developers must have just razed the seating areas.
While searching for that picture of the windows, I came across this Reddit Group which is dedicated to spotting new businesses in old restaurant buildings.
This happened before my time, but in the office park where I work, one of the office buildings used to be a fast food restaurant. It’s laid out oddly on the inside, and some offices have windows facing outside and into the hallway. Supposedly you can tell where the drive-thru window was. There are 2 restrooms side-by-side, plus one off by itself next to a row of offices.
From the outside, it’s now just a rectangular building. The company I work for owns the entire office park, and the company prez didn’t want to put any more money than necessary into making the building functional. It works - it’s just weird…
I grew up in the land of Kohl’s Food Stores, which were very distinctive arched buildings.
The very first one is still a food store (Sendik’s now), so it’s still kind of appropriate.
But it’s jarring when a business with a different “feel” moves in… like one nearby that’s now an “upscale contemporary furniture” store. There’s not much that’s modern about 1950’s architecture.
Oh, found a site!
Looks like there’s one on Dempster in Morton Grove, though the others are in Wisconsin.
That reminds me - there was a grocery store in Orange Park, FL that became a furniture store. The furniture store has since disappeared, and its now a different grocery store. Circle of life!
There used to be a megachurch cult in our area who’s leader proclaimed such things as members should give their money and worldly possessions to the church and women should be submissive to men. The usual cultish stuff.
But then, several years later, things got weird. The leader started having “visions” in which spouses should dance with other spouses at the church. Then the “visions” said that these mixed spouses should go off to other rooms in the church and continue their, uh, “dancing” horizontally. Some members objected to this, among other things. The authorities got involved and the church got shut down. I don’t remember what happened to the leader but I know the campus, which was quite large, got sold.
Who bought it, you might ask? The authorities, I tell you! It has been the regional police training facility for about three decades now.
Most people have probably forgotten the campus’s origins but I remember every time I go by there.
There was a Long John Silvers near me that became a greek restaurant but kept the distinctive roof and blue color scheme on the building. So now we just refer to it as Long John Greek.
There is also a Kroger that moved and the building is now a church. “Salvation, aisle 5!”
