# Wait - didn't that used to be...? (When businesses change) **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [March 16, 2018, 11:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wait-didnt-that-used-to-be-when-businesses-change/810652 "2018-03-16T11:21:10Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/qadgop_the_mercotan/32/83_2.png) [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qadgop_the_Mercotan)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2018, 1:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wait-didnt-that-used-to-be-when-businesses-change/810652/41 "2018-03-18T01:29:22Z")
> [@digs](#): > > I grew up in the land of Kohl’s Food Stores, which were very distinctive arched buildings. > [Oh, found a site!](http://www.andrewturnbull.net/digging/kohls.html) Thanks for that link. I drive past a lot of those sites periodically, and remember when a lot of them were Kohl’s grocers. I also enjoy spotting buildings which used to be [early Arby’s franchises](https://i.pinimg.com/originals/66/ba/fa/66bafac7350b861ef63301a7713a57d6.jpg) yet [still serve up food](http://www.roadarch.com/11/8/atfish.jpg). ---
**Author:** ![Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spectre_of_pithecanthropus/32/12343_2.png) [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spectre_of_Pithecanthropus)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2018, 8:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wait-didnt-that-used-to-be-when-businesses-change/810652/42 "2018-03-18T08:16:30Z")
The Bella Union Hotel, the oldest in Los Angeles and going all the way back to the 1840s and once the scene of Old West vendettas, became…a parking lot around 1940. This sort of thing is very common! ---
**Author:** ![kambuckta](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/53a042/32.png) [@kambuckta](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kambuckta)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2018, 8:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wait-didnt-that-used-to-be-when-businesses-change/810652/43 "2018-03-18T08:28:23Z")
Three years ago I moved back to the town where I spent my childhood in the 1960’s. Obviously many things had changed, including the shops in the main street. But ONE had stayed the test of time, unaltered for the most part…the FISH AND CHIP SHOP. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2018, 8:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wait-didnt-that-used-to-be-when-businesses-change/810652/44 "2018-03-18T08:31:54Z")
When I was in high school, my family built a True Value hardware store in suburban Green Bay. Our timing turned out to be terrible, as we opened it in the fall of 1979, when the economy was going into the tank. The interest rates on the loans that my father and my uncle had taken out to build the place shot up, sales were poor (because it was a recession), and after losing money for several years, we wound up closing the store in '83, just as I was graduating from high school. The building was eventually sold, and became a roller-skating rink for about 20 years, before that, too, went out of business. The building was sold again, and it’s now a church. The inside looks radically different now than it did when we owned it, but [the exterior is identical to how it looked back when it was first built](https://www.google.com/maps/uv?hl=en&pb=!1s0x8802f0daeaa26075:0x701b6e4d36da8619!2m22!2m2!1i80!2i80!3m1!2i20!16m16!1b1!2m2!1m1!1e1!2m2!1m1!1e3!2m2!1m1!1e5!2m2!1m1!1e4!2m2!1m1!1e6!3m1!7e115!4s/maps/place/life%2Bbridge%2Bchurch%2Bhoward%2Bwi/@44.5635148,-88.0796024,3a,75y,46.76h,90t/data%3D*213m4*211e1*213m2*211sF0KhkFSJAjxcTk4qTEl4yw*212e0*214m2*213m1*211s0x8802f0daeaa26075:0x701b6e4d36da8619!5slife+bridge+church+howard+wi+-+Google+Search&imagekey=!1e2!2sF0KhkFSJAjxcTk4qTEl4yw&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwi4ls7LuvXZAhXxqFkKHexMCZkQpx8IhQEwDQ) (though, I spoke recently with the church’s pastor, and he told me that they’re about to remodel the front entrance). ---
**Author:** ![Robot\_Arm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/robot_arm/32/18280_2.png) [@Robot\_Arm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Robot_Arm)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2018, 10:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wait-didnt-that-used-to-be-when-businesses-change/810652/45 "2018-03-18T10:37:56Z")
> [@Cub\_Mistress](#): > > An old-school Pizza Hut with the distinctive roof that is now a public library. > [@dzeiger](#): > > There’s actually a very specific subReddit just for Pizza Huts > > [https://www.reddit.com/r/FormerPizzaHuts/](https://www.reddit.com/r/FormerPizzaHuts/) There’s a whole blog for [UTBAPH](http://usedtobeapizzahut.blogspot.com/)s. ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2018, 12:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wait-didnt-that-used-to-be-when-businesses-change/810652/46 "2018-03-18T12:48:57Z")
I live next door two a shopping mall (it actually was two when I first moved in 1977). Only two of the business are still in business, a bank and an optician (and the optician has changed location). There’s also a liquor store that’s been there most of the time, but which has changed names. The long list of lost businesses include a drug store, a book store, an art supply, Baskin-Robbins ice cream :(, a movie theater ☹ :(, a pool hall, Woolworths, three supermarket chains, video stores, a couple of department stores, several restaurants, and a bunch of clothing stores. ---
**Author:** ![Dr\_Paprika](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dr_paprika/32/3042_2.png) [@Dr\_Paprika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr_Paprika)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2018, 10:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wait-didnt-that-used-to-be-when-businesses-change/810652/47 "2018-03-18T22:03:24Z")
I know a place in a Mexican town that has been a casino, bank, night club, hotel and ballroom dancing venue. Over less than ten years. Hope springs eternal. But if one convenience store didn’t make it in a given location, the next convenience store is probably fighting uphill. ---
**Author:** ![alphaboi867](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alphaboi867/32/3898_2.png) [@alphaboi867](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/alphaboi867)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2018, 1:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wait-didnt-that-used-to-be-when-businesses-change/810652/48 "2018-03-19T01:41:52Z")
> [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > 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. If I ever make it to Buenos Aires [this](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/El_Ateneo_Grand_Splendid) is one of the places I’ll visit. ---
**Author:** ![Doctor\_Jackson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/doctor_jackson/32/32_2.png) [@Doctor\_Jackson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Doctor_Jackson)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2018, 1:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wait-didnt-that-used-to-be-when-businesses-change/810652/49 "2018-03-19T13:24:17Z")
The house where I grew up turned commercial when my parents sold it and became an antiques store, then a wedding dress shop (my wife bought her dress there!), then some kind of commercial contractor - all with no change to the exterior. It’s since been torn down and is now an empty lot. ---
**Author:** ![Buford\_was\_no\_angel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/4bbf92/32.png) [@Buford\_was\_no\_angel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Buford_was_no_angel)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2018, 2:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wait-didnt-that-used-to-be-when-businesses-change/810652/50 "2018-03-19T14:13:45Z")
> [@dwyr](#): > > We’ve got an Italian restaurant that used to be a synagogue that used to be a Presbyterian Church built around 1890. [Joe Bologna’s?](http://www.joebolognas.com) Ahh, the pizza-gogue. Good to see another central Kentuckian on here. ---
**Author:** ![Kimballkid](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/b5a626/32.png) [@Kimballkid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kimballkid)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2018, 4:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wait-didnt-that-used-to-be-when-businesses-change/810652/51 "2018-03-19T16:46:45Z")
The hospital I was born in became a nursing home. I always joked that I could go out in the same building I came in but then it was turned into a county office building. ---
**Author:** ![Kimballkid](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/b5a626/32.png) [@Kimballkid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kimballkid)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2018, 4:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wait-didnt-that-used-to-be-when-businesses-change/810652/52 "2018-03-19T16:49:36Z")
> [@xizor](#): > > 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. Ours became a Chinese restaurant but they changed the color scheme. They did keep the piling and chain thing in the front though. ---
**Author:** ![ElvisL1ves](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/5daacb/32.png) [@ElvisL1ves](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ElvisL1ves)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2018, 4:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wait-didnt-that-used-to-be-when-businesses-change/810652/53 "2018-03-19T16:52:25Z")
The former home of the Center of Science and Industry in Columbus, across from the original Wendy’s and next to the cylindrical Christopher Inn hotel, was previously Memorial Hall, a civic auditorium. The arrangement of exhibits around the balcony and stage, and in the old theater offices, gave the building a little more character than the new COSI. The interior was stripped out and the glass-box entry were removed from the building, restoring the original facade, and it is now office space. ---
**Author:** ![Kimballkid](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/b5a626/32.png) [@Kimballkid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kimballkid)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2018, 4:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wait-didnt-that-used-to-be-when-businesses-change/810652/54 "2018-03-19T16:58:29Z")
In the city where I went to college was an old lumberyard that was turned into a bar/night club/restaurant type thing. It had two or three bars in it. It was called _The Lumber Company_. ---
**Author:** ![Kimballkid](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/b5a626/32.png) [@Kimballkid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kimballkid)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2018, 5:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wait-didnt-that-used-to-be-when-businesses-change/810652/55 "2018-03-19T17:00:33Z")
In a very small town a few miles away, they turned the old schoolhouse into a bar/night club. The old classrooms turned into bars and restrooms still had the chalkboards on the walls. They had the bands on the old gymnasium stage and dancing on the gym floor. ---
**Author:** ![Inigo\_Montoya](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/inigo_montoya/32/124_2.png) [@Inigo\_Montoya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Inigo_Montoya)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2018, 5:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wait-didnt-that-used-to-be-when-businesses-change/810652/56 "2018-03-19T17:31:07Z")
> [@Colibri](#): > > Later we saw that it had been converted into a store to sell quilts and sewing supplies. Still later, we were highly amused to see that it had been converted into a massage parlor of sorts. But in order to avoid laws about calling themselves a massage parlor if they didn’t have trained masseuses, instead they gave “feather rubs,” where they would stroke you gently with a feather duster. I kid you not. Ah, feather rubs: the Rolfing of Reiki therapy. 😃 I love Boulder sometimes. ---
**Author:** ![Folacin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/folacin/32/3195_2.png) [@Folacin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Folacin)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2018, 5:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wait-didnt-that-used-to-be-when-businesses-change/810652/57 "2018-03-19T17:58:49Z")
> [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > 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 movie theater in my (very) small home town was purchased by the VFW (which was next door). They poured a crap-ton on concrete to level the floor, and turned it into a banquet hall/dance floor (both of my high school proms were held there (which was a big step up from the HS gym my older siblings did theirs in)). ---
**Author:** ![MissTake](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/misstake/32/3189_2.png) [@MissTake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MissTake)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2018, 6:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wait-didnt-that-used-to-be-when-businesses-change/810652/58 "2018-03-19T18:33:15Z")
Old bank from the 70’s is now half a Wendy’s, half a dance studio. Another old bank from the 70’s became an architectural firm, and is now an emergency vet clinic. An old White Castle became Dominos pizza; however, very little was done to change the WC building façade. The roller skating rink that I spent many Friday nights at as a teen became a furniture store and is now a Laotian event center. There’s a church down the street that began as a Lutheran church, then Presbyterian, then Universal Faith, and is now Cambodian Lutheran. Kind of full circle. ---
**Author:** ![Bookkeeper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bookkeeper/32/281_2.png) [@Bookkeeper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bookkeeper)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2018, 7:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wait-didnt-that-used-to-be-when-businesses-change/810652/59 "2018-03-19T19:17:23Z")
[Wallis House](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wallis_House) in Ottawa was originally built as the Carleton County Protestant General Hospital in 1876, but closed in 1924 when it was replaced by the new Civic Hospital. It then became a Catholic seminary until 1943 when the Royal Canadian Navy took it over as a women’s barracks. After a brief use as post-war emergency housing, it housed a number of Reserve units until it was boarded up in the 80s when maintenance became too costly. A number of proposals were made for the building, including turning the building into a city run and regulated brothel :eek:, but it was eventually successfully turned into high end condos. ---
**Author:** ![Hopeful\_Crow](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/da6949/32.png) [@Hopeful\_Crow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hopeful_Crow)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2018, 8:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wait-didnt-that-used-to-be-when-businesses-change/810652/60 "2018-03-19T20:09:38Z")
There was a theatre in my home town that became a Pizza and Pipes type place. There was a guy who played the organ and triggered various other instruments along the walls. He took requests and did shout outs and was very entertaining. The place lasted four or five years before closing. Wish it was still there. After it closed, the floor was leveled and has housed a standard (blah) pizza place ever since, along with few other business that seem to regularly come and go. On the next block over there was a cosmetology school for a long time, then it briefly became an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting house, then became a stained glass store and studio which seems to still be doing well. Also nearby is a bank that became the town’s city hall for about twenty years. Now the city hall is in a new building, along with the library. The building the library was in is now a community/senior center. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wait-didnt-that-used-to-be-when-businesses-change/810652.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wait-didnt-that-used-to-be-when-businesses-change/810652.md?page=4)