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VINTAGRAPH • WPA • WWII • YOU MEAN A WOMAN CAN OPEN IT?

The Rest of the Store(s)

Continuation of the scene last glimpsed here, with the Acme supermarket at right. Silver Spring, Maryland, circa 1948. "Acme Market. Four Corners -- Woodmoor Shopping Center, Colesville Pike and Old Bladensburg Road. Schreier & Patterson, architects." Photo by Theodor Horydczak. View full size.

Continuation of the scene last glimpsed here, with the Acme supermarket at right. Silver Spring, Maryland, circa 1948. "Acme Market. Four Corners -- Woodmoor Shopping Center, Colesville Pike and Old Bladensburg Road. Schreier & Patterson, architects." Photo by Theodor Horydczak. View full size.

 

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Woodmoor Supermarket

I lived in the neighborhood behind the Woodmoor Shopping Center, on St. Lawrence Street, for just over a year in the mid 2000s. I bought a ton of wine at the Woodmoor Supermarket/Beer and Wine store. While my wine was usually of the boxed variety, that little store had an impressive beer and wine selection back then.

Bowling

The basement duckpin lanes at Woodmoor didn't have automatic machines, but pin spotters who jumped down and reset the pins manually. Fontana's at University and Carroll had two levels - one tenpin and one duckpin; went to many a birthday party there.

In addition to Silver Spring, Strosniders still has thriving locations in Bethesda (Arlington Road & Bradley) and Potomac Village.

2 grocery stores and a deli

There was the Acme Supermarket, the Federal Market and in between (where you see the Groceries sign) was the Woodmoor Deli. The Deli was owned and operated by two WWIi vets - Fred and George I believe. George was a big man and sported a faded tattoo of a Hula Girl captioned "new Guinean 1943).

I bought my first 6 pack in that Deli and though it was not my name, George called me "Marty" for years due to a name printed on an old uniform shirt I wore while pumping gas at the ESSO.

That Cadillac

may be a '48. All of the Caddy pics I can find online show only the '48s with a single backup light, although some '48s also had two.

[1948 Cadillacs had three chrome "whiskers" under each taillamp. - Dave]

The 1948 Series 61 Sedanet didn't: note also the single backup light.

Woodmoor Deli

The store with the Groceries sign is the old Woodmoor Deli. It was run by two WWII vets - one of which sported a tattoo of a Hula girl captioned New Guinea 1944. I bought my first six pack of beer there long before I should have been allowed to.

Instant recognition

I recognized Woodmoor instantly, for in spite of many changes of stores the buildings look very much as they did forty years ago, modulo some careful renovation. The florist on the corner (which I think, from this shot, replaced part of the Acme) still even has its original neon sign on the roof.

Even More Woodmoor

Woodmoor Shopping Center was developed by Standen and Chester Keller who later developed Beltway Plaza and what would be known as Hechinger Plaza.

The flagpole rises over the area's first Post Office, which moved to larger nearby quarters in August 1961. To its left was the Woodmoor Bakery. A bakery fire in the '60s leveled part of the strip, but second story offices were added during reconstruction.

In addition to their hardware store, Strosnider's also originally ran the 5 & 10, but Strosnider son-in-law Larry Olsen would assume the business; moving it into the old P.O. site. The original 5 & 10 site then became China House Restaurant.

Only phase one of the shopping center is visible in this photo. In the '50s, the strip expanded northward (left) bringing a Peoples Drug Store, Liquor and Gift Stores, the Woodmoor Lanes, a Suburban Trust bank and a larger Montgomery County Library.

The downstairs duckpin alley that Lewisdale John remembers closed suddenly and was replaced for a while by Slot Car Racing. Ultimately, the cozy cellar became the permanent home of the Silver Spring Stage players.

The modern view

I'm pretty sure this is the correct view, today. Interesting to see the contours of the buildings maintained when they built the 2nd floor.


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Still there and much improved

The one thing you can not do now is park your Caddy on the shoulder of what is now University Blvd. Also the center of the photo is what is under the Woodmoor sign today. And if that Hardware store would later be Strosnider's Hardware they live on in downtown Silver Spring. The Arcade is still there it leads to a parking lot in the back.

The Most Powerful

Car in the lot sits proudly by itself! The 1949 Cadillac, in a world still being propelled by flat head six and straight eight puddle jumpers with a maximum horsepower of maybe 120, the brand new 160 horsepower overhead valve V-8 sitting in the second year of the 1948 body, is the wave of the future and the 50's! With its four-speed Hydra-Matic, it can literally peel out of the lot and leave any of the other cars in its dust! When the accelerator is floored, the rear end squats down and the front end rises up with it beautiful hood goddess leading the way!

Bowled There

There was a bowling alley downstairs at Woodmoor. It was duckpins of course; even after Fontana's opened around the corner I don't think there were tenpins in that neighborhood until the mid 60's.

Dr. Thibodeaux had his office there for a long time, too.

Blast from the Past

Have been exchanging email with my sibs over the Acme photos. We grew up in the Four Corners area, ca. 1947--1962 for me. We used to walk past the Acme twice a day, along what was then University Boulevard, to and from St. Bernadette's school (right or to the east).

The "Hardware-Auto Supplies" was (by the fifties) Strosnider's Hardware. I don't remember what most of the other merchants became, but.... The "Groceries" became a savings and loan, where I had my first savings account (which paid more interest--4%--in the mid-fifties than you can get now!). The dark area to the left of "Groceries" was an arcade. Through the arcade on the left was a barber shop and a realty office. On the right was a stair up to the second level, which housed the library, where I spent many an hour. (In later years, the library relocated all the way to the left of the strip.) Also on the right of the arcade was a TV repair shop, where I had many a tube tested.

'49 is fine

Great looking '49 Cadillac fastback -- a car is a car, but that is a RIDE!

1949 Cadillac

The Cadillac on the right is a new 1949 Series 61 coupe, so it must be late 1948 or spring 1949.

Fins

The Cadillac on the right is gorgeous. And at least its owner washes it!

Three grocery stores?

This second photo appears to have a DCS (?) Supermarket at the far left end, another small, unsigned grocery store in the middle, with two men standing in front, plus our Acme Supermarket on the right.

Did that small plaza really have three places selling food items? If so, at least parking was probably always available nearby for each.

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