Historic City Memories: Stores from the past

Memories of stores from the past

The A & P, McCrory’s, Woolworth’s and Western Auto

By Geoff Dobson

Last week, The Great Atlantic and Pacific Tea Company filed for Chapter 11 Bankruptcy.

It brought back memories of stores that used to be in St. Augustine but are now gone, the A & P, F. W. Woolworth & Company, McCrory’s and Western Auto.

The A & P used to be located across from the Post Office on the first floor of the Masonic Temple building on Central Avenue (Now Martin Luther King Avenue).

McCrory’s and Western Auto were all on St. George Street.

Woolworth’s was on King Street in the “Ponce de Leon Shopping Center” just to the east of Trinity Parrish Church. Also housed in the shopping center were Walgreen’s, Butler Shoes, Diana and Lerner Shop.

One of the distinctive things about an old A & P was the aroma of freshly ground coffee. A & P featured their own brands of coffee, “Eight O’clock” coffee, “Red Circle” coffee and “Bokar Coffee.” The former was the cheapest, a bit thin, and the latter the more expensive.

The A & P coffee was freshly ground. The customer bought the roasted beans which were packaged in paper bags and then a clerk would grind the coffee. Freshly roasted and ground coffee provides a much superior beverage.

Prior to the Civil War, coffee had to be made from green beans which were roasted and ground at home. Roasted beans tended to rapidly lose their aroma and the oils would turn rancid from exposure to air.

In 1868, John Arbuckle invented a process of coating roasted beans with a combination of egg white and sugar — which filled the pores of the beans and hermetically sealed the beans so that they would keep for months. The egg white would also settle the grounds and the sugar would sweeten the coffee. Thus, beans could be sold already roasted in one pound bags.

Arbuckle “Ariosa” coffee was popular with cowboys and freighters who would not have the ability to roast beans on the trail. It was, however, a simple matter to have a coffee grinder on the mess wagon.

In each bag of beans, Arbuckle included a card which would feature either a map and scenes of a state, one of the 50 principal countries of the world, a sporting activity, or, a wild animal. In later years, the back of the card would also give a thumbnail sketch of the country’s or state’s principal industries and history.

By selling the beans this way, A & P also solved the problem of the beans turning stale. Hermetically sealed cans of ground beans solve the staleness problem, but nevertheless the freshly ground coffee is superior and it was that aroma which is now gone from most modern supermarkets; although some stores will still sell the beans and one may grind the beans oneself.

St. Augustine had two “five and dime” stores, Woolworth’s and McCrory’s.

In St. Augustine, Woolworth’s is remembered mainly for its involvement in the Freedom sit-ins. Generally forgotten is that the building was designed by world famous architect Morris Lapidus; famous for the Fontainebleau Hotel in Miami Beach. A few years ago the Woolworth’s lunch counter was purchased with the thought that it would be a centerpiece for a proposed museum.

Woolworth stores in the United States are gone. In the United Kingdom, most, if not all of their stores, popularly referred to as “Woolie’s”, have now also closed — a victim of competition from superstores such as Tesco’s. There are no Tesco’s in Florida and, thus, the writer’s wife made a point that we had to stop at Tesco’s in Inverness on our way to John O’Groats a year or so ago. Woolworth’s, however, remains the number one retail chain in Australia.

McCrory’s was located on St. George Street — just to the north of the Bank of America parking lot. The McCrory chain was founded by John Graham McCrorey. He changed his name by dropping the “E” in order to save on the cost of the golden gilt letters on his signs. The local McCrory’s has now been turned into a tourist mall containing numerous small tee shirt and souvenir shops.

One attracted the writer’s attention several weeks ago. The window did not indicate that it was a tee shirt shop. The window was covered with signage depicting various brands of imported beer. Indeed, there were enough brands depicted to rival even the Blake Street Tavern or the Falling Rock Tap House both near Coor’s Field. Denver is a beer drinking town. (Falling Rock has well over a hundred brands). The sign in the window indicated the presence of Murphy’s Irish Dry Stout within. The writer prefers Murphy’s even over Guinness Ales, it was not to be. What was sold was a tee shirt featuring Murphy’s.

The only indication that the mall was once a McCrory’s was an historic marker within indicating that McCrory’s lunch counter too was on the Freedom Trail.

The Western Auto was located on the east side of St. George Street. The Western Auto chain was founded by George Pepperdine after home Pepperdine University is named. Western Auto was similar to Sears Roebuck & Co., and Montgomery Wards featuring many different types of household goods, Christmas toys for children, etc.

Western Auto was famous for its Western Flyer bicycles. Every boy really wanted a Western Flyer with dual-spring fork, electric horn, directional turn signals and a Rocket Ray 200 ft. headlight.

One Christmas the St. George Street Western Auto advertised that $10.00 would hold an item until a particular date. Sometimes an item would be put on layaway merely as a way from hiding it from the child. That year, the writer’s wife put down the $10.00 to hold a highly desirable and in short supply Star Wars “Death Star” at the Western Auto. On the appointed time the writer’s wife returned to pick up the Death Star but the store had sold the item before it could be picked up for Christmas … and they refused to refund the $10.00!

After that time, the wife never missed an opportunity to trash the Western Auto. The chain was ultimately sold to Sears and then re-sold. Some associate stores remain; unrelated except in name to the original chain. Some survive in Puerto Rico as auto parts stores.

Geoff Dobson, a St Augustine resident for the past 33 years, is a western and Florida history writer and was former General Counsel for the Florida Department of Transportation. He is a former president of the St. Augustine Historical Society and a regular contributor of nostalgic memories to Historic City News. Before his parents moved to Florida, his father was a Black Angus cattleman. Geoff has written extensively on Wyoming history (“Wyoming Tales and Trails”). When Geoff was in high school, his family lived in the cattle country of eastern Sarasota County. The family spread, which his parents called “Wild Cat Slough,” was reachable only by a pair of ruts over the sand hills and through a snake and gator infested slough. Now, it is an area of four-lane roads, expensive subdivisions, shopping centers, and office parks. . His undergraduate degree is in history. Geoff received his post-graduate degree from the University of Florida. He may be reached at horse.creek.cowboy@gmail.com