Friendly's 11th Hour - Former Friendly's (future 7-Eleven #41184) and 7-Eleven #10126 - Melbourne, FL

 

"It'll be interesting to see if anything will ever move into this place and if they'll modify it any, because this place will definitely make for an interesting conversion if left mostly intact." -Albertsons Florida Blog, December 22, 2018

Our starting words are the parting words from when we were last here, when AFB posted a set of photos he took all the way back in 2018. At that time, the building, while a little worn by time, still had some hopes for reuse. Unfortunately, not reuse- but demolition- is in this building's future.

Following it's approval by the zoning board, advertisements went up for prospective franchisees for this site's future tenant- 7-Eleven #41184. While Palm Bay High School is visible in the background of this shot, we're also not far from the Florida Institute of Technology, and along with it, a thorn in their side for some time- 7-Eeven #10126.

This store first shows up in newspapers in 1972, and property records indicate that this building was built all the way back in 1966, so this building is a dinosaur by Central Florida standards. Unfortunately, this store hasn't exactly aged like a fine wine. According to some, the nearby FIT considers this whole corner "blighted", and wants it demolished. It scores a 2.9 on Google Reviews, and the sole Yelp review levies it one star. They bring consistent reports of mismatched prices, short-changing cashiers, and ever-present panhandlers.

But anybody can slander a convenience store, from behind a keyboard. What's the experience like inside?

To put it, in a word: outdated.

A notable feature of this store is this weird little entryway which, whatever purpose it originally served, is now stuffed with random merchandise.

It's a small, old store with a limited selection and wall decor that is likely twice my age.

The coolers, while at least functional and not horrifically leaking, are those ancient, brass-y colored ones that I associate with backroads gas stations found only off obscure highway exits during road trips.

    This store, owing to it's age, is also the increasingly rarely spotted c-store only 7-Eleven, without even a single pump outside. While the lot probably could fit one or two, it sits next to a standard Mobil station, so their omission isn't surprising. Plus, I doubt there was a chance to add them in the seeming 0 renovations it's had since day 1. Other than the 7-Eleven, this building is also home to two smaller shops, consisting of a barber shop and an Asian restaurant.

With that visit to a depressingly decayed operating business over with, let's return to a depressingly decayed former business! Hooray!

Time has not proven kind to this building, and that wear is apparent in the paintjob. What was once a nice, eye pleasing red has been reduced to a patchy, chalky color that's been totally bleached off in many places.

I had far worse luck with interior shots than AFB did, due to a combination of filth covered windows and newly overgrown shubbery blocking my path. However, not much seems to have changed, except a much thicker layer of dust over everything. It's sad that all this is almost certainly destined to become rubble when the building comes down.

This tree looks like it can be CUT!.. I mean... what?

Do you know how much it costs for a good little palm tree like this? It's more than you'd think.

All the shrubs and decorative plants, while again almost certainly depressingly left to become mulch, at least make for some poignant photographs.

This completes our look at a sad former Friendly's, and a dinosaur of a soon-to-be-former 7-Eleven. While the building has increasingly become an eyesore over the years, as paint fades and bushes overgrow, I'm gonna be sad when the wrecking ball finally comes down on this old Friendly's. I associate the chain without nothing but good memories, of family outings and ice cream, and while we still have an operating Friendly's in Indian Harbour Beach, it was nice to have even a crude reminder closer to home.

With that, this has been Cape Kennedy Retail. Until next time.

Exxon's Exit - Exxon Demolition - Melbourne, FL

 Once, there were three gas stations.

The first to fall was the New Haven Chevron, located at 15 E New Haven Avenue.

Disappearing quietly from at least the news press in the late 1990s, a rare non-Eckerd conversion CVS was built on it's site in 2003.

The second, was Gene's Shell.

A vintage, peaked roof Shell station, it was operated for likely it's entire life by it's namesake, Gene L Johnson, an Ohio native who had moved to the area in 1969. It's likely this station was built not soon after. Gene L. Johnson would pass away in 2002, at the age of 75.

By 2007, it had suffered a common fate for old service stations; converted into a used car lot, named "Car Cabana".

By 2011, while much quieter, there appeared to still be some activity at the site. However, this vintage building was not to stand.

Car lots and mechanics determined an urban blight, the wrecking ball fell in 2015, with the lot redeveloped into an AT&T store to buy new phones, an iFixGalaxy to fix that when you broke it, and a Tijuana Flats to numb the pricetag of the latest iPhone in beer and burritos.

The final one to fall, was the New Haven Exxon.

A wonderfully preserved, and still operating, vintage Exxon, which, to the very end, offered Full Service at one of it's pumps. A fly in amber, it seemed perfectly stable in it's little lot, situated on the corner of New Haven and Babcock.

Until it very abruptly wasn't.

One unremarkable morning in September, terrifying words rolled onto a local Facebook page.

"Does anyone know what's going on at the old Exxon on New Haven & Babcock? There's an excavator parked next to it."

A quick trip to the scene revealed the worst. Demolition crews had come to pull down the intersection's final gas station. By the time I had arrived, the office half of the building had already been pulled down, with only the damaged repair bays and the canopy still standing.

The one silver lining to this situation is that by the time I'd arrived, the demolition crew had parked their equipment and left for the day, giving me essentially free rein around the property.

The road sign was already stripped out, the panel presumably shipped off to be reused at another Exxon station in Florida.

One minorly amusing thing revealed by demolition was that the building was not in fact brick, but actually cinderblock with a brick facing.

Paperwork, notices, and convenient phone numbers are still attached to this pegboard, clinging to the half-demolished wall.

I considered taking a cinderblock from this pile just as a souvenir, but ended up not doing it.

A pile of scrap metal, old cabinets and support beams, lays separated from the rest of the rubble, likely to be hauled off to a metal recycler.

I'm not sure what happened to this air and vacuum kiosk, (maybe stripped of copper or something?) but they've taken a beating since they were in use. While the styling does remind me of Amoco, this has been an Exxon station since the day it was built in 1968.

Also notable is that you can see both former gas station lots in the background here.

The canopy and the pumps were the last to fall, with it being torn down shortly after the tanks were removed, about a week after I stopped by.

Despite all the branding thrown around, a review I read indicated that this station didn't actually sell Exxon-branded fuel, despite carrying the name.

A shot of the remaining repair bays here gives us a good view of the peaked roof and the windows installed in the roof. I almost wish someone could have come in to salvage these, but I'm not sure what use they'd have in another building.

I also enjoy the random office chair, floating around. Boss has to sit somewhere, I guess.

This side of the building must have been where they stored junk and other parts, and there's enough stains to indicate a miniature superfund site worth of spilled oil, antifreeze, and gasoline over the decades.

A look through the windows shows us the debris and rubble strewn interior of the garage. 

I'll leave off with a photo of this Full Service sign that I picked off the ground and saved, despite it's damage. I'd read that there was one pump, closest to the building, that was still full service up until the day they closed, so this likely adorned that pump. Despite looking quite weathered and old, the other side has a more modern Exxon advertisement. So I'm not sure how old it really is.

The Texaco sign behind it is a cheap repro I bought at a gift shop, so don't get excited about it.

Now, I haven't mentioned it yet, but the new business taking over this site is a car wash, called Dirty Dog's Car Wash. Now the issue is that their typical car washes are all bigger than this plot alone, which means... this wasn't the only building destined for the wrecking ball.

The other building to come down for the new car wash was this zig-zag roofed strip mall, which actually pre-dates the gas station by 6 years, being built in 1962. By this time, it was totally vacant, so it being demolished wasn't surprising. Thankfully Leonard's Auto Sales, next door to the Exxon and originally a private home built in the 1920s, isn't being demolished.

The only real visible remnants came from the cutely namely Spy Source Plus, an interesting store selling hidden cameras, CCTV equipment, and other gear. It also had a small road sign, which was the only road sign the plaza ever appeared to have, but my photo of that came out blurry.

With that, until next time. This was Cape Kennedy Retail.

Please Remove Your Motels and Lock Your Restaurants - Former Howard Johnsons - Titusville, FL

Brevard County is a sad place if you're looking for Howard Johnsons remnants. Melbourne is, while technically still standing, lacking a gate lodge or restaurant, and also a site with a ...disturbing (warning: rather involved discussion of murder) history. Cocoa Beach lost it's interesting sections many years ago, and while the "Plaza Hotel" section remains as a Double Tree, it's a later built high-rise with none of the charm. Cocoa had very well kept specimen, operating as a sketchy motel, until it's demolition was ordered and it was reduced to rubble in 2005. That leaves only one location on our roster...

Titusville. Ah, Titusville. The "Miracle City" gone bust. Titusville's Howard Johnson's initially seems a gold mine, if you read the Under The Orange Roof article on it. A beautiful, orange-roofed gate lodge. An amazingly preserved exterior.

So of course, they knocked it down in 2014, with nebulous plans for it to become condominiums.

RIP AND TEAR! - Photo courtesy Florida Today

However, one thing remains from Howard Johnson's once vast presence on the Space Coast, and that is the restaurant of the now gone Titusville Howard Johnson's.

Okay, well, the sign isn't very interesting. And I doubt it has any origins in the HoJo days. But, I don't have a good overview shot of the building itself, so we'll start here.

The building, despite a revolving door of tenants (like many former HoJo restaurants) retains many hallmarks of it's original tenant. There's no more weather vane, but we still have the slotted piece on the roof. I also really like the large glass panel windows towards the entrance.

A nice close-up of the glass windows.

The entrance is seperated from the glass windows by some small walls; I'm unsure if the big board was once a window, but it'd fit. The "Q" is for "Quam's Kitchen", the most recent tenant here, which closed in August 2018, claiming they had been released from the lease due to repairs needed to the building.

Quam's converted some of the excess exterior space to an outdoor seating area, with a lot of big wooden fencing. Not sure how long that wheelbarrow had been there, or whether or not it was part of the landscaping.

I believe this boxy bit at the back here is just the dining room, but it seems awkwardly built. I don't believe it's an addition though, as it matches the rest of the building.

Looking out towards the Indian River, this is where we would have once seen the motel building in all it's glory. Now, it's just an empty lot, behind chain link. The news article from 2014 said that the owner had been given "a few years" to do something with the property. So far? Nothing. Not that we need more condominiums.

I only managed to pictures of the interior, however I don't think I missed much. The interior appears to be from Quam's or previous independents- none of it' exactly screams HoJo's. I do enjoy the little bird on the chalkboard back there.

The carpet's pretty funky, as is the lampshade, so maybe they're original. But I'm still not too sure. As you can see, Quam's was well closed up by this point, with all the chairs stacked up and away and the interior increasingly stripped bare.

Here's a better shot of the former motel property. Not much to see, except the lone palm tree, and a small sign. Wonder what that says?

A battered, peeling wooden sign- that is almost certainly from the HoJo days! While moldy and losing letters, the message is clear.

Please Remove Your Motels And Lock Your Restaurants.