The Intersection of Abbe Rd and Colorado Ave Revisited

I’ve written several times about the intersection of Abbe Road (State Route 301) and Colorado Avenue (State Route 611).

I did tons of posts on the Captain Aaron Root house that was on the southwest corner (later demolished to make way for the Dollar General store.)

I did a post on the gas station that used to be on the northeast corner for decades. It was a great old-time gas station too. It always seemed to have a group of friendly people inside, visiting and just hanging out like something out of The Andy Griffith Show. You could even get things notarized there (I did).

I also devoted a whole post to “Before Route 611 Was Widened,” in which I featured some photos I took just as the highway widening was underway in the early 1990s. But although I captured several images of the intersection and two-lane Colorado Avenue, I missed getting a photo of the gas station before it was demolished. 

Fortunately, Doug – one of my newer readers – captured with his camera what I had missed. He graciously shared his photo of the gas station, as well as what was there before it. 

Doug noted that before the gas station was there at the intersection of State Routes 301 & 611, a grocery store called “Friendly Corner Grocery” occupied the location.

Doug shared a few vintage photos of the grocery store, taken after it suffered some property damage. He identified the policeman in the photo as Steve Toth.

Doug believes that the grocery store was eventually moved further west on Colorado Avenue to make way for the gas station.

Speaking of the gas station, here’s Doug’s shot of the shuttered station in 1993.

And here’s the same view a year later.

Doug also had some other photographic goodies to share. Here’s a vintage shot (below) of the brick building opposite the gas station on the south side of Colorado. Doug observed, "The police car looks like a 1965 Ford.” He could also make out the words ‘Schmidt Beer’ above the Liquor sign.

Doug noted that the sign on the ground clearly reads Chris’ – which makes sense, since back on this post about the building, I wrote that Chris’ Restaurant (run by Frank and Chris Bishop) was there from about 1965 to 1970.

Here’s Doug’s photo of the building once the widening was underway.

Thanks to Doug for sharing his photos. Watch for another post soon featuring more images from his archives.