The Incredible Shrinking A&P

Excuse the brief update. I have had quite the busy week! More content should be coming soon, including a small retrospective of pictures that don’t really fit anywhere else. For now though enjoy A&P.

 

A&P is not a well known grocer in the Houston area. They never had their own division, and were based out of Dallas. The number of stores I have seen varies somewhat. My estimation has it around 5, no more than 10. So far I have only been able to learn of one former A&P. It was at S. Post Oak, and W. Belfort. Across from the current Kroger store.

This location was recently the victim of some light demolition. The store originally opened in the early 1960s. I can’t find an exact date but know it was prior to or during 1962. The left and right sides were scaled back quite a bit.

The “wings” on the building were actually an addition. The original building plus a little bit of the left wing, which features Cue’s Burgers is all that’s left.

 

I’m not sure why the left side was demolished. The right side was to help accommodate a new gas station. However, both sides as this point feature open grass, as opposed to filled in parking lot.

With the front and sides remodeled, the building looks pretty nice. The back is mostly untouched, although things like loading docks were all filled in when A&P closed. I can’t find an exact date but I do know it was prior to the 1980s.

5 comments

  1. Mr.Patterson is correct.
    A&P was in the building at 130 Parking Way, old downtown Lake Jackson.

    1. Yes.There were two A&P’s in the Brazosport area
      The one on Parki g Way in Lake Jackson and one in the old Tarpon Inn Village Shopping Center in downtown Freeport.

  2. Did you confirm that this was a former A&P? I always thought it was a somewhat dubious long shot. There are some microfilms of older directories that have reverse listings for multiple locations. I could check them out for you some time. Not too surprised A&P had a Dallas division originally and no Houston division…Safeway had a store in Bryan even in the early 1950s, and that was when it was part of the Dallas division. It was moved to the Houston division in the 1970s.

    1. I confirmed it best as I could, which included online references to this specific location, old satellite imagery which shows the expansion, and close comparison of the copula and arch above the doorway leads me to believe that this was originally an A&P.

      However, to be completely sure I agree we should check out the reverse listings. Maybe we could even find some old yellow pages at HMRC?

    2. I remember there were at least two A&P’s in the Brazosport Area.
      First there was an A&P in the now defunct Tarpon Inn Shopping Center in Downtown Freeport.
      I don’t know when it closed but I do know that my brother in law’s family bought it and ran it for a number of years.
      I beleive there was also on in Lake Jackson.
      John T.Patterson.Freeport resident 1959-74.

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