Website Updating: More Movie Theatre and Eateries

Back to the Movie Theatre section. Gosh, I was just in New Rockford, ND last year:

But here’s what’s left at StreetView as of August. The roof collapsed in December. Fortunately, not while anyone was inside. Just five minutes beforehand, they were clearing snow off the roof. They are hoping to restore the theatre but I am skeptical unless someone with a ton of money comes through:

The Ashland Theatre in Ashland, VA from 1948 was restored in 2018 and is still showing movies. Unlike so many theatres, they kept the neon and the readerboards. This StreetView photo from July showing the guy changing the letters makes me so happy:

This theatre in Woodburn, OR had been vacant for many years. It is gone now:

There’s a painted wall in the parking lot where the theatre was:

The Chehalis Theatre in Chehalis, WA has opened and closed many times since my 2015 photos:

Last year, it reopened as the McFiler’s Chehalis Theatre with an adapted marquee:

The long-vacant Franroy Theatre sign in Snyder, OK got some new paint recently:

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We now move on to the Eateries section. Just four sections to go but they are the biggest — more than 1100 pages of them all together. After Eateries there will be Gas Stations, Signs, and Midcentury Modern Buildings.

The former Heap Big Beef in Greensboro, NC housed Ghassan’s restaurant from 1975-2020. It reopened as Mike’s Vegan Grill in April and the building has been given a vegan-appropriate paint job:

Even the modern Whataburgers like this one in Tyler, TX…:

… are not spared from closing and being adapted:

This old Whataburger in Waco, TX was built in. By 2020, the building was demolished but the canopy remained:

Last year, a new building was built behind it but they kept the canopy:

This wonderfully intact A&W in Visalia, CA has closed:

It now houses Doc’s Chicken Spot but at least the pilgrim hat, canopy, and oval sign frame remain:

This former Burger Chef in Montgomery, AL is gone now:

The Biff-Burger in St. Petersburg, FL closed a couple of years ago and it is gone now. A really big vacant lot. The sign was sold at auction but I don’t know where it went: