30440 Lakeland - Department Store, Grocery Warehouse, Dentist, Insurance Office

How far can you travel from Euclid proper and still include the subject in this blog? A few miles, if you'll indulge me.

Here's a quick and dirty history of 30440 Lakeland Blvd. in Wickliffe (almost Euclid, right? Right?)

30440 Lakeland Blvd. Wickliffe; now Progressive Insurance

The building, still standing and largely unchanged from the outside, was built on a vacant lot in the early 1960's.

It opened in March 1962 as a Spartan department store. Spartan Industries was owned by Charles Bassine and started out as an apparel manufacturer. The new shopping destination boasted a $2 million investment into a brand new 78,000 square foot location, with 60 plus departments.

In December 1962 when a Sunday closing law came down the pike, Spartan was having exactly none of it.

Ya heard me

Everyone seems ok with this

The photos of the Wickliffe Spartan are grainy and dark, but a Christmas 1964 ad has a gorgeous illustration of the Spartan department store surrounded by stars and blackness that makes it appear to be floating freely through space.

The above December 1964 advert also lists a location at 10701 Brookpark Road.

Right around Easter 2 years later, in 1966, Spartan merged with Atlantic Thrift, becoming Spartan Atlantic. Spartan Atlantic would also merge with E.J. Korvette in September 1966.

This merger added 2 stores to the newly created Spartan Atlantic lineup: Biddolph Shopping Center in Brooklyn and 420 Northfield Road in Bedford.

1970: Looking out through the manager perch at the Wickliffe Spartan Atlantic

Spartan Atlantic had very aesthetically pleasing ads for their entire run. Spartans Industries merged with Arlen Realty & Development Corp. in 1971. Wickliffe Spartan Atlantic was remodeled in 1972, but alas, while they stuck it out through Summer 1974, they were history a little over a year later. They closed their last location in October 1975.

 

 

In 1979 a new tenant was headed for 30440 Lakeland Blvd. - Barney's Food and Drug Warehouse, owned and operated by Kroger, and named for Kroger founder Bernard Barney Kroger.

Barney's grand opening took place the first week of December 1979. Barney's was unique, billed as a "warehouse, food, and variety store," where membership was not required. Barney's carried meat, produce, grocery, dairy, bakery, pharmacy, deli, fresh fish, health and beauty, auto supplies, small appliances, and general merchandise.

2 other locations, Parma and Bedford, dropped the membership requirement when the Wickliffe location opened. The Wickliffe location was larger than the 2 other stores already in operation.

Along with customers bagging or boxing their own purchases, Barney's also featured "new high-speed scanners".

Remember when stores didn't run 24 hours a day even before there was a raging pandemic? I barely do, either, and Barney's extended their store hours in fall 1984, and started staying open until midnight every day except Sunday.

Barney's added a Cleveland location sometime there, too. I am 40 years old now, and I have 2 memories of Barney's:

We were in the car, and it was a turbulent, stormy night. We were at the light there at Lakeland and East 305th. Even though it was night, the storm and the churning clouds gave such a killer backdrop to the towering Barney's sign. I still remember it standing, seemingly in defiance, of the powerful sky.

Then I remember my parents sitting at the kitchen table with our tiny black and white TV on. The news said Barney's was going out of business.

In 1985 Carl's Superstore opened, not wasting much time at all.

Carl's grocery store was owned by Fisher Foods. Fisher Foods would be absorbed by Riser Foods Inc. in 1988. Riser was also comprised of Rego Supermarkets, Rini Supermarkets, and Seaway Foods.

Former Barney's became Carl's superstores in December 1985.

Carl's Superstore was an interesting place. They were eventually open for 24 hours (except Sunday) which, I suppose was to keep up with the Twin Valu Hypermarkets that came about at the end of the 1980's.

 

 

The Wickliffe location had a dentist attached (Center for Family Dentistry), and it was right past frozen/refrigerated food, so even after the dentists office was closed, you could peek in. For a spell, they had a self service "soda" bar. You grabbed a clean 2 liter bottle, filled it with your choice (and boy, did you have many choices) of flavored soda. It seemed to my pre-teen brain that there must have been at least 30 soda choices. Small paper cones were provided for sampling. I thought this soda bar was amazing and frankly... I still think it's pretty damned awesome. As I recall, it was rather short-lived.

I also fondly remember that Carl's had chalkboards with rather lovely artwork on them placed randomly as signage. I always thought this was a nice touch, and really made my begging for Ecto Cooler and packs of Cheese and Crackers even more special. One last memory: it seemed this was the last store where you would see dents from previous shelving arrangements on the floor everywhere. Little black circles pushed into the tile.

 

Carl's Cove Fresh Seafood. Offers good through May 10, 1988

Carl's served Wickliffe and neighboring communities until January, 1992. 4 Carl's locations were rebranded as Stop-N-Shop Supermarkets. The Wickliffe location was not one of them.

The Carl's superstore name was officially retired by 1994.

As fate would have it, the dental office remained open, and my family was seen there for normal appointments. I LOVED being able to walk the property while one of my parents was getting a cleaning, because the huge windows weren't soaped at all, and you could see clear to the back of the place. Shelves, old register belts, all with that fine layer of dust. Carefully examining the pock marked floor, the inevitable dead "store" birds that got in but never got out... it all kicked off my love of urban exploration. The places we don't use anymore that just sit and wait for us.

And it sat empty for a while. Eventually, Progressive Insurance would move in and they remained until the majority of the workforce began working from home. In 2022, signs went up showing that the property is to become an Extra Space Storage. Euclid Twin Value saw the same fate.

 

The property has barely changed from the outside, save color and well, the Golden Goat can recycling machine is gone.

The towering sign still stands against an ever changing sky. And if you look closely, you may realize that it has been there since 1962. Indeed, the pillars of the Wickliffe locations sign match those of another original Spartan store.

Spartan photo source: http://www.wtv-zone.com/dpjohnson/60sdiscountstores/page2.html