You have seen these all over town and wondered what they were, they were
Automart Grocery Stores from the 1950s.
I like this one on South Broadway best. it has the intact diamond panels and the now faint checkerboard faccia trim.
This entry was posted on Friday, March 12th, 2010 at 10:21 am and is filed under International Style. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
Matt March 12th, 2010 at 8:02 pm
Well, that explains it. There’s a building like this is the neighborhood I grew up in that I can only remember being a series of hair salons, aside from a distinct memory of it being something other than a hair salon at first, but what that was I can’t remember. Maybe it was one of those Automarts-or whatever convenience store followed in its wake.
Here’s how Google sees it (loads the map and then zooms to street view):
Tom Lundin April 2nd, 2010 at 8:39 am
Thanks I hadn’t mapped out that Leetsdale location, though I must have found about 15 of these buildings so far. They are all somewhat unique, no two seem exactly alike.
dave November 7th, 2010 at 4:35 pm
I remember some of these buildings used as “U Tote um” convenience stores
Chris Leppek March 9th, 2011 at 12:20 am
I grew up in Westminster and there was (and still is) one of these on 72nd Ave., just east of Federal. In the early 60s, it was known as “Big Top,” and was a local chain of convenience stores, not unlike 7-11. There was another local chain called “Dee-Gee’s,” which had a store on North Federal. I’d love to see a photo of its great signage. Fantastic website, by the way!
andy mack November 14th, 2012 at 8:45 pm
yet another building that I dreamed of skateboarding on the roof of. I remember these as u-tote-m ’s.
Brian Hudson April 2nd, 2010 at 12:40 am
I was born and raised in Denver and I think I’ve found another of these international style circular buildings… I remember as a child looking at this building, 5801 Leetsdale Drive (which I believe was a ice cream establishment). If you look from above on google earth it has the the same roof lines but appears to have a false fascia to make it look more conventional.The is also one on 1st Avenue in Cherry Creek (near Cook Street that remains intact.
I live in Perth Western Australia now and your sight makes me miss the unique architecture of my old home town Denver