Church’s Chicken, at “The Wedge” of Southwest Avenue and Manchester Road, shut down for good on Wednesday, according to a former employee walking out the back door. She said the shop had been there 40-45 years.
The corner is owned by a Scottsdale, AZ, firm according to county records. It was previously a gas station and location known as “The Wedge,” which was demolished in the 1970s.
When an employee at Kakao Chocolate saw that the shop had closed she said the first thing she thought of is that now cars might be able to park there for Schlafly Bottleworks without being towed. Then she speculated about Schlafly buying the lot.
I’m trying to think what we don’t already have quick access to in the neighborhood. How about a nice Thai or Indian place that serves lunch?
While jogging through downtown earlier today I noticed that the building has been painted a light beige color. It’s amazing how much cleaner the corner looks now! I’m very curious about the future of this part of downtown.
As the U City loop area figures out what to do with its vacant Church’s Chicken location, I found this quote from the NextStl blog very on point with what Jane and Doug have said.
http://nextstl.com/2014/06/wustl-working-forum-studio-new-vision-churchs-chicken-site/
“Architectural historian and director of the Preservation Research Office Michael Allen told nextSTL that the develop concept would be a significant improvement for the site. He also noted it holds some historical irony, “This would be a 180-degree turn across time for Washington University, which in the late 1960s tacitly supported the demolition of urban-scaled buildings at this intersection for a Danforth family-owned Jack-In-The-Box franchise. Alas, damage inflicted in the city fabric often takes decades to heal.””
The choices that are made for the ‘Wedge’ location today will possibly impact our lives for decades to come. Similar to choices made about Big Bend and Manchester, or choices made about cabinets on Sutton. We should remember lessons from the past.
Would be nice to see a wedge shaped building of sorts in that location.
I agree. While parking and green space are both an improvement over the current building, I agree with Bri that this historic site would be best suited for commercial retail or restaurant use due to its location. Time will tell!
Would a Pi Pizzeria be too much to hope for? Brick, two story with parking at the wider dare I say crust end. Current Church’s set up has parking bass ackward in the narrow.
As much as I love Pi pizza, that would make for three pizza restaurants when combined with Blind Tiger and A Pizza Story. Pi is great, and thus would quite possibly hurt both of these shall businesses, in my opinion.
It’d be very nice to see a wedge shaped building on this prominent downtown site.
I think downtown Maplewood has more than ample parking. Please look at an aerial view if you don’t believe me. I respectfully disagree this is a good spot for “green space.” This space needs to be put back to use for commercial use. This is marque real estate in the heart of Maplewood’s historic downtown.
I tend to agree with you especially since I live within walking distance.
However when Schlafly has one of their farmer’s markets or other events that take up part of their parking lot, things can be very challenging in the area. I’ve seen a couple of cars towed from the Church’s parking lot on busy evenings from people presumably not eating at Church’s but instead one of the other restaurants in the area. I’ve also been at Schlafly when people are chewing out the poor hostess because they’re complaining about a lack of nearby parking.
I’m just saying I wouldn’t be surprised if Schlafly had a chance to buy the Church’s lot, they did so and will use it for parking.
This is a very visible spot near the entrance to downtown. I do not think that parking is appropriate, although it could work short term until something clearer/better comes along.
I personally will be glad that I will no longer be able to smell the stench of fast food fried chicken when the wind is right. Love to see the wedge become green space for Maplewood!
I noticed no one seems to be lamenting the loss of the Fried Chicken. That says a lot about how poor the fit was for Church’s in downtown Maplewood.
Before we moved out of there, that store went down hill so fast. The employee’s were rude as hell, the food was either cold & half cooked or you could tell that they hadn’t changed the grease in the fryers for a long time. One evening we went through the drive thru and seen employee’s sitting on the tables where the customers eat at, one even had their shoes & socks off and feet on the table. When we got to the speaker box we was greeted with, “watch you want” and when we asked for a quick second we were told “well hurry up I ain’t got all day!” We left without even buying anything and called cooperate which resulted in one of the managers to call and chewed us a new one for complaining to corporate! Hopefully something useful for the city will go in there now…
Jane, thanks for the kind words. It would be great if Church’s would take that building with them. Hopefully someone will want to erect a building on the wedge that is a worthy occupant of this historic site.
Yes! A well lit cobblestone parking lot with a couple of benches on the Schlafly’s side and planters with flowers all around. Unfortunately, it will probably be all those things without the cobblestones.
Huge potential with this space. Please make it more than expanded parking.
The first thing that came to mind when I read this news were Doug Houser’s insightful words made in reference to the cabinets in Harper’s Pharmacy: “The cabinets if they aren’t returned to their original spots soon are unlikely to ever be returned. Think about it. They’ll be refitted to a different space. The tenant there will use them. That tenant will not want their space ripped up should the Sierra Club vacate at some point in the future which they eventually will do. Or the next tenant in the cabinets new space doesn’t want them there and the owner quietly removes them. The owner will someday sell the building. He and the Sierra Club will move on and Maplewood will be forever short this valuable historic asset. The tenant and the owner are the transients. The building and the cabinets are the more permanent part of the equation.”
Well, the transient tenant has now vacated, and Maplewood is left with a literal and figurative hole in its downtown. Yes, Church’s Chicken was there for 40 years and contributed for that long to our city coffers, but I nonetheless can’t see it as a net gain. I’m sure at the time when they debated tearing down the Wedge building, there were arguments about taxes and the “revival” of a presumably underutilized property. But in hindsight can anyone honestly say that Maplewood was or is better off because of that decision in the 1970s? I just hope that we keep in mind Doug’s words and this principle as we make decisions in the future – to think about the long term effects rather short term financial gains. And here’s to hoping that while we can’t recreate the original historic and architectural value of the site, at least something aesthetically pleasing can be done with the lot.