Last week's local eyesore was all about driving by it...but what about an eyesore here in Miami County that was intended to be driven through?
Ahhhhhhh is the sound heard around the world for refreshment (thanks to Coke's prolific marketing) and here in Ohio, we sure do love our cars and the convenience that comes with them. Just like we were once the Drive-In Movie capital of the world, Ohio motorists have had the benefit of many vehicle-modified conveniences of our modern day such as the drive-through bank teller, drive by mail boxes and god forbid we ever step out of our cars for fast food!
Yet what is perhaps most mystifying to my non-Midwestern relatives is the concept of a drive-through convenience store...what we commonly refer to in our regional vernacular as simply a "drive through". A store...you can DRIVE though! It sounds so American and so Midwestern every time I hear that; something that beckons back to our automotive mastery and culture.
There is a chain of drive though convenience stores in our county where motorists can purchase such items as alcohol, tobacco products, snacks, pop, candy, beef jerky and more without ever taking their foot off their pedals. Once prominent, the Troy Beverage Dock as it was called competed directly with local Troy competitor Carl's Cruise In (which had a much better location closer to the heart of the city on Main Street), yet the Beverage Dock was constructed in perhaps the strangest place one could think of...behind the Trojan Village Shopping Center...next to the dumpsters.
Oh, but they had a tall sign! Surely that would snag traffic off of main street as they headed into town, hopefully before they caught a glimpse of a much newer, renovated and relocated Carl's. Unfortunately for the Dock, the sign, as you can see in this photo taken this week, is almost impossible to decipher from the street. You can guess what eventually happened from there.
All in all, I have to give the Dock "props" for sticking with it for so long, basically a local secret. Yet, as time wore along, more and more gas stations, convenience stores, discount grocery outlets and yes...more drive throughs "drove" the Troy Beverage Dock out of business. It's not known for sure when exactly the store closed, but it continues to stand it's less than desirable ground with all it's signage mostly intact...like a hibernating brick-clad bear or something of that sort.
This is an interesting eyesore, as it's very location could almost qualify (the shopping center has deteriorated to having only one tenant on the west side) but the fact that is old brick box sits next to the steel boxes of the dumpsters with torn signage and a rusting doorway isn't as worrisome as the possibility of having a deteriorating building sitting empty in the dark completely obscured to the rest of the city...this sounds an awful lot like an incubator for mischief.
There are a lot of types of eyesores out there...run down houses, abandoned property, destroyed piles of lumber, and structures that pose to create negativity for the surrounding community. Do you have an eyesore in your neighborhood? If so, we would like to share it with our readers and shed light on the problem. Snap a pic, and send us a description of the situation to submit@miamicountypost.com. Till next time!
Ahhhhhhh is the sound heard around the world for refreshment (thanks to Coke's prolific marketing) and here in Ohio, we sure do love our cars and the convenience that comes with them. Just like we were once the Drive-In Movie capital of the world, Ohio motorists have had the benefit of many vehicle-modified conveniences of our modern day such as the drive-through bank teller, drive by mail boxes and god forbid we ever step out of our cars for fast food!
Yet what is perhaps most mystifying to my non-Midwestern relatives is the concept of a drive-through convenience store...what we commonly refer to in our regional vernacular as simply a "drive through". A store...you can DRIVE though! It sounds so American and so Midwestern every time I hear that; something that beckons back to our automotive mastery and culture.
There is a chain of drive though convenience stores in our county where motorists can purchase such items as alcohol, tobacco products, snacks, pop, candy, beef jerky and more without ever taking their foot off their pedals. Once prominent, the Troy Beverage Dock as it was called competed directly with local Troy competitor Carl's Cruise In (which had a much better location closer to the heart of the city on Main Street), yet the Beverage Dock was constructed in perhaps the strangest place one could think of...behind the Trojan Village Shopping Center...next to the dumpsters.
Oh, but they had a tall sign! Surely that would snag traffic off of main street as they headed into town, hopefully before they caught a glimpse of a much newer, renovated and relocated Carl's. Unfortunately for the Dock, the sign, as you can see in this photo taken this week, is almost impossible to decipher from the street. You can guess what eventually happened from there.
All in all, I have to give the Dock "props" for sticking with it for so long, basically a local secret. Yet, as time wore along, more and more gas stations, convenience stores, discount grocery outlets and yes...more drive throughs "drove" the Troy Beverage Dock out of business. It's not known for sure when exactly the store closed, but it continues to stand it's less than desirable ground with all it's signage mostly intact...like a hibernating brick-clad bear or something of that sort.
This is an interesting eyesore, as it's very location could almost qualify (the shopping center has deteriorated to having only one tenant on the west side) but the fact that is old brick box sits next to the steel boxes of the dumpsters with torn signage and a rusting doorway isn't as worrisome as the possibility of having a deteriorating building sitting empty in the dark completely obscured to the rest of the city...this sounds an awful lot like an incubator for mischief.
There are a lot of types of eyesores out there...run down houses, abandoned property, destroyed piles of lumber, and structures that pose to create negativity for the surrounding community. Do you have an eyesore in your neighborhood? If so, we would like to share it with our readers and shed light on the problem. Snap a pic, and send us a description of the situation to submit@miamicountypost.com. Till next time!
