Movies to Computers: Micro Center #55, Madison Heights, Michigan

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/9/93/Madison_Heights%2C_MI_location.png/320px-Madison_Heights%2C_MI_location.png

This post will look at retail in Madison Heights, Oakland County, MI.

 
Micro Center #55
32800 Concord Drive, Madison Heights, MI
Driving distance and time from downtown Detroit: 16.2 miles, approx. 20 minutes

Tucked across from Oakland Mall adjacent to Interstate 75 is Michigan's only Micro Center computer store, but that isn't what this building started out as, as you'll find out next.

AMC Abbey 8 Theatres following its May 2001 closure. (credit: Water Winter Wonderland)
 
The building originally opened on December 22, 1972 as the Abbey Theatres 1-2-3, owned at the time by Suburban Detroit Theatres. From 1979 to 2000, the Abbey competed with the nearby United Artists Movies at Oakland Mall theater within Oakland Mall itself. Suburban Detroit was eventually sold to AMC Theatres in 1986, and five additional screens were added to the complex, opening on December 15, 1989...the very same day a new Star (now AMC!) Theatre opened just one block away from the now-named AMC Abbey 8 Theatres.
 
The Star Theatre right away got the rights to all of the major releases, forcing the Abbey 8 to switch to showing arthouse, independent films, and second-run films, made possible by projectionists picking up prints from the Star after the latter finished playing them.

By the 1990s, the Abbey 8 was in an increasingly awful condition, with poor seating and bad projectors. Eventually, AMC closed the Abbey 8 on May 31, 2001 as part of AMC's widespread shuttering of smaller, older theaters during that period. The building wouldn't sit vacant for long, as Micro Center #55 took over in 2002 and has been here since.

While Micro Center did drastically change much of the exterior, thankfully the original brown brick has been left intact, as have one set of original windows. Inside, however...let's take a look.

Here's what you'll be facing upon entering the store. Micro Center obviously heavily gutted the interior, and they even obviously had to flatten the Abbey 8's sloping auditorium floors. The high ceiling is a definite sign that there was once a second floor that housed the projection booths.
 
The main back actionway, with web cams to the left. Prebuilt computers are beyond the wall to the right.
 
The prebuilt computers and monitor departments, which share a back alcove.
 
To conclude our tour, here's one last look back towards the front. Checkouts are adjacent to the background windows.

To round out this post, this time we will just do the satellite photos.

Micro Center #55 - March 2020 (Google Earth)
 
Micro Center #55 - March 2005 (Google Earth)

Micro Center #55 - April 2002 - The conversion into Micro Center is nearing completion. (Google Earth)

AMC Abbey 8 Theatres - 1997 (Oakland County Property Gateway)
 
Abbey Theatres 1-2-3 - 1980 (Oakland County Property Gateway)
 
That's all for this week. Until next time...
Location: 32800 Concord Dr, Madison Heights, MI 48071, USA

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