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

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Great Lakes Crossing Outlets, Auburn Hills, Michigan

Image
This sign appears at all four of the vehicular entrances into Great Lakes Crossing Outlets. This enclosed outlet mall located about halfway between Detroit and Flint currently features nine anchor tenants. Sorry for the massive lack of updates...well over a year, to be exact. But anyways, back to our regularly scheduled program... Great Lakes Crossing Outlets (which will be abbreviated as GLX for the remainder of this entry unless when the full name must be used) is a massive enclosed outlet mall (true to it's slogan, "Michigan's Largest Outlet Center") located in the Detroit suburb of Auburn Hills, Michigan, featuring 180 stores and nine anchors. This is perhaps one of three locations that contribute to Auburn Hills' significance-along with the city being the location of Chrysler's world headquarters and the Palace of Auburn Hills, the home arena of the NBA's Detroit Pistons. The site, located approximately halfway between two Automotive Revolut...
Read more

Southland Center, Taylor, Michigan

Image
One of Southland Center's two marquee pylon signs. This one is located at the southeast entrance, the other pylon sign may be seen in the background to the right. The center, the last of Detroit's "Land" malls, is currently anchored by Macy's, JCPenney and Best Buy. Many metropolitan areas have at least one area that's ignored a lot and Metro Detroit is no exception. In this case, that area is called "Downriver." It is a collection of 18 Wayne County communities that are located south and southwest of Detroit, extending down from that city to the Monroe County line. It's history almost parallels Detroit's, like it's major city, Downriver was a major area of French settlement in the 18th century. Today, Downriver is unlike anywhere else in the region, which transitions from the oldest houses in River Rouge, Wyandotte and Trenton to the postwar tract homes in Allen Park, Southgate and Taylor to the rural-ness of Romulus and Flat Rock. H...
Read more

Meijer #35, Taylor, Michigan

Image
This post will look at retail in Taylor, Wayne County, MI. Meijer #35 14640 Pardee Road, Taylor, MI Driving distance and time from downtown Detroit: 16.9 miles, approx. 20 minutes This Meijer store opened on July 19, 1977 as a Thrifty Acres store, the first in the Downriver area of Wayne County. It's trade area includes almost all of Taylor, far western Southgate, half of Romulus and far northern Brownstown and Huron Townships. When it opened, it originally would have looked like this , with a very 1970's interior, including a kids-based "Oasis" section in the center of the store. Due to concerns for safety and responsibility, the "Oasis" would be removed by 1985. In 1991, this store had a major exterior and interior remodel, with the exterior repainted gray with a red band and this logo over the entrances. Interior overhead signage was replaced with red-colored signs for the grocery and health & beauty departments, and green-teal for t...
Read more