I snapped a picture of the back side of Chesterfield’s old Village Pantry about a year ago. My grand plan was to circle around and grab one of the front too, but, of course, I promptly forgot. Nobody was exactly perched on the edge of their seat waiting for me to deliver an update, but here it is anyway: the front looks just like you’d expect from a first-generation Village Pantry.
Marsh Supermarkets made waves around the Midwest in 1966 when it entered the fast-growing convenience store segment. By the time the company was sold to a private equity firm forty years later, it operated 154 Village Pantries around Indiana and Ohio! Many of the oldest have been repurposed. I try to take a photo when I see one.
Chesterfield’s first Village Pantry was the fifteenth that Marsh built. It stands at 209 E. Main Street, just north of Plum. Designed by architect George Cox1, the 2,500-square-foot store was the company’s twenty-seventh2. It opened in 1972 and stocked 3,000 items3.
Unfortunately, the store closed around 1985 after Marsh built a larger Village Pantry at the corner of Main and Water Streets4. I get my vapes there today! The original version is home to Studio 32, a hair and nail salon.
Sources Cited
1 Marsh to Build in Southeast Muncie (1966, October 5). The Muncie Evening Press. p. 23.
2 Village Pantry opening set by Marsh firm (1972, March 28). The Anderson Daily Bulletin. p. 2.
3 Marsh Plans New Division (1966, September 19). The Muncie Evening Press. p. 14.
4 Marsh to Appeal Village Pantry’s Rejection (1985, June 16). The Muncie Star Press. p. 15.
I believe the pantry was farther down and this was the old Pizza Hut
They look sort of similar, but this is the old Pantry at 209 E. Main. The Hut is still standing at 410 E. Main. It’s a Mexican restaurant now.