How These Places Changed Spaces – Part 1
Many, many moons ago, I wrote a response to
on one of his posts. I believe he was mentioning something about a place that was no longer there. I told him that I had a list of “places we shut down”. He told me I should write about it. So here I am today ready to write about Part 1.“Places We Shut Down” is the name of my master list of stores that have closed. I named it “we” because a majority of these stores were visited by my Mom and me. There are a few stores that only I visited.
Of course, we didn’t shut them down. They went out of business on their own. But I liked the name.
Why a part 1, you say? Because there are 176 on the list. Way too many to put in one installment. So you’ll see multiple parts throughout this stretch of writings.
I started compiling this list about 15 years ago. What got me going was that I started seeing all of these businesses going out of business and changing hands.
On the list are 13 towns and cities in two counties. Brevard County, where I live, is the area where the most stores have been shut down. The rest of the stores closing were in Volusia County. Think Daytona Beach. Most of you will remember my stories about going to the NASCAR races.
This is an extensive list. I have it grouped by town/city, what place closed and then in parentheses I have what replaced it. Sometimes it was replaced by multiple businesses over such and such time.
Things don’t seem to last that long lately around here. I’m seeing more and more businesses in other states closing down, going bankrupt, and people retiring, so they get rid of the business.
This list only contains the businesses I went into. There are a ton of businesses that have closed over the years since I have been in Florida. There is no one that could ever record that list. We are talking about going all of the way back to my childhood from 1982.
So the trick for this post was to figure out where to start. I decided I would take the location where I live now, Rockledge. We closed down five stores here. And one of them was unique.
Wuesthoff Auxiliary Thrift Store – Rockledge, Florida
The hospital in Rockledge was called Wuesthoff Medical Center. It was located on the eastern end of the city. They had this thrift store to raise money for their causes.
We went into the store shortly after we moved to Rockledge.
As you entered the front door, it was a small area. I was shocked because the building was huge. They had hats, ties, and jewelry on the right side. Clothing was scattered on the left side. There was another room that housed as many books as you could get your hands on. Off to the left was a room with used mattresses.
The day after we visited, they shut down for good. Yep, you heard that right. The day after our visit, they were closed. The hospital was bought out by Steward. They renamed the hospital, Rockledge Regional Medical Center. They said that they didn’t need any of those programs anymore, so the thrift store closed. Fast forward 7 years and Steward was in major financial difficulty and were forced to find a buyer for the hospital. Orlando Health bought the hospital in October 2024. They renamed the hospital, Orlando Health Rockledge Hospital. Upon them buying it and finding out the hospital needed major renovations, they shut down the hospital for good in May 2025. The hospital was open for 84 years. They plan to raze the building. This has left a major void for people who needed that hospital. Rockledge Regional was the second-busiest emergency room. We have other hospitals but they are not centrally located as this one was. They are now talking about making several emergency departments around the county, including one in Rockledge, for those that have emergencies only. Orlando Health has told the public they plan to create a new hospital in our area. They don’t say which city will get it. That is five years out.
Outcome: Building is vacant.
Note: Substack is telling me that this email may be too long. If that is the case, you’ll get a “View Entire Message” link to see the entire email.
Walmart – main highway
When we lived in Melbourne, we would always go shopping in different cities. A few times we went north into Rockledge. There is a shopping center located off of U.S. 1. This Walmart was just like all of the other Walmart stores. Each time we would buy something. There were always tons of people buying clothes and big ticket items. I was surprised that it went out of business.
Outcome: It became a Badcock Furniture & More Store (see below).
Badcock Furniture & More – main highway
They were here for several years after replacing Walmart (above). We bought two dressers from them.
Outcome: Out of business. Vacant.
Bealls – Department Store
We loved Bealls. Down in Melbourne, we had a Bealls and we would frequent it every chance we got. In fact, we entered a contest and won a $500 gift card. We had fun picking out everything we wanted. I got a lot of t-shirts with fishing scenes on them. We didn’t go for it all at the same time though. We spread it out over weeks and months.
When we moved to Rockledge, we were excited to see that they had a Bealls up here. It was located on the northern side of the city off of the last main road. We went several times and bought many products including shirts, shoes, and everything you can think of.
Outcome: Bealls was razed so they could put up a luxury apartment complex named Rockledge Flats.
Entenmann’s Bakery Outlet
They had discounted bakery items including donuts and everything in their product line. We went there once and bought a few items. There were some cookies that I couldn’t find in the stores and they had them there. Some of the prices were higher than in the stores, which didn’t make sense when it was an outlet store.
Outcome: They closed and Bimbo Bakeries went in there. Bimbo has several brands under their banner including Entenmann’s. Bimbos closed. Now vacant.
Conclusion
I hope you enjoyed going down memory lane with me. Some of the parts may include just what went in there. I have a lot of memories from each store but some of these were a very long time ago. I’ll try to post photos of what the properties look like now.
Until next time, happy reading!
-Matt
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I've watched many businesses in my area close and now remain empty. Our mall also closed, and the entire thing was torn down. The city is planning to build a "mixed-use" commercial area that includes retail, restaurants, and entertainment options. It's sad when a business closes. It's as if a piece of history disappears, and the empty storefronts serve as a poignant reminder of our changing times.
Interesting post Matt. When I moved to Florida in 97, I had gotten a job at a Subway sandwich store right around the corner of where I lived. It was located in a strip plaza that had a Kmart too. Well, the subway where I worked for about six months said they were closing. Okay, so I got a job then at Kmart. I worked in various departments there for a couple of years and then they closed. I worked in a couple of other places, Eckards drug store being one. I worked in the photo lab and loved it but then they closed and changed into a CVS. So, not having good references for future work has not helped me any. Change is inevitable but it can make life sometimes challenging.