Anybody remember Delmar Grocery?

Does anybody remember exactly where the old Delmar Grocery was located on Delmar? I went to Robert E. Lee Elementary in the late '60s, and fondly remember going in the store during the summer, and how good the air conditioning felt. I used to go in there and buy bottles of Wink grapefruit soda (the drink that smiles back at you).
I want to say the store was at Velasco or Llano, but I'm not sure. The building is long gone now.
Thanks!

Steve Your memory is just a little off. The Delmar Grocery was at 5745 Llano on the N.W. corner of Matilda and yes it no longer there. A lovely two story home is there now. My children also went to Robert E. Lee when we lived at 5910 Palo Pinto from 1956 to 1967.

Thanks Ralph. Part of me thought it was on Matilda, but the name made me want to put it on Delmar.
BTW, in the summer of 1970 I helped a friend throw the Times Herald route on Palo Pinto and Goliad (the 5700 through 6000 blocks), and in 1972 I had the Palo Pinto route (same blocks). Our route manager "spotted" (delivered) the papers at Palo Pinto and Delmar. I sure don't miss getting up at 3:30am on Sundays to ride my bike over there to fold and throw papers.

I miss the days when lower Greenville Ave was a mixture of small businesses. A few grocery stores, variety stores, a paint store,a few cafes, Little Gus's, Mitchell's Bar-B-Que, barber shops the Arcadia Theater, the Greenville Bank, a Flower shop, Ward's Drug Store, a couple of bars, the Firestone Store, Western Auto Store, and other business places.
You could always find what you needed there and it was quiet at night.
Now that is just a part of the history that we speak of on this board.

Yes, I remember those days. Going to Mitchell's BBQ, buying car model kits at the Hobby Counter (rest in peace, Johnny Clemens) and at Crown Hobbies. I can remember a fire at the Greenland Garage, and the streetcar hump on Matilda. Also, checking out the pictures of the dancers posted on the front of the Athens Strip. Hubba hubba!
My younger brother once left his bike (Schwinn Sting Ray) parked, unlocked, in front of Ward's Drugs, and somebody stole it (crap!).

Just have to toss in here that my grandmother worked at the Sears store on the west side of Greenville (across the street south of the Arcadia and next to a Woolsworth(?) on the corner) during the later part of the war and then moved to the new and modern Sears at Ross and Greenville (yeah Air Conditioning!) in 1948. I was sitting in front of the store in my parents 1940 Pontiac 2 door Silver Chief and heard the annoucnement that Japan had surrendered. My Mom cried, but at 5 years old, I didn't know what the big deal was.

I lived on Bennett a few blocks west of there from the 70's to the 90's and often wondered about Sears Street off of Greenville. I assumed there was a store predating the big Sears on Ross. Thanks for the up date. (Or down date.) Now they're both gone. Sad that such a large isolated residential area couldn't support the only significant department store there. Sign of the times, I guess. Nothing at all of that scale was (or is still) there for many miles. Now there's a plaque witnessing it's existence.

But perhaps the building for the first Sears is still there. Is that where the pawn shop is now on the corner? No plaque there! Leslie

I haven't been on that part of Greenville for several years, but I think the answer to your location question is Yes--sort of. In the book Dallas Then and Now by Ken Fitzgerald, published within the past 10 years (I think) is a 1930s photo and one likely from the 90s of that very block on Greenville. The newer photo shows a pawn shop on the corner and then the older 2 story building where the Sears was just south of it. The corner location was a 5 and 10 if I remember correctly and the Sears was next to it.

By the way, the 1930 photo shows an A&P on the east side of the street, almost directly across from the Arcadia. I think a question about that has also come up.

Mike

for those of you who havent been down greenvile in awhile. It has changed. Arcadia burned in 2005 and torn down in dec 2006.A nursery sits on the spot today. There have been several attempt to build lofts on the property, but the economic situation keep the nursery there. One the funding goes through the temp setup of Lakewood nursery will have to relocate. Whole Food moved to Abrams and Gaston/Richmond so that building sits empty now. Something else is in the old big sears building at Ross and Greenville inside. The Pawn Shop is still there but it is empty now .

Greenville is full of Bars I am not real fond of this area now

The Delmar Food Mart was at 5745 Llano on the corner of Llano and Matilda.. It was run for over fifty years by the Ciriccione family. My family moved to the 5900 block of Llano when I was three in 1973 and we daily walked down to what we called "Mary's store" to turn in our deposit bottles and buy candy, Mr Pibb cola and sour pickles. Mary Cirone, as the family often shortened their name, ran the store with her husband Don, short for Dominic. I believe Dominic's parents Peter and Geraldine were the original owners of the store after moving Dominic and his brothers Vincent and Carl and sister Ann to Dallas. They likely were the original owners. Dominic passed away in 1992 and Mary passed away in 2005. I would like very much to hear from anyone who knows more about the store, or of Mary and Don or who has photos.

William,
I can't add anything about the Delmar grocery. I don't recall hearing about it until this thread and didn't know the Cirones ran it.
I am, however, tangentially related to the Cirones. Dominics brother Carl was married to one of my dads cousins. He and Kate also had a grocery store at the corner of McKinney and Lemon. This would have been from sometime in the mid '50s until the roof caved in in the 1980s. Prior to that they had a store further north on the south bound Central service road. I believe that building, which probably predated the highway, succumbed to the last widening of Central, though I've never been sure of it's exact location.
My parents shopped there just about every week. Carl was the butcher and made an excellent Italian sausage.
It's kind of quaint now to think of a grocery store that consisted of 4 aisles with a meat market in back. And had everything you needed. Cereal choices probably consisted of Cheerios, Corn Flakes and Chex.
Now the cereal choices alone wouldn't fit in that old store.

Paul

I may be able to shed some light on Delmar Grocery. My Grandparents were Dominic and Mary Cirrincione (sometimes shortened to Cirone), owners of the neighborhood store. My great-grandfather Peter Cirrincione, purchased the store and home around 1915 when the family moved from Chicago, IL. My grandparents ran and lived behind the store for over 40 years and closed in the late 70's.

There were actually three stores. Mckinney Ave, Oak Cliff, & 5745 Llano. Although, the corner of Matilda and Llano seemed like an unlikely spot for a grocery store, Matilda once had streetcar lines. In its prime, the little grocery stores had several trucks delivering groceries all over town

My brother and I spent our childhood with Delmar Grocery as our playground. My fondest memories were of me and my grandfather working in the butcher shop making italian sausage and ground beef.


Stephen Dominic Little

Still have my Little Gus T-Shirt! Tony M. use to live two doors down from me back when we lived on Goliad in the 70's! great place. I'm afraid those days are gone forever . . .

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Thanks for posting, Stephen. I'll never forget going into that store to buy sodas and candy. And, yes, I remember when Matilda still had the hump down the middle, from the streetcar line, and I remember when they widened it to four lanes (in the late '60s), to take pressure off of Greenville Avenue.

Well into the 50's while the streetcars were still running, it was unpaved and blocked off either at Prospect or Richmond southward so cars could not drive on it.

Mike

IIRC, it was still unpaved right up until the hump was removed and the street widened to four lanes, in the late '60s. This was around Goodwin and Vanderbilt, where Robert E. Lee is located.

My mother was Ann Cirrincione, sister to Dominic, Carl, and Vincent and daughter of Geraldine and Peter Cirrincione. I also have very fond memories of Delmar Grocery, having lived there in the early 60's for awhile when my mother, Ann had returned to her family home. All of the younger cousins would play "grocery store" in the store on Sundays when the it was closed. My favorite memories were helping out in the store, sneaking candy from the shelves under the counter, and drinking grapette sodas while my Aunt Mary and Uncle Dom yelled at each other across the store. My uncle Carl Cirone was married to Katie Satarino and they did have a store on Mckinney -- It was fun to play there, also.

Mary Cirrincione and Katie Cirone (Satarino) were two of the strongest, toughest, most street smart women I have ever known and I feel so lucky to have had them help raise me.

Mary Uribe-Downs