Here’s a Subaru car dealership in Pequannock Township, New Jersey.

It’s a very plain, very typical car dealership structure, and you’d probably assume it was purpose-built by Subaru, or at least by some other auto company.

But, as you’ll know if you’ve been following this series, it did not begin life as a car dealership. I know that because I’ve eaten here. I will say that there are no real hints of its previous life that you could identify now. But there are a couple of continuities.

Here’s the building as it looked previously, although I’m not positive it actually began life exactly like this. (The extended windows on the front look like an addition.) It was a Chinese buffet with a dry cleaners next door. (My family and I ate here in 2015, and it was very good. Unfortunately it closed just a few years later.)

As you can see, Subaru did some serious work on the structure. The roof was flattened out, and almost whole front was turned into windows. But the two continuities are the tower, which is in the same spot, and the little three-part window on the right wall of the building. The window is the real giveaway, without anything else, that we’re actually looking at the same building here.

I always love to see a building kept in use, even, or perhaps especially, when it’s heavily remodeled. It’s so common to see one ordinary structure demolished for a new and usually equally ordinary one, simply, I guess, because it doesn’t cost that much more than doing a big remodel. But it seems like such a waste.

Still, I’ll miss the Chinese food.

Related Reading:

“Excuse Me, Where’s the Car Aisle?”

What Do You Think You’re Looking At? #6

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