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People Online Are Cracking Up At These 40 Buildings Attempting To Hide Their Previous Purpose Shared In This Online Group
Upcycling, reinventing and repurposing—everything and anything can contribute to a building’s new shiny life. Converting buildings is quite common and sometimes the change is quite radical: a gym that previously was a church, a mall that was converted into a school, or a Target turned Walmart. This one group on Reddit called /r/NotFoolingAnybody that has 21.2k members is dedicated to “photos of buildings that have been converted to other uses, yet still strongly resemble their former use.”
And deliberately or not, the new management chooses to recycle some details, like using the letters from the font of the previous business and sometimes even keeping the same logos. The funniest thing is that you can often tell that the masterminds repurposing the building or sign either had too much wit or too little fantasy. Either way, it’s pretty entertaining and below are the best examples of that, so don’t forget to vote for your favorite ones.
More info: Reddit
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Former KFC In Maiden, Nc Now A Mexican Restaurant. Col. Sanders Is Now Col. Sanchez
Even though a place is converted to an urgent care center, the building decoration is still definitely reminiscent of a hut that used to sell pizza, and a church in this town adorned with UV lights and no more crosses is repurposed to be a nightclub. Usually the shape of the building that used to be a brand that follows the company’s specs is the main giveaway, but it also seems that some of the new owners of the places couldn't be bothered to remove the previous logos.
Blockbuster Got Converted To A Book Store
What is really impressive is the repurposing of shopping malls into schools, which, when you really think about it, can make perfect sense as there are large communal areas and what used to be retail shops that can serve as different classrooms. And what student wouldn’t like to have escalators to go from one floor to another?
Dead Mall Turned Into College Building. Stores Were Converted Into Classrooms
Quite a few submissions by people are pictures of former gas stations and car washes. Businesses such as Dunkin Doughnuts or Starbucks are taking advantage of the parts of the building that are suitable for a convenient drive thru. And let’s face it, going into an old flamboyant Art Deco building that is now a Walgreens definitely makes you feel at least a tiny bit more sophisticated.
Church In My Local Town Converted Into A Nightclub
This CVS In An Old Bank
I laughed at your comment more than I did at anything else on this thread! "Noice"! :)
Load More Replies...I used to live right by there too! Neighbs! 9th between 14th and 15th.
Load More Replies...Why not, better than standing vacant. Old banks are cool inside so I think it would be fun to shop there.
Used to work on 14th street and 7th Avenue, so I shopped at this CVS frequently, and even knew the night manager; really nice guy.
Imagine walking in at like 2 am looking for tic-tacs and you see this. Surreal.
We had a beautiful, huge record store in a beautiful old bank building. I have no idea what is now--if the trend continues, I'm guessing Vape Shop
Have had a much better destination than yet another supermarket. I'm all for giving existing buildings new purpose but there are so many supermarkets allready.
Load More Replies...There's another one on 96th Street & Columbus Ave in NYC - where that store is also located
I had to Google it so maybe it can help others: "CVS" is a pharmacy retail company (operating in the USA only)
Doesn't look like it would be that useful. Not enough room. What do they do with all that 2nd story room?
A Bank Converted To Mcdonalds
A Church Converted To A Grocery Store
A Former Cricket Wireless Is Now A Chicken Restaurant
Church Turned Into A Gym
Former Gas Station, Turned Into A Subway With Outdoor Seating - Gypsum, Co
Taco Bell --> Law Office
Former Woolworths, Now A Walgreens. It Feels Like A Happy Accident That The Historic "W" Letter Still Works For The Building.
I miss Woolworths and Newberry's -they weren't high class but were fun.
Dunkin’ Doughnuts Drive Thru In A Former Gas Station Car Wash.
Church Converted To A Tattoo Parlor
This Starbucks Drive-Thru In An Old Car Wash
Don't be rude to employees or you'll be getting a Grande chunk of soap in your Vegan Non-Fat Chai Tea Latte Mocha Frappuccino Macchiato
The Local College Bought A Walmart
This is more common than you think. In my area we have a charter school in an old home depot.
House Converted To Burger King - Columbus, Ga
A Former Burger King Listed Online As A Townhouse
An Old Paint Store Converted To A Dvd Store
Former Hot Topic Now Veterans Museum Denton, Tx
If the mall gets decent foot traffic, a museum like this might get more visitors than it would as a stand-alone. If my local mall had something like this, I'd go in.
Amazing
The Owners Ended Their Quiznos Franchise But Wanted To Run A Sandwich Shop Still
This CVS In Dc Used To Be A Movie Theater
Former Movie Theatre, Now A Library
Absolutely perfect: this looks as flawless as the above Walgreens.
An Orthodontist's Office Used To Be A Blockbuster - Hinesville, Ga
A Wendy's In A Former Bank, Location Unknown
Hah! Can't Fool Me. That Used To Be A Taco B...wait
Nickelodeon Studios! It Has Been Painted Over But You Can Still Tell What It Used To Be
Hollywood Video Converted To A Furniture Store
An Old Hollywood Video Is Now Hollywood Smokin'
This Dominos In My Home Town Of Keyser Wv Was A Phillip's 66 Gas Station And Garage In The Early 80's
KFC Converted To Thai Restaurant
Former Target Turned Into A Walmart, They Painted The Target Orbs Yellow Instead Of Removing Them
i love vaulting over the target balls lol i will never get too old for it
Old Hollister Now A Book Store
Big Woodys Sports Bar (Bethlehem, Pa)
It's perfect, absolutely perfect. One stop, slop till ya drop! Ya gotta love it all.
Classic Movie Theater Converted Into A Walgreens
Dollar Tree In A Former Church, Location Unknown
Taboo Adult Superstore, Formerly Taco Bell
This Used To Be A Majestic Liquor Store. The New Owners Really Stretched Themselves With This One.
Somebody Named Kg Bought A Local Gas Station
I don't know why everyone's so upset with old churches not being churches anymore. They were scams to start with and I'm glad they failed.
They're big buildings and tend to be well built - no reason not to reuse them when a congregation can no longer afford to keep them.
Load More Replies...I'll give you two good reasons--One, all that vertical inside is a b***h to heat or cool (and pay for), and Two, the amount of usable floor space is not very good.
Come to Detroit, and I will show you many old Catholic churches that are now abandoned and falling apart :-) There is even an abandoned Catholic church in the suburbs, that was scheduled to be torn down and replaced with a storage facility.
Reminds me of a fellow lawyer who started to work for a church (financial issues) and told me, after a first look "into the books" he immediately stopped donating to churches. He's a decent guy, never said more about this...but this statement really made me wonder.....
Some are yes but you can’t judge people who believe in Christ just. Because of the beliefs that’s just like judging some one for eating cereal
kinda makes you wonder when christ himself can't keep all his churches open ... maybe he bit off more than he can even he could chew? that or he has some serious problems running his organizations maybe
I think you’re kinda missing the point. Everyone keeps hating on Christianity and Catholicism so much and it’s upsetting. A Christian being upset over a church being turned into a fast food place or a dollar store is the same as someone who is Jewish being upset over a synagogue being turned into something like that. Their place of worship is no longer theirs and for people who actively practice, that can be upsetting to see.
I think the sins of religion in general are finally coming home to roost on it ... the damage has been done and I imagine we will see a lot of the 'wanna-be' religions go bust and disappear, with church building and properties being sold off and repurposed just as quickly - just the other day I 'outed' a christian friend by mistake, telling mutual friends that didn't know that person was quite so religious, a lot of the religious friends I know are deeply closeted about their religious activities and WANT to keep it that way - there is nothing like religion to wet-towel a group or gathering ... and all this is going to have a cause and effect somewhere, somehow, even if just a trickle-down effect
this is the unpopular opinion but i kinda agree, although i think you went a little too far, i'm not glad they failed, nor am i sad, it dosen't bother me either way and yes they were scams but people will be people and believe what they want.
They weren’t “all scams” though. They were community gathering places and places of worship. Just because you don’t believe in the religion doesn’t make it a scam.
Sister baboon, you do realize the bible is a book with a talking donkey in it? There are angels, devils, demons, unicorns, fairies, ghosts, zombies, giants, witches, wizards, etc. in the bible. The bible is largely fictional. There are thousands of contradictions in the bible. The bible is loaded with scientific falsehoods and historical falsehoods. You should research this stuff at a college level.
Lol you make the Bible sound like the script for shrek which it absolutely isn’t. Sister baboon is creative tho. I applaud thee.
No one gets to tell me to shut up. And you are so full of s**t your eyes are red from the pressure.
I find the church torturing and burning people alive offensive, not to mention the pedophilia. The church should be deleted. (not to mention how the whole thing is a scam to separate fools from their money)
The zakat (or the poor tax) is collected by muslims to be given to the less fortunate and needy. Churches on the other hand ask for as much as you can give so they can buy jets and super expensive clothing (there was a post about that on here a while ago)
A good tree cannot produce bad fruit and a bad tree cannot produce good fruit. It happened and the tree is BAD!
...and for them saying natural disasters are god's way of punishing us for having gay people. Also, Southern Baptist was invented to have a church for justifying slavery in America.
there's real Christians out there, but they are not associated with the church. Indeed THEY are the church, not some building.
Lol idk why but wanted to share: our local strip club has outdoor seating now 😳
I live in Portland, the strip club capitol of the world. A lot of them serve good food and people will eat outside to avoid the entry fee. I've never been to one, but coworkers will say, "let's go to Acropolis for lunch". I figured they were going to see strippers, turns out they were really into their burgers.
Load More Replies...Sista I praise you with your other comment there are the ones uneducated
At least the buildings are being used. I hate when buildings are derelicts because people won't sell them and they are still perfectly usable.
for all the nay sayers that dont like repurposing churches, would you rather have them just stand there empty, or demolished? They were not being used anymore. Its not that the people were chased out.
Converting them into lofts would create very attractive and unique living spaces.
Load More Replies...They've done that to a couple of large churches in Toronto...and in Ottawa there's a church that's been converted to a house that is just lovely.
In Atlanta a man bought a small church and turned it into a house. He left the outside pretty much intact. What a cool place to live! He also looks after the local community cats.
I lived in an old post office that had been converted into shops, that was built in 1910, it was so cool, original doors and stained-glass windows. I loved it
So you lived in a shop? That aside, that was an era of gorgeous architecture.
Load More Replies...It wasn't a shop when I lived there but had been previously, the architecture was amazing. Brick flooring downstairs, old fashioned locks and door handles, double front door with massive glass windows, high ceilings. It was beautiful
Clever buying, instead of failed make-overs, that is what this post is TRULY about.
A strip club in anchorage Alaska where I live was turned into a church recently , lmfao.
well ... not to state the obvious but ... it IS Alaska, and it DID have that crazy religious woman, claiming to 'wave at Russia from her porch' running things for a while there ... (need I say more?)
Load More Replies...Which one of them are "attempting to hide their previous purpose"? Why do you change your titles twice a day, bored panda?
yes, they dragged the worshippers out, and directly turned it into a mall, shop or starbucks. Sigh.
I'm glad these places were converted. So much better than abandoned, rotting buildings.
There's a mosque in my home town that I'm fairly certain used to be either a house or a Mexican restaurant
have you seen the mural in the Mexican restaurant that used to be a Chinese restaurant? they painted sombreros on the panda bears and hung a couple of pinatas in the trees
No pic, but our local DMV office is being "phased out" (read: closed down forever) so the building is up for grabs. Ideas what to do with an old DMV, anyone?
We were thinking a chiropractor to heal up everyone who sat in those blasted DMV chairs!
In my home city of Derby UK, we have a pub called "The Standing Order". It used to be a bank.
This just made me dismayed at how brands even have trademark building shapes
I know it's good that they're not left empty, but It makes me irrationally sad that places close down. I worked at Blockbusters, it was the best place to work. Damn streaming movies ruining VHS rentals, haha!
Can everyone please stop hating on certain religions? It’s not okay. If your views are that Christianity and the Bible are stupid, that’s fine, but please keep it to yourself. Please just be nice to each other. There’s no reason to make people who believe in Christ or the Bible feel bad because you don’t like it. You know what started the Holocaust? Discrimination against certain people and their beliefs. Am I saying this is anything of those proportions? Absolutely not, but it’s the same idea: calling a certain religion dumb or bad just because you don’t agree with it. Some people are going to be upset over the churches and if they are, let them be. If I were to take something really important to you away you’d be upset too. So please guys just be nice? I come on here to be happy and to escape from what’s going on and I don’t want to feel ashamed of myself here too. I liked the article though, I think it’s really cool. Please stay safe everyone
When christianity ruled the world, it ruled it with an iron fist. Christians used to torture and kill people for saying that the sun is the center of our planetary system. Christians used to torture and kill nonbelievers. Now you have the balls to complain when someone speaks the truth? Nonbelievers are allowed to speak out. Christians killed enough of our ancestors. If we don’t speak out, they were killed for nothing.
Should they bulldoze the church down instead? What else are they supposed to do with it?
Load More Replies...or build a new building next to it and let the church just stand empty?
I don't know why everyone's so upset with old churches not being churches anymore. They were scams to start with and I'm glad they failed.
They're big buildings and tend to be well built - no reason not to reuse them when a congregation can no longer afford to keep them.
Load More Replies...I'll give you two good reasons--One, all that vertical inside is a b***h to heat or cool (and pay for), and Two, the amount of usable floor space is not very good.
Come to Detroit, and I will show you many old Catholic churches that are now abandoned and falling apart :-) There is even an abandoned Catholic church in the suburbs, that was scheduled to be torn down and replaced with a storage facility.
Reminds me of a fellow lawyer who started to work for a church (financial issues) and told me, after a first look "into the books" he immediately stopped donating to churches. He's a decent guy, never said more about this...but this statement really made me wonder.....
Some are yes but you can’t judge people who believe in Christ just. Because of the beliefs that’s just like judging some one for eating cereal
kinda makes you wonder when christ himself can't keep all his churches open ... maybe he bit off more than he can even he could chew? that or he has some serious problems running his organizations maybe
I think you’re kinda missing the point. Everyone keeps hating on Christianity and Catholicism so much and it’s upsetting. A Christian being upset over a church being turned into a fast food place or a dollar store is the same as someone who is Jewish being upset over a synagogue being turned into something like that. Their place of worship is no longer theirs and for people who actively practice, that can be upsetting to see.
I think the sins of religion in general are finally coming home to roost on it ... the damage has been done and I imagine we will see a lot of the 'wanna-be' religions go bust and disappear, with church building and properties being sold off and repurposed just as quickly - just the other day I 'outed' a christian friend by mistake, telling mutual friends that didn't know that person was quite so religious, a lot of the religious friends I know are deeply closeted about their religious activities and WANT to keep it that way - there is nothing like religion to wet-towel a group or gathering ... and all this is going to have a cause and effect somewhere, somehow, even if just a trickle-down effect
this is the unpopular opinion but i kinda agree, although i think you went a little too far, i'm not glad they failed, nor am i sad, it dosen't bother me either way and yes they were scams but people will be people and believe what they want.
They weren’t “all scams” though. They were community gathering places and places of worship. Just because you don’t believe in the religion doesn’t make it a scam.
Sister baboon, you do realize the bible is a book with a talking donkey in it? There are angels, devils, demons, unicorns, fairies, ghosts, zombies, giants, witches, wizards, etc. in the bible. The bible is largely fictional. There are thousands of contradictions in the bible. The bible is loaded with scientific falsehoods and historical falsehoods. You should research this stuff at a college level.
Lol you make the Bible sound like the script for shrek which it absolutely isn’t. Sister baboon is creative tho. I applaud thee.
No one gets to tell me to shut up. And you are so full of s**t your eyes are red from the pressure.
I find the church torturing and burning people alive offensive, not to mention the pedophilia. The church should be deleted. (not to mention how the whole thing is a scam to separate fools from their money)
The zakat (or the poor tax) is collected by muslims to be given to the less fortunate and needy. Churches on the other hand ask for as much as you can give so they can buy jets and super expensive clothing (there was a post about that on here a while ago)
A good tree cannot produce bad fruit and a bad tree cannot produce good fruit. It happened and the tree is BAD!
...and for them saying natural disasters are god's way of punishing us for having gay people. Also, Southern Baptist was invented to have a church for justifying slavery in America.
there's real Christians out there, but they are not associated with the church. Indeed THEY are the church, not some building.
Lol idk why but wanted to share: our local strip club has outdoor seating now 😳
I live in Portland, the strip club capitol of the world. A lot of them serve good food and people will eat outside to avoid the entry fee. I've never been to one, but coworkers will say, "let's go to Acropolis for lunch". I figured they were going to see strippers, turns out they were really into their burgers.
Load More Replies...Sista I praise you with your other comment there are the ones uneducated
At least the buildings are being used. I hate when buildings are derelicts because people won't sell them and they are still perfectly usable.
for all the nay sayers that dont like repurposing churches, would you rather have them just stand there empty, or demolished? They were not being used anymore. Its not that the people were chased out.
Converting them into lofts would create very attractive and unique living spaces.
Load More Replies...They've done that to a couple of large churches in Toronto...and in Ottawa there's a church that's been converted to a house that is just lovely.
In Atlanta a man bought a small church and turned it into a house. He left the outside pretty much intact. What a cool place to live! He also looks after the local community cats.
I lived in an old post office that had been converted into shops, that was built in 1910, it was so cool, original doors and stained-glass windows. I loved it
So you lived in a shop? That aside, that was an era of gorgeous architecture.
Load More Replies...It wasn't a shop when I lived there but had been previously, the architecture was amazing. Brick flooring downstairs, old fashioned locks and door handles, double front door with massive glass windows, high ceilings. It was beautiful
Clever buying, instead of failed make-overs, that is what this post is TRULY about.
A strip club in anchorage Alaska where I live was turned into a church recently , lmfao.
well ... not to state the obvious but ... it IS Alaska, and it DID have that crazy religious woman, claiming to 'wave at Russia from her porch' running things for a while there ... (need I say more?)
Load More Replies...Which one of them are "attempting to hide their previous purpose"? Why do you change your titles twice a day, bored panda?
yes, they dragged the worshippers out, and directly turned it into a mall, shop or starbucks. Sigh.
I'm glad these places were converted. So much better than abandoned, rotting buildings.
There's a mosque in my home town that I'm fairly certain used to be either a house or a Mexican restaurant
have you seen the mural in the Mexican restaurant that used to be a Chinese restaurant? they painted sombreros on the panda bears and hung a couple of pinatas in the trees
No pic, but our local DMV office is being "phased out" (read: closed down forever) so the building is up for grabs. Ideas what to do with an old DMV, anyone?
We were thinking a chiropractor to heal up everyone who sat in those blasted DMV chairs!
In my home city of Derby UK, we have a pub called "The Standing Order". It used to be a bank.
This just made me dismayed at how brands even have trademark building shapes
I know it's good that they're not left empty, but It makes me irrationally sad that places close down. I worked at Blockbusters, it was the best place to work. Damn streaming movies ruining VHS rentals, haha!
Can everyone please stop hating on certain religions? It’s not okay. If your views are that Christianity and the Bible are stupid, that’s fine, but please keep it to yourself. Please just be nice to each other. There’s no reason to make people who believe in Christ or the Bible feel bad because you don’t like it. You know what started the Holocaust? Discrimination against certain people and their beliefs. Am I saying this is anything of those proportions? Absolutely not, but it’s the same idea: calling a certain religion dumb or bad just because you don’t agree with it. Some people are going to be upset over the churches and if they are, let them be. If I were to take something really important to you away you’d be upset too. So please guys just be nice? I come on here to be happy and to escape from what’s going on and I don’t want to feel ashamed of myself here too. I liked the article though, I think it’s really cool. Please stay safe everyone
When christianity ruled the world, it ruled it with an iron fist. Christians used to torture and kill people for saying that the sun is the center of our planetary system. Christians used to torture and kill nonbelievers. Now you have the balls to complain when someone speaks the truth? Nonbelievers are allowed to speak out. Christians killed enough of our ancestors. If we don’t speak out, they were killed for nothing.
Should they bulldoze the church down instead? What else are they supposed to do with it?
Load More Replies...or build a new building next to it and let the church just stand empty?