At the intersection of Wetzel and West Liberty Avenue in the South Hills Region of Pittsburgh, the Catholic Church Built one of its First Churches in the South Hills of Pittsburgh in the late 1800s. In the 1930s, A&P purchased the site (The parish was divided three ways before that time, losing Mt Lebanon and then Brookline to newly form Parishes, and the Church, by then known as St Catherines, moved to Broadway in the middle of Beechview). Brookline is on the East Side of West Liberty Avenue, Beechview is on the West Side of West Liberty Avenue.
Anyway, A&P purchased the lot, when the City of Pittsburgh received Stimulus money to convert the Streetcar Right of way from West Liberty Avenue to Brookline to what is now called Brookline Boulevard. At the same time, about a mile closer to Pittsburgh, the City received Stimulus money (this is 1938-1939) to build an access ramp from West Liberty Avenue to the Beechview Street car line (Which had its own right of way and bridge over Saw Mill Run and PA 51) so that the Dormont, Mt Lebanon and Brookline Streetcars no longer had to go to the West Liberty Avenue and PA 51 intersection (Which where the Liberty Tunnels had been since 1927) turn left and then right to get to South Hills Junction and the Streetcar tunnel (Built in 1905). No Streetcar went into Liberty Tunnel, but it removed the Streetcars from that intersection permitting the County of Allegheny to connect what is now called Saw Mill Run Boulevard to the Liberty Tunnels.
The removal of the Streetcars to their own ramp away from the Liberty Tunnel Intersection permitted not only more auto traffic but faster Streetcar service (The Streetcars had their own Tunnel through Mt Washington, still today used for buses and LRVs). The West liberty Streetcar ramp was used from 1939 till 1964 when Streetcars on West Liberty Avenue were replaced by Buses (Which then ran through the Liberty Tunnels). This lasted till the mid 1970s when the old Streetcar Tunnel was paved permitting buses to run through it. The Streetcar ramp was also paved, but do to the fact Streetcars always went almost in the same exact location, and buses do NOT do that (and thus you need more spaces between Buses going in opposite directions then you do streetcars) it is one bus up and one bus down on the ramp (as opposed to the old Streetcars which could go up and down at the same time).
Anyway back to A&P, I had always read that the A&P store replaced the church and took up about the same room as the church. I have never seen a picture of the Church, but given the time period it was build (the last 1800s) it would be small by today's standard (And when I checked on Penn Pilot of aerial pictures from 1939, this is confirmed a mid size building it located at the intersection of Wetzel and West Liberty Avenue in 1939).
Now, I alway through that the A&P Store replaced the Catholic Church at that intersection. A careful review of the Penn Pilot aerial photos of 1939 and 1967 clearly shows something else. When the A&P later went, was in 1939 an area of open fields, about one to two acres. Looks like it was a nature area/religious retreat area. The Church was on the South Side of Wetzel NOT the North Side of Wetzel as was the A&P and today's McDonald's. The Nature/Religious retreat area was to the North of Wetzel along West Liberty Avenue and it is clear that became the A&P soon after the photos were taken (OR the Church had been in the area later to become an A&P but was torn down long before the aerial photos were taken about 1939 and the large building to the South of Wetzel is just a large building not a Church).
Anyway, what looks like it had been a nice nature/religious retreat area in 1939, had by 1967 became an A&P and paved parking lots. By the mid 1970s A&P pulled out of Pittsburgh and sold the lot to McDonald's, which built a McDonald's on the Site. The McDonald's took up about the same space as the A&P but you did have a better designed parking lot.
If you want to look at aerial photos of the site see, which has area photo take throughout Pennsylvania in 1939, 1957 and 1967 (Give to take five years for each date):
http://www.pennpilot.psu.edu/I used Photo APS-72-62
Just a comment on what happen to a local A&P, the big store or the 1920s-1950s, by the 1960s a small store that could not compete with the big boys AND not willing to provide the local services needed for people to go they and pay more. In many ways to big and to small. To big to change quickly and to provide what customers want TODAY, to small to justify ordering large numbers of one item so to spread the cost of selling those items over the maximum numbers of items sold. This is the problem with large stores, they MUST keep getting bigger to get more shoppers so to spread the cost of overhead over more items. Sooner or later it will fail, either someone else will build a bigger and more profitable store OR the store gets so large, you can NOT draw enough people in to justify the size of the store.
A&P had started as the largest food store that people could walk to. It catered to Auto Drivers, but as soon as the majority of people had cars, it should have abandoned its older stores (as being to small given that people can haul things in their Car) OR accept that its prices will be higher then stores that did go bigger. A&P wanted to milk its stores for all the profits they could, thus they did NOT expand (For that ate up profits) and did not provide additional services to its customers (For that ate up profits). A&P had to adopt one of those two policies, but could not. It was to heavily invested in its existing stores and thus would NOT abandon them (Like Walmart does to this day) but also did NOT want to put money into them to upgrade them so people feel their are getting something by paying extra (that would have required a whole corporate culture rebuild, something that is hard to do even if the Corporation wants to do it).
In its heyday (Which started in the late 1800s) A&P was the Walmart of its day. Providing the lowest over all prices and driving its competitors out of business by providing that low price (Prior to A&P it was common for people to buy items on "Credit", "Credit" not provided by a bank or credit card, but by the store owner who permitted people to buy things they needed today, and pay them when the customer received money (for example Farmers when the crops came in). Thus A&P, but refusing to provide "Credit" minimized its loss and thus maximized its profits. The problem was A&P had to continue down that same path, providing the lowest prices by cutting costs. That is a hard thing to do, for things change. When A&P started the best way to maximize profits was to buy and own the store you sold your goods out of. Once the store was paid for, no more rent had to be paid and thus maximize profits. The problem was that also tied to down to a location. To move you had to be willing to take a loss on the sale of an old store. How do you justify selling a store you paid $100,000 to buy for a Dollar? i.e a $99,999 loss? At times you have to do that for the store was NOT the most profitable location (Especially as more and more people with money purchased cars starting in the 1920s, accelerating in the late 1940s and early 1950s, thus a Great location in 1930 would be a terrible location in 1950, the first still served by Streetcars, but by the 1950s mostly low income people, the second, in the 1950s, nearer to people with cars AND their higher income).
Walmart did this transformation by staying in the most Car dependent part of America, Rural America. A&P had started in Urban America, where maximum profits were from the late 1800s till the 1950s, but by the 1950s Urban American was being left behind by the Car Culture of Suburbia. A&P needed to abandon Urban American and embrace Suburbia, but did NOT want to abandon its older, but paid for stores. That was A&Ps death sentence, a refusal to change. A&P had two choices in the 1950s, embrace suburbia or embrace quality over quantity. A&P chooses neither and started to fail in the 1960s (By which time it was to late, others had moved into the Niches A&P had left open).
Just a comment why A&P, the Walmart of the early 20th Century, failed in the second half of the 20th Century. I am surprised it is still in business, it is shadow of its former self and has no one to blame for its condition but itself.