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People Online Are Cracking Up At These 40 Buildings Attempting To Hide Their Previous Purpose Shared In This Online Group
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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.
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.
This CVS In An Old Bank
A Bank Converted To Mcdonalds
A Former Cricket Wireless Is Now A Chicken Restaurant
Former Gas Station, Turned Into A Subway With Outdoor Seating - Gypsum, Co
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.
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
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
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
This Dominos In My Home Town Of Keyser Wv Was A Phillip's 66 Gas Station And Garage In The Early 80's
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
Big Woodys Sports Bar (Bethlehem, Pa)
It's perfect, absolutely perfect. One stop, slop till ya drop! Ya gotta love it all.
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
Note: this post originally had 55 images. It’s been shortened to the top 40 images based on user votes.
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.
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
Sounds like somebody has an axe to grind.
Sounds like someone else has some whine to sell.
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.
you and me both
me too, sis, bro, or person (if non-binary)
Scams?
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.
when all the church's financial books and earning are open and available for the public to see I will stop looking at churches as the scams they are and always have been
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OMG GUYS IM NOT FCKN SAYING THAT QLL CHRISTIANS ARE AWESOME AND GOD ID THE BEST PERSON EVER IM JUST SAYING THAT THERE IS ABSOLUTELY NO REASON TO ATTACK RELIGION LIKE THAT IT NEVER DID ANYTHING TO YOU, WHY SHOULD YOU BE CONGRATULATING SOME CHURCHES FAILURE???? THATS STRAIGHT UP RUDE, AND EXTREMELY OFFENSIVE.
Wow. Did you memorize all that bullshit?
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It’s not bullshit and shut the hell up
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.
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Ah, wow. That’s a bit much. That’s actually quite offensive, you should delete that.
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)
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Try saying that about mosques and see where that gets you.
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)
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Do you know how long ago that was? God probably didn't approve in the first place!!! He is AGAINST violence!
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.
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THERE ARE EVILS AND IDIOTS IN ALL GROUPS WE JUST DON'T SHOW SOME. THE CHURCH WASN'T/ISN'T ALWAYS GOOD, BUT IT'S GOTTEN MUCH BETTER NOW. MOST PEOPLE AND CHURCHES DON'T BELIEVE THAT. IF YOU TALKED OR LISTENED TO A NORMAL CHRISTIAN, THEY WOULD PROBABLY BE LIKE ANYONE ELSE. PLUS, GOD WILL ALWAYS CHOOSE THE GOOD PERSON OVER THE PRETEND CHRISTIAN.
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.
Yes, the same way so many guys bought Playboy magazine for the articles.
Actually, I get frustrated when they publish the list over the year's best science fiction comes out and lots the honorable mentions are in Playboy and I cant (wont) read it. It happens almost every year.
Sista I praise you with your other comment there are the ones uneducated
I am glad to see buildings repurposed. It doesn't happen enough.
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.