Museum of Former Quiznos
Halstrom, Colorado · Museum · est. 1998
A museum documenting the architectural afterlives of buildings that once contained Quiznos restaurants, housed in a strip-mall unit that is itself a former Quiznos. The collection includes more than 1,400 photographs, sixty floor plans, and a decommissioned conveyor toaster, organized by successor tenant.
History
The building at 44 Prairie Gate Road was constructed in 1998 as Unit 4 of the Prairie Gate Shopping Plaza, a six-unit strip development anchored at various times by a video rental, a carpet showroom, and a seasonal tax office. From 1999 to 2009 it housed a Quiznos franchise operated by Terrence Vogel, which makes the museum's home simultaneously its first, largest, and least portable exhibit.
Following the restaurant's closure, Vogel began photographing other former locations during long regional drives, initially, by his own account, 'to see what became of them.' By 2011 he had documented 214 buildings across eleven states, filing the prints in three-ring binders organized by successor tenant. The Halstrom Downtown Revitalization Committee, seeking an occupant for the long-vacant unit, awarded Vogel a $38,000 adaptive-reuse grant in early 2012, and the Museum of Former Quiznos opened that August with a ribbon-cutting attended by two of the plaza's three other tenants.
The permanent collection now comprises photographs, floor plans, lease documents donated by former franchisees, a wall of salvaged signage fragments, and the conveyor toaster, which is roped off but operational. Galleries are arranged by architectural afterlife: vape retail, tax preparation, cellular repair, storefront churches, and a category the museum labels 'unaffiliated sandwiches.' A placard near the entrance states the institution's central thesis, which is that the buildings 'go on being buildings.'
The museum's most significant setback came in June 2016, when a hailstorm destroyed a salvaged drive-through canopy that had been recovered from a demolished location outside Pueblo and displayed in the parking lot as the collection's only outdoor object. The insurer classified the canopy as signage rather than structure, reducing the settlement to $1,900. Its frame is now displayed indoors, flat, with a label explaining the circumstances.
“Every one of those buildings is still out there, holding some other business. Somebody had to keep track. It turned out to be Terry.”
Local Legends
Some residents maintain that the museum's conveyor toaster remains under its original service contract, and that a technician still visits annually, though no technician has ever been observed and the museum's operating budget does not list one.
It is locally held that a particular shade of red visible beneath the paint of a hardware store two towns east indicates an undocumented former location. The museum has neither confirmed nor denied this, describing the site as 'pending fieldwork' since 2017.
Vogel is said to be able to identify a former Quiznos from a moving vehicle at 45 miles per hour. He has called this an exaggeration, and puts the reliable figure at 35.
The Controversy
In 2014 the museum received a letter from brand counsel regarding the use of the word Quiznos in its name. The matter was resolved without litigation when the museum agreed to enlarge the word 'Former' on its road sign to the same point size as the rest of the name and to add a plaque disclaiming any affiliation. The sign painter charged $240, an expense the museum's newsletter described as 'the cost of clarity.'
Visitor Reviews
The photograph wall is bigger than you expect and the labeling is thorough. I recognized the one in Sterling because my niece works at the nail salon that is in it now. They have it filed under successor tenant, personal care. Accurate.
I managed one of these in Aurora from 2004 to 2008. I stood in front of the floor plan wall for a long time. The gentleman at the desk did not hurry me. I signed the guest book with my old store number and he nodded like that was normal, and here I suppose it is.
Reviewing the laundromat two doors down, which shares the parking lot. The change machine takes tens, which you almost never see anymore. The museum itself was closed for fieldwork the day I came through.
Sincere and well organized. The toaster is roped off but they ran it at 2 p.m. and the sound is exactly what you remember. Gift shop takes cards over $5.
Gift Shop
Currently in stock
- Postcard set: 'Successor Tenants' (10 cards)ask at desk
- Enamel pin (red trapezoid, unlabeled)ask at desk
- Laminated self-guided field checklist for identifying former locationsask at desk
- 'I Remembered the Building' bumper stickerask at desk
- Staple-bound booklet: 'Paint Layers of the Front Range' (2nd printing)ask at desk