Former Circuit City

Picture from April 2019 by author.

The distinctive shape of this building is recognizable as a former Circuit City, which was built in 1995. I maybe went into Circuit City once or twice in this location, but I do remember it as a dimly-lit place with computers on display (typical of Circuit City, and that was their gimmick, for the darker lighting to better show off computers and televisions), and nothing like Best Buy, which was brighter and better organized.

In January 2007, Circuit City moved to a new location at University Drive and Highway 6 (about where Half-Price Books is today) and closed down their location, only for the new location to close down a few years later. ("Bryan-College Station sees boom in businesses" from The Eagle). In early August 2012, Guitar Center opened a store at the location but it retains its original architecture.

1003 Harvey Road

America's Country Store

Picture taken March 2019
I love lineages of companies, and you may have noticed the Purina checkerboard logo on the outside of this store, just like many of the Purina-branded pet food inside. The thing is, those are two different companies, and they have been for decades. The "America's Country Store" is a franchise of Purina Mills, which operate animal feed mills in rural areas, but it spun off from the original Ralston Purina in the mid-1980s. Purina Mills has been owned by Land O'Lakes Inc. since 2001, while the original Ralston Purina (having divested all of its "human food" operations over the years) was purchased by Nestlé around the same time and merged with their Friskies PetCare Company division (becoming known as "Nestlé Purina PetCare" since). (One place in town with Ralston Purina heritage is, surprisingly, Jack in the Box, which Ralston Purina owned in the 1970s and 1980s).

America's Country Store started in 1997 but the College Station (Wellborn) store opened in October 2005 by franchisee Close Quarters Feed and Pet Supply. It was always designated toward animals, but in recent years (very recent, apparently, as of this writing) converted its garden center into a pet boarding service. This is just out of view in the picture, but can be seen in Street View (as a garden center at least as of this writing).

14675 Wellborn Road

Jack in the Box, Texas Avenue, College Station

It seems this store opened after the clown heads were removed.
Jack in the Box store number 683 opened sometime in the early 1980s (Brazos CAD hasn't been much help). The picture isn't high resolution because I was going to publish it as part of the Texas Avenue City Directory on the next update on Carbon-izer. It's all part of a big site overhaul. The picture is from me, but I don't have the date recorded down of when I took it (likely a few years ago). This is the only Jack in the Box in College Station proper as the one on Rock Prairie closed down a couple of years ago.

1504 Texas Avenue South

215 University Drive

No alcohol served here, then or now. [Picture from Project HOLD]

Until very recently, I used to have a big article on University Drive going through Northgate. Anyway, I put it in Draft, and for some reason it wiped the last several years of updates to it, requiring me to go back to Archive.org to pull back the information lost. This building, built sometime in the late 1960s or early 1970s, was "Andre's Bicycle Shop" according to the earliest records I've accessed. Later on, it became "Bill's Style Shop" at 215 University but eventually Bill retired and the space was absorbed into Zapatos Cantina, which eventually became Wobbly Monkey. The original Zapatos section (DoubleDave's) was not part of the deal, but Wobbly Monkey never lasted more than two semesters because the owner sold out. It is now Northgate Juice Joint, which will use part of the outdoor space for an urban garden. Surprisingly, after opening sometime in late 2014, Northgate Juice Joint still operates nearly five years later as of this writing.