Requested by reader Jon Stewart (no, not that one) comes an ad for the late Humpty Dumpty Children's Center. Located at 3406 South College Avenue and opened in 1961 as the first local commercial daycare by Virginia Jones, Humpty Dumpty operated until the mid-1980s.1
This post was delisted from the Index for a few years because it was confusing as to what buildings were used for the daycare. At the time of this article's writing, 3404 S. College Avenue, a long-defunct gas station serving as "The Guitar Studio" was in front of 3406-3408's buildings, with 3406 sharing 3404-3406. Complicating this was a 1980 directory listing 3404A as the home of Larry Jones. I've just decided to cover 3404 at a later date; but 3406 served as not just Humpty Dumpty but also daughter Jan Jones Hammond's2 business, La Petite Academy of Dance. La Petite continued to operate after Humpty Dumpty's demise with the daycare portion leased as Kids Kampus Learning Center in December 1989. This went under a few different names including Heaven Sent (c. 1993) and Bright Beginnings (c. 1996), with the last reference for La Petite Academy of Dance somewhere around this point (at least using this address). Around 2001 the 3408 address began to be used, with Brazos Valley Montessori opening in 2001, after briefly serving as the daycare component of Covenant Presbyterian Church during their time of transit, before moving to their current campus at Edelweiss and Rock Prairie but after departing Northgate. I can't remember when Brazos Valley Montessori closed, I think it was around 2010-2011, not too long after Larry Jones passed away in 2009. In 2014 the Jones family sold the land, under the name "Humpty 3406 LLC", despite the fact that Humpty Dumpty had been gone for nearly 30 years. In the early 2020s the abandoned (or at least underused) buildings were demolished for an expansion of Carney's Pub next door. Street View link can be seen here.
1. Evidence for this is that when Ms. Jones passed away in 2003 (combined with "since 1961" and "25 years", one can assume Humpty Dumpty closed in 1986, though when redoing this post it looks like it closed in very early 1987. Pretty close!
2. Later ads and Virginia Jones' obituary just refer to her as Jan Jones. Probably divorced at some point.
UPDATE 03-09-2026: Post updated to split off 3404 and fix other stuff. It appears that the buildings date back to the 1960s.
