The pad site where Hancock Whitney bank (at 1912 Texas Avenue South) is today has its own history that's set apart from the large H-E-B store behind it. The water tower that stands guard over the H-E-B replaced a smaller water tower almost directly at the corner of the intersection, where the H-E-B gas station is today.
The first reference I can find to the address is Harry Dishman Mazda (which moved from 603 Texas Avenue) and in 1975 that was sold and became Richard Barton Mazda-Volvo. It became simply Richard Barton Mazda (the Volvo line was terminated around this time) in early 1977 before changing hands to Bud Ward Volkswagen in 1977, which still carried Mazda cars (as well as Subaru). A 1978 article from The Eagle mentions that Ward also added Porsche and Audi lines (but did not stock top-of-the-line Porsche cars) when the facility expanded. In December 1988 Bud Ward sold the dealership to University Toyota of Bryan, which announced it would close their location in Bryan and move. What ended up happening instead was that after the Bud Ward inventory was cleared, University Toyota instead opened University Mitsubishi on the site in mid-1989. This closed in 1992, with Charlie's, a nightclub, announcing opening by year-end. Charlie's failed within a year, and in 1994 the building was torn down for El Chico. In 1994, it opened as what I remember the corner being, El Chico opened in 1994. El Chico is still around in some form and despite a logo and image update, there's only 5 locations left in Texas from what was once dozens.
It was maintained as a pad site when the lot was redeveloped as H-E-B, but closed in late 2005, citing declining popularity and access reasons (by that time, construction on widening Texas Avenue had begun). A few years later, the building and its parking lot was demolished entirely (including the old parking lot) for MidSouth Bank, which was rebranded as Hancock Whitney in late 2019.
UPDATE 10-06-2025: Update with new post title and clarifying existing content.
