Updates to Jones Crossing

From the page linked below. It's been watermarked precisely because of reposting purposes. Something a bit different today—among the casualties in the most recent Carbon-izer rework was the FM 2154 page. It wasn't that well developed anyway, but it also included a fairly comprehensive look at Jones Crossing that I just can't recreate elsewhere. And with several places at Jones Crossing having gone out of business, I would need to cover that, wouldn't I?!

Based on the current analysis the page appears to date from 2021.

- I Heart Mac and Cheese closed both locations in February 2022 (which is mentioned on the Century Square page. The Jones Crossing store reopened in April of that year. The restaurant operated a few months more (it was open in August of that year) but it folded and was replaced with an AT&T store.
- In spring 2023, Urban Bird Hot Chicken opened to replace Zero Degrees.
- Just south of Chick-fil-A (instead of the strip mall depicted), a Taco Bell opened at 1696 Harvey Mitchell Pkwy. South on December 27th, 2024.
- Suite 800 at 11667 FM 2154 opened as Lucky Goat Coffee in May 2025. It is adjacent to a playground, which is owned and operated by the landlord, not the restaurant. At least kids don't have to play next to boarded-up windows now.
- In April 2021, Caprock Health System sold its two Urgent Care centers to Integrity Urgent Care (one of which being at Jones Crossing, the other at Century Square). In November 2024 Caprock went under entirely.

The website for Jones Crossing has gone under as of this writing, so please check back for updates.

Checkers, Revisited

It's not the greatest photo out there, but I tried. (Photo by author, 4/2025)
Happy Easter, or rather 4/20, depending on how you want to see it. We're taking a brief break from our Texas Avenue-themed locations for a bit (maybe, perhaps, longer). Much like how the recent Finfeather 7-Eleven post was a revised version of an old, removed post, you may remember me covering this (it wasn't your imagination, it was published in early 2013 per records but removed around 2019 because I wasn't happy with it).

Now sporting the address of 1103 Welsh Avenue, the "new" Checkers (opened April 2025 after being under construction for at least a year, the licensed "Big Madre" taco concept opening May) but I remember when the old Checkers, 604 Holleman, opened. Vaguely.

604 Holleman was first developed as commercial property in 1971 as a UtoteM, converted to Circle K in 1984, and closed in 1987¹. Additionally, next to the station (same building) at 606 Holleman², was Holik's Package Store and later Al's Washateria. From what I've been told and can piece together this was completely abandoned during the 1990s.

In 1997, the building was torn down for a new gas station and convenience store called Checkers. You can see what Checkers looked like on older Google Maps Street View images, though as a kid its unusual appearance for a gas station was puzzling, with an unused upper level. (I'm guessing it might've been intended to be leased as office space but never came to pass). Eventually, a stop sign was added at Welsh and Holleman by the early 2000s and ultimately (I want to say 2009) a full stoplight was added.

While there were few updates to the gas station over the years (the only thing notable was repainting the canopy from green to white, around 2011, then ultimately yellow), the gas station had a kitchen space and a number of fly-by-night operations operated there over the years, mostly Mexican and/or soul food. The only one I really remember was "El Taco Loco", which had an anthropomorphic hard taco with sunglasses, and in the 2010s had The Remnant from Nawlins, which was the ONLY space to ever graduate into a full restaurant (now at 1416 Groesbeck Street, which it's been since around 2016, give or take a year).

The Holik name seems to be connected to the former owner of a house at 614 Holleman demolished in the second redevelopment when the original Checkers was closed and demolished around 2023, I remember passing the house by glowing mercury vapor lamp to the west side of the house, and was part of the same property. It finally went away in the redevelopment. Unfortunately, I have no pictures of the old property but here's the Google Street View of 604 Holleman.

UPDATE 05-04-2025: Clarified a few things regarding Aggieland Food Mart and its non-open status, as well as making a bit more clear that the 1997 redevelopment was redeveloped completely again.

<sup>1. Tax records indicate it would reopen as "Aggieland Food Mart" soon after, but this appears to have not been the case. Want ads mention "I have the building, just need $ for stock". The tax record expired a year later.
2. Also known as 604-B Holleman.</sup>

Varsity Grillhouse

I was in a bit of a rush so I only got one picture of the restaurant and it isn't a great one (photo by author, 2/25)
A few years ago after burning out in 2021, I decided that starting with this post everything moving forward would be "buildings that are demolished or otherwise closed, had tenant changeover, had some significant change themselves, or are part of a larger story" and not merely historic. Since then everything has held to that (I figured there might be an exception or two but thus far everything has held).

The downside of a self-governed policy tends to encourage making a post of recently-deceased businesses rather than looking at a long storied history (one of the things I like the least about Columbia Closings, but it also seems to bring in the crowds).

What was a bit confusing about Varsity Grillhouse (and probably contributing to its demise) was that it was a sports-themed restaurant, but not a sports bar*. Here's the restaurant's menu courtesy Archive.org.

The restaurant came and went so fast (late April 2024 to early February 2025) that the most recent Street View of 2509 Earl Rudder Freeway. Not the shortest-lived restaurant in the area by a long shot but rarely do you see a new-build go under like that.

The restaurant was part of a new development of the old Westinghouse building and surrounding property. That's a post I've been tinkering on for a while now (pretty sure I started it five years ago) but that's still going to be a future post, someday...

* archived from this link

Long John Silver's in Bryan

Long John Silver's, before it walked the plank. (September 2024, photo by author).
Bryan's Long John Silver's was closed and demolished in late 2024 following its condemnation, despite some new permits being filed. Based on the fact the signage remains up but empty (no "temporarily closed"), no fencing, and no work on a replacement restaurant (foundation, etc.) I'm going to assume it's done for permanently...but I can't know for sure until it becomes a clearly abandoned lot. If it turns out to be rebuilt, then an update will be added later.

The original plan was to release this post on "International Talk Like a Pirate Day", or rather September 19th, 2024. Sadly, I was out traveling and was not able to actually post it as planned. I'll still keep the pirate-speak (with help from Monkeyness) because it would've stayed up past "TLAPD" anyway. With that being said...

Long John Silver's Seafood Shoppe opened in January 1978 at 3224 S. Texas Avenue (the College Station location came later) 'n the nautical-themed galley operated fer o'er 40 years at that location. By the time these pictures were taken, the buildin' was in rough shape; the signage had nah been touched in decades 'n thar appeared t' be a large hole in the side o' the buildin' which was boarded up. At some point the "Seafood Shoppe" name had been dropped as well.

Aye, like the College Station location thar be drug busts at this galley, with one incident involvin' PCP but the restaurant continued for more than another decade.

"Avast," said county officials sometime in 2024, "the buildin' be in bad shape," 'n indeed a new filin' fer a new building was posted so this location will soon be torn down 'n rebuilt. The drive-through remained open, though.

Here be a few more pictures, including both simultaneously being condemned and open for business. Yar.

UPDATE 01-24-2025: The restaurant is indeed being rebuilt.
UPDATE 06-12-2025: The restaurant opened today (with new signage) and long lines (and creating a minor traffic jam). [2020s] added to post.

Spice World Market

There's a big Starbucks sign inside for what is essentially a Starbucks-branded Keurig machine inside. (Photo by author, 9/2021).
One more entry before I take a break for a little while (see Editor's Note at the bottom), Spice World Market opened in July 2021 at 1381 Old Arrington Road. It's an Indian grocery store at 9,000 square feet, which is much larger than any Indian food-focused store in town. Previously, the places that specialized in Indian food mostly just had some items crammed in the back of a convenience store, but this one is in a nice, new space with even a bakery that churns out fresh naan (which I have yet to see, it runs out by 5pm).

Spice World is located on 1381 Old Arrington Road, located behind the main Caprock Crossing development, and has been in planning for a long time. I first saw the signs for Spice World Market ("Coming Soon") in March 2019, en route to the Ground Shuttle terminal further down when picking up my cousin at the terminal for a wedding (the trip to the terminal was not as exciting as childhood trips all the way to downtown Bryan's old Greyhound station, but it was easier to get to). Funnily enough, the section of Old Arrington Road did not exist for a brief time in the 2000s. When Highway 40 opened, (Old) Arrington Road intersected with Highway 40 just before Highway 6 (complete with a left turn lane from Highway 40), with the newer section of Arrington Road accessible further down solely to provide access to Greens Prairie Road West. By 2008, the section closer to the highway was officially Old Arrington Road, while the intersection further west curled down to connect to the main road. A few years later, the pavement was removed on Old Arrington near the highway and closed off.

By fall 2014, the space was being redeveloped as Caprock Crossing, with Walgreens being built, and a Zaxby's later built on the right of way itself. Old Arrington was on its way to be forgotten and built over completely, like North Graham Road. However, unlike North Graham Road, in 2017 or 2018, the cul-de-sac at the end of Old Arrington (the truncation point), was removed, and a new concrete driveway connected it to the Caprock Crossing entryway, which provided access to Zaxby's, Walgreens, and others. It was on this rebuilt portion that Spice World opened.

Editor's Note: So the blog will be going a bit quiet again. Probably not "no posts until 2022" but likely not for another month or two until I can build some posts and content. Unlike in August 2020, when I ran aground, this is going to at least end on a high note. If you exclusively read this blog via Facebook (not recommended!) this notice may be out of date anyway, as I have more than enough Facebook stuff stored up to sail through this gap.

Former Valero at Holleman and Wellborn

Pore Jud's is Daid (Picture by author, 12/15/20)

The Valero at Holleman and Wellborn was demolished this month. The original convenience store at the station at 1011 Wellborn, dating back to at least 1993 was Jud's Food Stores out of Brenham. The station was built in 1989 as per BCAD but Jud's Food Stores was established in 1990, so depending on when the station opened, it may or may not have had that name. In fact, by the time the station opened, it was Jud's Food Stores #9. The first four stores were located in Brenham, with store 5 being in Seguin (2999 North Highway 123 Bypass) and 6 at 701 East Pierce Street in Luling. (This indicates that stores one through eight were older rebranded stations).

In any case, 1011 Wellborn was originally branded as an Exxon and remained that way for years. It also had a drive-through car wash and when I was younger it was occasionally used by my folks. I believe this was because there was a deal where you could use for free or very cheaply if you purchased gas, but at some point in the late 1990s this was dropped.

In 2000, the station was expanded with U Wash, which opened at the same address (though technically, the address by BCAD's number was 1001 Wellborn) and same ownership. U Wash was a self-serve car wash with several docks and was accessible only through the Exxon's parking lot. More change would come to the station a few years later, when it became a Valero in the mid-2000s (2006?). This Valero came slightly before the local Diamond Shamrock conversions to my memory, and was the first time I saw such a station.

Sometime around the same time of the Valero conversion, the convenience store became "Cross Roads Corner Store Aggieland" (the signage where Jud's was, on the left side of the door, was whited out). From then on, the station didn't see much activity in the station. The station did add Krispy Krunchy fried chicken inside in 2016 but this wasn't well advertised (not even on the outside of the store). However, U Wash was later closed and torn down within a few years of that without much fanfare, signifying (if subtly) that things were coming to an end.

In any case, I found in December that the Valero had removed the prices from the sign (though it was not covered in any way), with the gas station store emptied of merchandise, though the power was sill connected, given how the Monster and Coca-Cola coolers were still glowing. The drive-through car wash also had not been gutted yet. The whole thing looked as if it might reopen as something else, or at least be weeks away from being torn down.

Not so much—when I got around to it a few days later, the canopy was gone, the sign was gone, and Jud's wasn't much more than a foundation. (The car wash was still intact but gutted).

The rumor mill states that the corner of Holleman and Wellborn will be the home of a new McDonald's restaurant, moving from the corner of Marion Pugh and George Bush as part of the underpass construction. Unfortunately, this almost certainly means that the new restaurant will be a soulless brown building with silver accents rather than an example of the slightly nicer restaurants McDonald's was building/renovating with in the early 2000s, as the current restaurant is.

Merry Christmas!

UPDATE 04-06-2021: Took out the other Jud's Food Stores mention, as it looks like the numbers were wrong, and they reused #7. Maybe if we ever do Brenham-related stuff, it might be worth a mention. Either way, College Station was the largest market Jud's settled in.
UPDATE 11-30-2021: McDonald's has been confirmed for the site, at least one half of it.
UPDATE 10-2-2023: In or around September 30, 2023, McDonald's opened at the site, replacing the location at George Bush Drive and Marion Pugh.

China Wok Express

This may be the start of a series of posts near Villa Maria Road and Texas Avenue, but I can't make any promises. (Picture by author, March 2020)

No fooling...today's post is on April 1st, and it's a brand new one. This building, 612 Villa Maria Road, was built in 1979 and first served as a Tinsley's Chicken 'n Rolls (and originally 512 Villa Maria Road West), a restaurant previously covered on this site. It served as Church's Chicken from 1985 to 1989 after Tinsley's sold out, and Cobblestone Quality Shoe Repair between 1992 and 1995. It returned to food service (and fried chicken) when it served as a Golden Fried Chicken (later Golden Chick) between 1996 and 2000. Sometime in the 2000s (possibly as early as 2002, which Brazos CAD seems to indicate), it became China Wok Express. I thought it was around 2005...notice the the building has a blue roof instead of the current gold-colored roof (which ironically, came after Golden Chick closed). The circle where the China Wok Express logo is used to be where Golden Chick's mascot used to roost...I'm guessing that when it returned to restaurant use from whatever it was previously, Golden Chick did some significant renovations.

View from the southwest. Not sure if I've ever seen that neon on top light up.
As you may know, the government warnings for COVID-19 have put the economy into a tailspin, with restaurants only offering carry-out or delivery, but China Wok Express is not among them, closing entirely and promising to return April 8th. However, the menu board, as you can see below, is so faded that one can barely see the letters, and one of the columns has a big hole knocked through it. I'm not in the neighborhood very often, so I'll have to see if China Wok Express will reopen or if this is their swan song.

Allegedly due to the ongoing COVID-19 crisis, China Wok Express is now closed, with promises it will reopen April 8th, but it's doubtful as the menu board (and general maintenance) are clearly in a state of visible decline.

The menu board is so faded it's almost completely illegible.
By the way, the article linked above (mentioning the former blue roof) is the old Villa Maria/Texas Avenue article that has been updated with revised information and new photos.

UPDATE 03-24-2021: More precise dates for Golden Chick. China Wok Express DID reopen.
UPDATE 04-08-2022: Update with additional tenants, which should patch the holes.
UPDATE 09-08-2023: In summer 2023 the restaurant closed and by September was being torn down, to be replaced with 7 Brew. [defunct] added to post.
UPDATE 02-20-2024: 7 Brew opened 1/2024.

Kettle College Station

Kettle has since disappeared from the Houston restaurant landscape, but it lives on in College Station. (Photo from August 2016 by author, modified to better show colors)

Over the years, there has been many, many places I've seen that Houston had and College Station-Bryan didn't. If there was any sort of chain in the College Station/Bryan area, then there was one in Houston too. There were exceptions of course, Albertsons had survived nearly a decade after the company pulled out of Houston, and AppleTree did the same. While College Station's Winn-Dixie only lasted sometime around the mid-1990s, Houston didn't even have any Winn-Dixie stores.

This also extends to restaurants. Last year, it was mentioned that Fazoli's no longer has any Houston locations, a result of closings trickling over the last ten years or so. And speaking of ten years, the next stop in the new Texas Avenue is from what I could tell hasn't seen Houston since around 2011, introducing the Kettle, which is the next "stop" on this series. (As this blog is about a decade old, many of the notable places between our last post, O'Reilly Auto Parts, have been covered before, including Exxon, Walmart, Altitude Trampoline Park, BB&T, the former Kmart, Fort Shiloh, and Days Inn).

Kettle #138 at 2502 Texas Avenue South has been around since 1981, built before the Manor House Motor Inn if the dates are right. It's part of a chain that no longer exists...it was once based out of Houston where most of its stores were located and had locations out to Florida.

Today, Kettle can be considered what what fellow blogger Zap Actionsdower considers a "broken chain". I've informed the blog about the Kettle, but he's in a different part of the country to check out the humble Kettle restaurant in College Station. There's another Kettle restaurant in Bryan that's a former Denny's, and there were even more in town, up to five in town, including at the site of Northpoint Crossing. There aren't even five Kettle restaurants in the chain anymore.

It's open 24 hours, despite the fairly quiet part of town where it is located. My guess is that the police station's 24/7 operation also keeps the Kettle in business, too, despite mixed reviews otherwise. (After all, for those working the graveyard shift, where else in the area can you get a decent meal at three in the morning?)

UPDATE 09-15-2021: Kettle is no longer "Always Open" since March 2020 (sad since the last paragraph no longer applies, but do I need to explain why?) and the "Always Open" part of the sign no longer lights up, though they are open until 11pm most days. Someone on Google added an old picture from the early/mid-2000s (not from January 2018) and it shows Kettle as I remember it growing up, with a cook posing inside the "K". A few new tags have been added as well.
UPDATE 01-13-2023: Unfortunately, Kettle never did reopen its 24 hour service (the Bryan one painted over its 24 hour service) and in late 2022 it was announced it would close for good after November 2022. Based on filings, the restaurant will be demolished for College Station's first Salad and Go.
UPDATE 05-26-2023: It was reported by TexAgs that as of late May (heading into Memorial Day weekend) that the former Kettle is being demolished. ([defunct] added).
UPDATE 10-16-2023: Salad and Go is now open. [defunct] is replaced with [2020s].

The Diamond Shamrock at the End of Texas Avenue

Burger King was the only occupant of the former Diamond Shamrock site for years. (Photo by author, ~2014)
This post is just on a Burger King (3129 Texas Avenue S). Before I get into that, let me tell you this. I would be lying to you if I said that nostalgia was not one of the driving forces behind this site. After all, I grew up here, and in these posts, published in the last few years and updated since then (such as this post, which received a rewrite nearly a year after its creation) detail most everything I remembered or should've remembered. I've already told about the shops and restaurants here, many of which I grew up, and in versions past of this site, even included things like my old schools, or Adamson Lagoon, and probably if I had more time and research, the doctors and dentists as well (the old pediatric dentist office is gone, with the old Scott & White building at 1600 University Drive East to come soon after).

This part of Texas Avenue, originally explored in a full post with all the descriptions of the stores nearby, including the pool store and the curiously unnoticed empty spot was really special to me in years past. You see, back in those days, the only reason why we would go this way is to go somewhere cool, like my uncle's house in Baton Rouge or perhaps Houston. Even in the early 2000s, there just wasn't a lot out there. Rock Prairie Road had stuff on it, of course, like the hospital, junior high school (whoops, middle school), or even the nice new Kroger that opened in 2000, but that was just about it. There wasn't even another interchange until Greens Prairie Road, and that just had the water tower and an Exxon/McDonald's combo.

Since the Highway 6 bypass was built in the 1970s, prior to around 2006, there was an intersection here with the southbound one-way traffic from the bypass intersecting with Deacon. To the south was Texas Avenue turning into an entrance for Highway 6 south with the northbound lane going from Highway 6. To the south at Deacon was a two-way frontage road that paralleled Texas Avenue up to Wal-Mart and became the southbound Highway 6 frontage road for the section south of Texas Avenue. Yes, for a time, you could drive straight from Nantucket Drive to the Wal-Mart parking lot and back without making a single turn or getting on the highway.

Around 2006, that all changed, and the set-up was altered. The road that paralleled Texas Avenue was cut off at an apartment complex, and the two lanes from Texas Avenue went to the frontage road south (now all one-way) or the highway. The post here also features another change to the intersection: for years there was a Diamond Shamrock (listed as "Big Diamond No. 1" in some materials) that based on listings and aerials, opened between 1984 and 1989. It even featured a car wash station in the back. I'm not sure when it closed (2005?) but it was torn down by December 2006.

Opening in 2007 (late 2007, since the Villa Maria/29th location opened first), this Burger King opened to replace the one at Culpepper Plaza, which was torn down and replaced with a Chick-fil-A. Many years later, a restaurant was built next to the Burger King (in previously unused space), Boomtown BBQ Company out of Beaumont, located at 3125 Texas Avenue South. This restaurant opened in August 2020.

UPDATE 10-02-2020: Updated the post for the first time since August 2015 when the rest of the "end of Texas Avenue" material was largely stripped out, including more information on Diamond Shamrock and the new Boomtown BBQ, making the post the first to use the [2020s] tag.
UPDATE 10-27-2020: Date added for Boomtown BBQ.
UPDATE 07-06-2021: New name as part of eventual page re-do. Added [College Station] to post.
UPDATE 03-12-2022: Boomtown BBQ Company closed in February 2022.
UPDATE 06-08-2023: Another restaurant has come and gone. So-Fly Chicken Sandwiches (part of the Eccell/Burger Mojo group) operated from July 2022 to mid-March 2023. Allegedly, this was because the owners reportedly had a good offer on the building, but nothing has replaced So-Fly following the sale.
UPDATE 04-15-2025: Apparently, the owners of So-Fly Chicken either kept the lease or the building, they're opening Mojo Tortilla Company later this year (in the vein of something similar to Fuego). This post needs a whole revamp soon so check back.

Steak & Ale / Oxford Street / Yum Yums Texas Style / Seafood Mama's

From Stalworth Online, during its days between Oxford Street and Yum Yums

The late Steak & Ale chain opened at 1710 Briarcrest Drive at some point in the early to mid-1980s before being sold to new ownership in 1987 and renamed as Oxford Street in October 1988 (as Eagle has reposted recently). The restaurant closed in September 2008, and it's unfortunate that I don't have more information on Oxford Street than I currently do, but it was a moderately-priced steakhouse (not to Republic or Christopher's levels) featuring "candlelight dining featuring steaks and seafood in an Old World setting" according to the 2004 Dining Guide.

Oxford didn't stay shut for long, as it was soon replaced with a restaurant called "Yum Yums Texas Style". Already there's problems with that: if it looked like a four-year-old named it, you'd be right. There used to be an article on The Eagle, dated March 2009 titled "Yum Yums owner gets back to roots with eatery", which a lot of the following is derived from (the link is now dead). The restaurant opened with the goal of "upper-end", homemade-style food, but it wasn't to last. The name had problems and unfortunate connotations which were called out in comments, with few defenders. It closed in less than a year. By all accounts from the brief time Yum Yums was on this earth, there were very few things to say. There's a scathing review on Yelp that blasted the food (the employees were nice, but that couldn't save it). One review from YellowPages.com (a "kelsey27") blasted it with "this place is totally DISGUSTING... FOOD SUCKS, STAFF SUCKS" and also the contractor was never paid for work done to renovate the restaurant (this is supported independently by third parties). Interestingly, on the original The Eagle article, there was a comment, and this is unaltered:

I CANNOT BELIEVE HOW RUDE YOU PEOPLE ARE BEING TO A FAMILY THAT IS BRINGING REVENUE AND OPPURTUNITIES TO OUR TOWN! GET OVER YOURSELVES AND GO EAT SOME GOOD FOOD. I CAN'T WAIT TO SEE HOW WELL THIS RESTAURANT DOES~

I'm guessing this person was the owner, or at least a close family friend.

Seafood Mama's opened in December 2011, painting the whole building a dark blue color and offering seafood and other items. Never went to Seafood Mama's, as it had very mixed reviews (Yelp's "Greg D." gave it five stars, which may or may not have been faked) but that couldn't be helped, as in late June of 2012, the restaurant was gutted by a fire ([archive]) and it did not reopen. By fall, it was razed. The Seafood Mama's sign still has been up ever since, and as of this writing (July 2020) a Frost Bank is rumored to be built in the spot.

UPDATE 12-13-2021: While the text reflects the last update in July 2020, as of December 2021 the pad has been totally rebuilt with a Frost Bank (opened in July 2021), but construction demolished the sign instead of reusing it. Additionally, it should be noted that Steak and Ale opened in November 1984, meaning its life as a "real" Steak and Ale was extremely short-lived. At least sister store Bennigan's in College Station lived a longer life before it closed in 2008 which did in the remaining Steak and Ale restaurants.

UPDATE 01-25-2025: OAK Dental occupies suite 111 now of the bank (there were two other vacant spaces next to the bank). This was originally supposed to be a new location of Burger Mojo but it fell through.

University Apartments and Century Square

Trendy mixed-use right in the heart of the city! (Picture by author, 2/20)

This post was originally written as "University Apartments", which focused on the group of university-owned apartments that were largely torn down around 2014 for what we now know as Century Square. Initially, I had no interest in covering Century Square as I had updated the post to my standards at the time to wrap up the site (it's why there's an eight month gap between the last 2014 post and the first 2015 post). As a result, this covers the predecessor of Century Square, the University Apartments, first, and we'll progress to the present day and the current occupier of the site.

During my time at A&M, I was thankful that I had enough sense to photograph many buildings on their way out in terms of demolition or extensive renovation. I didn't get enough pictures of the old Scoates Hall, and no inside shots of Dulie Bell, but did get pictures of The Commons, Zachry Engineering Center, Read Building, G. Rollie White, and of course, these.

When making this post originally (or at least doing a significant update), I had done research at Cushing Memorial Library, which refers to Battalion articles that aren't available to be linked. Some of the links that were available, dating from the mid-2000s have been removed from the Battalion's webpage (with no Archive.org to rescue them, I didn't have enough sense back then to archive my links).

Originally rows and rows of two-level Army-style barracks filling up the diagonal-row roads in the early 1950s, with two complexes, College View and Southside, a federal grant in 1957 (to the tune of 2.5 million dollars, which would be about 20 million today) allowed more to be built.

From what I could tell, the original College View Apartments were Army-style barracks filling up the diagonal-row roads east of Northgate built in the early 1950s (at the same time Southside was built, which appeared to have been at the northeast corner of Wellborn and modern-day George Bush Drive, more on that another day).

In 1960, the Hensel Apartments (later Hensel Terrace Apartments) were built, and originally not air-conditioned (until likely the 1970s). The new College View Apartments, built in 1969, were built facing FM 60 and according to The Battalion were "cool, comfortable, and complete", being climate controlled at 70 degrees.

Interestingly, despite the new College View apartments replacing the old College View buildings on a 1:1 basis, only about 7 buildings were built. Nearly 30 others were torn down (a few lasting into the early 1980s, a footnote at a document called "Brazos Valley Chronology" at Project HOLD, mentions the last of these were removed in 1982) without replacement, and until the Century Square development, those spaces remained vacant, possibly due to lack of funding. The back 13 were redeveloped into Avenue A Apartments on a 1:1 replacement, but it was still a lot of vacant space. The 1970s also saw the construction of College Avenue Apartments, which were directly across College Avenue from University Square Shopping Center.

As time went on, the Married Student Housing became known as the "University Apartments", as it started to become known for international students as well. The maintenance of the apartments declined and the roads started to deteriorate, but there wasn't any major trouble. Piecemeal improvements were made to the complex, including the addition of the Becky Gates Children's Center, a 1997 addition on Hensel that would have childcare for students married with children. Later on a community center and playground were built as well. However, it was an incident in 2004 that did change the University Apartments forever.

One day in July 2004, residents complained about a smell of natural gas in the Hensel Terrace Apartments. The maintenance worker responded but decided to not repair the leak until the next week (in fact, they told residents to close their windows, thus making the smell inside worse). Saquib Ejaz, a resident of those apartments, lived with his wife and daughter at Hensel Apartments. His parents were visiting from Bangladesh. While his parents, wife (who was pregnant with another child), and daughter were home, the gas somehow ignited and fire consumed the apartment's interior, severely burning all four. His wife and father survived, but his daughter and mother did not. Other apartments were damaged, as well, however; the structure itself survived.

Lawsuits were filed, and by 2005, a number of new improvements were announced, including new stoves, new detectors, and much better maintenance. This still wasn't "enough" maintenance, as the apartment complex was still falling apart, with the College Avenue Apartments on Ball Street having unleveled floors.

However, by fall 2006, a plan was approved to add the Gardens at University, which, instead of building it on vacant land, would replace the existing apartments. When I first wrote this article in 2012, the College Avenue Apartments had been demolished in 2011 (without replacement), and two-thirds of the Hensel Terrace Apartments (including the rebuilt apartments where Ejaz's apartment was) had been torn down for the Gardens. Nothing else had been altered since then.

In early 2013 "Campus Pointe", a long-planned redevelopment of the area, was trotted out again and approved. This would essentially lease the university's land to a private developer, becoming one of the few shopping malls built on property leased from a university (Stanford Shopping Center is another example).

College View Apartments, Hensel Terrace Apartments, and Avenue A Apartments were marked for destruction--all residents had to move out. There were even stories of the mattresses being moved out first, so many had to make do with sleeping on the floor, and a new field designated for playing cricket (popular as most of the residents came from overseas) had to be closed. Despite (presumably) assistance, the apartments all near campus had much higher rent, and both Northgate and Southgate had undergone some degree of gentrification.

While The Gardens, the daycare, and the maintenance building were not affected and still stand, the demolition for redevelopment seemed to take a long time, for months, the abandoned apartments (speckled with graffiti) stood, then for many more months with just vacant land. Sometime during all of this, Campus Pointe was renamed to Century Square.

A friend and I took these in May 2013, soon before eviction in summer 2013 (the picture at the title is also from that):

Nobody's home.

Avenue A Apartments, which has eight units per building, four of which are seen here.

There is so much open space here, great for large group games or tossing a Frisbee around. Too bad this will go away...

College View Apartments. These face University Drive.

Hensel Terrace Apartments. Most of these are already gone, including the unit that exploded in 2004. It's worth noting that the building wasn't actually destroyed. The apartments have concrete foundations and despite being old and run-down, are better built then similar apartment complexes of the same era.

The Gardens at University Apartments. These will stick around.

Interesting vents on the University Apartments Maintenance Building.
For the next few years, the entire area was gated off as new construction began to take over, opening as Century Square.

The center would open in phases, with many of the restaurants coming in-line by fall 2017 (the hotels opened sooner). I haven't actually been to most of what Century Square has to offer...the parking is a major issue, in an effort to be more like Houston high-end development, the developers instituted paid parking everywhere except the garage (which also once had a strict time limit for staying).

The "mall space" is composed of a bunch of buildings floating in parking lots. As the way I'm going to explain it is going to be confusing, I recommend you look at the PDF directory to understand the layout. It's an archived version, and will go increasingly out of date as time goes on, but the link should stay up.

1025 University Drive - Located at the corner of the development, closest to the College Drive/University intersection, this building has, from left to right, Red's Ice House (opened February 2025), Orangetheory Fitness, Sharetea, and Piada Italian Street Food. All of these opened around 2017 except for Red's, which replaced Mo's Irish Pub (May 2018 to June 2024). I ate at Mo's Irish Pub not too long after it opened, it was an airy, modern space with cute waitresses, but average food with only a few token "Irish" dishes. Two vacancies are Merge Boutique and Clean Juice (given the last update, they closed between 2024 and 2025).

1099 University Drive - This is almost the same building as 1025 University Drive except there's a covered open-air walkway between them. This building has three tenants, Velvet Taco (opened September 2021 and the former home to Runway Seven, a women's clothing store, which closed sometime in 2019 after about two years...it looks like the other stores have since closed as well), Tiff's Treats, and Cava (opened 2023 to replace the original 2017 Zoë's Kitchen, which was phased out as a chain).

1133 University Drive - One of the new "Phase II" buildings from around 2024 has, from left to right, Original ChopShop (opened January 2025), Wells Fargo (moved from down the street), a full Sephora boutique (opened December 2024), a vacancy, and a space soon to be home of Dimassi's Mediterranean Buffet out of Houston.

1177 University Drive - This is the other new 2024 building, it features Houston TX Hot Chicken and CoCo Shrimp with two empty spaces between them. CoCo Shrimp opened in November 2024. I believe Houston TX Hot Chicken opened afterward.

1027 and 1037 University Drive - Directly behind the 1025/1099 building is 1027 and 1037, a two-story building that wraps around the parking garage. This is where Star Cinema Grill is, located on the second level with the 1037 address. The 1027 addresses face University Drive while 1037 faces Century Court. Working from the farthest corner on the map, there's TruFusion (boutique fitness club but not yet open as of this writing), Grass Stains (a specialty boutique with its only location here; the original location in Graham, Texas has since closed), College Station's own Lululemon (with its pricey, brand-name yoga pants), Harvest Coffee (opened 2018 after its original 2014 Downtown Bryan location), a vacancy (it was second local location of I Heart Mac and Cheese, opened September 2020 but closed in early 2022), and finally, Brazos Running Company, opened around 2023 and moved from Central Station. Beyond that is other vacant spaces.

166 Century Court - Directly east of the preceding building, 166 Century Court is a multi-story office building ("Century Square Two") with six retail tenants currently on the ground floor. Luchesse Bootmaker (opened early 2021), a vacancy (temporarily home to "selfie museum" Instaland BCS and soon to be RenewYou), King Ranch Saddle Shop (opened late 2020), Apricot Lane (opened early 2022), Onward Reserve (opened November 2019), Kendra Scott (opened early 2022), and Hemline, a women's clothing boutique out of New Orleans.

144 Century Court - To the east of the preceding building. Hopdoddy Burger Bar, Hey Sugar, and Ring Guards by Montelongo's, are all located here. Ring Guards opened to replace Sabi Boutique. Sabi Boutique had maintained at storefront at The Lofts at Wolf Pen Creek for years (even when they couldn't hold onto any other retailers) and opened a new location at Century Square in April 2019. However, within a few months of opening at Century Square they opened a University Drive East location a few months later. By May 2020 Sabi had decided to close the Century Square location. The other two places, Hopdoddy and Hey Sugar I've never bought anything from, and I have some less-than-flattering impressions that I could tell you about, but it would be bad form to disparage open businesses.

143 Century Court - The "mirror" of the preceding building to the east, on the other side of The Green (an open space for outdoor events and al fresco dining) has three more tenant spaces: Blaze Pizza, Lick Honest Ice Creams (opened in October 2022 to replace Sub Zero Nitrogen Ice Cream, which closed in or around February 2020), and Sweet Paris Crêperie & Café. I've never been to Sweet Paris but I do know of it since it had replaced the Rice Village location of Texadelphia (a fact mentioned in our Texadelphia post).

175 Century Square Drive - The only retail tenant below the Century Square One office building is Galleria Spa Salon, formerly Galleria Day Spa (for years it used to be at the corner of Cavitt Drive and Villa Maria Drive, until it moved to Rock Prairie, which is still there). The office tenants include Breakaway Ministries, UBS Financial Services, and BRW Architects (among others).

Going counterclockwise around toward the back are two boutique hotels, "The George" (with "1791 Whiskey Bar" inside), which opened August 2017, and Cavalry Court, which opened November 2016 (one of the first tenants) with its "The Canteen" restaurant. Despite being a four-star hotel with off-season prices being around $120 a night (as of 2021), all the rooms open to the outside.

Directly behind The Green was Poppy (named after the late Bush 41's nickname). Sometime right around very early 2020 before you-know-what happened, Poppy closed for an upscale Mexican concept, opening in May 2022 as Juanita's Tex Mex Cantina (it was delayed, but it happened). West of Juanita's is Porters Dining + Butcher, a high-end (well, at least for College Station) steakhouse.

170 Century Square Drive - Finally, to the east of the complex is 100 Park, an apartment building that fits into the whole modern "mixed-use" concept, though not oriented toward students. At the bottom of this apartments include Pokéworks (opened January 2020) and MESS Waffles, which opened October 2018. This used to be known as Wafology, which was mentioned at the 711 University Drive article. There's also (opened 2024) an Amazon Pickup & Returns Store.

1289 University Drive - The first tenant to come...and go...Neighbors Emergency Center opened in October 2016 but closed around August 2016. This opened in October 2016 as Neighbors Emergency Center, a private 24-hour care emergency clinic that was the first open tenant in the Century Square development. However, it closed within about 10 months. In November 2018, CapRock Urgent Care opened in its place, and in spring 2021, became Integrity Urgent Care as CapRock sold off most of its facilities.

Of course, Century Square didn't take up all of the old University Apartments facilities. In August 2024, PopStroke (a miniature golf/sports bar concept owned by Tiger Woods) opened at 255 Ball Street on the site of the Ball Street Apartments (but not using up all the space) and in summer 2025, "Varcity", a retirement community was announced, which would take up all the old space leftover from demolition.



UPDATE 01-04-2021: After adding Century Square in the fourth edit version to this page in February 2020, the fifth edit to this page includes some tenant changes and other minor fixes.
UPDATE 07-10-2021: Minor updates, but the only thing of note was Integrity Urgent Care (CapRock sold).
UPDATE 12-13-2021: Added Velvet Taco and minor update regarding Poppy, as well as UBS.
UPDATE 04-23-2024: 2024 update for all stores and services at Century Square. Every paragraph was gone through and retouched. Cava, Apricot Lane, Brazos Running Company, Juanita's, and more were all added.
UPDATE 08-17-2024: Mo's Irish Pub closed in June 2024. In August 2024, PopStroke (a miniature golf/sports bar concept owned by Tiger Woods) opened at 255 Ball Street on the site of the Ball Street Apartments (but not using up all the space).
UPDATE 02-16-2025: Red's Ice House opened (well, it opens 2/17) to replace Mo's.
UPDATE 06-12-2025: 2025 update for all stores and services at Century Square. Every paragraph was gone through and retouched with two all-new buildings. [cinema] and [mini-golf], two all-new tags, have been added.