Taco Bell on University

The restaurant began renovations in July 2013. It doesn't look like this anymore.

731 University Drive

This was built as a James Coney Island (out of Houston) in 1992, and deed evidence indicates it became a Taco Bell in 1994. I don't have a picture of the building when it was a James Coney Island, but I can surmise it looks similar (if not identical) to this picture, right down to the door placement, the black and white checkered part, and, just out of view in my Taco Bell shot, a circular window. Before the James Coney Island, it was an old-style Texaco, built with custom maroon roof tiles instead of the stock red.

(Updated March 2019)

Classic Homes

Taken by author in 2013.
It's unknown when this was built (no records on BCAD) but as far back as 1980 this business as photographed in 2013 was in business as Classic Realty (later Classic Homes) at 1700 Barak Lane, so I'm assuming 1970s for build date (Loopnet says 1970, though it's often inaccurate). Recent research shows Classic Homes has permanently closed.

UPDATE 05-20-2021: After the last update in August 2019 which showed Classic Homes as being permanently closed, this business is now serving as the home of D&S Community Services. The current Google Maps Street View as of 2018 has the Classic "signage box" but the D&S logo on the side (also, "REAL ESTATE" has been removed).

Heirloom Gardens

12900 Old Wellborn Road

While now a marble countertops place (with the creative name of "Granite & Marble" but later expanded and turned into "Premier Countertop Design" with a much larger building built behind it), this used to be Heirloom Gardens (12900 Old Wellborn Road), which was open at least as far back as 2002 when it was replatted as part of Rock Prairie West Business Park.

The old Heirloom Gardens website, HeirloomGardenExperts.com, was up for years, and for years kept an automatic copyright date with a "Season Ending Sale" and a PDF of the directions, which portrayed Google Maps as it appeared circa 2005, which was full of inaccuracies. Now, however, it appears to be hijacked by some of spammer site which deleted information on the actual location and provides links to other spam-type sites.










In addition to not knowing when it closed (the pictures are from September 2010, when I had longer hair) I don't know when it opened. Obviously it was closed by September 2010 and probably closed after a full season, based on Google Earth aerials was open in fall 2008 so it might have closed that year or fall 2009. The back areas originally had the actual plant areas, and that was demolished in 2011, with a driveway from the nearby businesses connecting back toward North Graham.

According to old phone books, the building once had the address of 2892 North Graham Road and as of 1993 (built in 1985) had Wellborn Road Veterinary Hospital as its tenant. This may or may not be the same as the modern Wellborn Road Veterinary Medical Center down the street built in 1999.





As you may have noticed above, North Graham was sadly truncated from the railroad years ago (references online say 1999). I'm guessing that back when North Graham had a railroad crossing and a stoplight, it was substantially easier to access.



I also found a Google Maps Street View picture of the truncation from the other side of Wellborn. This was demolished when Wellborn was widened.

The Doomed Buildings at 290 and Beltway 8

16009 Northwest Freeway - Taco Bell
16055 Northwest Freeway - Wendy's
16002 Northwest Freeway - McDonald's
16061 Northwest Freeway - Brake Check

Believed to all closed in fall 2012, except for McDonald's in early 2013 (just a guess: I don't know when that Brake Check closed, either), this is our first post outside of the Brazos Valley and into Houston, which has far more interesting things to check out (and also a destructive city in terms of architecture, moreso than College Station). But this is an exception to what we have had before, and not the norm.

I was too young (and never really traveled on that part of the highway anyway) to remember the Katy Freeway expansion, which not only took an abandoned railroad right of way, but required demolition of dozens of buildings: office buildings, restaurants, gas stations, hotels, and houses, with many easily less than two decades old.

Because the expansion of Northwest Freeway isn't afforded the abandonment of the railroad, many streetside buildings are simply being condemned and torn down. A tragedy.

There were three restaurants wedged at the corner of Beltway 8 and 290, a Wendy's, a Taco Bell, and a McDonald's, not very visible except for their signs pointing out of the sides of the highway. I know I've passed 'em several times, back when they were still selling delicious greasy food, but never ate there myself, seeing as they weren't particularly convenient, and were often there at the wrong time or the wrong side of the highway. But for the times I did go through Houston, I passed them by. They were familiar to me.

But now they are gone. I'm guessing they were built sometime in the 1980s, seeing as how Wendy's has the "solarium" dining room. A friend and I stopped by in our travels to Houston last March. Enjoy some of the pictures.

It's worth noting that we went to the dumpsters of every restaurant to see if we could snag anything, but we couldn't (maybe they went to Sparkle Signs, I know there's an old McDonald's sign there). We figured that if both pieces of a sign were intact, we could each take one, clean it up, backlight it, and mount it on a wall, creating an imposing and interesting piece of décor. It would also be a great conversation piece. But alas, we couldn't, and all we found was random trash. I have a few pictures we took, but the rest could perhaps be told another day.


My friend (seen) and I attempt to order some food from McDonald's. No reply.
The Wendy's sign carcass.


McDonald's was repainted recently, albeit for nothing.


It was also stripped up its roof and boarded up tight.


Yo quiero.


Flaking paint, exposing green. Was this not originally a Taco Bell?!


Inside Wendy's. Well, looking inside, anyway. This was my friend's picture. Or at least his camera.

Wendy's exterior. Had to crop the person out.


Aforementioned Brake Check. This was not examined terribly closely.
If you enjoyed seeing Houston buildings, and would like to see even more, check out our new associate at Arch-ive.org, which explores old Houston buildings. There's no comments and there's sadly little text to go along with it, but most of the stuff is rare, the photos are great, and it updates on a more consistent basis.

Edit 6/14/2013: Commenter "je" has reported that the buildings seen here have been torn down.