Goodbye, Mr. Hamburger

Picture by author, 12/23
Mr. Hamburger is dead once more. The lone pad site at 3706 South Texas Avenue, once rumored to be developed as a Hooters, of the mid-to-late 2000s NorthPark Plaza strip center (I've attached an out of date PDF here, as seen on Carbon-izer), the restaurant at 3706 S. Texas Avenue opened as Bush's Chicken in August 2016 but closed by October 2017. The follow-up operation, Huntsville-based Mr. Hamburger, opened August 2018. Shortly after opening a pizza restaurant-within-a-restaurant ("Doh! Pizza Rolls"), Mr. Hamburger #2 closed on or around December 1, 2022 "temporarily" and was made permanent before the end of the month. Nearly a year later, Mr. Hamburger reopened in late September 2023 but closed in early December. (See Carbon-izer for the post this was based after).

Finally, I know it's been a fairly quiet year at Brazos Buildings & Businesses, and I know I still have a convenience store at Leonard to deal with soon per request...and the top five posts of the year in terms of views are all older posts.

Texan Restaurant was #1 followed by The Burger King Near Blinn, then Post Oak Mall Stores, 1982-1992 (really should get the 2002-2012 post up on of these days), Connecting Point Church / Former OfficeMax as #4 and at #5 Culpepper Plaza / Central Station (which needs an update). Speaking of updates, all sorts of other updates were done this year—one thing that happened is we now have a picture of the College Station H-E-B Pantry AS AN H-E-B PANTRY, and photos of any H-E-B Pantry as an H-E-B Pantry are hard to come by these days. There was the demise of the George Bush Drive and Marion Pugh McDonald's, the former JJ Mugg's/Rita's/Garcia's/Fuddruckers reopened as its sixth restaurant, iWon Korean BBQ & Hot Pot, and a number of other updates such as more accurate openings, banner changes (The feature of Fairfield Inn Bryan is no longer a Fairfield Inn), found images like the H E L L gas station and other stuff. Can't say that next year will be better but we can try.

UPDATE 03-26-2025: Two more things.
- A business that appeared to be a gas station (formerly?) was here from 1974 to 2005, C&L Tire Service Center, was in the spot and address that Bush's Chicken / Mr. Hamburger later replaced. Further digging shows that it was still a Texaco in 1976 (as the service center) and was first built in the late 1950s. I don't know how long C&L did gas.
- Hooters did indeed intend to locate here with tax filings and TABC filings alike, yet never broke ground anyway.
UPDATE 07-20-2025: Tim Hortons has been announced to renovate and replace Mr. Hamburger, but won't be open for a few years.
UPDATE 12-19-2025: "Timmies" is now open (reportedly) with grand opening in January. [defunct] removed, [Tim Hortons] added.

Former FedEx Office

I guess FedEx was finally FedUp with Northgate rents. (Picture by author, April 2020)
When I originally wrote this post in September 2023, I had very little to go on in terms of the recently-vacated FedEx Office's history (and half the post was an apology to why the site hadn't been updated recently, complete with recent updates to show proof of work), but that's no longer the case.

The story of 509 University Drive goes back to 1972, when it was Cooley's Conoco Service Station. While it appears that there was an older building on site from aerials, this too appears to be Cooley's Conoco as newspaper records go back to 1957. I'm guessing the station was rebuilt around the late 1960s (which gives us the date of [1960s] for this post), but it's possible it was the early 1970s.

As of 1978 it was University Tire & Service Center and they moved out in the summer of 1980 (to 3818 S. College). by January 1982 it was Alfredo's Tacos Al Carbon. At some point they started advertising more menu items (including Papa's Pizza, a restaurant-within-a-restaurant), culminating at a point in 1985 where they were advertising as "Alfredo's / Papa's Pizza" and serving up hamburgers, fried chicken, and pizza. This disappeared around 1985 in favor of "Rita Street" by November 1986 ("Cajun Cookin' at its Best"), and by January 1987 it was Rocco's nightclub and restaurant (either Rita Street was short-lived or it was retooled). There was one reference to "Gringos" in 1988 (no, not the chain restaurant in Tower Point...and indications are Gringos was one of the shortest-lived restaurants in College Station operating for less than a month, though CALZ may have broken that record), and finally Kinko's in 1989 when it moved from 201 College Main. While it left an unused concrete pad in front of the store (likely used for outdoor dining at one time), it was extremely successful in the spot. Partly due to the business model and partly to the needs of Texas A&M University, this was open 24 hours a day (this wasn't even the case before 2020, and operated during only during normal working days). It was open 24H in 1999, and I'm not sure when it stopped doing so, likely changing under its new owner FedEx, which bought Kinko's and around 2004 converted the chain to "FedEx Kinko's". Sometime after 2008, this became simply FedEx Office. I'm not exactly sure when the changeover was, it seemed to happen gradually. Over at Columbia Closings, a site similar in scope to this one, theirs converted in mid-2010. Around early 2022, FedEx packed and moved to 711 University Drive East.

Since then, a restaurant/bar called Aki Sushi has been promised per filings but nothing has since come to the space (nothing on the exterior, anyway).

UPDATE 08-31-2026: Integrated the August 2024 post into the post as it was rewritten.

Former Tokyo Steak House

1984 phone book
In 2023 I put up a new post on Tokyo Steak House, having mothballed since sometime in the mid-to-late 2010s (originally part of a larger "north of University Drive, south of Bryan" article) but at the time resources were still a bit sparse. Now we can tell a larger story.

This was built in 1965 as the new home of the Bank of Commerce, which looked almost identical to what it looks like today. In 1966 it became The Bank of A&M (some listings have Halsell Motor Company, that was at 1411 Texas Avenue, not 411) before disappearing in the mid-1970s. In 1977 it became the bank-themed The Last National Bank restaurant. It seems that although the name and theme was launched in Connecticut and Ohio in 1976, this was not actually part of the chain (I can't find anything linking the two). In 1979 it closed for whatever reason, and from 1980 to 1984, it was Tokyo Steak House, which moved from Townshire and sat vacant for a few years before becoming Coldwell Banker Richard Smith Realtors, which moved from 411 Texas Avenue South with Cherry Ruffino leading (now Coldwell Banker Cherry Ruffino Realtors).

UPDATE 05-09-2026: Post updated with new information.

Last Chevron on the Right

NO, this is not my photo. YES, it has a watermark. Read below.
Over the course of this site, I've written over 250 entries on various businesses and buildings, probably mentioning dozens more defunct operations, and well over ten years later I still find things that surprise me.

When I started this site, I did not have access to a lot of resources and that led to some embarrassing errors, like conflating "Wolfe Nursery" and Wolf Pen Creek into "Wolf Pen Nursery", but eventually learned enough about it to write an entire history about it (as seen on Houston Historic Retail).

However, every once in a while, there's some building that I should know of, but somehow eludes my memory. Such was the case of the original 2307 Texas Avenue...but an even bigger black hole is the gas station above. Like Veronica's (but located even further down, at the intersection of Robert Road and Highway 6), this was torn down for the freeway widening but I'm afraid I don't remember it at all save for a fuzzy memory of seeing the words "BAR-B-QUE" or something similar on the sign...which for years I thought was the Heirloom Gardens site. In some aspects, it makes sense—there was a railroad nearby and it was on the correct side of the road from my usual backseat vantage point.

In the initial version of this post, I incorrectly pegged it as "Clyde's Country" (see the first update below, which has more information on what was eventually correctly identified as a Chevron "Handi-Plus".

The picture above is from Vintage Aerial, which is a bit hard to navigate (and mostly focuses on rural areas) but great at finding older gas stations out in the sticks, plus it helped confirm that there was indeed a swimming pool just off of 290 in Houston. And if you wanted to learn more about Navasota proper (outside of the scope of this site) there's more where that comes from.

UPDATE 01-29-2023: I have been informed via Trevor Yeager on Facebook that this was not Clyde's Country and that Clyde's Country was a "bit closer to College Station on 6" (it was "a small green and white building that sold used truck camper tops"). However, he also mentioned that Navasota Welding Supply was in the building of the gas station above, which was at, according to my resources, 27620 Highway 6 South. After further research, it appears it was a Chevron Handi-Plus (#18) since the mid-1980s at 27320 Highway 6 South and mentioned in this post. It would suggest it was not Exxon and had converted to Chevron like other Gulf stations.
UPDATE 05-20-2023: With the identity of the station confirmed, the post has been re-worked and renamed "Last Chevron on the Right".
UPDATE 10-4-2023: This 1983 shot indicates it was in fact built in the 1980s (changed [1970s] to [1980s]).