Northgate Shell

Taken by author in 2013.

For many years this was a Shell gas station (609 University Drive), dating back to the mid-1960s with renovations in the mid-1980s (a new canopy, and likely the start of the Zip'N name, as the Zip'N name does not appear in early 1980s phone books). The signage next to University was also the same for years, gaining few updates over the years, like when the Shell logo was updated in the early 2000s before being demolished in the 2010s when University Drive was reworked to be more pedestrian-friendly. An interesting feature of this store is that it has a decent selection of Indian food (Battalion link, archived version); when this began I don't know but it's been that way since at least 2012.
Its time as a Shell came to an end in late 2023 when it converted to Sunoco (similar to the downtown Bryan Zip'N). Gas is usually priced ten cents higher than elsewhere.
UPDATE 01-04-2024: Mild rewrite to account for new changes.

George Bush Drive McDonald's

Picture taken by author, May 2019

I couldn't bear to tear apart my original Marion Pugh article, so this is to replace it. Additionally, as of this writing, I'm in the middle of changing the colors and themes of the page, explaining it why it looks like it does. It's not final, and in need of some tweaks and QoL upgrades. I'm not even sure if it's the direction I want to go (such a change would also alter the US 290 page, and I like the blue and gray).

The "George Bush" McDonald's (111 George Bush Drive West) opened in 1997 with what I remember having a white roof alternating with maroon (mansard roof, similar to the common red or brown roof alternating with white or yellow), though I always felt it would've looked better with maroon and white. After all, it was next to Kyle Field, why was it using the away colors? It renovated sometime in 2003 or 2004 to the current form it is now. I think the reason McDonald's isn't in a hurry to upgrade the exteriors of this restaurant is that it will likely be demolished whenever they do the George Bush underpass project.

The parking lot to the south is owned by Callaway House. The properties were originally part of Marion Pugh Lumber Co. at 101 Jersey Street West (which dated to the 1940s, notably when the International & Great Northern railroad skewed southwest), which would eventually give way to J. Arnold Construction Co., as Marion Pugh (a former football player and class of '41) would pass away in 1976 at the age of 57. J. Arnold actually had a small railroad crossing just to the south of Jersey, which you can still see today (venture a bit south of the McDonald's and around that area).

Treehouse is the ONLY thing that hasn't changed much since this time (Courtesy Henry Mayo)
Marion Pugh Lumber Co. would eventually give way to J. Arnold Construction Co., as Marion Pugh (a former football player and class of '41) would pass away in 1976 at the age of 57. J. Arnold actually had a small railroad crossing just to the south of Jersey, which you can still see today (venture a bit south of the McDonald's and around that area). An Amtrak station had been built in that area, but the area at the corner of Marion Pugh (originally a dirt alleyway after the railroad was abandoned, and upgraded to a full road later) and George Bush (originally Jersey Street) was abandoned for several years before McDonald's filled in.

Apologies to whoever helped me with the Marion Pugh/J. Arnold Construction Co., as I lost the reference...

UPDATE 10-2-2023: As of around September 30 2023, the McDonald's is permanently closed, having relocated to 1011 Wellborn Road (the former Valero site--see here).

Lone Star Pavilion and the Former Red Lobster

This view really hasn't changed all that much in two decades. (Picture by author, 3/2019)
The URL of this page refers to the original name of this post, "Lone Star Pavilion and Friends". It was in reference to the Lupe Tortilla (formerly a Red Lobster), which was grandfathered into a new development. The second version of this page attempts to reorganize this page while discussing the first-generation stores here.

From 1969 to 1973, Oakridge Smokehouse was located at 807 Texas Avenue South in a building that resembled their (still open) Schulenburg location. Later, Mama's Pizza opened in the spot in July 1977. At that location, Mama's even gave out little paper mustaches to promote their restaurant (courtesy the Project HOLD collection. By 1980 there was some sort of split, with a new Mama's Pizza opening at 1037 Texas Avenue and the existing restaurant renamed to Pasta's Pizza Spaghetti & Lasagna. It appears that this vacant for several years save for a 1986-1987 stint as Las Palmas Restaurant. In 1991, it became home to formalwear shop Ladies & Lords, which would close in 1997.

Directly behind it was 805 Texas Avenue, which was Aggieland Schwinn in the 1980s and later Computer Access from the late 1980s to demolition. Originally this was associated with Nelson Mobile Homes Inc., which was redeveloped in the early 1980s to hold Red Lobster. Red Lobster at 813 Texas Avenue South, Red Lobster opened under the General Mills restaurant group. The seafood restaurant was one of the first sit-down chain restaurants (other than Luby's Cafeteria and Western Sizzlin') in the area, and even then, neither of those were full-service.

It's difficult to get a front picture of the Red Lobster-turned-Lupe Tortilla. (Picture by author, 3/2019)

Around 1996-1997, the site was purchased to be redeveloped as a modern power center, with both Ladies & Lords and Computer Access getting evicted (Ladies & Lords never reopened). Computer Access relocated to 1418 Texas Avenue South. The Red Lobster site was kept and incorporated into the new development, with parking restriped. From north to south, the center contains several "big box stores". Barnes & Noble Booksellers opened first in 1997 at 711 Texas Avenue South. Remarkably, the facade hasn't seen much changes since 1997 with not much interior changes either...though the merchandise mix over the years has left much to be desired.

Office Depot next door (715 Texas Avenue S.) opened in 1998. 717 Texas Avenue #A opened as Card & Party Factory in 2001 (moving from Post Oak Village) and closed around 2016; this later became Five Below in 2018 with a new facade. Suite B was originally Golf Etc. (2001-2011) and later became Overlanders, a spin-off of The Bear Mountain of Waco. It became The Bear Mountain Outdoor Gear two years later, and after ownership changed in 2017 (still keeping the name, presumably licensed), it closed in 2018 as it was upgraded to an Ace Hardware at Park Place Plaza. Now it is home to The Cellar Wine & Spirits (since at least 2022). Next to it is "And Sew On" at 719, Aggie Nails & Spa at 721, Kung Fu Tea at 723, and Freezing Cow Rolling Ice Cream at 725. Best Buy at 801 Texas Avenue opened in 1999.

I should note that the in-line spaces might've been renumbered at one point: from 1998 to 2001 there was a Jamba Juice in the center (originally known as Zuka Juice, acquired and rebranded) but records show it having an address of "727 Texas Avenue # C5", though likely it is where Freezing Cow is today. Baskin-Robbins was there too briefly (at 723) and I believe it became KaleidoScoops around 2000 like the Parkway Square location (but closed soon after), becoming Hobbytown USA for several years. Best Buy (801 Texas) is at the end, and goes through mild remodels now and then, I remember it going from carpet to tile and back again (or was it the other way around?)

Best Buy has been here for a number of years (Picture by author, 3/19) In addition to the new Five Below, Red Lobster moved out in 2008 to 1200 University Drive East and was and after a few years of vacancy it was reopened under Lupe Tortilla in spring 2012, which largely kept the exterior.

UPDATE 02-16-2024: Rewrite that incorporates pre-1997 tenants. Renamed to "Lone Star Pavilion and the Former Red Lobster". Added [1960s] to post.

"At Home" on the Boriskie Ranch

College Station never had a "Garden Ridge" store, but better late than never, right?
It's rare these days when Project HOLD actually helps contribute to an article and answers questions asked, but Project HOLD came through and delivered an article on Boriskie Ranch, located off of the Highway 6 bypass. I had actually wanted to publish this in 2017 before some unfortunate situations in my life derailed my plans on revitalizing the site (chronologically, this was supposed to be published after the former Café Eccell page before the site effectively went on a year and a half hiatus). I wanted to try to contact the author, but in my research of it when first writing this article, found that Burton Hermann had passed away two days prior to when I had looked it up [archive].

The ranch dates back to the 1800s and once covered an enormous part of land stretching to Texas Avenue to the west and what would be Southwest Parkway to the south, and includes a vast part of east College Station, including Post Oak Mall, Allen Honda, Wolf Pen Creek Park, a bunch of apartment complexes, Dairy Queen, a section of Earl Rudder Freeway, and others. Obviously, these will not be covered today (if ever), though some are already covered in some form.

There's not a lot I can say about the part that's already written (if Project HOLD changes links again, just search "boriskie ranch"), other than a few facts that Post Oak Mall was built in 1982, not 1989. Following the expansion the driving range was "College Station Golf Center" at 2301 East Bypass. In 1989, I can find a listing for "Brazos Valley Golf Driving Range" but the address (and number) listed is for 2400 East Bypass, the current Grand Station (the building was a former Lowe's, but the Lowe's listed in the 1989 phone book has a non-existent East Bypass address, because at some point the addresses were renumbered). But then again, there didn't seem to be a building for the golf center in 1995, which indicates that it didn't have a phone number, so it's one of those cases in which I don't know.

Regardless, Academy Sports + Outdoors (2351 Earl Rudder Freeway) was built and opened in February 2002, as the article says (see this article). The golf center, with its long poles and overgrown netting to prevent balls from going out into the highway, closed in the mid-2000s and was torn down for a shopping center. This would be the home of Gander Mountain (2301 Earl Rudder Freeway) and Dickey's Barbecue Pit (2297 Earl Rudder Freeway). Gander Mountain would open June 2007, giving another option for the local economy and another large store on Highway 6.

The closed Dickey's.
Dickey's Barbecue Pit was the last commercial development at Boriskie Ranch. This is covered in more detail at this article.

Around 2011, We Rent Storage at 2672 Horse Haven Lane opened, replacing an oil field.

In 2017, several shakeups changed the face of the former Boriskie Ranch. In addition to the aforementioned Dickey's Barbecue Pit, Academy moved less than a mile away closer to the intersection of Raintree and Highway 6, Gander Mountain closed in August following the parent company's bankruptcy, and Hunter's Creek Stables (now with an address of 2741 Horseback Drive, as opposed to the original address of 2401 East Bypass) eventually closed and was torn down to allow further development of Horse Haven Estates.

However, some life did come back when At Home Group Inc. announced that they would build a store in College Station. The new name of what used to be Garden Ridge, the Texas-based chain has had stores in Houston (often enormous, though they've scaled down in recent years), San Antonio, Austin, Dallas, and parts beyond for years (even Syracuse, New York got a store before us). They tore down a covered outdoor annex of Gander Mountain to build an expansion (I think this had boats, I'm not sure).


UPDATE 09-15-2021: Slight cutting to officially spin off the Academy and Masfajitas (Dickey's) articles. Added [College Station] to the post.

Former Circuit City

Picture from April 2019 by author.

The distinctive shape of this building (1003 Harvey) is recognizable as a former Circuit City, which opened in College Station store in August 1995, and much like its other locations in Texas were often deliberately located near (but never in) shopping malls. I maybe went into Circuit City once or twice in this location, but I do remember it as a dimly-lit place with computers on display (typical of Circuit City, and that was their gimmick, for the darker lighting to better show off computers and televisions), and nothing like Best Buy, which was brighter and better organized.

In January 2007, Circuit City moved to a new location at University Drive and Highway 6 (about where Half-Price Books is today) and closed down their location, only for the new location to close down a few years later. ("Bryan-College Station sees boom in businesses" from The Eagle). In early August 2012, Guitar Center opened a store at the location but it retains most of its original architecture.

UPDATE 04-24-2024: A few extremely small updates, like "opened in August 1995" rather than "built 1995".

America's Country Store

Picture taken March 2019
I love lineages of companies, and you may have noticed the Purina checkerboard logo on the outside of this store, just like many of the Purina-branded pet food inside. The thing is, those are two different companies, and they have been for decades. The "America's Country Store" is a franchise of Purina Mills, which operate animal feed mills in rural areas, but it spun off from the original Ralston Purina in the mid-1980s. Purina Mills has been owned by Land O'Lakes Inc. since 2001, while the original Ralston Purina (having divested all of its "human food" operations over the years) was purchased by Nestlé around the same time and merged with their Friskies PetCare Company division (becoming known as "Nestlé Purina PetCare" since). One place in town with Ralston Purina heritage is, surprisingly, Jack in the Box, which Ralston Purina owned in the 1970s and 1980s, and we recently had a post regarding the one in College Station.

America's Country Store started in 1997 but the College Station (Wellborn) store opened in October 2005 by franchisee Close Quarters Feed and Pet Supply. It was always designated toward animals, but in recent years (very recent, apparently, as of this writing) converted its garden center into a pet boarding service. This is just out of view in the picture, but can be seen in Street View (as a garden center at least as of this writing).

14675 Wellborn Road

Jack in the Box, Texas Avenue, College Station

This store has since been gutted down to just a few columns and walls and totally rebuilt (with a small expansion).
Jack in the Box store number 683 (1504 Texas Avenue South) opened in 1976. The picture isn't high resolution because I was going to publish it as part of the Texas Avenue City Directory on the next update on Carbon-izer. It's all part of a big site overhaul. The picture is from me, but I don't have the date recorded down of when I took it (likely a few years ago). This is the only Jack in the Box in College Station proper as the one on Rock Prairie closed down a couple of years ago.

UPDATE 11-07-2020: Updated opening date based on new evidence and added a bit on the rebuild.
UPDATE 08-06-2021: Changed date to 1976 and also added [1970s] (instead of [1980s]) to the tag.

Northgate Juice Joint

It appears the bar operating inside Northgate Juice Joint has its own phone number. (Picture taken April 2020)

It appears this building was built sometime in the 1960s and was, according to the earliest records I've currently accessed, was "Andre's Bicycle Shop". Later on, it became "Bill's Style Shop" at 215 University but eventually Bill retired and the space was absorbed into Zapatos Cantina and after Zapatos closed in 2012, the space that Zapatos had absorbed became Wobbly Monkey, a bar. The original Zapatos section (DoubleDave's) was not part of the deal, but Wobbly Monkey never lasted more than two semesters before the owner sold out. It is now Northgate Juice Joint, which will use part of the outdoor space for an urban garden. Surprisingly, after opening sometime in late 2014, Northgate Juice Joint still operates nearly five years later as of this writing, with "Commanders Cove", an outdoor bar-within-a-store, opening in 2019.

No alcohol served back in the day. [Picture from Project HOLD]

Northgate Juice Joint's current facade is its third since it's been here, the second facade was much more elaborate than the modest one shown in the picture.

Updated June 2020 for University Drive series
UPDATE 07-10-2021: Northgate Juice Joint has since moved to Bryan, with Commanders Cove taking over the space entirely. No other changes to the article have been made.

1501 Texas Avenue

It appears that the doors out front were sealed later.
Built in 1980 as a bank office building, today this building houses offices for Texas A&M University. A 1998 directory lists it having the Texas A&M Foundation and offices for "United Bank College Station". I'm also told this had a branch of Aggieland Credit Union before that branch moved to Southwest Parkway around that time. Picture was taken in February 2019 as I had no previous picture for it before.

Southgate Village Apartments

Here's an Eagle ad from December 1971, subsidized even back then.
Originally part of the Luther Street and Wellborn Road article to undergo major changes as of this writing (accounting for the huge new apartment building replacing the entire block), the Southgate Village Apartments were built in 1970 and is a HUD subsidized apartment (even going into foreclosure in early 2012).

Street View image, 134 Luther Street

Shiraz Shish Kabob

Picture taken January 2017, I had been holding onto this for over two years!
When I added this post in February 2019 (which itself got transplanted to a new post following a reorganization of the website at that time), I didn't have the resources I do now. This restaurant started out as a rather typical (for the time) Kentucky Fried Chicken restaurant as what those restaurants looked like at the time. (It also had the address of 100 Dominik Drive before changing to 110 Dominik Drive a few years later, which it still is today. In late 1986 it closed and moved to Park Place Plaza where it still business as KFC (after a few remodels) and is currently engaged in an ongoing war with the Popeyes catty-corner to it.

In 1987, Quick as a Flash, a photo studio, moved here from Post Oak Mall. Ritz Camera eventually bought it to become "Ritz Portrait Studio" or "Ritz One Hour Photo" (not to be confused with the main Ritz Camera store, which later moved in across the street) and it eventually closed in the mid-2000s. For a very brief time in 2007, this was "The Pump". One of the old comments erroneously referred to it as "The Filling Station" but described it as such:

It specialized in fried everything. They were quite good if you could exist on fried everything. Chicken, chicken fried steak, fried livers and gizzards. They also baked beautifully decorated Christmas cookies. Interesting place.

By fall of 2008, the restaurant was being renovated into its current tenant, Shiraz Shish Kabob, which opened in December of that year. While the heavy lifting was done by The Pump in restoring the building back to restaurant use (I'm guessing that when it became a portrait studio, connections required for food service were simply covered up rather than removed entirely), Shiraz added a fountain to the main dining area for ambience (though it made the restaurant a bit humid). I'm guessing that when it became a portrait studio, connections required for food service were simply covered up rather than removed entirely.

UPDATE 02-27-2023: Complete rewrite done.

Café Eccell's Former Domain

Taken by me, on the last day Café Eccell was legally operating on the city's lease, January 14th, 2014

A few years ago, I showed you the former Luby's, which as of this writing isn't updated yet (when it is, I'll do a quick update on this page to remove that disclaimer), which is where Eccell is located today.

For a number of years, though, Café Eccell was located at the corner of Church Avenue and Wellborn, 101 Church Avenue. The building of Café Eccell, as plain and kind of ugly as it was, used to house the city's first city hall and jail back in the 1940s (built 1947). The city hall moved out in 1970 when a new building was built, and I'm not sure of what it was used for later (the police station was also in Northgate during those days, though not that building). The city held onto the lease and in 1989, it reopened as a restaurant, Café Eccell, which featured a classier, "adult" atmosphere and food that the rest of Northgate lacked, and still tends to lack today.

The first incarnation of Café Eccell closed permanently in March 2014 a few months after its lease ran out (why the city never locked them out is unknown). The restaurant opened in 1989, and after changing of hands to the Dallis family completely around 1991, the restaurant continued for many years. The food was also plagued by inconsistency in its latter days as well as the drama involving the Dallis brothers (a.k.a. Eccell Group), the developers, and the community as a whole.

A few months later the building was wrecked for The Domain at Northgate apartment building, which is only four stories, occupies the whole block, and includes retail opportunities, though only one is currently open (4.0 Cuts Barber Salon, opened spring 2016). The building itself was ready in time for the fall 2015 move-in season, and for a time had a leasing office in the former Cycles Etc. on University Drive. A second tenant, Dat Dog, opened in September 2018. It was an odd choice, considering the chain had no other locations outside of New Orleans, not even in Baton Rouge. The restaurant closed in October 2019, citing parking issues.

Of course, the Domain was not the first development to try to redevelop CE, it was to house "Gameday Centers College Station" circa 2004, a large multi-story tower (about 7-8 stories). Gameday Centers was largely doomed to begin with: the company was building luxury condos for big-money donors to stay in on game weekends, but the asking price of $500,000 a condo was too much* (it would be a better value to buy a house in the Traditions subdivision, which is what many have done), negotiations with the city broke down, and rather than a first phase done by August 2007 and completion by December 2008*, it was canned. The center would've had 10,000 square feet of restaurant and retail space and had even signed a 10-year lease with Café Eccell as part of the agreement*.

*Unfortunately, since this page was originally published, one of the links I had for this page has gone dead and I have been unable to relocate it, as the Batt link is dead and Archive.org does not have it. Likewise the links for the other links seem to be lost.

Gumby's Pizza, Dominik Drive

This was taken sometime in January of this year, when I did the Whataburger re-post.

107 Dominik Drive was built in the mid-1970s as a College Station branch of Pepe's Mexican Food but became a branch of Gumby's sometime in 1997 (The old Gumby's was next to Sweet Eugene's, the parking lot bumpers still mention Gumby's despite moving twenty years prior).

The history behind the Gumby's pizza chain is murky, the website for the chain gives no clue of its founding and I can only guess it was licensed from the decades-old children's TV show many years ago and allowed to fester and grow into its own identity to present a pizza chain more common for the college crowd. Even in the 1980s, there was a pizza known as the "Gumby Dammit". The website also features classic Gumby videos, which are bizarre in their own right, and almost feels like something they'd show on Adult Swim, as it gets even weirder when you're sleep deprived or otherwise under the influence.

It's the pizza chain that's very rare (less than a dozen locations, all near colleges). It's the one where you can get a pizza delivered at 1:15 in the morning (they stop at 2) and sells pizzas like the Stoner Pie, which includes mozzarella sticks, french fries, pepperoni, and sausage. It's also a place that can get away with having a non-lit sign and choosing instead to string Christmas lights around the non-functional signage.

I've eaten at Gumby's a few times and it's, well, it's not very good and if I was in the area (which I was a few years ago) I would probably go to DoubleDave's. The drama around Gumby's got interesting a few years back when they opened up a location in Wellborn called Black Sheep Pizza, which featured a different logo but still the same menu (and presumably the same recipe). The way I understand it is Gumby's was sold among different partners, and Black Sheep Pizza (renamed GranDandy's Pizza & Meals after a trademark dispute) spun off completely, with a clause that Gumby's could buy them back, which they did after GranDandy's became a moderate success, leading the owner to build Howdy's Pizza (long story...) with the modified recipes and menu.

UPDATE 02-24-2019: In October 2018, Gumby's moved to the former Wolfies location at Post Oak Square so that Whataburger could expand and rebuild.
UPDATE 02-26-2023: Since this post was written, Whataburger still hasn't done anything with the property, so it, the old gas station site, and the Gumby's are still as they've been. Howdy's Pizza unfortunately fell through and the restaurant that eventually opened in Caprock Crossing wasn't even the same restaurant. Gumby's has been here since approximately 1997, Pepe's was here from 1976 to 1994. The post has been amended to reflect that, while changes "(still in the works)" to "(long story...)".

A Look at Former Restaurants at 102 Church Avenue

By the time La Bodega moved in it didn't resemble a house anymore. Back before Church and Wellborn was taken over with new housing, there was a restaurant built out of a converted house not too far away from that intersection.

The structure was built in 1959 as per Brazos CAD, built as a house, the first reference coming from a 1963 obituary about one Mrs. Marguerite Mary Edmonds, age 48, and at some point in the 1970s it was abandoned.

Dead Solid Perfect was a hamburger restaurant and the first that opened in the former house in February 1976. According to this article, [owner Searcy Bond] did nothing to the building" during conversion to a restaurant, which matches up with this description is from Yuccadoo on TexAgs, with "no exhaust vents, smoke pouring out a coupla windows in the kitchen". It closed in 1979.

In December 1979, One Potato Two Potato opened; I'm guessing it was the first "meal in a peel" style restaurant in town. In the summer 1983 it was retooled as Two Blocks North and added hamburgers to the menu. In 1983 Two Blocks North closed, and in August 1984, La Taqueria & Tortilla Factory opened. "La Taq" was arguably the most memorable of the restaurants in the space and is still talked about sometimes today. La Taqueria closed around summer 1991. According to Aggieland 1992, Rosalie's Pasta House opened September 25, 1991 in the former La Taqueria space (and had the same ownership). Around 1997 it closed.

Finally, La Bodega Baja Taco Bar opened in October 2000 (likely with a major renovation that brought it up to code), and closed in November 2014. I do have a picture of the specials as of May 2014 including the gimmick of the hotter it was outside, the cheaper drinks were.

Despite some talk of more upscale dining in the Northgate area, it and the adjacent apartment building next to it (104 Church Avenue, where Eccell Group operated out of) was torn down. What has replaced it is supposed to be a food truck park, called Wayside Food Park. It was supposed to be a permanent place for food trucks complete with electrical conduits and a covered pavilion area, but it failed hard, opening in December 2017 and closing by early 2019. In regards to that apartment building, I have terrible pictures of that, the one with my finger covering a quarter of the shot is from this May (2014) and I thought had a better picture that shows the building as a whole but I can't find it. It's not much better than what you can see from the older shots on Google Maps Street View.

UPDATE 04-26-2024: Article rewritten for better prose and better information. This article was previously amended in May 2019 to account for the coming and going of Wayside, but now it and the adjacent 100 Church Avenue have been knocked down for a new student housing complex. On April 22nd 2024, the article was been renamed to "A Look at Former Restaurants at 102 Church Avenue", with [demolished] also added.

Dominik Drive Whataburger

The sun sets behind this Whataburger, but don't worry, it's open late!

This Whataburger at 105 Dominik Drive is another restaurant that has been here for decades (though been rebuilt a few times). This is the closest Whataburger to campus and I've heard (and felt) like quality is a bit sub-par compared to the Rock Prairie Whataburger. In 1969, it changed hands from an unknown seller to Grace Dobson (wife of Whataburger founder Harmon Dobson), with the earliest reference in newspaper archives to this location in 1971. In 1987, Grace Dobson to Whataburger. It changed hands again in 1987 to Whataburger officially, which was about the time a rebuild of the store commenced, as a permit had been filed in 1986. Regardless, it was rebuilt again in 1996. This is what Brazos CAD says about the store, and that is correct--I had heard when I was a bit younger of a large fire at the store in the 1990s, and later I found a newspaper that said that it did in fact burn down in January 1996, with a "mobile Whataburger" serviced the area until the Whataburger reopened that spring. The store was No. 78 even in the Dobson days and it still is.

While it is the closest Whataburger to campus, for a brief time it was not as you could get Whataburger in the Sbisa basement, and with the revelation that they had a "mobile Whataburger" even back in the mid-1990s, it makes me wonder how much money a Whataburger food truck could still make on campus today. It was at this location that I realized Whataburger had subtly changed its logo.

Today, it has an all orange logo (formerly, the name was in black and there was often blue trim). Compare this picture (not mine!) to the store today. There's another blank lot nearby used for overflow parking. This used to be a Shell station (it was a Texaco prior to 2003) just about three years later when Texas Avenue started to widen, and demolished a few years later. Since then, nothing has taken its spot, but it provides excess Whataburger parking. It was one of the "Max Food Mart" stores that were in a lot of the Texaco stores at the time. The gas station at 1405 Texas Avenue I believe did not co-exist with the old Zip'N at George Bush and Texas, as the stores I remember converting around January 2003 (Eagle archives show the conversion of the store at Southwest Parkway and Welsh converting, and I think that was one of the first to convert), and by February 2003, the old Zip'N had been completely leveled.

Update May 2019: This Whataburger is scheduled to be rebuilt soon, and the Gumby's has moved out.

Veronica's Country Corner

This is so obscure only the blurry 2005 Google Earth image shows it.
I lived in Houston for a little while and because I still had connections in College Station, I drove back and forth from College Station to Houston, and that included a lot of Highway 6 South between Navasota and College Station. That little section of highway used to be notoriously dangerous, as it was a four lane highway with no medians (just a double yellow stripe), and enough hills and little driveways to make it a significant hazard. But for me it was before I was driving and thus nostalgia. Usually the only time we drove on that section was to go to Baton Rouge (ultimately) though Houston too.

I do not lament the passing of the original roadway, though I still can "see" in the minds eye where the exit to FM 159 was, and that was back in 2005 (this is a reference to another one of my old blog posts, though I'm not linking to it). Now, with every thing that goes away, some fond things go away with it. I know that the post up there says "Veronica's", and I promise I'll get to that, but first, an ode to a defunct roadside park.

Despite there being a similar roadside park between Hempstead and Navasota, I do remember vaguely the roadside park in Brazos County. I don't remember much of it, it was literally a little driveway loop off of the southbound side of the road, just south of FM 159. Most of the pavement is actually still there.

Anyway, last week I went to the State Fair and I noticed south of Waxahachie a relatively recent closure of one such roadside park (new barricades, and a construction vehicle parked ominously near the southbound rest area), fresh enough that even Google Earth still had it open. The thing is, as much as there is nostalgia for these things, and I can definitely say that while they were an iconic part of traveling down highways when I was younger just like roadside hotels and restaurants, they are functionally obsolete and to an extent dangerous.

One such park closure in recent years was in Sealy, Texas, with a large road side park in the inner median of Interstate 10 (though the two "halves" did not serve as turnaround lanes). It's not just the fact that people would prefer modern travel centers, restaurants, and gas stations, it's the fact that usually they just breed trouble, with illicit activities and illegal dumping. As for the dangerous part (besides the chance of being in the wrong place at the wrong time) the short ramps make acceleration and deceleration a pain, you would not want to pull out of a parking space for someone to be barreling down the strip at 45 mph or higher. That would suck.

The other thing that disappeared during construction was the only gas station between the Exxon at William D. Fitch (still the furthest south gas station on the freeway) and the gas stations at Washington Avenue. I'm not sure when it was built (after 1995) but if it was before the opening of the Exxon/McDonald's, then the "last gas in Brazos County" would be what was a Texaco at Barron and Highway 6.

Veronica's Country Corner, as health inspection records state (at 26000 State Highway 6 South), was demolished around early 2006, and I remember it being extant at least as of 2001 (I would appreciate more information...) and I want to say that the gas canopy was fairly large (the aerials make it a bit hard to tell). Sadly, because I lack photos, ads, or a lot of meaningful memories of it (I never even stopped there), I can't say much about it, and only want to bring it up to make sure it isn't forgotten. If this topic seems vaguely familiar to you, I did "sort of" cover it on the blog a long time ago, in a now-removed post that covered Millican and the southern end of Wellborn Road.

UPDATE 09-18-2021: Veronica's operated between 2001 and 2005. Today there is "Veronica's Daquiris" on the site, with the same address and ownbership. New labels added. But, there was one more gas station on Highway 6 that I somehow missed...

Goodbye to 711 University, So Long to the BB&T...

Since I didn't get a picture of the bank before it became a big hole in the ground, we'll have to do with this, a picture from Google.

Today this is yet another student housing residential tower, known as Aspire College Station with 16 stories (including parking levels) and 800 beds but when I originally added this article in 2016 (here's the old page before I reworked it) it was the recently-demolished BB&T bank (hence the pun title). The chronology of the main bank building goes as such:

1962: College Station State Bank relocates to this building from a previous location.
1963: The name is changed to University National Bank.
1990: After a long run as University National Bank, it is acquired by Don Adam to become First American Bank (officially acquired that year)
2005: Citigroup acquires the bank chain, rebranded to Citibank
2014: BB&T purchases 41 Citibank branches including this one and rebrands them.
2016: BB&T relocates to The Rise at Northgate; building torn down, thus beginning and ending its life with relocation.

There was a second adjacent space (707 University Drive) which was a two-story office building with a small footprint. My records show this was used for non-bank space as early as 1974 (with the Provident Mutual Life Insurance Co.) and my 1989 phone book mentions "The Personal Computer Store" (with the ad mentioning it was "since 1984"). This became MicroAge by 1993, and starting in 1999 moved out to their current home (now known as Avinext) on East University Drive. I don't think anything has occupied the space since.

Because of the relative underuse of the space, 711 University was also where food trucks congregated (or near the now-defunct Notes-N-Quotes next door). Since I graduated back in 2014, I can't list all the more recent food trucks and trailers there, though here are a few I remember:

Wafology - Seen spring 2014, this was a waffle food truck which had chicken and waffles and a few others. The waffles weren't great, they were more of the standard "using pancake batter in a waffle iron" that I've seen everywhere except for home cooking. I think it returned for fall 2014. It is now known as MESS Waffles, but it doesn't even involve a food truck anymore, they opened a permanent location at Century Square.

Vittles - This was seen summer 2014. It was a trailer operated by Gumby's serving sno-cones, pizza rolls, and chicken legs (the latter two obviously prepared off-site).

Chef Tai's Mobile Bistro - Moved inside campus due to a contract.

Southern Comfort Road Trip - The old Village Foods food truck which in fall 2013, was the new home of Hebert's Cajun Food dishes. Their already-borderline prices had gone up, but it still felt like it was putting the universe one step closer to being back in balance. Sadly it didn't last.

Mr. Chinese Burger - I wanted to like it, but the burgers I had tended to be cold..and they were shut down by the health department at least once.They sold pulled pork on chewy steamed buns.

When the tower was built a few years later, BB&T moved back in and by 2019 it had Fajita Pete's, Which Wich, and All Phone Toys, the last one occupying a small suite facing Church Avenue. Unfortunately, both Fajita Pete's and Which Wich have closed, with Fajita Pete's closing in 2021 and Which Wich closing in late 2023. (Also during this time, BB&T rebranded to Truist, following a merger with SunTrust out of Atlanta). On April 20, 2024, Waco viral hit Roni's Mac Bar opened in Suite 200 (the former Which Wich...and Roni's reused much of their fixtures). It is the first branch location and the first not to be connected to a food hall, which the original is.

UPDATE 04-21-24: Full rewrite was done.
UPDATE 04-24-2024: Should've also mentioned Korean chicken chain bb.q Chicken opened in fall 2023 to replace Fajita Pete's.

Leaning Tower Pizza / Primo Pizza / My Daily Bread Bakery

Primo Pizza in better days, September 2013

Originally I was going to rewrite my old Eastgate page, but then I figured I could easily rewrite it into several posts, not to mention it was several years since I did anything with it.

109 Walton, from my records, seems to have been food related during most of the recent past. "Wing Zone" was here in the early part of the 2000s, records indicate, and during the 1990s it was home to Partners Food Delivery. In 1989, it was "Guitar Shop", which was the actual name of the store and "associated with Holtz Music Company" (ad scan pending). My personal experiences deal with the current tenant and the two before it. First, there was Leaning Tower Pizza, which if I recall was here since the mid-2000s. It was an interesting place, with a particularly greasy pie with a unique cheese pizza. It was also very grimy for a College Station restaurant, but I didn't mind because that's why you have pizza...hot enough to kill any dubious bacteria. It had some garden furniture for an "eat-in" area and had "free delivery" that had a significant discount if you picked it up in store, which means it wasn't actually free at all.

Well, for whatever reason, Leaning Tower closed in spring (May) 2013. Luckily, it was said on MyBCS that Charles Stover, fresh from creating Flip & Peel at Post Oak Mall, had bought the store and recipes and would reopen with a new name and theme. Well, that didn't quite happen, and instead in late summer 2013, Primo Pizza & Rolls opened with an entirely new concept of gourmet takeout pizza, which included pesto on every slice (this opened in late summer 2013). Unfortunately, gourmet takeout pizza without an eat-in area wasn't something the market could handle (especially located in a neighborhood that was populated by college students and minorities) and Primo shut down in February 2014 due to underperformance, but the way it was worded indicated that the closure could be temporary. After all, the sign remained up. But in May 2014, new pictures revealed that the restaurant was gutted. (One more thing regarding Primo: Primo Pizza's webpage, archived in PNG form)

While an Eastgate pizza place was no more than a memory, it did have one more tenant afterwards that opened by fall. This is still open today...My Daily Bread Bakery. This was one of my favorite places in my neighborhood when I lived on Eastgate, cinnamon rolls for breakfast if I was running late for school, decent coffee and espresso, and even (though I don't know about it today), a selection of used video games (from her husband) for sale, where I bought Pikmin and I believe Metroid Prime. I haven't made much progress in either, or you would see it in Carbon-izer GAMES, my "game review" page.

Here are a few other pictures that I took in May 2014 after the restaurant was gutted.

• Gutted PP, May 2014
• Gutted PP, May 2014. This is where the counter and menu were. The kitchen was behind that wall. This configuration was intact for both LTP and PP&R.

UPDATE 01-21-2022: Removed old update that mentioned in 2017 the bakery was renamed as La Gabriella Coffeeshop & Pastries. Also removed the [2010s] entry since the building was not built in the 2010s. Further work on this page will be done eventually.

Handy Burger / The Onion Ring / The Deluxe / Chimy's Cerveceria

Chimy's sign looks kind of cool at night, but no picture of that, sorry (December 2015)

This restaurant, best known to me as the Deluxe Diner, always had a bit of a special place in my heart, even if I never went there. It was the first thing I saw besides the late Dulie Bell Building if we were going down the ramp from Wellborn, plus it was always featured in a little "menu booklet" that the George Bush Library had in their early days. It started as a hamburger restaurant called the Handy Burger (first reference in papers was 1962), which was the first place in town to have a microwave for food use. Around 1979 (give or take a year), this became a restaurant called "The Onion Ring" (which picked up a well-known nickname probably more common than the REAL name of the restaurant).

By 1983 it was "The Deluxe Burger Bar" (renamed The Deluxe Diner sometime later), and at some point to be determined, the restaurant's exterior was remodeled (Handy Burger looked substantially different than what Deluxe looked like).

Deluxe Diner menu from better days (c. 1998), note that this is not the full menu

The shuttered Deluxe Diner, Google Street View (c. 2007)
The Deluxe Diner closed in 2006 (that I know for sure) but by that time was in a state of huge decline (food was terrible, management was even worse). Despite having some period diner pieces inside (though the exterior had been modified since the Handy Burger days), the building started to rot and mold until 2012 when most of the restaurant was demolished save for a few walls and was rebuilt into Chimy's Cerveceria, which opened in January 2013. I've never eaten there, based on reports of overpriced food and what I've seen myself (long, cafeteria-like tables). That was disappointing, as I'd been wanting some decent Tex-Mex in Northgate, not a bar. Rest assured, though, with the opening of Torchy's Tacos when I lived at Eastgate, I no longer thought of Chimy's as a wasted opportunity.

So there you go. The tale of one of College Station's oldest restaurant sites in one post. Sorry for the absence as of late...I'll be wrapping up several more of the posts here with one more for the memories.

UPDATE 12-31-2020: Added Handy Burger's opening date as well as other restuarants.

Pooh's Park, Tinsley's, and Others Replaced by a Shopping Center

View of the center today

Once again, we come back to one of our blog, this time to roll a few smaller posts into a bigger one. As the picture above shows, the area at Holleman and Texas Avenue is now a large (kind of low end) shopping center. In addition to covering all the changes that went on there (which I have yet to do), I can combine a few older posts into this one. So, first, we have Pooh's Park at 1907 Texas Avenue South.

There's far more to Pooh's Park (no, not related to the "Winnie" one) I can get into today, because it's a popular topic on local nostalgia threads: if you want to learn more, you can head over to Facebook to talk or browse through old photos (and they include newspaper articles!)

I never got to experience Pooh's Park myself, but from what I've seen and read, it was like Chuck E. Cheese, Putt-Putt, and a skating rink (roller, not ice) all wrapped into one. It opened in 1972 and was where the shopping center where Hobby Lobby, Big Lots, and Ross are now. I would like to say that Pooh's Park remained open until it became too valuable to remain (and was getting run-down anyway) and closed in the early 2000s, but no, that's not the case. It closed around 1988 (for reasons unclear, probably economic) and only the sign remained up (with the logo of the yellow dog they had, and not the one pictured above, and the name gone) until around the time they built the shopping center in the early 2000s, and then remained up until a little while afterward.

A 1984 phone book has a different ad that does mention things like a water slide (408 feet) and a different address (at some point, they changed to 105 Holleman Drive East, though based on what you can see from Google Earth, and backed up by a picture of Texas Avenue from a local history book I don't have a copy of with me) is that Pooh's Park was accessed through Texas Avenue, not Holleman.

Google Earth 1995, with modern streets overlaid

Some older maps (circa 2001-ish, long after Pooh's Park bit the dust) put a "Pooh's Lane" roughly where the Bahama Buck's is now, but unless that first part of Holleman Drive East was actually called that (after all, there's a few things that do support that, including the odd alignment of Holleman Drive and Holleman Drive East suggests that the East part was first, and then Holleman Drive extended that way later by way of a particularly awkward curve, or the fact that the subdivision nearby (behind the strip center and the other businesses on the east side) is named Pooh's Park Subdivision.

Sharing the address with Pooh's Park (at least the original address) was one "Furniture Liquidation Mart" which closed in October 1985 (The Eagle), and I would guess that this is what Bahama Buck's replaced (it used to be the foundations of another building). It should be noted, though, my 1984 phone book doesn't list it.

Near Pooh's Park was Tinsley's Chicken 'n Rolls.

Chicken done well, chicken well done!
Opening in late 1979, Tinsley's was located on 1905 Texas Avenue South as the chain's only College Station location (there were locations from Waco to Houston, and two in Bryan--one of which has an article on the blog). In 1985, the Tinsley family sold out to Church's Fried Chicken.Church's closed sometime around 1989 (it would resurface years later). In the mid-1990s it was Santa Fe Pizza (aka Santa Fe Market Cafe). In 1997, it was Kokopelli's (Southwestern food, I have a menu but never scanned it) and Clay Oven from 1998 to 2000 (Indian food).

It should be noted the plane was a real thing, though, as David Tinsley used an actual 1930s plane to promote his restaurants, not unlike how Flying Tomato used hot air balloons.

Despite a brief re-appearance in Huntsville with much fanfare (in a former KFC and now Hartz Chicken Buffet), Tinsley's is current a dead chain once more.

Anyway, by the early 2000s, the space was almost entirely vacant (I believe Clay Oven had been demolished) with little else on the property except the old Pooh's Park sign, which had remained up. While the new shopping center (opened in 2002) had rather downscale tenants, most of them were new. There was Hobby Lobby, which moved from Post Oak Square, locating at 1903 Texas Avenue South. Others included a branch of Loupot's (1907 Texas Ave. S.), Shoe Carnival (1909 Texas Ave. S.), Ross Dress for Less (1911 Texas Ave. S.), and Goody's Family Clothing (1913 Texas Avenue South). Petco and a few smaller stores shared the 1901 address, and in 2006, CiCi's Pizza moved in from Culpepper Plaza, taking the 1905 Texas Avenue address. Goody's would close in early 2009 as the chain went under, but it was replaced with a few new stores, Big Lots (returning back to the market, as by that time, their old location at the former Kmart had been closed for several years) and a Twin Liquors (which, despite slightly nicer décor, seemed like a smaller, inferior competitor to Spec's). Loupot's also closed in spring 2012 and reopened as a Salata in less than two years.

Another shopping strip was built around the same time as the rest (but named The Shops at Wolf Pen Plaza) with Starbucks Coffee, a Sprint store (which initially had the older logo, then eventually was rebranded to T-Mobile following the merger), and Champion Firearms (moved from the Kroger shopping center). The Starbucks can be seen in its early days here from Starbucks Everywhere. It shows the ratty little building next door, the trees along Texas Avenue that got wrecked when it was widened, Goody's, and the patio of Starbucks before it was expanded.

UPDATE 07-08-2022: QoL updates including the life of the center, better closing date of Pooh's, new tags

Loupot's Northgate

Loupot's in 1995. (PH)

Prior to when College Main was closed off (June 19th 2012, a day that will live in infamy), it was the only block which was resembled a dense city in College Station. And sitting on the corner of this block was Loupot's (335 University Drive), which closed the same year (in March). One of the oldest establishments on Northgate and once the "official" bookstore on campus, Loupot's had been around for years, though from what I've read, it wasn't always in the building, and when it was, it wasn't in both levels.

From what I've found, it wasn't bought by Loupot until 1979, and in the past, Loupot's was named "Loupot's Trading Post" and "Loupot's Books & Britches". The upper level was added in the 1980s not too long after the building was bought, as that had been the previous home of an X-rated bookstore (The Adult Library, though I read an ad that mentioned it being the home of "Sun Theater", same business, different name). Some ads I had found (but sadly don't have a copy right now) mentioned that they had shows for a quarter (and escorted ladies were free), which was around in the 1970s and 1980s. This had an address of 333 University. The adult theater was upstairs at 333 University, with Loupot's downstairs. At some point, they eventually closed and Loupot's ultimately would expand upstairs.

Anyway, Loupot's managed to expand to a few different locations, namely a location in Southgate (now home to TexAgs) and in a location at Holleman and Texas Avenue (now Salata). These closed shortly after the Northgate location. A fourth location was planned (according to a sign) to the grassy area just north of Blinn College on Villa Maria (where Blinn later added more parking). Loupot's continued to maintain its large store on Northgate, which later upgraded to electronic signage and made Internet history with its "reverse-boarded up windows" in 2005 (around the time of Hurricane Rita). However, in 2010, the family sold to Nebraska Book Company (Neebo), which already owned the Traditions bookstores (formerly Rother's), and then they started closing stores. The Loupot's-branded stores went away in March 2012, but eventually, their other stores, branded as Traditions (Southgate, University Square, and one closer to Blinn at Briarcrest and Villa Maria) closed as well.

One of their last messages on the message board was "HOLY CRAP!!! TEXTBOOK RENTAL SALE!!!", which always felt a bit tasteless due to the mild swearing but that distracted from the fact that if they're selling rental textbooks, they're probably going under.

The former Loupot's in 2013.


After Loupot's closed, by late 2014, it was to become a place called Z Bar & Bistro, which made me hope it was something better than The Corner across the street (sticky chairs and tables, smells like old beer constantly, poor service), though it eventually fell through.

As of early 2016, there appears to be some work going on at Loupot's. It will probably be a bar, but it's better than an empty building, right?

UPDATE 03-07-2021: After six years after its annnouncement, Z Bar & Bistro opened around October of 2020. It serves sushi and has a rooftop seating area. Also, the post had [2010s] removed from it.
UPDATE 09-20-2021: Renamed post from "The Loupot's Building", added [restaurants] and [College Station] to post. Also made a few smaller fixes.
UPDATE 06-21-2023: Sometime around 2022, Z Bar closed (with its time spent at 335 University a fraction of the time it spent under construction), with "Toku 12" in its place.
UPDATE 04-24-2024: Clarification to above. After December 2022, Z Bar briefly closed and reopened as Toku12.

Former Pizza Inn

Picture taken late October 2015, shortly before rainclouds rolled in and drenched the town.
The rather ragged-looking "Rodney D. Young Insurance" at 413 Texas Avenue, which looks like a candidate for demolition should something better come along (the Exxon at the corner is constantly being ragged on as being an eyesore in a prime location). It was a Pizza Inn (No. 65) opened in 1966 and remained operational until sometime in the mid-1980s (and I'm not sure when Rodney D. Young came in, since I don't have city directories, only a few phone books). In 1989, it was Star Video and by 1993 it was EZ Pawn. As of January 2018, the location is no longer Rodney D. Young Insurance, it is now Legacy Tattoo Lounge.

It's also worth noting that there exists a "Pizza Inn Express" (just a counter) at the Chevron at Holleman and Deacon (opened in fall 2018).

1970s phone book. It still looks remarkably similar.

UPDATE 7-28-2018: Integrated August 10, 2016 edit into main post. Removed two paragraphs irrelevant to the main topic. Added Legacy Tattoo Lounge mention.
UPDATE 2-10-2020: Added mention of "new" Pizza Inn, renamed from "413 Texas Avenue, A Distinctly Former Pizza Inn"
UPDATE 10-27-2020: Added proper opening and store number, as well as some tags.

Dead Lazlo's Coffee Pub

Courtesy Project HOLD. Sadly, those funky oversized door handles don't exist anymore.
Dusting off something from a longer post all in favor of integrating into that new "directory" project discussed previously, the space that is "Foundation Lounge" today (which was "Foundation Room" until maybe 2012 or 2013) was a long series of shops and restaurants that I have yet to fully document.

The earliest record I could find for this building was a store called White Auto Store at this spot in 1972.

In the early 1980s, this was a store called The Drafting Board, an engineer's supply shop (reminder: there were less computers than today), which lasted from 1980 to at least 1984 (formerly "News Office Supply", according to a 1980 phone book).

Later on it was called A&M Steak House by c. 1989 (hamburgers, apparently). After that was shortly another store, Condom Station (at the zenith of Northgate's decline). Condom Station may have actually lasted a few years before closing.

"We've Got You Covered" is what the small text says.
This was Dead Lazlo's Coffee Pub in 1995, which lasted a few years too. A newspaper article I read (I don't have it with me but if it turns up, I'll cite it) mentioned that Dead Lazlo's was owned by Sweet Eugene's House of Java which is still alive today. Given how crowded Sweet Eugene's gets, if they still owned a coffeeshop here on Northgate under any name, it would do spectacularly well.

Copacetic (or Copasetic, I've seen it both ways) Café in 1998, and Foundation Room later (which has even more recently changed to "Foundation Lounge"), but not before briefly becoming a bar called The Groove in the mid to late 2000s, which had live music. The Groove was around as early as 2004 (citing The Eagle archives) and as late as 2007 (Google Street view and a restaurant report card). The Foundation's current ƒ logo used to be a Comic Sans-esque "G". Not counting the name changes of Drafting Board or Foundation Room, that's been 8 tenants over the years, but there's probably more...

UPDATE: Here's a comment posted from 2016 regarding Dead Lazlo's from Mikes Teks: Just wanted to confirm that Dead Lazlos was owned by the same people that owned Sweet Eugene's (back when coffee came in ceramic mugs/cups and not paper cups with lids). College Main was closed due to a major reconstruction project during its first year of being open which hurt business. After its biggest supporter among the owners of Sweet Eugene's left (he used to part his Motorcycle inside Eugene's when he worked there, cool guy) they turned it into the Copacetic Cafe (or so pathetic Cafe as we called it) Same owners and coffee, but no longer had a Gothic feel to it and it soon after I 'm told. Best 2 years of my life in BCS was spent at Dead Lazlo's. Non-smoking section was in the back and the Coffin by the bar. Good times.

Jimmy Jackson's Exxon

The landmark Exxon sign has stood here for over three decades.

This is the first new post in many months, but it's not a truly new post, it's just an old post "edited for syndication", and was originally part of The Far South Point of Texas Avenue (which is no longer, as the post has been rewritten), one of the last posts, which itself was originally supposed to be a part of "Texas Avenue: The Main Street of the City". Anyway, "Jimmy Jackson's Exxon" opened in 1983 at Miller's Lane (FM 2818 before it finished expanding to the highway) and Texas Avenue, this Exxon has a massive sign that was clearly grandfathered in as College Station would not allow such a majestic structure anymore like that, this Exxon was a full service stop built catty-corner to the Kmart on the edge of town (well, it was the edge back then) with a self-service car wash, garage, and convenience store.

Selling out to "Franky's" in 2001 (aka Frankie's), I actually managed to make contact with Jimmy Jackson's daughter (Mr. Jackson sadly passed away in 2013), but could not locate any photos of the gas station in its heyday. There was a second Jimmy Jackson gas station, which was sold and torn down well before his death, it was the Eckerd (now CVS) at the corner of Villa Maria and Texas Avenue.

In reality, the sign isn't quite so massive as it appears from further 2818 (mostly due to the hills), but something tells me that it was designed to be seen from the bypass when it was built (at least going northbound). As of this writing, I don't seem to have a picture of the actual "Franky's" convenience store, but it seems to have been altered from its original form anyway. I also get the feeling Franky's is kind of sleazy anyway (it was one of the ones pointed out by KBTX as having synthetic cannabis before a variety of laws cracked down on that).

2801 Texas Avenue South