Sweetbriar Nursing Home

Help wanted ad from 1999 featuring the last logo of Brazos Valley Geriatric Center
Up to this point, I've never covered anything on Anderson Street despite it being another road important in my youth (tied with Holleman and Southwest Parkway), and among the places on Anderson Street was the nursing home on 1115 Anderson. (If you grew up in the area between the 1970s and the mid-2010s you probably visited here at least once, if only for a school event or volunteer function).

Operating nearly 45 years as a nursing home before its 2019 closure, this opened as Sweetbriar Nursing Home in March 1975, with the common ownership and name of another nursing home in Brenham.¹ In 1979 it became Brazos Valley Geriatric Center, which it would have throughout the 1990s, from there would become Colton Inn Health Center (in 2000), Sheridan of Anderson (2003), and Magnified Health & Rehab in late 2008, and at that point I knew the nursing home as "changing names every few years" as by 2009 it had changed names three times in the last ten years, but it remained as Magnified until its closure by the state in summer 2019².

In 2023 the building was demolished and in March 2026 the first phase of Unlimited Potential opened, with most of the buildings (save for one being offices) being cottages for people who have aged out of the foster care system. (It appears they had a different location elsewhere in town.)

1. Brenham's Sweetbriar opened in 1966 at 401 East Horton Street (now 401 E. Blue Bell Street). The current High Hope Care Center does not seem to be the original building and appears to be a later expansion (though both sides were there in 1981). Another location opened in Navasota in 1968 at 1405 East Washington Avenue (now Navasota Nursing & Rehabilitation).
2. The state's official list can be found here.

Boardwalk Plaza

This picture isn't mine, unfortunately, it's from Loopnet.
Long before H-E-B even considered a full supermarket at Holleman and Texas Avenue, at Park Place and Texas Avenue there was the Long John Silver's, Mazzio's Pizza (later Harvey Washbanger's), and the 1800 Texas Avenue South, with an empty lot behind that, presumably as an expansion for 1800 Texas Avenue. Around 2011 this was finally developed as a new commercial building ("Boardwalk Plaza"). The somewhat sleepy strip center originally featured Systek Computing in suite 100 (moved from the building that Long John Silver's replaced, then moved out in 2019) and Lucky Dog Wash & Grooming in suite 102 (a big "DIY Dog Wash" sign, though there seems to be various groomers that have come and gone from operating inside). In 2020, Systek was replaced by Yummy Buy Asian Market (somewhat odd hours), while suite 104 eventually hosted a restaurant.

As of this writing (September 2026), it currently hosts Nova Eatery, originally hosting Yangtuo Club, then Ten Seconds Noodle House in the early to mid 2020s (a spin-off of one of those businesses in the "Chinatown" area on Bellaire Boulevard in Houston), which I ate at in November 2025 (the College Station location, not Houston).

Unique food experiences in College Station! I would take a visitor to here. (Author's picture, 11/2025)
Editor's Note: If you're an infrequent visitor to this site, don't forget about Remedies that was covered a few days ago with some information on updated posts. And if you're new here, welcome!

Remedies

I think I found this from Zillow, though the pictures are from bcsrealtor.com.
Even today, there's almost no restaurants west of Harvey Mitchell Parkway and north of Dowling Road (where Harvey Mitchell Parkway goes to an east-west road). There's Gate 12 near Easterwood Airport...the Stella Hotel restaurant...Poché's Seafood...the fast food places near the West Bryan Walmart, and in 1996 all of those did not exist. That was the year Remedies opened at 4660 Raymond Stotzer Parkway in a converted house (originally built in 1965), just about a quarter mile to the east where The Country Kitchen once operated. (For several years, I thought that the locations of the two were one and the same, when I started working on the post for The Country Kitchen, that was what I had in mind). Despite its obscurity, Remedies operated as late as 2004. It would make occasional appearances in the Eagle's Dining Guide, health reports, and in reports of private meetings not open to the public. The fact that it was reservations only suggests that it was never open unless there were reservations and it was weekends at best. A Practical Guide to Bryan-College Station (Second Edition) describes it as this, and perhaps the best description other what the dining guide gave ("Small, intimate fine dining served in a European manner. Their specialties are special tenderloin cuts of all meats").

The area's most exclusive restaurant requires reservations – one to two weeks in advance is recommended. With steaks and seafood prepared for taste as well as show, this five-course experience provides a night to remember.

But between the fact that it was so exclusive, and the fact that it was in a rather isolated part of town, not many people even knew about it when it was open.

In 2006, Lin's TV & VCR Service (later Lin's TV & Appliance) moved to the location from College Station Business Center and operated there until around the end of the decade when it moved to Bryan. After that, at some point was renovated into a traditional residential house (three bedrooms and two bathrooms), though Zillow lists both 4660 and 4660B (one of these seems to be the old commercial component), though both of these look to be the same.

Editor's Note: There's a whole lot of stuff I've done since we last met, including a huge update to the Northpoint Crossing article (Learn about the former Circle K! See what we found out about that 1940s building! Discover how the Dutch Kettle and the Kettle are related!), some updates to various commercial developments McDonald's & Blockbuster also got its first update in a decade.

But there's more "in network" to see. Numbered Exits has gotten several new posts, though most of them tend to be recycled content that has previously appeared on Carbon-izer before (except Loews Midtown Motor Inn). Tennis World, profiled over at The Houston Files is brand new.

Northpoint Business Park

As it appeared in 2011. Can you see the defunct rail spur?
Not to be confused with Northpoint Crossing (which, as of this writing, is to undergo a major rewrite), Northpoint Business Park at 2870 North Harvey Mitchell Parkway's history began in May 1979 when NL Industries announced the construction of a plant for its Atlas Bradford pipe and tube division¹. The 137-acre site had lofty plans with its initial operations being able to thread 22,000 tons of tubing annually, with 100,000 tons anticipated by 1984. It opened in 1980 and was had a brief period of success with 400 employees, a downturn in oil prices forced layoffs and by September 1982 only had 115 employees, when it NL Industries announced it would close for "12-18 months" until the oil price recovered, retaining 10 employees to serve as "caretakers" for the mothballed facility. Ultimately, these employees were let go as NL Industries abandoned the plant entirely and put it up for sale in 1987.

In 1994, local developer Kenneth Neatherlin's company, Neatherlin Commercial Group, purchased the plant from Dresser Industries² but requested the city to help pay for cleanup costs. I'm not sure if Northpoint ever offered up the old railroad spur as part of its features. It looked disconnected even in 1995.

It's more or less been that way since. When I was younger, there was something in suite 300 (the building and side closest to the entrance, at least from what I can tell, I believe U.S. Well Services takes up residence there now) that I vaguely remember in the parking lot having a bunch of things that I could best describe as nautical flags but it's been too long. I can't find a good PDF layout of the property, this (archived from here) is perhaps the best example. I'm not sure if it had an address in the Atlas Bradford days, but it is 2870 North Harvey Mitchell Parkway now. There's tenants like Groundforce Building Systems in suite 200 and Plygem New Alenco Extrusions in suite 400, but none of these are particularly noteworthy, there's nothing truly big and memorable that took up residence here. The only real big change was selling part of the lot so Sleep Inn could build a hotel that faces the highway.

1. NL Industries no longer owns Atlas Bradford, and it has gone under a variety of other owners since. It was spun off in 1989 as part of Baroid Corporation (the oil and gas side of NL Industries), which in turn sold it to Energy Ventures in 1992, incorporating it into their Grant TFW (later Grant Prideco) division. In 2000, Energy Ventures (by this time known as Weatherford International) spun off Grant Prideco as an independent company. In 2008, most of Grant Prideco's Tubular Technologies and Services division (except for XL Systems, which they kept) was sold to Vallourec out of France.
2. Baroid was spun off from NL Industries with Atlas Bradford (see footnote 1) but when Baroid sold Atlas Bradford to Energy Ventures, they retained the site. Baroid was sold to Dresser Industries in December 1993, and the official deed to the current ownership is from "BAROID MANAGEMENT".

Editor's Note: So, the next "guaranteed" post is on September 21st, but don't go away. Check out Pyne Hall Apartments on The Houston Files, an updated version of what was on Carbon-izer until just a week or so ago. McDonald's & Blockbuster received its first update in over a decade. As I mentioned in the main article, pay attention to the Northpoint Crossing article. While it got a small update to account for some defunct tenants, it's going to get a major update soon.