The Shipley's That Sold Hamburgers

The little "Entrance" sign doesn't light up anymore. When did it ever? When was it installed? (Picture by author, 1/2026)
Picking up immediately after The Now-Defunct Dairy Queen on Highway 21 is another Bryan restaurant that deserves to be covered, 3310 South College Avenue. The first reference I can find for 3310 South College Avenue (subject of today's post) is in 1970 with Shipley Do-Nut Shop, a significant departure from the modern Shipley's in that it had a more complete menu including hamburgers ("Flame Burgers") and milkshakes. This did not seem to be a corporate decision out of Shipley's Houston headquarters (none of the Houston locations seemed to do this, even in that time) and more of a liberty taken by the franchisee¹; continuing to do this even as of 1981. In 1982 Shipley moved out to its current location at Villa Maria and Cavitt and dropped the hamburgers from the menu, with the College Station location opening in 1984.

After sitting vacant for nearly a decade it reopened as Archie's South College Grille. Teaming up with E.C. Archambault of Archie's Hamburgers and Archie's Taco Bell, the restaurants operated as essentially a dual-branded operation...with two restaurants and dining rooms. For whatever reason it did not work out in that form. In fall 1992 this was retooled as The Country Diner (without Archambault) but that too closed within a few years. In August 1994 Wok Express, a Chinese buffet, opened (closed in late 1995). Golden Dragon replaced it in early 1996 but didn't make it more than three months. Bruegger's Spuds opened in 1998 but also failed within a matter of months. Burger House, however, opened in fall 2000 and became far more successful, lasting 25 years and counting, more than any other establishment in the spot combined.

1. As I understand it, this wasn't uncommon for product-based franchisees back in the day. Kentucky Fried Chicken was notably a menu item originally, not a full restaurant, with a lot of variations and options for Orange Julius, too.

The Now-Defunct Dairy Queen on Highway 21

Music for the Funeral for Queen Dairy
If you read my stuff on Houston (you should) there's a lot of stuff on there that have fallen victim to TxDOT's highway expansion plans. In addition to covering some of Northwest Freeway's lost businesses, there's also a big section on Katy Freeway, which had some major clearances, like a whole strip where five restaurants (including McDonald's, Whataburger, and Denny's), La Quinta Inn, the entire REI parking lot, and an independent car dealership just got wiped off the map (and that's just one section). While Highway 6's expansion has generous ROW for TxDOT to work with, a few businesses on Highway 21 aren't so lucky. One of those is Dairy Queen at 3003 Highway 21 East¹, which closed January 27, 2026.

The sloppily copy-edited press release.
This particular Dairy Queen opened in 1977 (judging by the one-year anniversary) as the 6th Dairy Queen in the area² and other than that there's not much I can say about it with other than update in the early-to-mid 2010s. Of course, Smith Dairy Queens, the current area franchisee, is not going to replace it, of course, blaming medians but while Wendy's, McDonald's, Jack in the Box, Whataburger, and others have since expanded out locally to varying degrees of success (medians or not), Dairy Queen hasn't.

All pictures were taken by the author, January 2026.

1. For years, up until at least the mid-1990s, the address was erreoneously written as "3000 East Highway 21". It was never on that side of the street.
2. The five others were the ones that still exist today (minor relocations excluded), with the exception of a store near what is now William Joel Bryan Parkway and North Parker Avenue.

Editor's Note: Several more posts have gotten major upgrades. Walton Shopping Center replaces the Primo Pizza article and the old "Eastgate" article while FedMart has been fully rewritten.

Plaza 3 Theatres

Here is the subject of today's post as "The Globe", following its closure as a movie theater. It looked like this when opening but no longer does today. (source).

We've covered a few of the Schulman-owned theaters in town, with almost thirty years of cinema at the Blinn site and the late Campus Theater but one of their theaters didn't operate for very long, the Plaza III at 226 Southwest Parkway East, only operating from August 1985 (first films were Volunteers, Years of the Dragon, and The Return of the Living Dead) to 1991. In 1993, it became The Globe, much to the consternation of the Oak Forest Mobile Home Park, with the residents remembering the loud music of the Edge nightclub in the Winn-Dixie shopping center a few years earlier. The Globe opened with no live music and other limitations, opening in late 1993. Despite that, The Globe soon gained a bad reputation as far as incidents requiring police were involved, and by fall 1994, the nightclub, now named Aftershock, was still giving CSPD problems before closing for good a few months later. (It might have been a TABC license revocation). In 1996, it reopened as HomeStore Furniture, but the furniture store closed less than two years later (it was a one-off operation, not a chain). By the end of 1998, it was back to being a tavern (Rack's Warehouse, a pool hall). Also around this time (maybe early 2000s), the whole area, which had been drawn out as commercial space with concrete driveways, was rezoned as residential and one of these driveways was sealed off from the rest of the development and became a city street (Ashford Drive). After Rack's closed around 2001, it became another nightclub, Time Square, in spring 2004, which did feature live acts, including a weekend of local metal bands in October 2005. In spring 2006, Time Square closed and the building was purchased by Brazos Fellowship as their first permanent building and opening in November 2006, almost two years after the official founding of the church in a living room.

In 2012, the church began a massive remodeling project that demolished the original theater facade for a new addition, with a four-story addition being built around 2018 (which can partially be seen from the Southwest Parkway E. side, for a glimpse, see the post on the Wendy's). It has been almost twenty years since Brazos Fellowship took over the building, and even memories of Time Square become ever-distant.

O'Reilly Auto Parts on University Drive East

O'Reilly Auto Parts and its predecessor has been open here since the Arab Oil Embargo. (Photo by author, 1/2026)
As per standards made in fall 2021, the last time we covered O'Reilly Auto Parts it wouldn't count, but this one does. Opened in 1973 as Hi-Lo Auto Supply #34 (later branded as later branded as Hi/LO Auto Parts), this¹ became the first O'Reilly Auto Parts store in College Station (there was also a Bryan store) when O'Reilly bought the chain in 1998, adding around 182 stores to its repertoire². (O'Reilly certainly grew faster than Hi/LO did...in 1975 O'Reilly had just 7 stores compared to the 34 or so Hi-Lo had, by 1998 they had over 250 stores.

O'Reilly's website includes a picture of a typical Hi/LO store and it is what College Station's store looked similar to. Within a few years of the purchase, it had O'Reilly's branding and color scheme, and remained that way until 2016 when O'Reilly modified the facade to remove the large mansard awning.

1. Located at 210 University Drive East.
2. Hi/LO had 189 stores, but they sold the seven stores in California to Carquest of California, as O'Reilly didn't have any West Coast stores at the time.

Editor's Note: We (the royal we) have been hard at work updating some of the older posts on this site. Most recently (and most importantly), the articles for Former Fitzwilly's and Campus Theater have been upgraded. Nothing too groundbreaking...but perhaps you could throw in something for the site's future development?