Chipotle on University

1984 advertisement celebrating the newest owner at the time.
As I mentioned in a recent post, most of the University Drive part of the FM 60 page has been covered (very unlikely A&M United Methodist Church will be discussed—churches only get on here usually due to special circumstances). Only 815 University Drive has not been covered yet. While the address hosts a Chipotle today, it replaced a gas station that was a "garage"-style gas station, with a full service auto repair center (mechanics, state inspections) but not so much a convenience store (not that Northgate was lacking in convenience stores). The earliest reference I can find was in 1959 for University Mobil at 815 Sulphur Springs Road. The station changed hands a few times (but remained a Mobil) before finally being closed as late as 2002, at which point it was torn down for a Chipotle Mexican Grill. It was perhaps fitting that Chipotle was next to McDonald's as McDonald's corporate owned some 90% of Chipotle at the time, though by the time the College Station store opened in 2003 McDonald's was re-thinking that strategy and by 2006 had sold it off entirely. It retained its original facade until around 2024-2025 when it was changed to reflect Chipotle's current design standards (and the 2009 logo).

Anyway, much like we did last year and the year before that this is the last post of the year. This year, we spiked at over 43k visitors in a single month (August), the busiest time ever (usually this site averages 5000, which jumped up from 2000 a few years ago). Oddly, despite 10k in September, the site cratered to less than 1000 in October, numbers so badly that they haven't been seen since 2011.

As far as top posts go, Former Fitzwilly's takes the #1 spot (it was #3 last year). Skipping sub-pages (the Post Oak Mall sub-pages don't count, though no doubt they were bolstered by the big Post Oak Mall page I made on Carbon-izer), Manor East Mall will take the #2 spot despite the page needing a major rewrite. Going down the list, newcomer Blinn Bryan Campus featuring Schulman 6 takes #3...though I have a feeling that people found it through searches for Blinn and not because of the movie theater. Campus Theater took #4 and Café Eccell's Former Domain takes #5.

This year, more Bryan posts than ever were produced. Of the (numbers from 11/9 here) 50 posts produced this year, almost half were in Bryan. The long gap between the last post and this one proves I can't consistently month after month keep producing content, but that's not what this blog is for. I don't know if I'll be living in the area a year from now. There were times I weren't or got burned out. It's unlikely I'll hit 50+ posts in a year anytime soon, possibly ever, and with 52 posts it's second only to 2013. I'd also like to take the time to share my own personal top five posts, that I think you should check out, with the top 5 starting with my 5th favorite.

5. Wendy's Tiger Town. Wendy's served nachos and pitas in addition to hamburgers, and the signage is still original.

4. Post Oak Village had a spread of several stores, and it hosted a few chain stores over the years, including Color Tile and Catherine's.

3. The Veggie Garden was fun to research. It was a long-standing mystery and while I think that the location is underused, I've always had a bit of an affinity for buildings in that stretch (Barry Pool Co., Sunset Gardens).

2. Finfeather's 7-Eleven. This post allowed me to take another look at the crossing at Villa Maria and Wellborn Road. The underpass is much nicer in many aspects (unless you really wanted to access Finfeather from Villa Maria, and vice versa), but I still sort of miss the old crossing.

1. Winn-Dixie on 29th Street: This post celebrates the other Winn-Dixie and a 20th anniversary of the bankruptcy. It was even a bit brighter than originally planned as investors and C&S Wholesale Grocers had bought the company back from Aldi, sparing it from complete destruction.

Several posts also got significant updates...Krispy Kreme of course burned down but updates to the article talks about Grandy's in more detail. I updated 110 College Main with more former tenants as well as adding a new page to Post Oak Mall to discuss all that in more detail. Boyett Businesses was retooled as a new post with some new tenants unearthed. The Lost Buildings of Villa Maria Road and Texas Avenue also had substantial updates added to it with information on El Caribe and Pizza Inn.

The only bummer is that my Ko-fi was a bit of a bust, but if you could throw in a few bucks...

We'll be back next year, returning January 7th.

Former Mobil, Texas and Lincoln

The former Mobil rides again.
Located next to a Century 21 office (which still does not have a picture or entry on this site), this (901 Texas Avenue South) was a Mobil for years (at least back to 1980, which is when I have phone books...and the building dates back to 1959 according to BCAD) but closed in 2004 (to the best of my memory) and was converted to Stratta Auto Repair a few years later before it abruptly closed in the early 2010s. I never released these pictures because the direct sunlight tended to mess them up, but here they are.
Looking at the garage, September 2013. Sorry my thumb partially obscures the shot. It was bright!
Another view, September 2013. I think that chimney is from another building which I believe may be part of the same complex. I remember the name of the business was written on the side wall facing Lincoln, but I'll have to do more research into it.
The pumps are still intact, September 2013. What a time warp!
Mobil signs, September 2013. A lone shadow looks in.
September 2013.
September 2013.

About a year later, noticing the activity at the site, I returned to take a few more pictures. Sadly, inquiring within about the Mobil signs had no positive response--the signs were gone, likely disposed. A FabricCare appeared to be going in the garage area next to a tobacco store (collectively, "Aggie Stop"). Here's some more pictures from Sept. 2014.

Wow, this thing still lights up!.
Another pump that lights up.
More lights.

Shortly after making this post in mid-September 2014, the renovations were completed at this location. A sign replaced the long-empty Mobil that read, "The College Station" with "Discount Tobacco" written under it. Based on photos from others, it appeared that the FabricCare (now departed) was a "store-within-a-store" operation and not actually a tenant.

At the time, I lived in Eastgate, just a quarter mile away. I liked the fact that they made efforts to make this look very similar to the Mobil that was once here, but for a while I actually believed that it was only made to look like a functional gas station and not a real one, given that they had custom numbers for the gas station and not the electronic ones (every passing year more and more Shell and Exxon stations would add it). I should've noticed that the prices were indeed changing with the market, and what ended up happening is that during late summer of next year, a Valero banner was placed over the sign. It really took me off guard, because not only was Valero buying essentially a dated gas station (the pumps were updated, they were not mock-ups, but the station hadn't seen a lot of updates over the years), but it was real the whole time! I felt a bit stupid for having thought so (plus "The College Station", the name, was a decent enough pun, though the "Discount Tobacco" threw me off) but the likelihood of reopening a closed-down half-century-old gas station that hadn't operated as such for a decade was so unusual I dismissed the possibility.

Sadly, Valero upgraded the prices to digital numbers, ending the unique features of the gas station and making it just like Valero took up operation in a dated and dying gas station.

UPDATE 11-6-2020 - Minor clarifications. Previously updated July 2020 with new post name and integrated updates.