Heirloom Gardens

12900 Old Wellborn Road

While now a marble countertops place (with the creative name of "Granite & Marble" but later expanded and turned into "Premier Countertop Design" with a much larger building built behind it), this used to be Heirloom Gardens (12900 Old Wellborn Road), which was open at least as far back as 2002 when it was replatted as part of Rock Prairie West Business Park.

The old Heirloom Gardens website, HeirloomGardenExperts.com, was up for years, and for years kept an automatic copyright date with a "Season Ending Sale" and a PDF of the directions, which portrayed Google Maps as it appeared circa 2005, which was full of inaccuracies. Now, however, it appears to be hijacked by some of spammer site which deleted information on the actual location and provides links to other spam-type sites.










In addition to not knowing when it closed (the pictures are from September 2010, when I had longer hair) I don't know when it opened. Obviously it was closed by September 2010 and probably closed after a full season, based on Google Earth aerials was open in fall 2008 so it might have closed that year or fall 2009. The back areas originally had the actual plant areas, and that was demolished in 2011, with a driveway from the nearby businesses connecting back toward North Graham.

According to old phone books, the building once had the address of 2892 North Graham Road and as of 1993 (built in 1985) had Wellborn Road Veterinary Hospital as its tenant. This may or may not be the same as the modern Wellborn Road Veterinary Medical Center down the street built in 1999.





As you may have noticed above, North Graham was sadly truncated from the railroad years ago (references online say 1999). I'm guessing that back when North Graham had a railroad crossing and a stoplight, it was substantially easier to access.



I also found a Google Maps Street View picture of the truncation from the other side of Wellborn. This was demolished when Wellborn was widened.

Rolling Ridge Grocery

Not what it used to be. (Picture by author, 9/19)
The now-defunct stoplight at North Graham Road growing up was another mythical "beyond the border" point, described previously in the Foxhole Lounge post, with the usual play being that the only reason I would go beyond it was en route to a bigger, out of town trip. In this case, there was a reason to go beyond. A stoplight resided at the corner of North Graham Road and Wellborn Road in the mid-1990s, and there was even a turning lane. To the left was an access road directly toward Victoria Avenue and Rock Prairie Road (Rock Prairie Road did not actually extend to Wellborn), to the schools and hospital beyond it. To the right was a road that went across the railroad and up and down several hills back to North Dowling Road. It should be noted that despite living at the time in the same cluster of rural homes south of FM 2818 and west of Wellborn Road, it was impractical to go home without going back on Wellborn Road, as what is now Holleman Drive South did not exist, and North Dowling was unpaved beyond Hopes Creek Road.

This was where Rolling Ridge Grocery & Barbecue was, a cluster of double-wide trailer homes near the intersection of (what was strictly) I&GN and North Graham Road. The trailer park had fairly well-kept for a number of years, with double-wides and even a small community pool (which as of at least 2017, still appeared to be operational).




The barbecue was worth going out for, being sold into the early 2000s (though by 2002, the barbecue was not the same as it was in the mid-1990s due to an ownership change). It was also a Shell station. One of the reasons it was a Shell station and sold barbecue is a bit of information gleaned from TexAgs. The "several years" must have only been two as Rolling Ridge was built in 1984.

Interesting that the "Country Grocery" on Dowling Rd. and Rolling Ridge Grocery on North Graham were mentioned in the same post. Interesting, because they were related to each other. Country 4 Grocery was actually the name on Dowling, the "4" representing two husbands and wives, Gene Patterson and wife and Charlie Canatella and wife. Country 4 Grocery was opened in 1982. Several years later, the Canatellas supposedly had a disagreement with their partners and opened Rolling Ridge Grocery to operate by themselves. The BBQ was great at both places, probably because it was cooked similarly.


Back in the Shell days, there was an old poster from the 1980s about a sleeping child not buckled up. This was removed after the Summit branding took over. Regrettably, I did not get a photo. The last time I went inside (around 2011), it was (and still is) relatively rustic. I even remember a few baskets of fresh fruit near the exits (inside, of course). It became a Summit about the time Shell went through a major upgrade: everyone had to update to the new Shell logo or lose the license (sometime in 2003 or 2004), which is interesting as it's the only Summit in College Station now (both the one on Dowling and the one near J.J.'s shut down a while back).


Regrettably, I couldn't get great photos of the Shell/Summit (I didn't want to attract attention), and I don't believe they sell barbecue anymore (smoker was sold, despite the presence of "BBQ plates" in the picture above), which is a shame.

Updated in September 2019.