Former Edelweiss Floral Shop

This is from Loopnet but archived here as these pages have a nasty habit of disappearing after a while.
As I mentioned in my recent Numbered Exits post on Super 8 in Hope, Arkansas, I'll be updating the "blog family" (Brazos Buildings & Businesses, Numbered Exits, and The Houston Files) three times a week (Monday-Wednesday-Friday), though it's spread between the three sites (and might be off by a day). This doesn't count post re-dos, of course, the post covering La Bodega was overhauled and had the Church Street Blues & Barbecue post merged into it and the Northpoint Crossing article will be overhauled in the near future.

Today we're returning to the Rock Prairie corridor which I haven't had a post about since 2020. This building was built in 1999 for Edelweiss Floral Shop, a locally-owned florist which closed in 2002.¹ The building spent some time vacant later (I have in my notes it was "Brilliant Illusions" in 2004-2005, based on tax records, though there's no newspaper presence). In 2006, gift shop Baskets on the Brazos moved in. Baskets on the Brazos has its own history, which I haven't yet told of.

In 1986², Pop-abilities Unlimited opened at 3737 East 29th Street, featuring gift baskets, gourmet popcorn, chocolate, balloons, and snow cones. If you follow Carbon-izer.com, it was one of the sponsors drawn onto Jim Wodark's Camptoons map. In 1995, it merged with Baskets on the Brazos, though it seems it was more of a buyout than a merger, considering that Baskets on the Brazos was a much newer business (this was its first storefront) and like any "merger" where one is clearly more dominant, the older company disappeared. The business was renamed as "Baskets on the Brazos/Pop-abilities". A 1998 phone book I have said they had a second location at "3952 S Texas Avenue CS" (likely in this retail center). From what I can determine between tax records, this article, and other archives, is that the business didn't move to Villa Maria (I can't find anything on it, though it's possible a 2001 phone book or directory could disprove that) but did revert to the Pop-abilities name before it was purchased in 2003, moved to 1200 Briarcrest Drive Suite 1000, and renamed as Baskets on the Brazos from the article says, killing the Pop-abilities name for good, before new ownership of Baskets on the Brazos (in 2006) moved it to 112 Rock Prairie Road. In 2008, Tricia Barksdale Design, a floral shop that was located within Martha's Bloomers in Navasota (Martha's Bloomers does not have an article on this website, but it is discussed on Carbon-izer as part of the Highway 6 entries) at some point (Martha's Bloomers opened in 2000, so Ms. Barksdale hadn't been renting for long), moved into the new Baskets on the Brazos space. Eventually, Tricia Barksdale Design took over the operation entirely. In 2018, Tricia Barksdale moved to 4444 State Highway 6 South before closing the storefront in 2020 (COVID-19) to a home studio where she's been since. I suppose that's just how these things go. The socials are still active for Tricia Barksdale Designs as is her website, and it's still way less unsatisfying than what happened to Petal Patch or the final fate of the 1930s-era business Student Co-op (later history discussed here).

Back to 112 Rock Prairie Road, by the late 2010s it had become Oakwood Roots, a therapy center (an outgrowth of Oakwood Counseling, which was across the street at the time) and like Tricia Barksdale eventually moved to the bypass (now known as Roots Psychotherapy). As of November 2024, it was "TenantNow" (renamed to "TenantFirst" by 2025), which has also moved out to the highway (all three moved out to the 4000-4500 blocks of Highway 6 South...go figure).

1. Despite the name, it was over a block away from Edelweiss Avenue, and had no access to it.
2. Possibly 1985, 1986 was just the first time I found an advertisement

Editor's Note:: I've talked about a "post every day of the year" for this site specifically, which for this blog falls on August 5th, a Wednesday, so that's when this blog will get its next new entry...go and check out Numbered Exits and The Houston Files in the meantime!

Exxon Rock Prairie and Wellborn

There was another Exxon located on Rock Prairie's other end. More on that another time. (Picture by author, Apr. 2020)
Sometime around 1997 or 1998, Rock Prairie Road was extended from Victoria Avenue to Wellborn Road, eliminating the need to trek back on North Graham toward Victoria. Within a few years, an Exxon station was built and later, a stoplight (I'm pretty sure the stoplight came before the railroad crossing--which upgraded and extended Gandy Road into a full extension to North Dowling Road).

This Exxon station (at 12727 FM 2154) anchors the southeast corner of the intersection, with the Shell station coming in about 3-5 years afterward.

Brazos CAD isn't all that clear when everything was built, indicating the car wash was built a full two years before the convenience store was in 2000. In the first year or two, the Exxon featured an A&W restaurant, which had returned to College Station-Bryan after a 20+ year absence (there was a location near the modern-day intersection of University Drive and Texas Avenue, but that's for another post). A&W's attempt at what was then south College Station didn't last long at all, and I had to make sure of it through some digging on Project HOLD to make sure it wasn't just the power of suggestion getting to me, but by early 2001 A&W was gone, and a Sonic took its place in the summer of 2001. The addition of Sonic added the traditional Sonic canopies to about seven parking spaces, and evidence suggests these were functional carhop spaces.

In 2008, the Sonic moved to a new space next door and the space was abandoned. By early 2009, it was operating as Taco Casa, which reused a lot of Sonic's infrastructure by painting the red trim on the canopies orange to match Taco Casa's branding scheme. But it too closed after a few years (sometime in mid-2011). It didn't help Taco Casa's case that 2009 and 2010 were plagued with major construction. The Exxon actually lost about a dozen parking spaces in the front, with an entrance to Rock Prairie also closed (though that became three new spaces). Sometime within this same time frame, the signage updated to electronic numbering.

Finally, around early 2013, the space was filled with Little Caesars, which ditched the interior seating for a walk-up counter and the only Little Caesars in the area with a drive-through.

The main "Tigerland Express" food mart was there from the start, with a third tenant serving as a liquor/tobacco store (but is only accessed from the inside, despite the presence of an exterior door). Finally, the car wash is next to the convenience store.

Rock Prairie Crossing

The "Pharmacy" on the right originally held the "Signature" logo.

In the adventures of of this website thus far, we have covered all the former Albertsons and all the former AppleTree stores, but haven't gone too deep into the grocery stores currently in the area. That is about to change, as we are about to tackle Rock Prairie Crossing, a shopping center built in 2000.
The shopping center is anchored by Kroger (3535 Longmire) and had massive success, as it had (for about a decade) the distinction of being the farthest-south grocery store in town, and is usually still pretty crowded.

The Starbucks wasn't originally there, it appears that according to the map, it was an enclosed cart area (the carts were moved outside after Starbucks), but it did appear after a few years, either opening before or around the same time the Albertsons up the street did.

It features a prominent and open mezzanine; however just for offices seems a bit of a waste, it almost feels as if the upper level was meant to be used for additional seating or some other purpose, given the (original) presence of a daycare and all that. The Randalls store in downtown Houston (though given how much the chain continues to shrink, I don't know how long it will last) also has an upper level like Kroger's but is well-utilized. You can sit down with your items purchased from the Starbucks up there or other items (like the deli or the bakery) and eat them while having nearly a full view of the store below.

As for a basic description of the store, it's around 63,000 square feet, has a bakery, deli, produce department, meats and seafood toward the far back right of the store, then pharmacy to the right, with some space cut for the "curb-side pickup". I did not take any pictures of the store, partly because you can find it elsewhere. The decor on Yelp from 2010 is still the Kroger's design now and Google also has a few photos (but it's contaminated with stock photos that look nothing like this store).

The Kroger currently has "Fresh Fare" décor with tiles featuring orange and green accents ("Millennium Decor") but it may have the Neon Decor.

I actually did acquire a store directory back when the store first opened back when the store's moniker "Kroger Signature" actually meant something (the name was removed sometime last year as of this writing, to just Kroger). This can be seen at my main website, Carbon-izer. While this Kroger did have the day care area, it did not, to my knowledge, have the food court as the 1993 Houston store did.

Nearby is the 3505 Longmire building.

Suite A - This has been DoubleDave's PizzaWorks for years, pretty sure it was an original tenant (so no "suite B"). Originally, there used to be a big glass window where you could see pizza being prepared (with a step for the shorter people in attendance). At some point, it was re-arranged to have that be an open window and the area blocked by the buffet table.

Suite C - Formerly home to FabricCare Cleaners, which moved to a new strip center off Highway 6 (in Tower Point) around 2016-2017 (roughly around that time). In 2020, AnyLabTestNow took up the space.

Suite D - Currently home to a Jimmy John's, which opened around December 2013, after two other locations in town opened (the University Drive East location and the Texas Avenue/Holleman location). It used to be Blue Kangaroo Children's Boutique, which opened in 2004. It may have been something else before that.

Despite parking under trees being a danger, this shopping center is always crowded.
Suite E - Was the home of W.E. Gibson Insurance (possibly original), then became the home of Athena Learning Centers in 2013 but closed five years later (likely due to lease issues). It has since been absorbed into Spec's.

Suite F - The former location of Maggie Moo's. I don't know when it closed, probably late 2000s (Googling shows it was definitely open in 2006) then absorbed into Spec's. The franchisee later took to Southwest Crossing as "Harold's Hot Dogs & Ice Cream" until it eventually folded.

Suite G - Spec's Liquor is here, it used to be a modern location of JJ's Liquor. After Spec's bought the JJ's Liquor mini-chain, it renamed and expanded into the former Maggie Moo's space.

Moving clockwise, there's a CVS/pharmacy at 1800 Rock Prairie, which I didn't photograph but it (like almost every CVS in Texas prior to 2005) was an Eckerd originally. I didn't take a picture of it, but the Google Street View people did. A bank building, located at the corner of Longmire and Highway 6, isn't part of the shopping center.

You can see where it was repainted, as the pre-2009 Jack in the Box logo was tilted at an angle.

The next plot is a vacant space, an empty Jack in the Box. I think it was built a bit after the Kroger store, so maybe 2000 or 2001. It first temporarily closed in summer 2017 due to ownership transition (to corporate from franchisee, along with the other stores in the area). It briefly reopened around the fall of that year, but sadly, the reopening was short-lived and it closed soon after (probably a month or two). As the blacked-out Jack in the Box logo on the signage still shown through on the main shopping center (still never updated to the 2009 logo), it made me sad that I couldn't head down there after dark from my then-home at Longmire (I lived briefly at Longmire and Deacon) to pick up food, and only reminded of Jack in the Box's fairly wide and diverse menu from commercials nearly four decades old. It was one of my go-to places in spring 2017 when I didn't live at Longmire (but lived in the general area), going there for the late-night "Munchie Meals" after my shift ended at a call center near Highway 40, which is where I worked at the time. One of the drive-through windows looked bashed up; clearly someone had tried to force it open as part of a robbery attempt. I also think the access problems had something to do with it...

There's another building (3515) with the UPS Store (suite B) and then T. Jin China Diner (sit-down Chinese restaurant) and the UPS Store (in suite B), don't know when either opened, then another strip to the immediate left of Kroger (3525).

Suite A - Cotton Patch Cafe has been here since the early 2000s, and I ate here once or twice. Haven't been back in a number of years.

Suite D - Because Cotton Patch takes up so much space, there's not an A through C, and suite D is occupied by Freebirds World Burrito (always a good lunch option).

Suite F - Kolache Rolf's (a good breakfast option; suite E is skipped due to Freebirds' larger footprint).

Suite G - Facelogic BCS (some sort of "day spa", website)

Suite H - Angel Nails

Suite I - Balboa's Barber Studio currently, former home of Classic Cuts Plus

Suite J - Used to be GNC, now "American Shaman", selling CBD oil products. Pretty sure the former (original?) tenant GNC was shut down in the round of closings in 2019.

Suite K - Eye Trends as of this writing, though a sign at the corner of Longmire and Graham promises a new location.

Suite L - Witt's End, local woman's clothing shop

Suite N - Hallmark store (no suite M).

Wrapping up on this shopping center, what was mildly interesting is the fact that the center's first few years had NOTHING across the highway, with only a "two way dead end" sign at Rock Prairie's other side. There's also a large right of way between the highway frontage road and the frontage road; this was created when the frontage road was rebuilt around 2008.

UPDATE 04-24-2021: Minor rewrite for better flow. AnyLabTestNow opened.
UPDATE 12-02-2024: Should be mentioned the Jack in the Box was reopened as Bank of America in 2021.
UPDATE 04-08-2025: It appears that as for 3515 Longmire, results turn up for MacRaven Coffee Company in suite A as of December 2001/early 2002 (by the time it had a ribbon cutting with the Chamber of Commerce it had been open for over six months) with Cingular taking up the other space. In late 2003 MacRaven closed with T. Jin opening within a few months. Cingular, meanwhile, jumped over to Rock Prairie Road around 2005 and was replaced with The UPS Store in 2006 (same time as the Bryan location opened).
UPDATE 03-01-2026: Suite F in the early 2000s (2000-2002) briefly had a second location of The Bagel Station, which had its original location at Culpepper Plaza.

The Last Days of the Diamond T Stables

Back in 2013, I wrote about Alta Vista Christian Academy, which included a bit about the west part of Rock Prairie Road and mentioned these, some stables that had been on the road (originally Gandy Road) for a number of years. A few years ago, the land went up for sale on this one, and I knew I had to act fast: because a month ago or so, the city had revealed Equinox subdivision, which would eventually become "The Revelry Townhomes". And that's when I took these pictures. Diamond T seems to have opened in the early 1990s. Google Earth shows them there in 1995 and my 1998 phone book lists it, but the 1993 ones (and earlier) do not. Soon after I took these, the entire property was completely torn down and construction on the new development began. The Diamond T Storage next door continues to live on, though, but for how long is anyone's guess.

3270 Rock Prairie Road West (Gandy Road)

Updated 11.15 with new title, slightly updated information, and other minor changes.

Alta Vista Christian Academy

The entire Class of '98. (picture from The Eagle)

The time is September 1997. Rock Prairie has just recently or is in the process of extending from the stub where it abruptly dead-ended at Victoria Avenue all the way to Wellborn Road. Using the rural back road of North Graham Road was about to end, and in February 1998, a railroad crossing connecting Gandy Road and Rock Prairie Road was approved. It was this time that Alta Vista opened at 3110 Gandy Road.

The Rock Prairie extension only had a street sign (Wellborn/Rock Prairie Road) and a stop sign (along with a new Exxon station that opened, which included an A&W). Beyond the railroad was a dusty road ending at a yield sign, and that was Gandy Road. Though a dusty, rural road, it included the Diamond T Stables (still with "3270 Gandy", which remained on the sign until it was eventually sold to developers and torn down), some sort of facility that looked like a fish farm or water retention (little ponds in the back), and Alta Vista Christian Academy.

My only experiences of Alta Vista came from exploring the new extension of Rock Prairie after it opened circa 2000-2001. The new extension was fascinating: there was a dip in the railroad crossing (as opposed to the "humps" in the others): this was taken out when they expanded Wellborn Road. In the early days of the crossing (circa 2001, I believe), there was a four-way stop at Old Wellborn, and several country-oriented places along the way: including aforementioned Diamond T Stables, the adjacent Diamond T Storage (now Tex Storage), and of course Alta Vista (a small private school). The new extension went all the way to North Dowling, and then, on the other side, Blue Ridge Drive, which went even further.

Of course, all that began to change as urbanization slowly crept west. Alta Vista struggled for years, even having to be saved from bankruptcy in the early 2000s thanks to donations, but by the mid-2000s, Alta Vista had folded up and disappeared, with no trace remaining. It's now the Williams Gate subdivision.

As an aside, I remember how the old railroad ROW looked in 2001 (now the intersection of Holleman and Rock Prairie): it was a sad, gated-off place that was kind of creepy-looking due to the overgrowth, with the (patchy) I&GN Road going the other way. That was the original ending of Gandy (it curved into I&GN). The rest of the way has the partially-undeveloped Great Oaks Estates, farmland, and another trailer park (substantially less attractive than the ones closer to the old ROW). Today, that intersection is a stoplight with concrete and four lanes in all directions.

UPDATE 01-25-2025: I definitely updated this at some point in the last few years but didn't mark it. The Holleman South/Rock Prairie intersection definitely wasn't four lanes and signalized in 2013.

McDonald's & Blockbuster

This picture was taken by author, around 2011 or 2012.
Opening in December 2001 as the first of its kind and receiving its first renovation around 2008, College Station was once the home of an extremely rare (only three were ever built) McDonald's/Blockbuster combo store. While the two had separate addresses (1748 Rock Prairie Road for the Blockbuster and 1750 Rock Prairie Road for the McDonald's), you could access the stores from each other on the inside and in many ways as a prototype for the Redbox kiosks, which McDonald's first developed as a wholly owned subsidiary before it was sold to Coinstar.¹ The 2008 remodel cut down on the huge cavernous feel of the original store for a separation into three separate dining areas that the company was pushing at the time, an area for kids near the Playplace indoor playground (which it always had), the "Grab n Go" zone, and the "couches" area. I didn't really like the post-remodel version, but I remember being impressed with the original layout when I went for a "McTeacher" night when teachers made burgers for charity in middle school.

However, the 2008 remodel still maintained the original layout and connection to Blockbuster, and I was unable to take a picture of Blockbuster's interior (the store had a no pictures policy, got caught by the clerk...wasn't subtle enough) before it closed in spring 2013 during one of the waves of closures when then-owner² Dish Network was purging the company of its remaining company-owned stores. By July 2013, some McDonald's signage and decor appeared on the outside of the Blockbuster side, which was cleared of all décor, which didn't exactly look aesthetically pleasing.

In late 2015, Sola Salon opened their College Station location in the former Blockbuster. However, McDonald's space had already been walled off. In 2020, the McDonald's renovated again inside and out (no more red mansard roof).

1. Coinstar purchased 47% in 2005 and increased its share to 51% in 2008 before buying the rest from McDonald's in 2009. Through various parent companies, Redbox remained a partner with McDonald's until the failure of its parent company at the time, Chicken Soup for the Soul Entertainment, in 2024, when it finally disappeared.
2. I say "then owner" because at the time Dish Network still had an active role in Blockbuster's operations. Despite little role in the operations of the "Last Blockbuster", EchoStar (a former Dish spin-off which purchased the company in 2023) still owns the Blockbuster trademarks.

UPDATE 07-31-2026: Did a rewrite of the article, having barely been touched since it was added close to fifteen years ago. During the process, some links were fixed.