Showing posts with label Valero. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Valero. Show all posts

Friday, December 25, 2020

Former Valero at Holleman and Wellborn

Pore Jud's is Daid (Picture by author, 12/15/20)


The Valero at Holleman and Wellborn was demolished this month. The original convenience store at the station at 1011 Wellborn, dating back to at least 1993 was Jud's Food Stores out of Brenham. The station was built in 1989 as per BCAD but Jud's Food Stores was established in 1990, so depending on when the station opened, it may or may not have had that name. In fact, by the time the station opened, it was Jud's Food Stores #9. The first four stores were located in Brenham, with store 5 being in Seguin (2999 North Highway 123 Bypass) and 6 at 701 East Pierce Street in Luling. (This indicates that stores one through eight were older rebranded stations).

In any case, 1011 Wellborn was originally branded as an Exxon and remained that way for years. It also had a drive-through car wash and when I was younger it was occasionally used by my folks. I believe this was because there was a deal where you could use for free or very cheaply if you purchased gas, but at some point in the late 1990s this was dropped.

In 2000, the station was expanded with U Wash, which opened at the same address (though technically, the address by BCAD's number was 1001 Wellborn) and same ownership. U Wash was a self-serve car wash with several docks and was accessible only through the Exxon's parking lot. More change would come to the station a few years later, when it became a Valero in the mid-2000s (2006?). This Valero came slightly before the local Diamond Shamrock conversions to my memory, and was the first time I saw such a station.

Sometime around the same time of the Valero conversion, the convenience store became "Cross Roads Corner Store Aggieland" (the signage where Jud's was, on the left side of the door, was whited out). From then on, the station didn't see much activity in the station. The station did add Krispy Krunchy fried chicken inside in 2016 but this wasn't well advertised (not even on the outside of the store). However, U Wash was later closed and torn down within a few years of that without much fanfare, signifying (if subtly) that things were coming to an end.

In any case, I found in December that the Valero had removed the prices from the sign (though it was not covered in any way), with the gas station store emptied of merchandise, though the power was sill connected, given how the Monster and Coca-Cola coolers were still glowing. The drive-through car wash also had not been gutted yet. The whole thing looked as if it might reopen as something else, or at least be weeks away from being torn down.

Not so much—when I got around to it a few days later, the canopy was gone, the sign was gone, and Jud's wasn't much more than a foundation. (The car wash was still intact but gutted).

The rumor mill states that the corner of Holleman and Wellborn will be the home of a new McDonald's restaurant, moving from the corner of Marion Pugh and George Bush as part of the underpass construction. Unfortunately, this almost certainly means that the new restaurant will be a soulless brown building with silver accents rather than an example of the slightly nicer restaurants McDonald's was building/renovating with in the early 2000s, as the current restaurant is.

Merry Christmas!

UPDATE 04-06-2021: Took out the other Jud's Food Stores mention, as it looks like the numbers were wrong, and they reused #7. Maybe if we ever do Brenham-related stuff, it might be worth a mention. Either way, College Station was the largest market Jud's settled in.
UPDATE 11-30-2021: McDonald's has been confirmed for the site, at least one half of it.
UPDATE 10-2-2023: In or around September 30, 2023, McDonald's opened at the site, replacing the location at George Bush Drive and Marion Pugh.

Tuesday, September 16, 2014

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.