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.

UPDATE 08-21-2026: Burger House closed May 30, 2026 as part of a family decision. While it's now gone, it did operate longer than anything else there. Added [defunct] to post.

Abandoned Ready 2 Go

November 2025 picture. This was attempted to make the same angle as the GasSigns.org picture below.
Billups Service Station first opened at 1600 S. College Avenue in 1957 in what was a huge opening for a small gas station, and in the mid-1970s rebuilt with a modern convenience store (Brazos CAD says 1975). At some point in the 1980s, the whole chain was rebranded as Charter Food Stores, and in 1988 the chain was bought by Circle K. (There were 538 stores at the time, with three in Bryan and one in Hearne).

Remarkably, there is a picture of what it looked like in the Charter days, perhaps one of the only examples of what Charter looked like. Despite Circle K's plans, the gas stations remained as Charter¹ but otherwise was a Circle K in all but name² and was sold to Duke & Long in 1999 with the other (few) Circle K stores in town, all getting rebranded as Conoco (with an "Everyday" convenience store). Within a few years this had dissolved and the former Circle K stores went their different ways, with this one becoming Ready 2 Go by mid-2003, and if it had the Conoco branding in this era that went away by the mid-2000s. After deteriorating for years, the gas station was finally dead by summer 2020.

1. Circle K filed for bankruptcy protection in 1990, which probably explains why Charter wasn't rebranded.
2. Local ads referred to the stores as "Circle K/Charter".

UPDATE 07-31-2026: 1600 S. College Avenue is shared with the address behind it. There will be an update to this page coming soon.

Triangle Drive-In

Ironically, the "Charcoal Room" was not the one that burned down. I had to bump up the brightness a bit on this one. (Picture from author, 8/22).

I missed August 5th (sick all day) to make a new post and the next opportunity to fill in the "post in days not previously made" is September 21st. (Always next year).

As of this writing, Chicken Oil Company has reopened, but before I rewrite that post I wanted to talk about another building on the property but had a different address and different history, even if it was used as a "party room" for Chicken Oil Company in later days.

This link currently has a picture of the Triangle as it appeared in 1948 (if the link dies, search Project HOLD or its successors for "Triangle Drive-In; photos (Aug. 1948)" without quotes--that is, if Project HOLD isn't down itself, which it is as of this writing). Friend of the site "Bryan-College Station, Texas: Now and Then" explains some of the history here (archived link--Facebook not required). You can also see an early photo of the drive-in here at this YouTube video.

From what it looks like, when the Triangle Drive-In expanded in 1957 to the Charcoal Room, the awnings to that building disappeared and another structure was built to the south and assumed the address of 3606 South College Avenue. The 1940s building remained during all this time. In the mid-1960s Triangle closed and by late 1967 had become the Triangle Club, billed as a private club for teenagers. By 1969 this was replaced with a traditional venue, "The Traditions Candle-Light Club", later just shortened to the "Candle-Light Lounge", which closed in 1970 and replaced with Bottle Shop, another tavern. Over the years the "Charcoal Room" continued to serve as a rotating series of bars. At some point it was "Lou's 19th Hole" in the mid-1970s, then opened as "Sonny's" in 1978, "Crossroads" as of 1989 (specifically mentioning a benefit party for the Texas Hall of Fame, which had suffered a major fire—see this post). Meanwhile, the drive-in booths of Triangle were ultimately redeveloped into the new home of Tom's BBQ in the mid-1980s (currently J. Cody's) and the last business I can find it was Boozer's (operating from 1995 to 1997, replacing Crossroads).

In July of 2025, the building was unceremoniously demolished for parking for the new Chicken Oil Company to reopen in early August.

UPDATE 08-16-2026: There was one more business...Brazos Hall, an events space, which opened in 1999. Also, I should note that when it became the Triangle Club, by the time the drive-in closed, it had become a "steakhouse", according to the article. (Joe Ferreri had existed ownership by that point).

The Current J. Cody's

Picture by author, 02-2024
As I've already somewhat covered Tom's Barbecue both on their College Station location (where you can see a picture of the Bryan location) and their pre-1985 original location (which started out as Barbecue Barn), there's not too much I can say about their 1985-2001 Bryan location at 3610 South College Avenue. They opened a location here in 1985 (built new) and following the closure of the restaurant in April 2001, reopened later in the year as different business J. Cody's Steaks & BBQ and despite its longevity (it has been located in the same place longer than Tom's had), there's not too much to say about it objectively.

Rooster's Bike & Coffee Shop

It's not closed and abandoned, but it did look that way.
With the old University Square post in desperate need of reorganization and having already spun off (the now former) IHOP in addition to the supermarket itself, I wanted to take a look at the restaurant on the northeast corner of the center, 317 College Avenue.

It was built a Bonanza Steakhouse as of 1974 (they ran a few ads) but only operated for a few years. Following it that it was a revolving door of restaurants: W.G. & Company Steaks & Seafood (1976-1977). It was briefly "The Texas Grubstake" (operated less than six months) and briefly a location of Claim Jumper (one of the few Texas locations). From 1982 to 1985 it was "Hoffbrau Bar & Restaurant", of which I've attached an ad below.

From the 1984 GTE phonebook. If it was anything in the late 1980s I can't find it. The Cow Hop, a popular Northgate eatery moved here in 1993 and closed in April 1996. (The name was later purchased and reopened in Northgate later that year). From 1996 to 2002 it was Cruz's Crazy Cajun, a Cajun restaurant (renamed to Alicia's at some point with Mexican food added). Thai Taste moved here in 2002 from 4405 College Main though by that time it was in decline and closed in 2005.

Another view of the current building.

In 2007 it reopened as Crazy Cajuns' (not to be confused with Cruz's Crazy Cajun), created by Hurricane Rita evacuees from Lake Charles, Louisiana (this was mentioned in a KBTX article that is no longer available). It moved from its walk-up location in Wellborn at 14841 FM 2154 (indeed, the sign on the building side still read "Wellborn, Texas" up until its closure). While I first went to the location in Wellborn (I don't know what's there now), which included only a large covered area with picnic tables (December 2006 is when I went), this eventually did end up being a favorite of mine, as I went in March 2011 to this location and had a blast, with lots of food for a good price. It was still spicy, and had been in this place since somewhere about 2008-2009. It went through a few changes in ownership, and steadily declined, notably in service first, then food, and health ratings, before finally closing for good in summer 2012. It shut down the same week as Hebert's did (sad time for Cajun food lovers).


While wandering around around the 2012-2013 holidays, I found the canopy had some older names exposed...Alicia's AND Thai Taste!
BCS Bicycles & Repair moved into the space in early 2013 as that part of the shopping center was getting demolished. However, the space was still a restaurant at heart, so in January 2020 the bicycle shop became Rooster's Bike & Coffee Shop (not to be confused with the late Rooster's Country Dinner House). After the obvious hiccups from what happened in 2020, the bicycle shop successfully was able to "change gears".

All of the pictures were taken January 2024 by the author when it was still closed for the reason, hence the desolate appearance. Note that the University Square sign (as of this writing, seen on the University Square page with a permanent link here) is now just a skeleton.

UPDATE 01-10-2025: Due to the redevelopment project, Rooster's closed after May 2024 to a to be determined location and stated that it would do operations by appointment only (which has since ceased). The owner vows to rebuild in a new location.
UPDATE 05-09-2025: As of March, the restaurant space has been completely demolished.
UPDATE 07-12-2025: The Texas Grubstake did in fact open. The Cow Hop article has been added.

IHOP on Northgate

The IHOP at College Avenue and University Drive kept up with recent logos in its nearly fifty years of operation but has come to an end.
The IHOP at College Main and University (104 College Avenue) has now closed, closing at the end of December 2023, as reported by KBTX who most likely looked at the old University Square post (as it appeared as of this writing, same as the past few years).

First opened in 1974, the IHOP (International House of Pancakes back in the day) has mostly operated 24 hours a day for many decades, and I'm not sure why exactly it closed...KBTX parrots the 2019 stuff I previously posted but can't do any reporting on their own. Regardless, I personally only went there once around 1999 and all I can say is even if IHOP wasn't the greatest restaurant around (it wasn't), it's a shame to lose yet another 24 hour restaurant. You know...Kettle closed a few years ago, Taco Cabana closed as did follow-up tenant Las Palapas...it's a shame that we can't have nice things anymore or get a sit-down meal at 3 am in the morning. (Hey, I worked night shift.)

The two other stores were opened in more recent years.

Workers were on site dismantling the restaurant.
All pictures were taken by the author, January 2024.

UPDATE 01-25-2025: TexAgs reports that the space is becoming a Chinese restaurant that specializes in Chinese-style fried chicken, Mai Shan Yun. The website for the restaurant is here featuring a menu and some clearly fake reviews.
UPDATE 04-17-2025: According to TexAgs, Mai Shan Yun is now open.

Chicken Oil Company

The ramshackle-looking Chicken Oil Company before its renovation and reopening. This was the view facing north from the parking lot. You entered on the right side. The front view from College Avenue is harder to get. (Picture from author, 8/22).

When this post was originally written, it was taken about five months after their 2022 fire and it wasn't clear if the restaurant would ever reopen or not. (Good thing I didn't bet real money against it). It's quite difficult to tell what the history of the Chicken Oil Company actually is. It did appear to be a genuine gas station at one time, dating back to the 1950s, and apparently, owned by Joe Ferreri of the nearby Triangle Drive-In. This newspaper ad suggests that it was built (along with another gas station) as a companion operation to Ferreri's restaurant operations (Sugar 'N Spice was Ferreri's other restaurant). The Amlico name was acquired by Fina by the late 1950s and eventually rebranded though I'm not sure if it ever flew under the Fina banner.

By the mid-1970s it was known as "Larry's Key Service Station", but this was soon purchased and expanded by Don Ganter into Chicken Oil Company, featuring a bar with hamburgers and beer. Gasoline was still an option but at some point this was discontinued and turned into another expansion of the restaurant. While its College Station counterpart of the same ownership, Dixie Chicken continued to focused on beer, Chicken Oil Company became known for its hamburgers and other menu items.

The restaurant is decorated with old advertising signs, though these have not been well-maintained and have rusted away. (Picture from author, 8/22).

On the afternoon of April 3, 2022, the restaurant suffered a devastating kitchen fire, which, although sparing the building from total disaster (the fate of Olive Garden and later, Harvey Washbanger's), caused significant damage to the restaurant. The insides of the building were photographed a few days after the fire¹. You can see that the kitchen areas were trashed but the dining room, while suffering extensive smoke damage, looks salvageable. For several years, Chicken Oil sat idle; this is when the pictures were taken, but eventually renovation started. Parts of the west side of the building were demolished to conform to Bryan's right of way (these were the most heavily damaged parts anyway) and the parking lot was finally rebuilt from the gravel lot it was before.

As a result, the "new" Chicken Oil looks substantially different from the old version. As you can see in this X post (archived version here) the kitchen and the dining room seem to have effectively switched places, but that's not quite true.² On August 4, 2025, the restaurant reopened. Does it still hold up to its pre-2022 reputation? Well, you'll have to decide that for yourself, but I found it an excellent value when compared to how expensive fast food is these days.

1. Courtesy James "Tex" Crowley, and originally hosted on YouTube under the "Texas Media Foundry" name.
2. From what I can tell, the old entrance has been sealed off and arcade machines placed there, with the current queue for ordering about where the kitchen window used to be. You can definitely tell the kitchen side is brand new.

UPDATE 08-06-2026: One year later there were a few little things I wanted to correct, fix, and add. [Joe Ferreri] and [gas station] added. The video source has been added.
UPDATE 08-06-2025: Extensive rewrite of post incorporating previous updates and to have less of a past tense. Previous updates archived.
UPDATE 08-28-2025: Upon a visit the restaurant is still laid out similarly, the old door has been sealed off. The kitchen is at the southwest corner of the building.

Humpty Dumpty Children's Center

Printed advertisement from the 1980 GTE phone book
Requested by reader Jon Stewart (no, not that one) comes an ad for the late Humpty Dumpty Children's Center. Located at 3406 South College Avenue and opened in 1961 as the first local commercial daycare by Virginia Jones, Humpty Dumpty operated until the mid-1980s.¹

This post was delisted from the Index for a few years because it was confusing as to what buildings were used for the daycare. At the time of this article's writing, 3404 S. College Avenue, a long-defunct gas station serving as "The Guitar Studio" was in front of 3406-3408's buildings, with 3406 sharing 3404-3406. Complicating this was a 1980 directory listing 3404A as the home of Larry Jones. I've just decided to cover 3404 at a later date; but 3406 served as not just Humpty Dumpty but also daughter Jan Jones Hammond's² business, La Petite Academy of Dance. La Petite continued to operate after Humpty Dumpty's demise with the daycare portion leased as Kids Kampus Learning Center in December 1989. This went under a few different names including Heaven Sent (c. 1993) and Bright Beginnings (c. 1996), with the last reference for La Petite Academy of Dance somewhere around this point (at least using this address). Around 2001 the 3408 address began to be used, with Brazos Valley Montessori opening in 2001, after briefly serving as the daycare component of Covenant Presbyterian Church during their time of transit, before moving to their current campus at Edelweiss and Rock Prairie but after departing Northgate. I can't remember when Brazos Valley Montessori closed, I think it was around 2010-2011, not too long after Larry Jones passed away in 2009. In 2014 the Jones family sold the land, under the name "Humpty 3406 LLC", despite the fact that Humpty Dumpty had been gone for nearly 30 years. In the early 2020s the abandoned (or at least underused) buildings were demolished for an expansion of Carney's Pub next door. Street View link can be seen here.

1. Evidence for this is that when Ms. Jones passed away in 2003 (combined with "since 1961" and "25 years", one can assume Humpty Dumpty closed in 1986, though when redoing this post it looks like it closed in very early 1987. Pretty close!
2. Later ads and Virginia Jones' obituary just refer to her as Jan Jones. Probably divorced at some point.
UPDATE 03-09-2026: Post updated to split off 3404 and fix other stuff. It appears that the buildings date back to the 1960s.

Former Bryan Weingarten

Not the greatest picture but it does show some of how the supermarket used to look. Colloquially known as Weingarten's (which was on the sign), this Houston-based supermarket made its stand in Bryan in the mid-1950s and suffered a similar fate to its Houston stores. Unlike the companion College Station store which lasted no more than around 2 months, Weingarten's here lasted for about three decades before it changed hands and closed less than a decade later.

Opening on September 1, 1954, the 25,000 square foot supermarket was not only the largest in Bryan and featured a variety of things unusual at best though may seem commonplace today. These included a self-service deli, a general merchandise department "where the housewife can find everything from work clothes to dresses to cooking equipment", a drug and tobacco department, "magic carpet" automatic doors, a lunch counter, a children's daycare area "where they'll find comic books and other things to keep their attention", and a full-service butcher department. Courtesy of John Ellisor, check out the article from which these great facts were derived from.

In 1980, the Weingarten family decided to focus on real estate and sell its supermarkets to Grand Union. Despite giving it a new logo, four years later, Grand Union dumped the chain in late 1983. The two-month old College Station store closed permanently while this store (and most of the stores) were sold to Safeway, which closed it in January 1984 and reopened it under its own name, giving the California-based chain four stores in the area. Also at some point, the address changed from 1010 S. College Avenue to 1010 S. Texas Avenue.

Safeway sold the Houston division to management, and it was rebranded as AppleTree in 1989. It finally closed in 1992 as one of the initial (second round of 5) stores to close in bankruptcy and later referred to one of the "dogs" as Richard Goeggel, Vice President of AppleTree, put it, after it shrank to half a dozen stores. In 1995, the former supermarket became Williams Furniture Center, which operated until 1999. After that, the building's history gets a bit more murky as it was subdivided. 1010 S. Texas Avenue #A became "Billiard Barn & Drinkery" from 2001 to 2003. Burton Creek Bar-B-Que also operated from 2001 to 2002 in "suite B" OF 1010 S. Texas Avenue, with C&J Barbecue officially taking over in 2002 as the second location of the chain (from the original off of Harvey Road). Within five years a third location would be established at Southwest Crossing. In August 2022, C&J Barbecue relocated to 2112 West Briargate Drive at William Joel Bryan Park, with Los Plebes Mariscos & Wings opening in Jan. 2024. 1016 S. Texas Avenue, the center portion of the store, ended up becoming a nightclub, first as T&T Billiards in 2003 (it's possible that "A" was Billiard Barn, and "B" was the barbecue spot), then Status in 2004, Whiskey River (2008-2010), Prime Time Nightclub (2011), Rockies (full name: "Rockies The Canyon") which moved here in 2011 from its longtime spot in Post Oak Mall before moving again in 2019. (It was evicted for Toby Keith's I Love This Bar & Grill, which has since closed pretty much all of its locations from lease non-payment), Alquimia Night Club (2019-2020), and currently (since 2021-ish) is the home of TE-JOS Super Deal, which has returned merchandise from discount stores and other odds & ends. 1018 S. Texas Avenue has been Bingo Barn since 2003.

It doesn't look the same as it did, the store received an exterior re-do around 2020. There's a few other pictures from December 2013 below.

UPDATE 02-15-2024: Finally gave this the upgrades it needed (last updates from 2014) and its back on the Index.
UPDATE 10-06-2025: TE-JOS Super Deal closed at some point in the last twelve months. New labels added.

Mr. Gatti's on Northgate

One of the new restaurants of University Square was Mr. Gatti's (opening 1974), which had the tagline of "The best pizza in town (Honest)", and by all accounts, it was a decent pizza place. It had two levels, cold beer, and, as the ad above indicates, did have live entertainment (like a pre-fame Lyle Lovett). For nearly two decades, Mr. Gatti's thrived at 107 College Avenue.

The "pizzamat" (817 University Drive), as indicated above, was a take-out pizza and beer building and had the address of 817 University Drive. It was later the home of the little drive-through ATM (First National Bank?) which was Mt. Aggie Snow Cones in the late 1980s and early 1990s. The pizzamat replaced, and had the same address as the "Rao Drive Inn", an extremely cool looking drive-in straight out of the 1950s, was closed and torn down in the early part of the 1970s. (The ATM building, later rendered inaccessible due to parking lot removal, still stands today).

"54" is scribbled on the side. Did it open in 1954? (from Historic Brazos County: An Illustrated Journey)


In addition to the Pizzamat, there were a few other locations that came and went, most notably the location at Villa Maria and Texas Avenue (gone by the mid-1980s) and even a short-lived location at 2551 Texas Avenue South (more on that another time).

In 1996, Mr. Gatti's opened a second location in Bryan (again), featuring a huge arcade area. This would be Gattiland, but the story of that restaurant from there on out would only get worse...

Both stores continued to operate for a brief time but this location closed in 1997 and was torn down for a Schlotzsky's Deli soon after. That store continues to operate, later dropping the "Deli" portion and gaining a repaint in the late 2010s for the "Austin Eatery" theme re-do the chain went through.

Prior to dropping the "Deli" and adding Cinnabon. The patio has been expanded since then (2012). From Stalworth's website.



Edit 1/16/14: Added opening date, will make another update when Gattiland article is added.
2/14/14: link added
May 2019: Updates made.
UPDATE 01-19-2025: Both stores did operate simultaneously. This article has been amended with that and talk of other locations. Also, there is news that a new Mr. Gatti's (sans arcade) might make an appearance in the area again...but nothing yet.

Texan Restaurant

This closed-up convenience store is all that remains of what was one of the nicer restaurants in town.

In February 1948, H.G. Burgh and his wife, a couple that had recently moved from Seattle, opened a drive-in restaurant called "The Ice Burgh" at 3204 South College Avenue, serving the usual drive-in fare of hamburgers, sandwiches, chicken, and ice cream. By 1952, the restaurant was known as (and possibly under the same ownership), as "The Texan Drive-In", which a 1952 ad claimed it was "already famous for delicious foods". However, due to poor records, it's not known if the Ice Burgh became the Texan, or the Ice Burgh closed and was replaced with in the Texan.

1971 Phone Book, an image oft "borrowed": this is what prompted me to use watermarks.
In any case, by 1967 the restaurant was somewhat run-down, and sold to Robert Tapley and his wife Diana. The Tapleys slowly reworked the menu into a gourmet experience, renaming the Texan Drive-In into the Texan Restaurant and we have the 1971 ad above. Known for its chef-prepared food and delicious salads, the restaurant entertained and fed a loyal clientele for years (One of the comments I received on the Texan on this website was an A&M grad student who worked tables part-time in 1980 and saw Gene Hackman at a table, but he probably wasn't a regular). As chains infiltrated the markets, and changes were made to remain competitive, such as cutting prices and making the salads in the kitchen instead of tableside. The final blow was Christopher's World Grille (opened 1999), which although wasn't trying to kill the Texan, ended up doing in the restaurant. By that time, they were open only 3 days a week, and Diana, now in her early 70s, saw no other choice but to close the restaurant permanently in early 2000.

By 2003, it reopened as Tobacco & More, a discount cigarette/convenience store, but it closed down by late 2016 before the construction of South College Avenue, which ended up closing off the main driveway. The only access into the business is through Fairway Drive.

Thanks to the Carnegie Center for assistance in this article, which was updated in September 2019. Additionally, InSite Magazine (5/00) was of assistance in the making of this article.

University Apartments and Century Square

Trendy mixed-use right in the heart of the city! (Picture by author, 2/20)

This post was originally written as "University Apartments", which focused on the group of university-owned apartments that were largely torn down around 2014 for what we now know as Century Square. Initially, I had no interest in covering Century Square as I had updated the post to my standards at the time to wrap up the site (it's why there's an eight month gap between the last 2014 post and the first 2015 post). As a result, this covers the predecessor of Century Square, the University Apartments, first, and we'll progress to the present day and the current occupier of the site.

During my time at A&M, I was thankful that I had enough sense to photograph many buildings on their way out in terms of demolition or extensive renovation. I didn't get enough pictures of the old Scoates Hall, and no inside shots of Dulie Bell, but did get pictures of The Commons, Zachry Engineering Center, Read Building, G. Rollie White, and of course, these.

When making this post originally (or at least doing a significant update), I had done research at Cushing Memorial Library, which refers to Battalion articles that aren't available to be linked. Some of the links that were available, dating from the mid-2000s have been removed from the Battalion's webpage (with no Archive.org to rescue them, I didn't have enough sense back then to archive my links).

Originally rows and rows of two-level Army-style barracks filling up the diagonal-row roads in the early 1950s, with two complexes, College View and Southside, a federal grant in 1957 (to the tune of 2.5 million dollars, which would be about 20 million today) allowed more to be built.

From what I could tell, the original College View Apartments were Army-style barracks filling up the diagonal-row roads east of Northgate built in the early 1950s (at the same time Southside was built, which appeared to have been at the northeast corner of Wellborn and modern-day George Bush Drive, more on that another day).

In 1960, the Hensel Apartments (later Hensel Terrace Apartments) were built, and originally not air-conditioned (until likely the 1970s). The new College View Apartments, built in 1969, were built facing FM 60 and according to The Battalion were "cool, comfortable, and complete", being climate controlled at 70 degrees.

Interestingly, despite the new College View apartments replacing the old College View buildings on a 1:1 basis, only about 7 buildings were built. Nearly 30 others were torn down (a few lasting into the early 1980s, a footnote at a document called "Brazos Valley Chronology" at Project HOLD, mentions the last of these were removed in 1982) without replacement, and until the Century Square development, those spaces remained vacant, possibly due to lack of funding. The back 13 were redeveloped into Avenue A Apartments on a 1:1 replacement, but it was still a lot of vacant space. The 1970s also saw the construction of College Avenue Apartments, which were directly across College Avenue from University Square Shopping Center.

As time went on, the Married Student Housing became known as the "University Apartments", as it started to become known for international students as well. The maintenance of the apartments declined and the roads started to deteriorate, but there wasn't any major trouble. Piecemeal improvements were made to the complex, including the addition of the Becky Gates Children's Center, a 1997 addition on Hensel that would have childcare for students married with children. Later on a community center and playground were built as well. However, it was an incident in 2004 that did change the University Apartments forever.

One day in July 2004, residents complained about a smell of natural gas in the Hensel Terrace Apartments. The maintenance worker responded but decided to not repair the leak until the next week (in fact, they told residents to close their windows, thus making the smell inside worse). Saquib Ejaz, a resident of those apartments, lived with his wife and daughter at Hensel Apartments. His parents were visiting from Bangladesh. While his parents, wife (who was pregnant with another child), and daughter were home, the gas somehow ignited and fire consumed the apartment's interior, severely burning all four. His wife and father survived, but his daughter and mother did not. Other apartments were damaged, as well, however; the structure itself survived.

Lawsuits were filed, and by 2005, a number of new improvements were announced, including new stoves, new detectors, and much better maintenance. This still wasn't "enough" maintenance, as the apartment complex was still falling apart, with the College Avenue Apartments on Ball Street having unleveled floors.

However, by fall 2006, a plan was approved to add the Gardens at University, which, instead of building it on vacant land, would replace the existing apartments. When I first wrote this article in 2012, the College Avenue Apartments had been demolished in 2011 (without replacement), and two-thirds of the Hensel Terrace Apartments (including the rebuilt apartments where Ejaz's apartment was) had been torn down for the Gardens. Nothing else had been altered since then.

In early 2013 "Campus Pointe", a "long-planned redevelopment of the area, was trotted out again and approved. This would essentially lease the university's land to a private developer, becoming one of the few shopping malls built on property leased from a university (Stanford Shopping Center is another example).

College View Apartments, Hensel Terrace Apartments, and Avenue A Apartments were marked for destruction--all residents had to move out. There were even stories of the mattresses being moved out first, so many had to make do with sleeping on the floor, and a new field designated for playing cricket (popular as most of the residents came from overseas) had to be closed. Despite (presumably) assistance, the apartments all near campus had much higher rent, and both Northgate and Southgate had undergone some degree of gentrification.

While The Gardens, the daycare, and the maintenance building were not affected and still stand, the demolition for redevelopment seemed to take a long time, for months, the abandoned apartments (speckled with graffiti) stood, then for many more months with just vacant land. Sometime during all of this, Campus Pointe was renamed to Century Square.

A friend and I took these in May 2013, soon before eviction in summer 2013 (the picture at the title is also from that):

Nobody's home.

Avenue A Apartments, which has eight units per building, four of which are seen here.

There is so much open space here, great for large group games or tossing a Frisbee around. Too bad this will go away...

College View Apartments. These face University Drive.

Hensel Terrace Apartments. Most of these are already gone, including the unit that exploded in 2004. It's worth noting that the building wasn't actually destroyed. The apartments have concrete foundations and despite being old and run-down, are better built then similar apartment complexes of the same era.

The Gardens at University Apartments. These will stick around.

Interesting vents on the University Apartments Maintenance Building.
For the next few years, the entire area was gated off as new construction began to take over, opening as Century Square.

The center would open in phases, with many of the restaurants coming in-line by fall 2017 (the hotels opened sooner). I haven't actually been to most of what Century Square has to offer...the parking is a major issue, in an effort to be more like Houston high-end development, the developers instituted paid parking everywhere except the garage (which also once had a strict time limit for staying).

The "mall space" is composed of a bunch of buildings floating in parking lots. As the way I'm going to explain it is going to be confusing, I recommend you look at the PDF directory to understand the layout. It's an archived version, and will go increasingly out of date as time goes on, but the link should stay up.

1025 University Drive - Located at the corner of the development, closest to the College Drive/University intersection, this building has, from left to right, Red's Ice House (opened February 2025), Orangetheory Fitness, Sharetea, a leasing center for The Penny (a new apartment building going up at 415 College Main), 4 Brothers NY Bagels, and Piada Italian Street Food. All of these opened around 2017 except for Red's, which replaced Mo's Irish Pub (May 2018 to June 2024). I ate at Mo's Irish Pub not too long after it opened, it was an airy, modern space with cute waitresses, but average food with only a few token "Irish" dishes. There also used to be Merge Boutique and Clean Juice (given the last update, they closed between 2024 and 2025). These were replaced with the leasing center and 4 Brothers NY Bagels, respectively.

1099 University Drive - This is almost the same building as 1025 University Drive except there's a covered open-air walkway between them. This building has three tenants, Velvet Taco (opened September 2021 and the former home to Runway Seven, a women's clothing store, which closed sometime in 2019 after about two years...it looks like the other stores have since closed as well), Tiff's Treats, and Cava (opened 2023 to replace the original 2017 Zoë's Kitchen, which was phased out as a chain).

1133 University Drive - One of the new "Phase II" buildings from around 2024 has, from left to right, Original ChopShop (opened January 2025), Wells Fargo (moved from down the street), a full Sephora boutique (opened December 2024), a vacancy, and Houston-based Dimassi's Mediterranean Buffet (opened 2025).

1177 University Drive - This is the other new 2024 building, it features (from left to right) Houston TX Hot Chicken, Aerie, Lululemon, and CoCo Shrimp. CoCo Shrimp opened in November 2024. I believe Houston TX Hot Chicken opened soon afterwards. Lululemon relocated here in 2026, and Aerie isn't open yet (likely they'll close their location at Post Oak Mall).

Just east to that is some undeveloped space and then a stand-alone building, 1289 University Drive. The first tenant to come...and go...Neighbors Emergency Center opened in October 2016 but closed around August 2017. Neighbors was a private 24-hour care emergency clinic that was the first open tenant in the Century Square development, and in November 2018, CapRock Urgent Care opened in its place, and in spring 2021, became Integrity Urgent Care as CapRock sold off most of its facilities.

170 Century Square Drive - North of the undeveloped space is 100 Park, an apartment building that fits into the whole modern "mixed-use" concept, though not oriented toward students. Ground-floor retail at the apartments include, from left to right, MESS Waffles (which opened in October 2018)¹, Pokéworks (opened January 2020), a vacancy, Amazon Pickup & Returns (opened 2024), and another vacancy.

175 Century Square Drive - The only retail tenant below the Century Square One office building is Galleria Spa Salon, formerly Galleria Day Spa (for years it used to be at the corner of Cavitt Drive and Villa Maria Drive, until it moved to Rock Prairie, which is still there). The office tenants include Breakaway Ministries, UBS Financial Services, and BRW Architects (among others).

143 Century Court - Going west is a building with three tenants: Blaze Pizza, Lick Honest Ice Creams (opened in October 2022 to replace Sub Zero Nitrogen Ice Cream, which closed in or around February 2020), and Sweet Paris Crêperie & Café. I have yet to visit Sweet Paris but I do know of it since it had replaced the Rice Village location of Texadelphia (a fact mentioned in our Texadelphia post).

Directly next to 143 Century Court is a plaza called The Green (an open space for outdoor events and al fresco dining), and directly behind The Green was Poppy (named after the late Bush 41's nickname). Sometime right around very early 2020 before you-know-what happened, Poppy closed for an upscale Mexican concept, opening in May 2022 as Juanita's Tex Mex Cantina (it was delayed, but it happened). Despite being stand-alone it's part of "The George" at 180 Century Square Drive (with "1791 Whiskey Bar" inside), a hotel which opened August 2017. The hotel has a second restaurant attached, Porters Dining + Butcher, a high-end (well, at least for College Station) steakhouse, as well as 1791 Whiskey Bar. There's some vacant space on the east side of the hotel.

Behind The George is Cavalry Court (200 Century Court), which opened November 2016 (one of the first tenants) with its "The Canteen" restaurant. Despite being a four-star hotel with off-season prices being around $120 a night (as of 2021), all the rooms open to the outside. Yes, it does face a courtyard with a pool, but that's still unusual for an upscale hotel.

144 Century Court - Going back to the Green (specifically the west of it), Hopdoddy Burger Bar, Hey Sugar, and Ring Guards by Montelongo's, are all located here in a "mirror" building to 143 Century Court. Ring Guards opened to replace Sabi Boutique. Sabi Boutique had maintained at storefront at The Lofts at Wolf Pen Creek for years (even when they couldn't hold onto any other retailers) and opened a new location at Century Square in April 2019. However, within a few months of opening at Century Square they opened a University Drive East location a few months later. By May 2020 Sabi had decided to close the Century Square location. The other two places are Hopdoddy and Hey Sugar.

166 Century Court - Directly west of the preceding building, 166 Century Court is a multi-story office building ("Century Square One") with six retail tenants currently on the ground floor. Luchesse Bootmaker (opened early 2021), a vacancy², King Ranch Saddle Shop (opened late 2020), Apricot Lane (opened early 2022), Onward Reserve (opened November 2019), Kendra Scott (opened early 2022), and Hemline, a women's clothing boutique out of New Orleans.

1027 and 1037 University Drive - Directly across Century Court (the street) is 1027 and 1037, a two-story building that wraps around the parking garage. This is where Star Cinema Grill is, located on the second level with the 1037 address. The 1027 addresses face University Drive while 1037 faces Century Court. Working from the furthest corner of the map, there's a vacancy (this was supposed to be Trufusion, but I don't think it ever opened), Grass Stains (a specialty boutique with its only location here; the original location in Graham, Texas has since closed), Tecovas (replacing original tenant Lululemon, which opened sometime around 2018 and moved out in 2026 to aforementioned 1177 University Drive), Harvest Coffee (opened 2018 after its original 2014 Downtown Bryan location, which has since closed), a vacancy (it was second local location of I Heart Mac and Cheese, opened September 2020 but closed in early 2022), and finally, Brazos Running Company, opened around 2023 and moved from Central Station. Beyond that is other vacant spaces.

Of course, Century Square didn't take up all of the old University Apartments facilities. In August 2024, PopStroke (a miniature golf/sports bar concept owned by Tiger Woods) opened at 255 Ball Street on the site of the Ball Street Apartments (but not using up all the space) and in summer 2025, "Varcity", a retirement community was announced, which would take up all the old space leftover from demolition.

1. This used be known as Wafology, which was mentioned on the 711 University Drive article.
2. This was formerly the home of temporary tenant "selfie museum" Instaland BCS and was said be RenewYou by 2025, however, like Trufusion, it looks like it didn't end up happening.

UPDATE 09-07-2026: I archived the previous updates. In addition to updates, there was a fix done to 1289 University Drive and a new PDF that describes "Campus Pointe" as proposed in 2008.

University Square Shopping Center / Legacy Point

A still-standing reminder of what the center was. All but one was gone as of this when this photo was taken in 2012 with my old cell phone camera. The Junction pulled out in summer of 2012 and was replaced by "Piranha Fitness Studio". At the time, there was a smaller sign signed as Legacy Point closer to IHOP.

This used to be one of the more popular posts on this blog and to this day, the picture of the closed Albertsons (since demolished) is used as the Facebook header. When I first made this post back in 2011 the whole thing looked WILDLY different and with Hurricane Harry's closure in December 2024 and impending demolition I have to reformat everything again and give it a different look.

This post doesn't cover the restaurants on the perimeter of the property as those I've already covered. From northeast heading clockwise, there's the now-defunct Rooster's Bike & Coffee Shop, Schlotzsky's, IHOP, Chipotle Mexican Grill (sorry, no post yet--but it used to be a Mobil), Taco Bell, and McDonald's. (All of which I added after this post was made in 2011.)

Going on a tour of the old configuration (featuring my old cell phone camera, which is why the photos here look a bit weird), for years (since approximately 1991, if I recall correctly), there was a little Cajun food place called Hebert's Cajun Food. It wasn't that cheap, but it was fast, delicious, and worth it: much like a food truck. It closed on June 15th, 2012 with more pictures (not mine) here, and later moved to a variety of locations, including Village Foods for about a year, a short-lived physical location in Caldwell, and as of this writing, operating in Coldspring, Texas.

There was also a coffee shop, "Java Jitters" just directly across it, which was a small shack operated by the same owners of Hebert's (the same guy ran both shacks, but obviously never simultaneously). Never went to it, it was only open in the mornings. The addresses of Hebert's and Java Jitters were 727 University Drive and 729 University Drive, respectively. You can see my pictures below.


Java Jitters, gutted.

From what I've found, 729 University was "Film & Photos No. 2248" in 1980 (a drive-through photo kiosk, the types the terrorists drive into at the end of Back to the Future) and Nachos to Go in 1993, but the wooden shack of Java Jitters was definitely not a photo booth.

I also took the picture (a few, actually!) of the A+ Tutoring/Fat Burger building, which had both closed after the spring 2012 semester (but before the demolition). It wasn't an unfamiliar location that semester, either, I had gone to both buildings in the semester prior: trying to pass Organic Chemistry through A+ (if you are a student or considering to be one, please do not do this, just study and know the material), or hanging out in Fat Burger (not related to the chain called Fatburger, that's different--seems it's confused Yelpers), which had a fixings bar (which is, of course, best at the beginning of the day). It lived up to its name--offering the 1/3 pound "Fat Burger" and the full-pound Bevo Burger. The fixings bar I don't have a picture of, only the gutted remains of it after the store closed. Seems like they also may have had a different logo at one time.

Neither tenant was original, Fat Burger's "goodbye" sign implied it was there since 1984, and from my existing notes, "Mo-Peds to Go", then "Tommy's" was at Fat Burger's site (suite A) and for suite B (A+), there was Budget Tapes & Records, which was a popular music chain at the time, then Music Express until around the mid-1980s.

I didn't take the front of A+, nor Fat Burger at night, unfortunately (Fat Burger had a half-burned out light--looking sadder than its better-kept Bryan counterpart, and A+ didn't light up at all). There was a picnic bench in front of both buildings. I know I remember (maybe circa 2003) that A+ actually had the "AT+" logo on the front, but it still must have ran afoul of TAMU logo usage. A 1995 directory refers to the spot as "A&M Tutoring" (the university cracked down on unlicensed use of "A&M" or "Aggie" in business names, but it's not clear if they had already changed their sign by that time).


On the side of the building, the original logo could still be seen. They offered CHEM 227 and CHEM 228, just not at the time they painted this.


Never thought to get Fat Burger delivered.



The front of the building, taken in daytime by a cell phone camera.

This location is gone, too, with both locations consolidating near what is now REI.

Right to the east of that was the main shopping center, which is now "The Stack Field" (just open space). The Albertsons was the largest tenant at the center, closed at the end of 1997, following the purchase of the Randalls store on University Drive East. The story of Albertsons life, death, and near-revival would make this post even longer so I had to outsource it to a sub-page.

As early as 2003 (presumably when the Albertsons revival deal was completely dead), the city was looking to improve on the center (which had lost Albertsons by that point) as part of a largely far-fetched Northgate redevelopment that would see University Square (eventually) get developed into something else: a "Cultural/Science Center" anchor, citing the Exploratorium as a model (and THIS I did hear about back in '03), a think tank/business incubator, or a mixed-use project that would incorporate a variety of restaurants and a modern movie theater. This all would all change, of course, when it was revealed that the center would be dramatically altered for a new mixed-use development, but ultimately all that resulted was a new development behind it, and some demolished buildings, most of which haven't been replaced since they were torn down. For years a sad-looking "Legacy Point" sign stood near the IHOP that used to be the sign of Albertsons long ago before being replaced by a Schlotzsky's sign years later. (Some "legacy".) However, after nearly after another decade, construction is moving forward with the eviction of the remaining tenants and eventual demolition...and Legacy Point seems to be a go after all.

From the 1973 Aggieland yearbook.

The abandoned store was demolished in the early 2010s, with also demolished soon after was 303 College. The first store here was Mitchells, a "department store" (actually mostly clothing) previously owned by Leonard Brothers of Fort Worth, which had been acquired in 1967 by Tandy Corporation and opened in 1972. By 1974, Tandy had disposed of the chain along with Leonard's (which was sold to Dillard's), but Mitchells continued to operate at University Square until around 1976. In 1977, Webster's Catalog Showroom opened in the spot. While this ad lists it as 306 College, both Mitchells (per ads) and Webster's (per a 1980 phone book) had it as 303 College Avenue. Tandy returned in the mid-1980s with McDuff Superstores, a store similar to their own Radio Shack chain but carrying a full line of electronics and appliances. Following the closure of McDuff in the mid-1990s it became a location of defunct bookstore chain "The Book Market" ever so briefly becoming Rother's, a college bookstore (later renamed as Traditions before its 2012 closure.

Hancock Fabrics was here from 1972 to 2007 (the store closed in a bankruptcy—the rest of the chain liquidated less than a decade later) before BCS Bicycles moved in. BCS Bicycles wouldn't stay for long before being banished to a former restaurant spot on the edge of the center.

Despite being still extant (the former Albertsons and the other stores down to the old BCS Bicycles spot was demolished in 2012), the last stores on the block are a little harder to track because of various expansions of Hurricane Harry's (313 College), which dates back to around 1992. The other side of the shopping center has a slightly taller roof. This used to be the Cineplex (later Plitt) III, a three-screen movie theater. It lasted through the various names of the supermarket, but closed in 1995 and was divided between an expansion of Hurricane Harry's, and well before the theater closed, it also shared the address with what was once simply "The Jewelry & Coin Exchange" (now "David's Jewelry & Coin Exchange" since late 2013; by the late 2010s they moved to a new location on University Drive East). The last tenant on the end (315 College, taking half of the theater) was TJ's Laser Tag, which was around from 1996 to 1999. I know my brother went a few times but I never got a chance before it closed.

That spot later became The Junction (a pool hall that didn't serve alcohol). The Junction eventually closed around 2012 and became Piranha Fitness Studio (I'm not sure when they moved out). There was also additional A+ classrooms at 311A College Avenue, but they're gone (later offices for Eccell Group and later still a makerspace called Starforge Foundry). At one time, 313C (unknown what's there now, but the building is still there) was a restaurant called "Fred's For Lunch" which sold submarine sandwiches and Blue Bell ice cream. Hurricane Harry's closed permanently in December 2024. It was brought up somewhere on TexAgs that they were operating on reduced rent and the current owners lacked the will, business acumen, or funds to try to make a go of itself elsewhere (which suggests that Harry's was underperforming). I believe as of January 2025 the shopping center is now completely empty. There is a chance I missed a tenant or two when writing about this, which I may mention at a later date.

UPDATE 01-12-2025: With the demise of Hurricane Harry's, this article got a complete rewrite and substantial update (again). Some of the tags for this post got changed too.
UPDATE 03-01-2025: The rest of the shopping center has been demolished. [demolished] added to post. This update has also fixed an unclosed tag and missing picture.
UPDATE 03-01-2026: E&L Computers was at 311 College from 1987 to 1989. It later moved to Culpepper Plaza as "The Logical Place".