The Doomed Buildings at 290 and Beltway 8

16009 Northwest Freeway - Taco Bell
16055 Northwest Freeway - Wendy's
16002 Northwest Freeway - McDonald's
16061 Northwest Freeway - Brake Check

Believed to all closed in fall 2012, except for McDonald's in early 2013 (just a guess: I don't know when that Brake Check closed, either), this is our first post outside of the Brazos Valley and into Houston, which has far more interesting things to check out (and also a destructive city in terms of architecture, moreso than College Station). But this is an exception to what we have had before, and not the norm.

I was too young (and never really traveled on that part of the highway anyway) to remember the Katy Freeway expansion, which not only took an abandoned railroad right of way, but required demolition of dozens of buildings: office buildings, restaurants, gas stations, hotels, and houses, with many easily less than two decades old.

Because the expansion of Northwest Freeway isn't afforded the abandonment of the railroad, many streetside buildings are simply being condemned and torn down. A tragedy.

There were three restaurants wedged at the corner of Beltway 8 and 290, a Wendy's, a Taco Bell, and a McDonald's, not very visible except for their signs pointing out of the sides of the highway. I know I've passed 'em several times, back when they were still selling delicious greasy food, but never ate there myself, seeing as they weren't particularly convenient, and were often there at the wrong time or the wrong side of the highway. But for the times I did go through Houston, I passed them by. They were familiar to me.

But now they are gone. I'm guessing they were built sometime in the 1980s, seeing as how Wendy's has the "solarium" dining room. A friend and I stopped by in our travels to Houston last March. Enjoy some of the pictures.

It's worth noting that we went to the dumpsters of every restaurant to see if we could snag anything, but we couldn't (maybe they went to Sparkle Signs, I know there's an old McDonald's sign there). We figured that if both pieces of a sign were intact, we could each take one, clean it up, backlight it, and mount it on a wall, creating an imposing and interesting piece of décor. It would also be a great conversation piece. But alas, we couldn't, and all we found was random trash. I have a few pictures we took, but the rest could perhaps be told another day.


My friend (seen) and I attempt to order some food from McDonald's. No reply.
The Wendy's sign carcass.


McDonald's was repainted recently, albeit for nothing.


It was also stripped up its roof and boarded up tight.


Yo quiero.


Flaking paint, exposing green. Was this not originally a Taco Bell?!


Inside Wendy's. Well, looking inside, anyway. This was my friend's picture. Or at least his camera.

Wendy's exterior. Had to crop the person out.


Aforementioned Brake Check. This was not examined terribly closely.
If you enjoyed seeing Houston buildings, and would like to see even more, check out our new associate at Arch-ive.org, which explores old Houston buildings. There's no comments and there's sadly little text to go along with it, but most of the stuff is rare, the photos are great, and it updates on a more consistent basis.

Edit 6/14/2013: Commenter "je" has reported that the buildings seen here have been torn down.

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.

Sparks Building

From College Station's 2004 Annual Report
401-05 University Drive

When I went to college at Texas A&M, there were five tenants at the Sparks Building, which was not even called that anymore. The way I would describe it at the time was at the bottom level, there were four storefronts. The first one was The Corner at 401 University, the second one was also part of The Corner (windows only, you could see where a door had been removed), then Pita Pit at 403 University, then for the fourth section, two doors, one into Northgate Vintage and one into Potato Shack. If you went into Northgate Vintage, there was a tiny, ladder-like spiral staircase that led to an attic-like area above Pita Pit. (It used to be actual vintage clothing, but by the time I went to A&M it had mostly evolved into an "eclectic styles" boutique).

To access the fifth business, Aggieland Barber Shop, there was a staircase on the outside, with a landing for the second level of Aggieland Barber Shop (accessed out of a side entrance), then the rest of the way up to The Corner roof. On The Corner side of the building, the side of the building facing College Main on the upper level had been gutted, I remember a staircase going up to the roof and passing a door that had nothing connected to it, just a door on the wall with no floor (it was quite strange).

After I went to A&M, The Corner took over the rest of the building, and Potato Shack, Pita Pit, and Northgate Vintage all closed (Northgate Vintage closed September 2015). However, while Pita Pit's space was gutted, Northgate Vintage and Potato Shack's weren't, probably because they were a victim of higher rents. Aggieland Barber Shop continued to operate. Here's a cell phone photo I took of the rooftop part after a football game around 2012, you can see it's packed as people are enjoying food and beer on a warm afternoon.



The building got its stucco front and rooftop seating after 2005 shortly after that picture (the old "Camera" sign was removed), and the 2004-era Sparks Building was the best it looked, as the early 1990s version was pretty grody-looking.

But at one time, the building was pretty grody-looking.



As the building has had a variety of tenants over the years and has been reconfigured over time, I can't tell what replaced what. Northgate Vintage was 403 University Drive Suite D, Pita Pit was 403 University Drive (no suite), Potato Shack was 405A, and Aggieland Barber Shop is 403A.

Other tenants this building has had over the years:

Barker Photography (405) - 1972 listing.

Campus Photo Center Inc. (401) - Flagship tenant of building, ad from late 1980s (from InSite Magazine's archives), which will conclude today's blogposts.

CD Warehouse (unknown) - See photo above, existed in the early 1990s.

City Surplus (403) - Likely in the place where Northgate Vintage was, former name of Military Depot before it moved to Eastgate.

Haight-Ashbury Co. (403c) - Listed in 1993 directory. Possible "BEADS" store.

L-T L & Associates (403e) - Listed in 1993 directory, tax filing.

Mario & Son's Pizzeria (405a) - Replaced by Nipa Hot?

Nipa Hot (405) - Thai restaurant in the 1990s and early 2000s. Succumbed to high rent.

Quantum Cow (403) - "Tutoring" in the form of test answers. Closed around late 2000s, replaced by Northgate Vintage if my addresses are right.

Right Angle Calculators (401a) - Replaced by Pita Pit? In 1989 directory.

Star of the Sea Catholic Bookstore (403d) - Listed in 1993 directory.

Starships & Dragons (404) - Mentioned in 1989 directory. Comic book store that also had a location in Culpepper Plaza. Not in corresponding phone book.

Steve 5 (unknown) - Mentioned in Northgate Historical Resources.

This picture is more recent (2013), but I have no idea when it was from, because it sure wasn't erected anytime in the last three years. It obviously seems to not count the lower level tenants.




UPDATE 07-22-23: Since the last update in June 2019, the last non-Corner business, Aggieland Barber Shop, closed in December 2022 when long-time barber Jesse Medina retired.

The Lost Buildings of Villa Maria Road and Texas Avenue

The Walgreens replaced a corner of several businesses before. (Picture from 3/30/20)

Most of the things that were torn down in my youth were usually buildings that were not particularly large or old buildings from decades before. Rarely was something that came and went in my youth, particularly a building that was less than a decade old being torn down. It did happen, however.

For a brief time between 1999 and 2005, there was a Texaco station ("Aggieland Texaco"), which became a Shell station a few years later, following an agreement with the merger of Chevron and Texaco which would see the Texaco brand almost vanish from Texas itself. This happened with a number of stations around town. 2907 Texas Avenue was the address based on pre-2005 "restaurant report cards" and 2909 based on tax documents. There were also some other stores in the strip, but I wasn't able to find out what they were, nor do I know what the Texaco station replaced.

From The Eagle, though I remember that they had another aerial with the buildings still intact.

One of the things I do know was that many of the newer Shell stations (including this one) had started offering Krispy Kreme doughnuts, which were shipped in from the Houston locations at the time. Of course, Krispy Kreme donuts aren't all that after they turn cold, and the novelty probably lasted for a year at most before they were removed (the Houston stores closed soon after). It also had brown brick on the outside.

The buildings as they appeared in 2004

I was relieved that when they took out the block, the Golden Chick (blue roof in the picture above, and outside the red outline above) was not torn down, but by that time it was already closed.

Articles at the time mention a furniture store also biting the dust, but (and I assume it's the house-like building, possibly converted, on the Dellwood side) I wasn't able to find any information on it.

Soundwaves (2919 Texas Avenue) was the blue-roofed building: based on what I could find, it moved to Post Oak Mall after demolition before disappearing for good, but it was not part of Soundwaves of Houston, even before it was torn down (Soundwaves existed at that spot as far back as 1980). Other residual information says that Soundwaves did home theater installation, but in 1980, it did car audio installation. I read somewhere that the building was a head shop back in the '70s, but that's for another time (when Carnegie reopens, perhaps).

The building toward the back was China Garden (2901 South Texas Avenue), which had two levels, though the Chinese buffet had closed prior to being demolished. According to MyBCS, the rumor was the woman who owned it committed suicide, but I don't put a lot of stock in that (being a rumor and all). It was previously a Mr. Gatti's location before it closed at an unknown date.

This other new building has a Dellwood address. (Picture from 3/30/20)

What replaced it was a Walgreens and a smaller building that was mostly vacant for years following, with a UPS store coming in first, then Little Caesars about five years later (opened in fall 2010), then a Boost Mobile a few years after that. Even though I did miss the Shell/Texaco station out of nostalgia (and it would be nice to have a modern gas station on that side of the road), the stores that replaced it had more usefulness. The building(s) that the Texaco replaced I also don't have information on. Remember, if you know something I don't, feel free to contact this site at admin@carbon-izer.com.

Updated April 1, 2020, including new title
UPDATE 03-26-2021: New address and more accurate dates found! Also Golden Chick had closed by that time.