Former Circuit City

Picture from April 2019 by author.

The distinctive shape of this building (1003 Harvey) is recognizable as a former Circuit City, which opened in College Station store in August 1995, and much like its other locations in Texas were often deliberately located near (but never in) shopping malls. I maybe went into Circuit City once or twice in this location, but I do remember it as a dimly-lit place with computers on display (typical of Circuit City, and that was their gimmick, for the darker lighting to better show off computers and televisions), and nothing like Best Buy, which was brighter and better organized.

In January 2007, Circuit City moved to a new location at University Drive and Highway 6 (about where Half-Price Books is today) and closed down their location, only for the new location to close down a few years later. ("Bryan-College Station sees boom in businesses" from The Eagle). In early August 2012, Guitar Center opened a store at the location but it retains most of its original architecture.

UPDATE 04-24-2024: A few extremely small updates, like "opened in August 1995" rather than "built 1995".

America's Country Store

Picture taken March 2019
I love lineages of companies, and you may have noticed the Purina checkerboard logo on the outside of this store, just like many of the Purina-branded pet food inside. The thing is, those are two different companies, and they have been for decades. The "America's Country Store" is a franchise of Purina Mills, which operate animal feed mills in rural areas, but it spun off from the original Ralston Purina in the mid-1980s. Purina Mills has been owned by Land O'Lakes Inc. since 2001, while the original Ralston Purina (having divested all of its "human food" operations over the years) was purchased by Nestlé around the same time and merged with their Friskies PetCare Company division (becoming known as "Nestlé Purina PetCare" since). One place in town with Ralston Purina heritage is, surprisingly, Jack in the Box, which Ralston Purina owned in the 1970s and 1980s, and we recently had a post regarding the one in College Station.

America's Country Store started in 1997 but the College Station (Wellborn) store opened in October 2005 by franchisee Close Quarters Feed and Pet Supply. It was always designated toward animals, but in recent years (very recent, apparently, as of this writing) converted its garden center into a pet boarding service. This is just out of view in the picture, but can be seen in Street View (as a garden center at least as of this writing).

14675 Wellborn Road

Jack in the Box, Texas Avenue, College Station

This store has since been gutted down to just a few columns and walls and totally rebuilt (with a small expansion).
Jack in the Box store number 683 (1504 Texas Avenue South) opened in 1976. The picture isn't high resolution because I was going to publish it as part of the Texas Avenue City Directory on the next update on Carbon-izer. It's all part of a big site overhaul. The picture is from me, but I don't have the date recorded down of when I took it (likely a few years ago). This is the only Jack in the Box in College Station proper as the one on Rock Prairie closed down a couple of years ago.

UPDATE 11-07-2020: Updated opening date based on new evidence and added a bit on the rebuild.
UPDATE 08-06-2021: Changed date to 1976 and also added [1970s] (instead of [1980s]) to the tag.

Northgate Juice Joint

It appears the bar operating inside Northgate Juice Joint has its own phone number. (Picture taken April 2020)

It appears this building was built sometime in the 1960s and was, according to the earliest records I've currently accessed, was "Andre's Bicycle Shop". Later on, it became "Bill's Style Shop" at 215 University but eventually Bill retired and the space was absorbed into Zapatos Cantina and after Zapatos closed in 2012, the space that Zapatos had absorbed became Wobbly Monkey, a bar. The original Zapatos section (DoubleDave's) was not part of the deal, but Wobbly Monkey never lasted more than two semesters before the owner sold out. It is now Northgate Juice Joint, which will use part of the outdoor space for an urban garden. Surprisingly, after opening sometime in late 2014, Northgate Juice Joint still operates nearly five years later as of this writing, with "Commanders Cove", an outdoor bar-within-a-store, opening in 2019.

No alcohol served back in the day. [Picture from Project HOLD]

Northgate Juice Joint's current facade is its third since it's been here, the second facade was much more elaborate than the modest one shown in the picture.

Updated June 2020 for University Drive series
UPDATE 07-10-2021: Northgate Juice Joint has since moved to Bryan, with Commanders Cove taking over the space entirely. No other changes to the article have been made.