Former Jojo's on Braeswood

A newspaper clipping from 2006 with a photo that indicates how long it's been abandoned.
This was a Jojo's from 1980 to at least 1998 but seems to have been converted to Denny's before closing around early 2001 (or late 2000). The pad was torn out in 2007, and redeveloped into townhomes about a decade later (just in time for Hurricane Harvey!). There's a HAIF thread as well, in which someone claims it was once Champs as well.

Former Randalls #50

From Showcase, cropped. The former Randalls is to the left, the freeway in the foreground is East Sam Houston Parkway. 14705 Woodforest Boulevard plays host to the main offices of Galena Park ISD these days, but it was built as one of the first Randalls "New Generation" stores (#50) with their distinctive, oversized architecture, this operated roughly from 1990 to 2000 before becoming the offices for Galena Park ISD, which gutted the interior while upgrading the exterior (mostly adding new windows). The New Generation stores (there was another similar store in College Station that kept its exterior until around the mid-2020s).

The New Generation stores were fantastic grocery stores at the time but most of them were in the worst locations, usually more blue collar instead of Randalls' more upscale clientele, so even before Safeway really dug into the chain, most of these stores weren't successful.

Despite the failure of the grocery store, a strip center built around the same time hosts Domino's and a few other storefronts.

Cleburne Cafeteria

Photo from Yelp, "Doug C.", taken in 2012, showing the 1990-2016 incarnation of the restaurant.
3606 Bissonnet Street has been rebuilt twice from what we know of. Home to Cleburne Cafeteria today, the address originally hosted Carter's Lucky 7 (built in the mid-1940s; Lucky 7 was a local grocers co-op) and the 5,400 square foot building later became Gerland's #4 before closing in early 1953. In 1958, the former grocery store was converted to a restaurant, Mexico City Restaurant (probably closer to Tex-Mex), and in 1969 became the new home of Cleburne Cafeteria, which had been previously at 1018 Cleburne since around 1942 (hence the name). In August 1990 the building was destroyed in a fire but was rebuilt and reopened in December 1990. Nearly 26 years later, in April 2016, a fire once again destroyed Cleburne Cafeteria. The restaurant rebuilt and reopened once more in November 2017.

This entry originally appeared on Carbon-izer's Houston entries and in that section, I mentioned a restaurant review guide Fearless Critics a few times before. While I've never eaten at Cleburne Cafeteria myself, they HATED it. Whether they were exaggerating or not, I found their review, which you can see here highly entertaining.

Guest Quarters Post Oak

This ad appeared January 9, 1979 in the Houston Chronicle.
Guest Quarters, an all-suite hotel concept with a focus on customer service, opened in December 1978 at 2929 South Post Oak Road (2929 Post Oak Boulevard today). Featuring sixteen floors, 200 one-bedroom suites and 10 two-bedroom suites, it was the talk of the town when it opened (at least the Uptown area, then called the "Magic Circle") and while it didn't have an in-house restaurant it did offer room service though it had a full kitchen equipped with cookware, so if you wanted to cook something yourself, you could...they did grocery delivery and had more basic items on hand. It was the sixth location in the entire chain and was a big enough success that a second location (taller and more rooms) opened off of Westheimer (see my Westheimer page, under 5353 Westheimer Road) at which point, this hotel became known as "Guest Quarters - Post Oak".

In July 1984, it closed due to an ongoing recession and planned to become a luxury apartment complex, though that fell through, and in July 1986 reopened as "The Hampton", a retirement community after a renovation. It only had 196 rooms, but some rooms were converted to common areas, including a lending library and barber shop, and in 1986 a a 45-bed nursing home annex was built on top of the parking garage. In 2015 it became Brookdale Galleria (on the outside of the building it reads Brookdale Senior Living Solutions), possibly due to a complaint from Hilton (which owned the Hampton Inn name). According to state records, the nursing facility began to wind down operations in July 2026.

84 Lumber Near Northwest Freeway

What came before 84 Lumber. Just beyond that railroad was Northwest Freeway. (source).
This used to be on my Northwest Freeway page from "Version 4.0" to "Version 8.0", but 84 Lumber is located at 22770 North West Lake Drive and built in 2007 with a functional rail spur (which built off an existing spur, not the main line). When 84 Lumber was built, it was easy to access from Northwest Freeway as there was a long driveway to the former Cameron plant (now owned by NSPS Metals) that had a railroad crossing complete with gates and lights; however, by the end of 2008 the railroad crossing permanently closed. 84 Lumber isn't much to look at these days.

Originally this was part of Cameron's recreational facilities for employees, which is why I chose the picture I did. On the south end of the driveway was a large stocked pond (drained in 2016 with a building constructed in 2017) and on the north end, a park area with a large swimming pool.

I'm not sure when it closed. It was still operational in 1995 but filled in by 2001.

Cal-Tex Citrus Juice

As of this writing I can't get a good picture of the site, so we'll just have to go with this 1980 help wanted ad for now.
There's enough "removed from Carbon-izer.com" content to keep this blog going for a while, with this one being taken off back in May 2025 as part of revamping a page to focus exclusively on "Inner Loop" Westheimer Road, 402 Yale Street and newly updated for The Houston Files. While we'll get to the current fate of 402 Yale in a minute, it was built as the new building for Nelson Milk Company (moving from 1331 N. Shepherd) in 1948 but around 1956 it closed and was replaced by Cal-Tex Citrus Juice Inc. in 1957 (moving from 1918 Center), processing 60 tons of oranges (70% from Texas) into Vita-Pakt brand cartons and bottles.¹ The company got in trouble a few years later when it was discovered the "pure" orange juice was actually orange juice concentrate, sugar, and water², but nevertheless the company remained and endured, up until 2012 when it was purchased by Ohio-based Country Pure Foods.

By 2016 the company (still officially "Cal-Tex Citrus Juice LP") hadn't converted fresh oranges to juice in a long time (the hard freezes in Texas winters killed the idea of Texas being a citrus powerhouse decades ago) and instead brought in existing orange juice concentrate (along with apple and grape juice concentrates) and exclusively packaged for institutional and foodservice uses.

I personally visited the building once for an interview and I remembered the main offices were on the second level, accessed by a tight spiral staircase. (Definitely not ADA compliant, but American fire code has disallowed this for decades, and at the time the tragedy at Kyoto Animation, which had similar construction, had not yet happened.

Despite the fact that on the other side of Yale Street (where employee parking was), a railroad connected the MKT line to the north with the Southern Pacific line to the south, 402 Yale had no rail access.³ In early 2025, Country Pure announced it would close the plant and sold the land by the end of the year, with the building demolished by February of next year. It's probably going to be apartments or something similar, as is the usual play in Inner Loop Houston...

1. "Meadowgold" was another brand used.
2. This was an advanced operation by the government, to the point where they were using film cameras and months of surveillance. Several received fines, with the company president being fined and sentenced to six months in jail.
3. While it's been gone since at least the late 1990s, very little of this line remains today except an abandoned bridge at the southwest corner of the eastbound frontage road of I-10 and Yale Street.

Northwest Freeway Shoney's Inn

Picture from Google, appears to be the official picture when it was Comfort Inn
Much like the Shell off FM 1488 we covered at Numbered Exits the other day, this entry is also part of the Northwest Freeway entries but taken off the main page, with this one being removed from the page as of "Version 8.1" (and originally added in "Version 5.0").

Built as a Shoney's Inn (adjacent to the Shoney's off Northwest Freeway, though by that time, the chains had officially separated) in 1995, this became a Days Inn around 2003 and was converted to a Comfort Inn between 2005 and 2007. Around 2023 it became a co-branded Comfort Inn/MainStay Suites before becoming Sonesta Essential (Sonesta Essential NW Houston around 2024, which repainted it white with blue trim. The two-story motel has 115 rooms.

Luby's Cafeteria Town & Country

I dislike using Google Maps Street View photos because they're blurry or have weird stitching artifacts, but it will have to do today.
Among the businesses in the original, pre-1983 Town & Country Village was Luby's Cafeteria (opened in 1974 as Romana Cafeteria). The address was 825 Town & Country Village, but I've also seen 825 Town & Country Lane or even 12867 Town & Country Way for the address. The history is tied to Town & Country Mall. It initially faced the Town & Country Village shopping center, but when the Town & Country Mall was built, the front of the Luby's faced the mall's parking garage, the back was toward the street, making the Luby's essentially face backwards, which no other Luby's did. It advertised with Town & Country Mall's directories and advertising as if it was a restaurant in the mall, but it was still located outside, and outlasted the mall itself by about eight years (I believe this restaurant closed in 2012). A few years later it was torn down for CITYCENTRE Five, an office building that was part of the CityCentre development that itself replaced Town & Country Mall. As of this writing and according to the CityCentre website, the building is home to City Bank (suite 100) on street level and LifeTime Work (suite 1200) above, as well as others.

Tennis World Apartments

1985 ad with logo and features (Houston Chronicle, 9/15/85)
New apartment complexes are a dime a dozen these days and not much to distinguish between them, but there a few to try to break that mold and offer stuff that your average apartment complex couldn't, case in point, Tennis World, located at 2101 Hayes Road.

I came across it doing research for when updating another page on this site, and while Tennis World had the usual trappings of other communities oriented toward adults and young professionals (including multiple swimming pools), it featured eight lighted tennis courts, as well as a pro shop and a "resident [tennis] pro will be available to residents for complimentary lessons", with the complex itself featuring seven floorplans ranging to three-bedroom units. (source).

Lots of wood siding here. (Houston Chronicle, 6/16/1984)
From what I can tell, Tennis World maintained its popularity through the 1980s when other late 1970s builds weren't doing so hot, with 1985 adding a fitness center on the premises, though by that time they had family sections.

In 1995 the apartments were renamed to Courtside at Olympia Apartment and by 2002 Westchase Ranch Resort, and despite being renamed twice, still carried all of Tennis World's features, such as the free lessons by a tennis professional on staff. During this era, however, changes were made to the apartment's foundation. I'm not sure when the tennis pro was sacked, but the tennis courts remained up until the mid-2010s when renovations were done, and within a few years, all but three were gone (and I'm not sure if the remaining three are even still operational). Not too long after the apartments changed names again to Westside Flats before changing hands again to The Quinn at Westchase.

One other thing regarding this apartment complex is like many complexes it was later cut in half. I've seen over 700 units for quoted for this apartment complex, and that appears to be the units at 11201 Olympia Drive, which were split off in the late 2010s (it was Olympia Flats in 2018, likely resulting from the splitting of Westchase Ranch Resort and now The Corridor at Westchase).

Burger King / Shell at W. 18th Street

Picture from Google Maps (Gregston Chu, 2025). The Burger King logo on the road side was already changed.
Continuing with the theme of Burger King restaurants I've eaten at (see Burger King at 7406 Fondren Road), this one is at 4401 West 18th Street and combined with a Shell station, opening in late 2007. My main memories of it were from the first time I drove to Houston by myself to visit a friend in Pearland, and after driving on Hempstead Road (partly to avoid the 290 construction) stopped here for lunch. After I bought my hamburger, I drove to the Northwest Mall parking lot directly next to it (at the time, the parking lots connected) and ate some of it in the car. While the Northwest Mall's parking lot resembled driving on the surface of the Moon, I sat in my car and looked out at the big Pizza Inn sign in the distance and imagined it as the old, classic Burger King logo (the new one isn't actually the same) atop it.

It replaced a Texaco which operated from the mid-1970s to the early 2000s, and I'm not sure if it operated as a Shell in the early to mid 2000s or as some other automobile-adjacent business.

This is an expanded version of what once appeared on Carbon-izer on the Northwest Freeway page (removed as of Version 8.0).

Burger King at 7406 Fondren Road

Picture from Google Maps (Ryan Smith, 2016)
This particular Burger King at 7406 Fondren Road operated from 1988 to around early 2024 and demolished within a year or so. I removed this entry from Carbon-izer's Southwest Freeway page a while back (or did it even make it to the Southwest Freeway page?) and that's why it's reappearing on The Houston Files, plus I ate here, back in 1999, with my parents when we were visiting this part of town. I was going to write that there was some sort of Muppets from Space promotion going on at the time but further evidence shows that Wendy's did this promotion, but it was definitely Burger King and definitely this Burger King, because it was in a commercial area closer to the highway, whereas Wendy's was a block or two in the opposite direction and faced houses.

Chateau Memorial

It contains apartments now, though... (Houston Chronicle, 10/23/66)
Built as Chateau Memorial back around 1964 (advertising all the upscale apartment perks of the mid-1960s plus some, like weekly oven cleanings) and known as Chateau Memorial West by 1967 (the apartments of 910 Silber Road, across the street, was Chateau Memorial East, later they would be marketed under one name again). By 1989 it was going under the Villa Estates name, which included an update of the units (and based on a photograph, added a few sculptures for a vague Italian theme). The name didn't last long—Legends of Memorial first appeared for the apartment complex's name around 1991.

Looking at modern pictures today, the spiral staircase of the original clubhouse is still there, but it has been converted into additional units.

Most of the content here originally appeared on the Katy Freeway page.

Wagner Hardware

From "Liz S." on Yelp from here.
This post was originally part of Carbon-izer.com and later spun off to Numbered Exits, where it was combined with a post on Village Flowery (current Numbered Exits post here.

When it began construction of a building fronting Kirby in May 1948, Wagner Hardware already had been a known name moving from the Rice Village area, and after completing the building at 6111 Kirby Drive, continued to operate for the next 60 years. At one point, Wagner Hardware had six locations in the Houston area. By December 2004, with the closing of their store at 5233 Bellaire Boulevard (which operated since 1953), Wagner was down to this location. In 2009, it introduced a store-within-a-store for eco-friendly products called "New Living". Not too long after, the store changed hands and the store was remerchandised and rebranded to the "New Living" concept. Most of the hardware lines were dropped for furniture and mattresses in addition to paint, and in 2014, New Living dismantled the old Wagner Hardware sign above the store. Between 2015 and 2017, New Living refocused from "sustainable design and furniture" to simply "organic mattresses". I'm not sure how the transition between New Living and Houston Natural Mattress (the similar replacement tenant) occurred, but it happened between October 2019 and March 2020. They had different phone numbers. (Street View here).

Pyne Hall Apartments

The Houston Post, March 18 1962
This used to be on Carbon-izer (on Outer Loop Roads). In 1962, Pyne Hall Apartments opened at 2450 McCue Road with 60 units and upscale features (see ad above), and featured an unusual first for apartment complexes, a concrete fallout shelter. By 1980, the apartments had become "Galleria Gardens" and was advertising furnished apartments for executive lodging (rooms equipped with everything, including basic cookware), with daily, weekly, and monthly rates. By 1982, it had adopted the 2500 McCue address, but even as of 1984 still featured yearly leases. At some point in the late 1980s it was seized by the FDIC. (It was still apartments after the seizure in 1988, but ads don't list a name).

In 1994, Residence Inn took over the property (92 units at the time), and made improvements since, notably by rebuilding the structures on the perimeter of the property in the early 2000s. The website now boasts 146 suites as of the late 2010s, and in 2025, changed hands to Extended Stay America.

Former Barry's Pizza

In 2001, they only had their original and a short-lived Stafford location.
This used to be on Carbon-izer.com under "Other Houston Roads - Outer Loop", well, as of this writing anyway, as it got eliminated during the rewrite of the page to the new Richmond Avenue page (which will go live within 24 hours of this post going to press, so unless you're subscribed to the blog it's up).

In 1983, Carlos'n Charlies opened at 6003 Richmond Avenue, though perhaps due to issues with the parent company became Carlos'n Lefties Del Norte within a year, likely taking inspiration from the country song. After it closed in 1985, Crocodile (a seafood restaurant) opened in 1987, and was described in a restaurant review as "Bennigan's meets Banana Republic" and "everything about it [was] derivative of one restaurant theme or another" (For a brief time, Crocodile was just a few blocks away from Hippo). By 1990, the restaurant was just the "Pappas Party Room", with the defunct restaurant now being rented out as event space, and in early 1992 became the new home of Barry's Pizza, which had multiple locations in Houston at the time.

By 1997, the restaurant, also known as "Barry's Pizza & Italian Diner" was referred to as the "original" location and by 2019, Barry's Pizza was down to this one location, closing in 2020 (one of Houston's COVID-19 victims). A similar restaurant, Parma Pizza, opened in 2021, but it closed after a relatively short run, and by August 2024 the building was being torn down.

Replacing it was a gas station (Spark) with the address of 3222 Fountain View, featuring "Kare Market" and "Spark Laundry". Pictures can be seen at HoustonArchitecture.com.

The Redevelopment of Pinebrook Apartments

Ad for Pinebrook Apartments shortly after opening. From Houston Chronicle, 1973.
Welcome back to The Houston Files! For the last few years I've been adding Houston-related entries to Numbered Exits but there were so many Houston-related entries (especially as they've gotten taken off Carbon-izer) that I decided to revive this site again.

While I've discussed on my Northwest Freeway page in the past, 5201 West 34th Street currently houses a Jimmy John's and Origin Bank these days, but it wasn't always like that. It was originally a much larger lot with Northwest Freeway frontage and housed Pinebrook Apartments (stylized as "PineBrook", at least in the early days of the apartment complex) was a 232-unit apartment complex built in 1971 (and started advertising in 1972) as one of the many apartment complexes with clubhouses, swimming pools, and shag carpeting in the early 1970s, though PineBrook was always open to families (and pets).

The apartment complex suffered issues leading up to its official closure in November 1990 (transients moving into vacant apartments and starting fires), with (apparently) another fire happening after it was closed before the city tore it down in early 1992. By early 1995 it had been redeveloped into new sites, a new building housing a stand-alone Payless ShoeSource (using the old address, 5201 West 34th Street) and the Pine Hollow Shopping Center at 5215 West 34th Street, which was also near Northwest Freeway.

From what I can find, there was Jason's Deli in suite A (1995 to eviction in the early 2010s), Pro-Cuts in suite B (might've changed its name before closing/eviction), and Blockbuster in suite D (1995-2008). (If there was anything in Suite C I couldn't find it). I did get a bit of the Street View here.

In 1996, Boston Market was built at 5195 West 34th Street, and in 2005¹, another building was built next to it (5185 West 34th Street) with Lenny's Sub Shop, a vacancy, First Cash Advance, and RadioShack (which moved from across the street). 5175 West 34th Street was developed as a Wells Fargo in 2008.

Of course, all of these have changed over the years. Pine Hollow was demolished with the widening of the freeway, with Jason's Deli (which was closest to West 34th) going last². Payless ShoeSource closed in 2006 and was replaced with Purpose Money (later Check into Cash, by 2011) but only in half of the building. By late 2014, Jimmy John's opened in the other half but the west half was empty, and finally filled in 2016 with Verizon, though that only operated for around four years. By summer 2024 it was replaced with Origin Bank.

Boston Market closed around 2000 and was replaced by Sonic Drive-In (featuring an eat-in area) in 2001 which closed around 2026 (though the sign had been smashed out for a few years at that point).

The strip center next door had tenants come and go, with Lenny's Sub Shop getting replaced by a Little Caesars and the RadioShack becoming a Sprint RadioShack, then converting to a regular Sprint store before closing entirely. Tenants as of January 2026, from east to west (left to right) include Little Caesars (100), Fred Loya Insurance, Total by Verizon (200), Studio 34 Barbershop, and Wingstop.

Wells Fargo closed between 2024 and January 2026.

Additionally, here's an adver-article from 12/31/1972 from the Houston Chronicle that talks more about the apartments.

1. It appears the tenants moved in proper around 2006.
2. Presumably waiting until their new location on Northwest Freeway could be completed.

Holiday Inn Crowne Plaza at Park 10

This now-defunct hotel got back its Crowne Plaza name, if briefly. (Street View, 2011)
Located at 14703 Park Row, the 19-floor 349-room Holiday Inn Crowne Plaza at Park 10 was one of the first Crowne Plaza hotels in the chain (then known as "Holiday Inn Crowne Plaza", I believe it was the fourth after the third, at 2222 W. Loop South, with the first being in Maryland) opening in February 1984. A 1986 article mentions the restaurants here were "Park Cafe" and "Le Regale". In late 1987, however, it was converted to a large (regular) Holiday Inn, "Holiday Inn Houston West". It still was a nice hotel and advertised the "Holidome" as a feature. In 1995 it was rebranded again to "Holiday Inn Select" (a now-defunct brand angled toward business travelers) and by 2008 was rebranded back to Crowne Plaza, as InterContinental Hotel Group had decided to eliminate Holiday Inn Select as a brand.

In 2012 it switched hotel groups entirely, switching to a Wyndham and closed in 2020 permanently, mirroring so many other large hotels that closed over thirty years prior.

Around 2023 it reopened as Teak, a luxury apartment building.

My 2002 directory for Holiday Inn mentions that the hotel had "Tavern at the Park" (bar), Park Cafe (buffets for weekday lunch and breakfast, Friday seafood buffet, and champagne brunch for Sunday).

H-E-B Pantry Foods #309

Not an H-E-B Pantry anymore, unfortunately.
In July 1992, the ribbon-cutting for H-E-B Pantry Foods #309 at 5815 Antoine Drive was held and continued on until around 2003 when the store closed (it's possible, but unlikely, that it became branded as a regular H-E-B by this time).

A few years later, it was expanded and reopened as "Harris County Annex 38", a government building with a variety of services and offices inside. (HHR mentions it was "expanded prior to closing", but this is incorrect, it expanded AFTER closing). The above picture is from Google Maps Street View, a crummy-quality picture of the store when operating as an H-E-B can be seen here.

Originally seen on the Other Houston Roads - Outer Loop and H-E-B Stores of Houston, both on Carbon-izer.

Georgia's Farm to Market

For years, at the intersection of the Katy Freeway frontage road and Piney Point Road sat two converted gas stations. Tall Plants at 9191 Katy Freeway is still there but the other one at 9201 Katy Freeway, is not.

Georgia's Farm to Market was the last tenant at 9201 Katy Freeway before its demolition for a new location of Rice Box. I first became aware of it back in spring 2016, which looked like an interesting farmer's market-type store, despite its small size. Alas, at the time, I was too poor, too pressed for time, and wasn't even on the right side of the road (Blalock was my exit, but I would have to circle around twice). When I returned in February 2020, the store was clearly closed, yet the parking lot was full of cars, and really nice cars at that. Hoping I wasn't stumbling onto something illegal, I poked my head inside to see a small class of people doing painting lessons in the gutted building. I didn't interact with them, I had completed my purpose, and I don't think they even noticed me. As for Georgia's, it moved and renamed in early 2018.

Georgia's had occupied the spot since 2013, when it was moved from a location at a former Kmart further down Katy Freeway. (It was only supposed to be a temporary move but ended up being permanent). Prior to Georgia's, it was a granite and flooring store (officially Floors & Beyond Trading), and was an Enco station (originally Humble) in 1967. (The station was built between 1957 and 1962). This seems to have continued up until around 1994, when it closed (as an Exxon) and became Robert's Auto Works (mid to late 1990s), then a Just Brakes (2000-2004). The two pictures were taken in February 2021 by myself. In 2021 the canopy was demolished followed by the rest of the building soon after.

The building's current use is listed on the Katy Freeway page at Carbon-izer.

Leo's Coffee Shop

In 1973, Leo Kalantzakis opened a 24-hour coffee shop at the ground floor of 1203 Fannin (below a parking garage), where, according to the Houston Chronicle, "he'll offer platters of seafood, steaks cooked to order, specialty salads, and a magnificent sandwich selection. Two midnight breakfasts, steaks and the traditional ham 'n eggs are ranking high, says manager Jerry Erwin."

The signage looks big and gaudy and probably was outdated even by 1970s standards (certainly with energy requirements coming in soon) but the reason why Leo's can still be talked about today is a rather scathing report by Marvin Zindler's "Rat & Roach Report" from 1982. That's where the pictures in this post come from, the current A dingy downtown diner that never closes has issues, with health inspectors finding two dead mice in a storage area and "roaches crawling on the condiment cooler" (as Zindler relished the alliteration). By 1984 Leo's was gone.

The current site is now home to McCormick & Schmick's Seafood & Steaks; the building was demolished and rebuilt in the late 2000s.