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.

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.

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.

Barbecue Inn

Picture from author, March 2019
With the recent passing of Barbecue Inn (closed the first weekend of August 2026) I wanted to take another look at this post and expand it somewhat. To start off, let's take a look at what Fearless Critics: Houston Restaurant Guide said about this restaurant in 2008 that convinced me to try it.

Click to enlarge. Sorry about the quality, it's not my scan.
When I visited in March 2019 I was happy to see that most of that held true. The fries were good (but best in Houston? Hmmm...) and the chicken fried steak was excellent. And they did have that little thing for the baked potatoes. But at the same time the restaurant seemed largely stuck in the past, and its time was ultimately coming to a close.

Barbecue Inn's closing made the Houston Chronicle (7/31/2026).
Now, it's talked about that it's 80 or so years but how old is it really? Well, Barbecue Inn's current building, according to both HCAD and newspaper records, was built in 1965. As of 1961, the 116 West Crosstimbers address that Barbecue Inn called home for decades was a private residence, with a fire reported in 1961 that damaged the roof, and it's likely that this house, whether repaired or not, was the one that was torn down.

The first reference to Barbecue Inn in the Houston papers appears here in 1931 as a restaurant opening at 242 West Gray. There were references to an "Eddie's Barbecue Inn" in 1942, an "Avalon Barbecue Inn" in 1947, and "Casey's Barbecue Inn" on Market Street in Baytown. Louis & Nell Skrehot opened the restaurant back in 1946, and in 1948 there's a reference to a Barbecue Inn at 4400 Yale, which is the same business, but located across the street where the gas station is currently, but no references to its current address exist prior to 1965, which is what HCAD says. Of course, it's possible that HCAD guessed from the newspaper archives and is just as wrong, but aerials back up the current building not existing prior to 1965, and another similarly-sized (non-residential) building being across the street.

I didn't take any pictures of my meal, unfortunately. (3/2019, by author)
When I originally posted this back in 2020, my Crosstimbers page looks nothing like it does today (and for some reason, as of this update—September 7th, 2026— it somehow is missing the link to the page, which will be fixed by the end of the month.

Quality Inn at Southwest Freeway and Weslayan Street

4020 Southwest Freeway

This hotel was built in 1969 as Executive Motor Inn, with name changes as follows as per newspaper references: Executive Red Carpet Inn (1972) though references to the Executive Motor Inn or Executive Motor Hotel existed into 1980, Executive Motor Hotel (1981), Quality Inn - Greenway Plaza (1983), Ramada Inn - Greenway Plaza (1992), Executive Inn - Greenway Plaza (early 1993), Super 8 Inn (late 1993), Executive Inn - Greenway Plaza (1997), Hawthorn Inn & Suites (mid-2000), and Comfort Inn & Suites (fall 2003).

Sometime around late 2006 the hotel was closed and demolished as per Google Earth and HCAD records. The ad is from a tourist guide from the mid-1980s.

2100 Memorial

2100 Memorial Drive

Memorial Drive once was the busiest road in Houston during the 1960s prior to the opening of the Katy Freeway, but the road was removed from the freeway plan by the early 1950s and the Holiday Inn opened in 1969 (according to Harris County Appraisal District), within months of Katy Freeway opening. As a result, the hotel (already only one way to access the front of the hotel) was left with terrible access points no matter the direction, though I would guess it worked with downtown, rather than trying to advertise from I-10 (and crossing, at the time, three railroads).

The hotel, officially referred to the "Civic Center" Holiday Inn or (in later years) the "Memorial Plaza" Holiday Inn, had 13 floors (likely labeled "ground" and floors one through 12), and less than 300 rooms. (Sources vary on the rooms. The 1970 Hotel & Motel Red Book says 297 but an article in the Houston Post reported 271). It was also operated directly by Holiday Inns of America Inc. itself rather than being a franchised operation. Due to the 1980s economic downturn, the hotel closed in 1986 (indications it shuttered after year-end 1985), and by 1989 it was already considered to be converted to housing for the elderly (according to various articles), though renovation and reopening plans eventually fell through.

In 1998, the property reopened as 2100 Memorial (featuring 197 units made by combining rooms), and was at some point in the early 2010s repainted burgundy from beige. The flooding and subsequent fire control damage from Hurricane Harvey nearly closed 2100 Memorial until courts ordered the building to stay open and make repairs. Some residents did manage to move back in, but others left the building. An article from Houston Public Media mentions that there was still significant flood damage in the lower levels as well as other problems (bed bug infestation, asbestos in walls). In early 2020 the building was evicted and demolition began late November 2021. A newer, lower-rise building (but still 197 units) is to replace it.

Pictures taken in October 2018 by the author.

Albert Pick Motor Inn / Americana Motor Inn

3301 Southwest Freeway

During the 1980s recession, a number of hotels ended up closing outright. Some of them were surprises, some of them not. Some of them were able to reopen as hotels as the economy improved, and some were converted into senior housing. The fates of these hotels were entertaining to research, and many were easy to find, including Preference Inn (an Americas Best Value Inn these days, it's on the Beltway) or the Rodeway Inn Towers (torn down sometime in the early 2000s), some were not. The one that was most perplexing was just one, the Americana Motor Inn on Southwest Freeway. It took a lot of time to research it, but it was real, and located at 3301 Southwest Freeway.

It is a ghost, in more ways than one. On a technical standpoint, the hotel was an eight-story hotel with 201 to 207 rooms (for some reason, the number of rooms always seem to vary between sources, a problem noted with research for the Comfort Inn) and built in 1967. It was also very difficult to research (in part dealing with trying to look up the wrong address), but once the address was fixed, everything else researched fell into place, and a great postcard image (drawn) from a CardCow page on Amazon was found. Other advertisements mention that it had everything one could want from a modern (but modest) 1970s hotel--color televisions, meeting space for 375, a swimming pool, free parking, a lounge, and a small restaurant/coffee shop, the "Sabre & Saddle". One of the reasons it was hard to research was the Americana Motor Inn name only existed on the hotel for less than five years.

From all research, access was very limited. The hotel was located at the corner of Buffalo Speedway and Southwest Freeway, but the Buffalo Speedway entrance/exit was right-turn in, right-turn out with no back entrance, owing to the lack of Westpark Road. Like some of the other hotels on the stretch (including Greenway Inn), U-turns were a necessity.

There was an unoccupied pad site at the direct southwest corner of Buffalo Speedway and Southwest Freeway, perhaps intended for a separate restaurant or fast food, but it appears that this was never built. The railroad located behind the hotel did not likely play a part in its demise, by the 1970s it was already a spur with just a few customers and sometime shortly after the hotel met its untimely end, the railroad was completely abandoned.

An early 1980s directory mentions it had a Compacts Rent-a-Car but no listing for a restaurant inside. Given how shockingly little information there is on this hotel there is on the Internet plus how it flat-out closed during a recession, it may have been that it never had a restaurant in its later days.

In the process of researching, Americana Hotels (with Americana Motor Inn hotels included) were owned by American Airlines (complete with a similar logo, the above is from The New York Times, 1976). It is not clear if it was related to the 1960s-era Americana Motor Inns Corpus Christi. It may have been disposed of by the 1970s.

In 1979 a number of the Americana hotels were sold to Pick Hotels, which were owned by Bass Brothers of Texas, and the Americana chain continued under him with the addition of a new Americana Hotel in Downtown Fort Worth. Soon after that, Pick Hotels Corporation became Americana Hotels Corporation, and a separate publicly-traded company, Americana Hotels & Realty, was created to actually own hotels. The hotel was renamed Albert Pick Motor Inn to the Americana Motor Inn as part of this change. It seems odd that a first-rate hotel like Americana Motor Inn, located directly off the freeway (some of the other hotels that closed in that era like the Shamrock or Holiday Inn off Memorial didn't have nearly as good as a location, and closed after Americana), would close in that era.

The above article features the photo the author originally wanted to license and put up in color, but when an inquiry was made, the Houston Chronicle refused to license it for free media, not even offering a picture for personal use.

As to why the hotel was demolished, things got ugly between Americana Hotels Corporation and Americana Hotels & Realty, with the real estate arm pulling out and ending contracts with the operational hotels, and the hotel side merging out of existence. What probably happened was that the REIT got the hotel (the hotel was still standing in June 1986) and unable to re-market it in the brutal Houston hotel environment (see photo and picture above), decided to simply demolish it to avoid it being vandalized beyond repair or spending money to protect it from such.

By 1989, the hotel was gone, with only the scars of where the buildings were and crumbling parking lots, and that's how it would remain until around 1997. That's when Summit Center Ltd. (named after, but not owned by the former Summit arena across the street) took over and redeveloped the property (and adjacent space) as Summit Square. The space where Americana Motor Inn was only encompasses the left building of the shopping center (if one was looking it at from Southwest Freeway, that is, the building on the east side of the access road that cuts between the two), Chili's, and a Chase bank, the latter of which occupies the unused pad.

None of the 1960s-era construction would survive (some parking lots exist off of Westpark, but those were built afterwards, as they are located on the railroad right of way).