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.

Railhead

Postcard from the early days. (Source unknown).

The first reference to 6400 Richmond appears in 1974 as the Railhead, a steakhouse themed to the golden era of American railroads. From what I've heard it had two portions of the restaurants, one focusing on steakhouse dining (serving a menu of prime rib and seafood) and the other toward live shows, which got increasingly more nightclubby as time went on. A January 1983 show with Dan Berry of Jan & Dean invited women to come in a bikini (and get their first drink free). Later that year it closed and the building received a large expansion to become Fizz, a popular nightclub, opening in spring 1986.

Fizz closed in October 1986 for a renovation, with a new theme and name, Hippo, opening in December. Hippo featured "a pseudo-artsy decor" where "abstract acrylics, animal murals and bad Picasso-esque paintings line the walls". By June 1988, however, the location had transitioned into a new concept, simply called "6400 Richmond" with alternative music (the new slogan - "Top 40 - We Ain't Playing It!"). This was done slowly, with some nights as Hippo and some as 6400 Richmond with black plastic covering the walls. You can see some of what was the nightclub in this video. It mentions a private club-within-a-nightclub (Wolfgang) with a quieter, more discreet atmosphere (this was likely the old Railhead portion) and you can see guests dance on the floor (note the very drunk man at five minutes) to Dead Or Alive's "My Heart Goes Bang" (Live in Japan).

"6400 Club" as it was known by late 1988, was destroyed in a fire in January 1989 and appears to not have reopened. The most extensive damage was at the former Railhead building, which was essentially rebuilt as a covered patio. The rest of the building was repaired/rebuilt and reopened as Back Alley in August 1991. Just over a year later, the club was closed and reopened around December 1992 as Texas Live, a new country western club, but it closed after four months, citing an oversaturated C&W nightclub scene. In mid-1993 it reopened as Rockefeller's West, a spin-off of Rockefeller's in the Rice Military area and designed to be primarily a performance hall rather than a dance club. Operations changed hands and eventually the "original" Rockefeller's managed to get exclusivity rights to the name back and Rockefeller's West was changed to Bayou City Theater (aka Bayou City Theatre) in December 1993.

In July 1994, Peter's Wildlife opened, turning it back into a nightclub. In November, the club faced some bad publicity with "Slash 'N Dash", to feature "was to feature a straw poll on [O.J.] Simpson's guilt or innocence; free valet parking for customers driving white Ford Broncos; free Simpson masks and a gift certificate for a hunting knife as a grand prize". Not only was the grand prize a knife but the winner was to "win an O.J. Simpson 'Slash N' Dash' night on the town to include dinner at McDonald's, a black stocking cap, a gift certificate for a hunting knife, a pair of sunglasses and a limousine ride to the airport". After there was an outcry from local womens' shelters about this, the club announced that the party would instead be "An Evening of Extremely Poor Taste" and "did not mention prizes". At some point around this time, there was a club-within-a-club, Florida Keys. Peter's Wildlife closed in mid-1997 shortly after a lawsuit was filed by a woman claiming she "almost choked to death" in a hot dog eating contest Peter's Wildlife had hosted in 1995. T-Town 2000, a Latino-themed nightclub opened in September 1998, not long after 6400 Sports Cafe made a brief appearance in the building. T-Town 2000 was successful enough to last seven years (something that every club, dating back to Fizz, couldn't manage) before closing/changing to Planeta Bar-Rio around 2005 (probably because "2000" anything became quickly dated after the year 2000). Around 2010 it was reformatted once more to Stereo Live, a live performance venue, which has remained since.

The billboard-esque sign for the club dates back to the days of the Railhead.

This post is researched through Houston Chronicle and Houston Post archives and expanded from what originally appeared on Carbon-izer.com at this page.

Jack in the Box in The Heights

Photo by author, March 2019
Built in 1977 but replacing an older restaurant dating back to at least the mid-1960s, this Jack in the Box closed September 2018. The restaurant was poorly run, with employees actually refusing to serve hamburgers after around 7 pm citing the grill being shut off (likely a reason for its demise, as Jack in the Box stores usually thrive on night traffic). After a major renovation inside and out, it reopened as Velvet Taco in January 2021, their third location in Houston at the time but the first with a drive-through. Jack in the Box's "box" signage was kept and reused, however.

UPDATE 08-25-2026: Article touched up for better integration with Carbon-izer

Crain's Garden Center

4511 Highway 6 North

Today, this is a Discount Tire, with Discount Tire's store being built in 1989. Based on aerials, the original garden center dates back to the 1970s. From The Houston Post, June 12, 1985.

Quality Inn (Southwest Freeway)

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.

Former Joe's Crab Shack on Northwest Freeway

Picture by author from September 2018, when it was BrickHouse Tavern + Tap.
The restaurant at 12910 Northwest Freeway first opened in 1997 as Joe's Crab Shack, which was a growing chain under parent company Landry's (you can see it in Google Street View as Joe's). After Landry's sold Joe's Crab Shack to investors in 2006, in 2008, the restaurant was closed with other underperforming locations to be converted to a new restaurant concept, BrickHouse Tavern + Tap, with this location being first to open in January 2009. By the picture above was taken, Joe's Crab Shack was back in the possession of Landry's having purchased JCS Holdings (renamed as Ignite Restaurant Group in 2009) in 2017 after Ignite's bankruptcy. Despite surviving the bankruptcy of Ignite and the re-acquisition by Landry's, this particular location was shuttered in March 2022. In early 2023, it reopened as a Cajun-California cuisine restaurant concept called "Cali Kitchen & Bar", though this has since closed around early 2026 (that's when their social media accounts stopped posting); I think I noticed it when their parking lot was empty and all the other restaurants nearby were full (except for the defunct Fuddruckers, of course).

UPDATE 06-26-2026: The most recent update rewrote a good part of the post and renamed it from "Brick House Tavern + Tap (290)". This is part of the changes to help integrate it with Northwest Freeway.

Former Albertsons #2766

In the years since this picture was taken, the logo has been updated with the Albertsons-era "Food" and "Pharmacy" signs removed.
One of the more popular posts¹ on Albertsons Florida Blog (a site I still follow regularly) is their look at Albertsons #4466, located in St. Port Lucie, Florida, which closed in 2012 despite a recently renewed lease and supposed profitability (it's possible that it did well right before the recession, where the PSL area was hit heavily with foreclosures). Well, PSL did have a twin store (more like a multiple birth), #2766, located at 9125 West Sam Houston Parkway North. Unlike #4466, which was mauled for a Wal-Mart Neighborhood Market, #2766 closed a decade prior but remained remarkably intact under Kroger.

Despite being updated with the same Kroger décor ("Bountiful") that had swept the chain by that time, Kroger #739 as it is numbered now², still held remarkably true to the 4466 layout. It had the same ceiling style and bore enough of a resemblance that I was able to look at the map with my phone and more or less follow it through. I could probably look at the pictures in AFB and visualize the "Grocery Palace" (Albertsons' official name for the package—this is sometimes called "Theme Park", a term Acme Style coined). The Starbucks was in the same place, the deli and meats were in the same place, and while the center store probably saw a rearrangement at some point, there were a few notable changes in the front. The old camera center had been converted to offices with the pet supply area converted to HBA, with the pharmacy next to it (it also added a walk-up pharmacy), and a bank space as well (this may have been part of the original layout), as well as a few other changes. The area around the florist was downsized (didn't see evidence of the former laundromat, though I wasn't looking too hard), as the customer service desk was moved either next to the restrooms or in front of the "Albertsons Reading Center" area. This store opened in 1999 (September 1999, if my notes are right), spending about two and a half years as an Albertsons before being sold to Kroger.

Very Albertsons-like in center store.
This part of town is very Kroger-concentrated due to them purchasing a number of Albertsons locations in town. Just two miles west on West Road is another Kroger (a Kroger Signature built around the turn of the millennium), and at that point, it's where you can find four Kroger stores within a three mile radius, two of which were former Albertsons (the other, of course, is 2790) and two of which were older stores on Northwest Freeway, one of which was a former Safeway/AppleTree. There was a period of about three years when all of these stores operated.

I didn't get a lot of pictures of the store, unfortunately, but the former Albertsons Express is still in business as Kroger's "Kwik Shop", which is run by their convenience store division (a full Kroger-run and Kroger-branded convenience store was opened in College Station in 2016, and that made industry headlines) before they sold off the division, at which point it was run by the supermarket chain thesmselves.

Not a good picture. This was later rebranded as a Kroger convenience store after the division was sold off, but the "Snacks" and "Beverages" signage still stands.
This was the current Street View when this post was originally posted in 2018, with the pictures here taken in summer 2016 by author. It also was an updated version of a 2016 post of Safeway and Albertsons in Texas Blog.

1. In 2016, anyway. I don't have access to recent metrics.
2. In the Houston/Southwest Division of Kroger, #7xx stores were acquired from Albertsons.

UPDATE 07-29-2026: Updated for integration to Carbon-izer with new name (formerly titled as "Kroger #739"). The original post is now almost a decade old.

1344 Yale

1344 Yale Street

This building was a former bakery operation (as of the early 1980s directory, listed as "Heights Bakery" though it's possible it was something originally), with a large three-point sign located at the corner that has faded off completely. As of this writing, the building is scheduled to become a wine bar/shop called "La Grande Rue" and a restaurant called "Savoir". Their websites are (also as of this writing) almost identical. According to HCAD, the build date is 1930 but Loopnet says 1950. However, the building does not seem to be on Google Earth's 1944 view but is on 1953, which suggests 1950 is perhaps the actual build date. More information can be seen on the Houston Architecture Forums.

Picture above is from May 2018 (by the author); picture below from Loopnet before renovations began.

Tommie's Restaurant & Club

5850 Highway 6 North

Advertisement from the Houston Post, June 1985. The 5850 Highway 6 address is no longer in use, as it was a different building before being torn down in the early 1990s for a Dairy Queen (which briefly used the address before switching to 5854 Highway 6 North at some point, most recently home to Captain D's). Tommie's Restaurant & Club opened around December 1983-January 1984, but in March 1986, Tommie's became the nightclub "6th Avenue" (focusing more on entertainment than on food) before closing in 1990. 5848 Highway 6 North was also built on the site at some point.

290 / Beltway 8 Demolition - Taco Bell

15950 Northwest Freeway

This is the third of at least three posts on a small collection of fast food restaurants which the author has taken a personal interest in, to be further explored in a future post on the Northwest Freeway site (this link will be updated soon to reflect that). Along with McDonald's and Wendy's, a Taco Bell was also among the three fast food sites and others on the south side of Highway 290 to be leveled for road widening. According to HCAD, the Taco Bell was built in 1993 and had red, green, and yellow striping outside. Like the other restaurants it closed around fall 2012, and was demolished within months of when these pictures were taken in March 2013 by the author. (The above photo is one of the only ones I have of the building, and the photo below shows the back of the restaurant). Previously, these photos appeared on Carbon-izer and Brazos Buildings & Businesses.

Street View of Taco Bell still in operation

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.

The Commons at Greenspoint

12001-12245 Interstate 45 (North Freeway)

Previously, this content was posted on the Houston Architecture Forums in two posts: "Children's Palace at Greenspoint Commons" and "The Commons at Greenspoint". Built in 1989 right at the time Greenspoint Mall (and the surrounding area) was declining, The Commons at Greenspoint was a modern power center some of the trendy "big box" stores at the time, though many folded by the early 1990s. A listing from the 1990-1991 directory outlined most of the addresses of the stores.

12001 - Media Play (originally built as Phar-Mor)
12009 - Suzannes Shops
12025 - Office Depot
12031 - Sportstown (a chain that went bankrupt in the mid-1990s)
12061 - Highland Superstore (went bankrupt in 1992 and closed all stores by the end of 1993)
12075 - Cloth World (opened 10,000 square foot store in 1990)
12145 - Houston Photolab (this is probably one of the smaller stores)
12159 - Hit or Miss (owned by the parent company of T.J. Maxx, but smaller)
12167 - Sound Warehouse
12175 - Marshalls
12181 - Pier One Imports (stand-alone store close to I-45)
12231 - Marcos Mexican Restaurant
12245 - Children's Palace (see above ad, closed 1992)

Notes from the Chronicle mentioned a few more things:
- Clothestime was here (clothing store), it closed in 1995
- By 1996, Media Play was closed along with other Houston locations ( Almeda Square, Memorial City Mall, Meyer Park Center, Presidio Square and Westchase Center.)
- There was also a store here called Computer City.
- When the center was sold in 1998 to be a telecommunications center, Office Depot was still there.

Greenspoint Technology Center, as it was known from 1999 on, even featured an outpost of Enron and other telecommunications companies but still resembled a strip mall. In 2013, new buildings were built on the parking lot and the property was sealed off from public access.

(Right click to see the image in full size)

UPDATE 06-10-2026: To help integrate this in with Carbon-izer's North Freeway page, the site is now "Digital Realty Houston", a data center.

290 / Beltway 8 Demolition - Wendy's

16055 Northwest Freeway

This is the second of at least three posts on a small collection of fast food restaurants which the author has taken a personal interest in, to be further explored in a future post on the Northwest Freeway site (this link will be updated soon to reflect that). The Wendy's was among the three fast food sites and others on the south side of Highway 290 to be leveled for road widening. According to HCAD, the Wendy's was opened in 1984 and had the "solarium" design as Wendy's had during that time. It is unknown if the tarp was put on the solarium before or after it closed, as the windows made it harder to heat and cool the building (there was no tarp in 2011). The restaurant closed around fall 2012, and was demolished within months of when these pictures were taken in March 2013 by the author. Previously, these photos appeared on Carbon-izer and Brazos Buildings & Businesses.

Street View of Wendy's still in operation

1102 Yale

1102 Yale
Because of a plan this site had not to cover the same territory as other sites, it will only add/update to what Arch-ive has already covered.

The most important thing to note is that Arch-ive.org implies it was Ivy-Russell Ford, THEN ABC Food Stores, which it was not.

In 1941, the 1930s-era grocery store here, ABC Food Stores, was absorbed and rebranded by rival Henke & Pillot. In 1955, Henke & Pillot closed and was replaced by Ivy-Russell Ford (which would only make sense seeing as how it was Ivy-Russell, not ABC/Henke's, brand when the siding was peeled off).

In the early 1960s, Ivy-Russell Ford departed and was replaced with Big Bonus Stamp Company (a redemption center for a type of trading stamp) before folding around 1977. For a brief time after that it was the home of F.A. Bogar Furniture (1977-1982) before becoming Eckerd in 1983.

Eckerd remained here until as late as 2004 when the stores were purchased by CVS (CVS did not convert this store).

In 2008, renovations began on the building with the facade (added by Eckerd, or maybe a previous tenant) peeled off. Lola opened in 2009. Additional tenants that arrived by 2011 included Anytime Fitness, Flooring in the Heights, and Nutrition Epicenter. Nutrition Epicenter has closed (Flooring in the Heights has only one mention beyond Street View, and it is also gone). Sharkey's Cuts for Kids has taken over the nutrition store, and it appears Anytime Fitness has expanded into the flooring store. While this site aims to cover full histories of the sites it covers, sometimes that is not feasible with the schedule. Photo taken by author, August 1, 2018.

Sound Fitness

12600 FM 1960 West

Built as part of a redevelopment of the former John Eagle Honda location, this was an Eckerd drug store, and opened in late 2003 or early 2004 (the building was built in 2003 as per HCAD records), and one of the last stores to be built as an Eckerd. However, the building was built at the wrong time. By the time it opened, Eckerd's owner, J.C. Penney, was about to divest the chain to competitors, the finalists being Jean Coutu Group, which operated primarily Canadian drug stores but had a U.S. division in the form of Brooks Pharmacy (in the New England area), and CVS Corporation, which had recently entered the Houston market, and had a store by February 2004 less than a mile away at Fallbrook and FM 1960. In mid-2004, Eckerd was sold. The stores in Houston and much of the South were sold to CVS Corporation, and the stores in the Eastern Seaboard were sold to Jean Coutu Group, which merged them with the Brooks Pharmacy group to create Brooks Eckerd Pharmacy. Initially both chains ran the Eckerd stores under the Eckerd name, but in September 2004, CVS announced it would shut down "at least 50" Eckerd stores in Texas, with the rest becoming CVS stores. (Brooks Eckerd would continue to run the stores as Eckerd until 2007, when Jean Coutu Group sold the division to Rite Aid). The store at FM 1960 and Eldridge (officially 12620 W. FM 1960 as per HCAD) changed hands in mid-2004 to Anthony G Jr. Mancuso Trust, associated with CVS, and it is likely that the store had never become a CVS, as CVS changed out the oval-shaped Eckerd signs in favor a traditional rectangle, and aerial images indicate that by spring of 2005, the virtually-new Eckerd was empty. At an unknown point later (sometime before December 2007), Sound Fitness moved in, but it has been vacant for the last few years (it was definitely closed as of January 2017, and the last time it was known to be open was in 2013). In 2017, the trust divested the property. Picture above was from the author, January 2015.

To update the above, on Carbon-izer (the FM 1960 West page), more on this building and its adjacent stores were described: This three-building strip center is a little hard to explain in writing. The first incarnation of the property was John Eagle Honda (12602 FM 1960 Road West) from approximately 1984 to 2003. After it moved, two buildings were developed, a strip center at 10311 North Eldridge Parkway, and an Eckerd at 12600 FM 1960 West. Unfortunately, the Eckerd closed in 2004 (operating for less than six months, as it was too close to existing CVS stores when Eckerd was dismantled). Eckerd was replaced by Sound Fitness, which operated from around 2006 to 2013. After closing, the sign of Sound Fitness remained up for several years afterward.

The third incarnation of the property renovated both buildings, and rebranded the former Eckerd/Sound Fitness building as 12620 FM 1960 (Building C) while adding an all-new Building A with the same address. (Presumably, the Eldridge building is "B"). Building C now has Walgreens (which relocated from their larger store catty-corner), Vision Concept, a vacant space, and Charleys Cheesesteaks. Building A features Candila Media Graphics (for a graphic company, the font is awful, the "a"s look like "o"s), The UPS Store, Avis/Budget, Verizon, and Tex Mex Grill & Bar.

It also links to the Houston Historic Retail which discusses the building after it had been modified around the early 2020s. Current Google Maps Street View

290 / Beltway 8 Demolition - McDonald's

16001 Northwest Freeway

This is the first of at least three posts on a small collection of fast food restaurants which the author has taken a personal interest in, to be further explored in a future post on the Northwest Freeway site (this link will be updated soon to reflect that). The McDonald's was among the three fast food sites and others on the south side of Highway 290 to be leveled for road widening.

While technically in Jersey Village, the McDonald's had the address and zip code of Houston, and to reduce confusion, that's what the "labels" of this post represent.

The address of the McDonald's is a bit in question. Normally, addresses on the north side of Northwest Freeway or Hempstead Road (when they parallel) are all even-numbered, as there's nothing on the south side (railroad), and when they are together they share addresses as they are in parallel. When Northwest Freeway is split away from the railroad, they have odd-numbered addresses. The McDonald's and the other stores in the "wedge" approaching Beltway 8 had both. As a result, legally this McDonald's is 16001 Northwest Freeway but also operated as 16002 Hempstead (despite the signage being 16001).

The McDonald's was built in 1980 (as per HCAD's paving records) and was listed as being rebuilt in 2000 (as per HCAD), which is a bit unusual given that the previous restaurant was not very old at the time. It is possible that it was just renovated, and the paint job of white and red was common to what McDonald's was repainting their older restaurants at the time. The paving record also indicates that it was a renovation as opposed to a rebuild; full rebuilds usually involve a new parking lot as well.

In 2012, the McDonald's closed, and stripped most of its iconic roof in the process. By June 2013, the building was demolished. The pictures were taken in March 2013 by the author. Previously, these photos appeared on Carbon-izer and Brazos Buildings & Businesses.

Street View of McDonald's still in operation

Holiday Inn - Greenway Plaza

2712 Southwest Freeway

According to both HCAD and Emporis, this hotel opened in 1984, certainly by May 1984 when this advertisement was published, advertising the hotel's bar/nightclub, The White Rose Cabaret. While the hotel wasn't quite as tall as the Holiday Inn Downtown (no Holiday Inn was), it was probably fancier and would be in better shape (even as the oil downturn hit).

In August 1994, just about two years after a renovation, it was reported that Holiday Inn Greenway Plaza was being sold to Dallas-based Harvey Hotels Corporation (this is all cross-referenced with HCAD), and the Holiday Inn sign was removed, replaced with the Harvey Hotel branding (and it was branded as Harvey Hotel for a while, with references to the hotel being named as such as of May 1995).

Prior to this, the hotel had flipped hands several times back and forth from Greenway Plaza Inn Inc. to other companies, none lasting more than two years (so says HCAD), but keeping the Holiday Inn name. Despite some articles of Harvey Hotel rebranding some acquired Holiday Inn hotels to its own name, Harvey Hotels began a restructuring, and in late 1995, became Bristol Hotel Company. By March 1996 (the earliest reference found), Harvey Hotel had returned to the Holiday Inn branding, but as Holiday Inn Select, a brand of Holiday Inn Worldwide (owned at the time by Bass PLC, not to be confused with the Bass family out of Fort Worth). While research was unable to find when Holiday Inn Select was created, it looks like 1995, and the Houston hotel may have been one of the very first to get rebranded, even under the Harvey Hotels ownership. Meanwhile, Bristol continued to be a major Holiday Inn franchisee, which took control of a number of formerly company-owned locations in 1997 (for some reason, transfer of the title of the title officially to Bristol Lodging was not official until October 1997).

While the Harvey Hotel name did not last long on the hotel, Harvey/Bristol would have Holiday Inn Select for over a decade until Holiday Inn Select Houston - Greenway Plaza Area (as it was known by this time) would remain until ASDN Houston (from what it looks like, only owned that hotel) bought it in 2006. That being true, it meant that the hotel was briefly owned by Holiday Inn's parent company itself, as Bristol was purchased in 2000 by Bass, shortly before Bass sold their flagship brewing business to Interbrew in 2000 (becoming Six Continents, reflecting the holdings of the worldwide hotel company) and spinning off the pubs and restaurants division as Mitchell & Butlers in 2003, becoming InterContinental Hotels Group. Soon after ASDN purchased Holiday Inn Select, IHG announced a redesign of the Holiday Inn name, which included (among other things), discontinuing the Holiday Inn Select and Holiday Inn SunSpree Resort names. The Holiday Inn Select hotels would be phased out for either traditional Holiday Inn hotels or Crowne Plaza, and by the end of 2011, this hotel would become Crowne Plaza Houston River Oaks. (There was one other Holiday Inn Select in the Houston area, at 14703 Park Row, though today it is a Wyndham).

The 2002 Six Continents hotel directory reports that the Holiday Inn Select (which is what the author remembers as the building during his trips to Houston prior to 2010) featured 355 "executive guest rooms" and 36 suites, plus 18 floors, 12,000 square foot of meeting space (up to 500 to 800 people depending on configuration), and a "Restaurant & Bar".

Google Street View from the present to the days when it was Holiday Inn Select

UPDATE 05-25-2026: Minor changes to match with Carbon-izer.

Ruth's Chris Steak House on Richmond

6213 Richmond Avenue

The current Ruth's Chris Steak House in Houston is at 5433 Westheimer, when a renovation of an office building built it into a former bank lobby, but the original was located here on Richmond. The original restaurant here, "PTI Restaurant" opened in 1975. It then Zachary's before closing altogether in less than two years, and from 1977 to 2013 was the home of Ruth's Chris Steak House, which despite being a chain offered some of the best steaks in Houston (dry-aged, well seasoned, with a pat of butter added to the steak just moments after being pulled off the grill). Afterwards, by fall 2014, it was V Live (despite signs of "Vintage Steak & Seafood", it was a strip club). Newspaper articles say that V Live was closed in November 2016 due to not paying taxes, and it later became Karma Houston 6213 (which did not last long) and Draise Houston (also similarly fly-by-night looking). The most recent strip club here, Bunny's Gentlemens Club, operated here from 2020 to 2022. In late 2024 it became Selfish Hookah Lounge. Image picture above is from a Houston tour guide from the 1980s and the bottom is from Loopnet.com.

UPDATE 07-07-2026: Updated as part of the new Richmond Avenue page, of which this is fully independent. Title of post changed from "Ruth's Chris Steak House" to "Ruth's Chris Steak House on Richmond".