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.

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.

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.

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.

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 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.

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.

17030-17050 Imperial Valley Drive

Woodvalley Apartments in its original form. (Houston Post, 6/1979) Our story starts in the present day, at least, present day as of this writing, when Biscayne at CityView (17050 Imperial Valley Drive), an apartment complex, was demolished in late 2025 and concluded in early 2026, with the former apartments to become greenspace. They had been flooded out in the 2016 Tax Day Floods and in Hurricane Harvey over a year later, and was bought by the Harris County Flood Control District, which condemned the property, with the last residents moving out in 2022. They were long seen as blight and slums representative of post-1980s Greenspoint.

But it wasn't always like this.

Woodvalley Apartments first opened in 1977 with 316 units and located at 17050 Imperial Valley Drive (the north side of the current property). It was typical of suburban apartments at the time, with this one in particular offering the perk of Channel Z. This wasn't a misspelling of Los Angeles-based Z Channel but rather a Houston-based channel for movies and only available at apartment complexes.

The apartment glut in Houston wreaked havoc on Greenspoint in particular (and Gulfton), and to help combat this, Woodvalley, which was considered to be "deteriorating" by this time, fought back. In 1985, it received a significant upgrade where it became "The Hollywood" and even in 1989 (according to the Houston Post article "Latest marketing ploy? A poolside beach") had 90% occupancy. This was more than a name change and a repaint, the new name came with "lush California landscaping", with other amenities including "fountains, reflecting pools, an outdoor poolside amphitheater, waterfalls, sand volleyball, lighted tennis courts and even an imposing entry gate". Even after hard freezes and the demolition of the apartment complex, those palm trees are still there.

The Hollywood ad, c. 1985 (Houston Post)
When I first wrote this post, there was a government document still online that had Section 8 apartments circa 1994-1996, and this was one of them under the name of Summerlin, which it adopted shortly after it changed hands in 1993.

By 2007 it adopted the Biscayne at CityView name, though I can't figure out when that happened.

Early Sunlight Apartments advertisement
The second apartment complex that was incorporated into Biscayne at CityView was Sunlight Apartments, opened in 1978, located at 17030 Imperial Valley Drive, and featuring 214 units (though one article mentions it having 244 units, still not sure about that). Sunlight Apartments had its first murder while the apartments were still under construction. Other than that, they had similar issues to Woodvalley (by 1982 it was already advertising remodeled units) and still had the Sunlight name until at least 1995. At some point it was incorporated into Biscayne at CityView, informally "Biscayne at CityView II".

Of course, there are still some gaps...when did the apartments really take a turn for the worse? When did Sunlight change names? But...at least we know some of the history.

UPDATE 06-30-2026: Overhauled article with new name (from "The Hollywood"). This had previously not seen updates since 2018.

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

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

Former Kroger #174

641 West Crosstimbers Road This former Kroger (#174 in the Houston division) store was built in 1979, likely built as a grocery companion to the now-defunct 1950s-era Sears store next door (much like how the Midtown Fiesta Mart was built), and it connected with its parking lot. It is an unusual building that doesn't quite match with Kroger prototypes (similar to the "Superstore" designs but with significant modifications), likely to fit into lot requirements.

In 1982 it closed due to union problems. After a short run as Rainbow Home Town Foods around 1984-1985 (part of a short-lived affiliation of stores run by the now-defunct Schepp's Grocery), Kroger continued to own the empty store but it remained empty until it was sold to Charles Bertani, who moved his "Family Bingo Center" here in 1999 from its old location at 1275 Pinemont.

In October 2021, Family Bingo Center shuttered without much notice despite owning the facility, and demolition plans for the building were filed soon after. In its place is being built Modera Garden Oaks, ready for move-in late 2023. The two pictures are the author's, taken July 2018, but a day apart.

UPDATE 07-08-2026: As of July 2026, Modera Garden Oaks is now known as The Brighton Garden Oaks. It looks like it might've changed hands in mid-2025. The above link for Modera Garden Oaks has been replaced with an an archived version.
UPDATE 07-29-2026: Renamed post to "Former Kroger #174" as part of updates and integration into Carbon-izer.

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).

Garden Ridge at Atrium Place

19411 Atrium Place

Known as Garden Ridge for many years, the original Katy "At Home" location opened as a Buyer's Market off-price shopping mall in November 1984 at the same time as a sister location close to North Houston. (As I don't have, or don't have permission to have, a proper facade picture, an ad will have to do, originally from The Houston Post and posted on HAIF)

Like many of the things we will cover, we don't know a whole lot about the Buyer's Market beyond confirmation of existence, except that from a few pictures it looked very much like Garden Ridge/At Home did, except the "store" areas had walls and names, but it, along with another location on I-45, became Garden Ridge Pottery stores soon after the closure of Buyer's Market. Louisiana and Texas Southern Malls & Retail does have information including opening, closing, and what a total failure it was. After the closure of it and the Airtex location, they became Garden Ridge Pottery's second and third Texas location (as it was known at the time) beyond its original location in Schertz, Texas. (I say Texas location because an Oklahoma location was opened in October 1985 but sold in 1987 due to a disconnect from the partnership).

One of the things about Garden Ridge was that all the way until 2015, it lacked access from Katy Freeway! This stems from the fact that originally a railroad ran between the frontage road and the parking lot. The access question was mitigated somewhat with the development of commercial businesses in the mid to late 2000s, but in the 1990s, only Foxlake crossed the railroad, and Atrium Place did not connect with Fry Road (you had to go up to Park Row to work your way back around). With weird ways to get in like this, it's no surprise that Buyer's Market was a miserable failure, and Garden Ridge nearly filed for bankruptcy shortly thereafter (years before the actual filing).

From what I could find, from moving in around 1986 up until 2014, Garden Ridge Pottery (later simply "Garden Ridge") maintained headquarters here. They also had a snack bar inside the original store (nothing too special, from what I heard mostly hot dogs and other similar fare), using the restaurant facilities from Buyer's Market. While snack bars were introduced in other stores in the late 1990s, they all closed during the mid-2000s bankruptcy of Garden Ridge.

As part of the transformation into At Home in 2014, the company moved its headquarters out of the building and toward Plano, leaving a number of back offices vacant and virtually abandoned, able to wonder inside them. I didn't wonder go too deep (didn't want to get in trouble) but the store was so understaffed (the front end area was massive but only a few people there) that no one seemed to mind. Like many stores past their prime, it was both a functional store and an abandoned urban exploration site at the same time.

I'm glad I saw it when I did. Later that year, I got word that it would be closed, with the At Home being "temporarily" closed.

By late 2017, At Home rebuilt with a new store but it was 127,000 vs 269,000 square feet (though during the At Home days, that 69k square feet used for offices was vacant). There was space for an additional retail store next to it.

Better pictures can be found elsewhere, but I only have two pictures of my own, one of an older map in the offices (I tried to take a picture so it could be easily read, despite in the dark, but lightening it up didn't help it out), and one of a sealed mall entrance.

Comfort Inn Houston Downtown

Common publicity shot of lobby, sourced from TotsAndTravel.com, which still has photos
5820 Katy Freeway

Last operating as the Comfort Inn Houston Downtown (the name is a definite misnomer, as it is four miles out from downtown and just inside the Loop; it's closer to Uptown at that rate) was closed in late 2011 and wrecked by early 2012 to be a new-build Hampton Inn & Suites. It opened in 1970 (not 1960 as previously reported) as a Rodeway Inn. It became a Days Inn between 1999 and 2000 ("Days Inn & Suites Near the Galleria") but by January 2004 (per Erik Slotboom's video) it had become a Comfort Inn. The room count is 80 on 2 stories, and while it was directly next to a major railroad corridor, I still enjoyed myself when I stayed there in March 2008.

Google Street View from 2011