SpaceGhost

Okay, this one took a little digging, as earliest thing I remembered there was Schlotzsky's. Turn out it was one of three identical General Joe's Chopstix built by someone that seems to be the first franchisee. Rosenberg only lasted a few months in 1986, the other two lasted longer but were in North Houston.

I looked into the Automated White Settlement McDonald's, as I had seen the store it replaced, but was unsure who owned it. It was a McDonald's Express operating out of a Chevron station https://goo.gl/maps/LF8yKESgDPZXUewm8 In this case it was Chevron and later Tetco who owned that property. 7-Eleven seems to have been responsible for closing the store in 2017, and McDonald's purchased the site last year in preparation for the new store. Prior to this I had assumed that McDonald's owned this property as they did with most other Chevron co-locations. This does make the future a bit murkier, as I had figured McDonald's already owned the White Settlement land. To add to the oddness, a rather prominent McDonald's on Barton Springs Road has also closed in a similar circumstance. https://goo.gl/maps/ovk3yBszmb3Wwks47 Google lists it a Temporarily Closed, and the McDonald's website still lists it as open, no one will comment what's going on there either. Finally, looking into the franchise owners, they've been with Mickey D's for a while, and have shut down at least one location (North Loop East at Maxwell) prior to this one. That location did seem to be replaced by a spot in the Pilot Truck stop on Maxwell. Most of their stores are in and around the Jacinto City area. They picked this one up in 2016, and shut it down about a month after taking over another in Pasadena.

I should have taken photos, but didn't think to at the time. During the construction of the facade, before any tenants moved in, the paper was removed from the front doors, revealing a completely intact store, except with all the shelving and fixtures removed. Signs were still up on the walls, ads, etc... it was insane. After they finished the La Casona side, the DPS side was not re-papered, and you could clearly see the middle of the old store. Those light pole signs hung around until the lights were swapped out. I actually hadn't connected the dots, except for a few more obvious brands. Lupe Uresti really threw me off, ..

Thank you, I really appreciate that! I have been keeping an eye on the building, and was going to include these details in the next post however I'll give a little update here. A small excavator was delivered to the site earlier this week, and used for water and sewer disconnects, I think possibly gas service too. The excavator was far too small to do any demolition work though. Interior demolition has been going on, and it's being done in a very careful and calculated manner. Eg: Ceiling tiles removed, but stacked and kept inside. It seems that at least some of the dining room furniture is still in place. As far as permitting goes, none have been filed that I can find. The property also seems to still be owned by McDonald's, who leases it to the franchisee, which is of course standard practice. The property has as of yet to appear on the McDonald's Realty excess list. So in my opinion there's still a chance we could see McDonald's reopen here. We'll obviously have to wait and see what exactly happens, but I could see a partial demolition to convert this into a drive-thru only store. Interestingly the store page is still active. https://www.mcdonalds.com/us/en-us/location/tx/houston/2017-s-main/5443.html

The trampoline park did indeed close all the way back in 2018. I never went, but from what I heard it was pretty crappy. Only a few trampolines, and no extra features. They had another location on the South Belt that is still in business under another name. That location had 3D simulators, arcade games, and sold food. This one had none of that, and charged the same price to jump. There was actually a large portion vacant with Kmart signage still in place until 2019. The spot was leased to Sugar Creek Church. Really truly, it seems that La Casona, Boot Barn, and the DPS drive all the traffic in that center.

Interesting! I've run across the school on old maps, and have been trying to figure out the history behind it. Even in the 1915 Topographic maps, the gridding at the intersection of Westheimer and Kirby already exists. I'm wondering if this was the public schoolhouse Mr. Westheimer built and famously opened for community members. This would have been the Eastern of edge of his plantation so it makes sense.

The story as I understand it is as follows: The owner of a small chain of Mexican grocery stores named Mi Rancho sells his company to La Michoacana in the late 2000s during one of their expansions. He signs a non-compete clause about operating in the Houston market, and then purchases a few existing grocery stores in the Fort Worth area, even expanding into Oklahoma. After a year or two, this guy made a deal on four ex-Kroger locations, with plans to reopen them as Bravo Ranch. Rosenberg was one of the stores, along with ones in Pasadena, Channelview, and one in Houston. He gets the Houston and Pasadena locations up and running, and is working on converting the rest into Bravo Ranch, which were pretty intricately themed. La Michoacana quickly notices, files a lawsuit and stops all progress right as the Pasadena store was opening. This is where it gets weirder. The Pasadena location, and Rosenberg are spun off into another company named El Mercado. Pasadena manages to reopen under the new name, however work stopped on Rosenberg at this point. As part of the lawsuit, this guy has to sell his stores, and chooses Fiesta for these former Kroger locations, with the others dumped to various locals. So Fiesta buys the 4 Kroger properties. Houston and Pasadena are open, Rosenberg is about 60% complete and Channelview is still untouched. Fiesta full of money from the investment firm that purchased them, comes in ready to work, and starts by converting Houston, and painting the exteriors to match then current Fiesta coloring. However, right around this time, Fiesta is sold to their current owners (Chedraui) who expressed no desire to convert these stores, and basically has sat on them until the leases have come up. The flipped Fiesta was kept, but Pasadena was sold off to another independent. This store came close enough to fruition that a Fiesta Beverage Mart was actually planned to take up the far right which is why the glass and separate entrance was added. Some photos and extra details: https://houstonhistoricretail.com/2021/02/10/when-fiesta-failed-to-rebrand/

You hit most of the spots I would! The only other ones that come to mind would be Texas Grill, the place with the giant neon Cowboy sign down Ave. H. It's been various Mexican restaurants for years. Along with 2-M Malt n Burger, which finally closed recently, and is still sitting vacant. Some memories and notes on the ones you posted: Schulze's Family Restaurant was a great place. From what I've heard and seen quality has dipped and prices skyrocketed since reopening so I'd steer clear. Camino Real, wow I had forgotten the name of this place! I remember them over at the Bull Creek spot, but I don't think I ever went when they moved into the old Golden Corral, which was another memory unlock for me! (The original building is still there it's just buried under many different facades). As for the connection to the Houston location, my research has shown that they were opened by the same person, but sold around the mid-90s, which is when Sylvia got involved. According to her, she owned the Rosenberg restaurant, which I wouldn't doubt. The Peppermill, I have no memory of this place, but I do remember the Ninfa's afterwards, briefly after El Acapulco it reopened as a satellite location for Papa Mex for about a year. Wyatt's/Luby's I have far stronger memories of it as Luby's but you're right that this was always a good location. For years after they closed the dining room sat completely intact. When the shopping center owner went to renovate it a couple of years back, they moved all the old furniture to the former Randall's/Kroger after it had been abandoned by Fiesta. It sat there a while but was gone last time I went by. Two Pesos/Cici's This one actually started as a Fajita Junction before becoming a Two Pesos, so it was open a bit longer than you'd think but not by much, maybe 2-3 years. I also remember some good birthday parties there, especially when hitting up the Rosenberg 8 afterwards! Mr. Gatti's! Wow this was a favorite place of mine, mostly for the arcade. When DQ moved in, they changed very little. Taking out a raised seating area, but leaving things like a Big Screen TV behind, it was wild. The arcade was open all the way until about 2010, you had to ask to be let in, but everything was on and functioning. Most of the games and machines are still in there, if you drive past DQ in the strip center you'll see it all!

Yeah originally the building looked like a "mini Wal-Mart" and had only one entrance. Then after Jumbo Sports shut down it was subidvided. Bally Total Fitness took over the original side, and Computer City built out the other side, but was shut down by their CompUSA buyout before they could open the store. That corner of land has an interesting origin it started off much small as 59 cut across the property to meet up with it's old alignment (present 90-A). In the 70s it the freeway was expanded towards Sugar Land, and Spur 41 (present final block of Dairy Ashford) was designated as a Highway connector between the old and new alignments.

Google Maps has the location wrong, it's actually up in the triangle between Dairy Ashford, 59 and 90-A. In front of the former Jumbo Sports parking lot.

This may not actually be an EFC. HEB has one of two in the Houston Area currently permitted is nearing completion, nearby on Franz Road. https://goo.gl/maps/Kjd4drLXJhEAQwJv6 This may in fact be for a store, as a similar permit filed includes a Fuel Station and Car Wash. https://www.tdlr.texas.gov/TABS/Search/Project/TABS2022021855 We will have to wait and see how this develops.

The center building is an old Burger Chef, the sides were added on at some point. If you look at older Streetview you can very obviously tell where the old Burger Chef supports still hold the structure. https://goo.gl/maps/SMmk9TnAaLys9SwS6

Work has yet to proceed although permits were filed to convert the space into a Banquet Hall.

There's a unconfirmed location headed for North Oaks Mall.

Demolition Permit filed for River Oaks Plant House, by Katz. Chances are they're gonna make that planned Summer 2022 opening.

Demolition Permit issued for old Party Boy building

Already went into a bit of detail on the blog, but does anyone have any clue what's going on? Thrift Store suddenly closed, doesn't look like the property was sold. Maybe rebuilding?

Unfortunately it looks like some web scraper went around and created the post without help. That first image is Houston Street in New York, and the sixth image is labeled as being from Rugby, England! I believe this photo is from Flickr? Some of the images are of Houston, but many, maybe even most, are not from the 30s. A few are from the 50s-70s, but a bunch are also very recent Black and White images, like the Terminal Building photo, which is likely no more than 20-25 years old, right before the renovation. Also, the building was even around until 1940! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1940_Air_Terminal_Museum

Permits note Quanta Insurance Company Inc as occupant.

You're correct, the perils of reading an article and going back to "find it" via Google exist. Here's the one for this portion of Shepherd. https://communityimpact.com/houston/heights-river-oaks-montrose/transportation/2021/01/15/txdot-opens-public-comment-period-on-shepherd-durham-project/ Basically the same plan, although a detail that I didn't notice earlier, it looks like there are plans to drop from 4 to 3 lanes in certain areas to add more sidewalk space.

https://abc13.com/houston-traffic-shepherd-construction-montrose-road-us-59-work/10402823/ It's adding new storm drains, and rebuilding the sidewalks/lighting and making it more pedestrian friendly as well. No street widening, other than the turn lane here. https://communityimpact.com/houston/heights-river-oaks-montrose/transportation/2020/04/15/city-council-oks-purchase-of-shepherd-drive-parcel-for-road-project/

The land was originally a Stuart's Drive-In, and later a Price's. Jack in the Box opened here around late 1974 building this new structure. The greenhouse windows were likely an addition as most other JITBs built it Houston during this time were later expanded. The building only hosted Jack in the Box, and the temporary COVID testing center in the Streetview screenshot. The demolition is related to the construction on Shepherd and has been in the works for a few years now.

Demolition permit has been filed for the AMC.

Finally, had some time to look into it. Al Fairfield according to county docs. https://www.legacy.com/us/obituaries/houstonchronicle/name/al-fairfield-obituary?pid=155430597

Demo permit issued for Chappell Jordan, house directly behind had a permit issued last week.