SpaceGhost

Same chain, brand new building.

They even kept the roof line when expanding the roof out for a patio! Interesting side note, the Sonic right next to it was a former Rally's! Also I had an idea, when googling info about Hungry Farmer I found their facebook on which they're quite active. You might consider messaging them, and asking if they have any info, on taking over after Roy Roger's vacated. I wonder if it is possibly the same former franchisee running it! Unlikely, but it would make for a great story!

Okay so I got home and have been doing a bit more research on the company. Roy Rogers seemed to be doing alright as a whole in the early 70's. The chain was started in 1968 so the Crosstimbers location would of been one of the first in the nation. I'm wondering if the locations down here were franchised, or corporate owned.. It's possible that they could of been conversions of Marriott's previous chain "Jr. Hot Shoppes" but I don't know enough info about that chain to speculate. I also am not sure when the other Roy Roger's in town closed, but that could give some insight into why this location closed. If everything shut down around the same time it's possible that Marriott did not see promise in this part of the country and either shut down any cooperate locations, or revoked franchise licensing from their franchisees.

If you check out the 45 degree angle view on Google Maps you can see where another tenant (seem to remember Jack in the Box moved in) expanded the building. They kept the right half of the slanted roof but filled in the left half to accommodate the drive-thru. https://goo.gl/maps/mfrUcrh511t

You're welcome! I'm on mobile right now so I'll expand on this later but abandoning the building would of fallen into one of two categories. Either poor sales or the eventual "failure" of the chain. I really don't know a huge amount about Roy Rogers although I can tell you they went from 650 locations down to around 50. They expanded far too quickly and ended up paying the price. The determining factor for why this store closed would of been when they closed in relation to the rest of the chain.

Okay did a bit more research, this was definitely a Roy Rogers. Those stone pillars really threw me off. The building was expanded however. Facing the front everything on the right side was added, and some buildings along the back were added. What is shown in the picture below is what was contained in the original structure. Another comparison would be the former Roy Rogers, turned Luke's, turned Zone D'Erotica (always hated that name..) which has an identical facade. This is without a doubt a former Roy Rogers.

Totally wrong, check the next reply down for the correct info. It looks strikingly similar to a Covered Wagon Arby's which was added on to, and had the roof replaced. Having it built in 1969 also puts it at the perfect time. After checking Google Streetview the double posted sign also lends credit to the Arby's theory. Finally checking out the overheard view on Historic Aerials the building is difficult to make out but you can tell it's short and thin with plenty of room for a drive-thru. So my best guess is former Arby's. However I wasn't born for about another 15 years after the first tenant left, so I couldn't tell you with any certainty what was there

While not Houston specific.. I know the exact ones you're talking about. They are indeed huge and round. They look slightly like the Target logo. Also they sat slightly outside of the ceiling and overlapped the tiles. They tended to get dusty quickly. A bunch of former Kmarts still have them. A good Houston example is the go-kart track "Track 21" You can check it out here.

Yeah 10201 Katy Fwy, Houston, TX 77024 for anyone else looking for it.

So I'm doing another article for the website on Flakey Jake's (basically a Fuddruckers ripoff) supposedly we had 2 locations in Houston. I was able to find an address for the Katy Freeway location, but can't find the other. Does anyone know where it was, or have any info about the chain? Pics etc..

Ah my bad, anything North of The Woodlands is outside my comfort zone lol.

It was at one point a Globe Department store. It later became a "Sak-N-Sav" which AFAIK is different from Sack N Save (a company that was owned by Furrs up in Dallas). Then according to a post made a few months ago it became Foodland then the flea market. http://www.houstonarchitecture.com/haif/topic/32544-fedmart-in-houston/?p=510009 I'm not 100% sure this info is accurate maybe some other folks can help fill in the gaps?

Yeah! The building is so transformed that I wouldn't be able to recognize it. Also there are a couple of other locations that were converted to an HCC Campus, and a Police Station. Leads me to believe that Food Lion dumped the property for cheap. Cheap enough, that they were willing to subdivide some property like I mentioned in another post.

I finally found all 13 locations! Anyone who is interested can check them out here. http://houstonhistoricretail.com/grocery/food-lion/ Apparently the 13 locations are from all around the Houston area and not limited to the city limits.

Yeah there are some former Pantry stores still operating but afaik they were all expanded.

It is an old topic, but it's worth mentioning the last store that I know for sure only had the Pantry Foods footprint has closed for remodling. It's the location at 5417 S Braeswood Blvd Houston, TX 77096 aka the Meyerland location.

Makes sense, this is what I figured happened. I was hoping for a slightly more interesting story though Maybe Safeway built and tore down within the space of a few years. Still interesting though! Oddly enough I found a small parcel of land that Food Lion still owns! It's down in Friendswood behind a location I didn't even know existed.

Although when Circle K pulled out many stores rebranded to a generic K name. Interesting side note, I found a Super K that recently put a Circle K sign back up. https://www.flickr.com/photos/65529057@N05/22137020098/

Howdy folks! So there's currently a grocery store at 9520 Jones Rd, Houston, TX 77065. It is presently a Food Town, but is document as previously operating as Food Lion #1311. (Btw here's the list of Food Lions I've found so far.) Checking out HCAD I noticed that the property was purchased in 1992 from Safeway of all companies! Checking out historic imagery on Google Earth I found that there was a grocery store across the street which turned out to be a Randalls built in '85, now an HEB. There wasn't anything on the corner that Safeway owned however. So the question is, does anyone know if Safeway ever built there? The earliest images of any help are from 1989. So it's possible that a store was built after the image and torn down for Food Lion, or even remodeled. An interesting side-note is that this property was owned by Safeway long after Apple Tree had taken over.

Is the street still called Briar Forest? I tried looking it up on GE but could only find the Briar Forest over by Highway 6.

Not sure, it's not my posting. You can try emailing the poster. I would imagine this is better for anyone looking for commercials.

Just a heads up to you media collectors out there. Someone on Craigslist in Pearland is giving away free tapes of TV shows recorded locally. Posting

Yeah I'd seen that in the past but wasn't 100% sure it was accurate. I guess it makes more sense than an address change though. Also slightly off-topic but does anyone know if the Academy across the freeway was where the Walmart used to be? I read up that a pair of criminals robbed the Walmo and one ran out the back and jumped into Greens Bayou and hid for a few hours.

Yup there was one at I-10 and Uvalde. The exact location is unknown but it looks like it could of been here. The building highly resembles Champs and was previously owned by something called "COLLINS FOOD SFSH #1308" which indicates it was probably a restaurant. Anyone have an old phone book they can check?

It's likely that the tracks were torn out many years ago. The most likely explanation is that the tracks were torn out during either the beginning of the Great Depression for the scrap value, or during the start of WW2 to help the war effort. It's most likely that it was a combination of the two. It's possible that some small sections of track still exist, but highly unlikely.