Wasn't that Winters?

PS3D said:

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FAT SEXY said:

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Built as a Randalls in 1991...sold to Albertsons in 1997...closed in 2011.

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I believe there used to be a bowling alley on that site, back in the '80s. Does anyone else remember that?

FAT SEXY said:

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This place is located off of the left side of N Texas Ave as you're headed out of Bryan towards Hearne..

It has been abandoned since the first time I noticed it.. If I had to guess, I'd say it was a biker type bar in the past, but I could be off.

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As late as 2016, it had reopened as "Wheels Tavern", but the old sign did say Harp's.

There is a large, very old house that is falling in on itself on Merka Rd between 1179 and Old Reliance. I wonder about that house and the things that went on there every time I pass it. The property is owned by Ed Froeling Builders as it turns out. Does anyone know the house I'm speaking of or anything about it? It is just before the Messina Hoff streets on the east side of the road.

FAT SEXY said:

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Can it be photographed with decent angles without trespassing?

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Not really at this point. It sits back off the road. See if the coordinates will show the location.

30.703609712499762, -96.30493496286785

I would have to look at my tax records for his first name,, but I remember doing tax returns for the Lee's, Maria was her name. They did own The Egg Roll House. I still do their daughter's taxes.

The strip center that hosts Harvey Washbangers used to be made up of two buildings, Peppers Deluxe Hamburgers, and Kashims night club. Long John Silvers was a bit further south, like you said.

FAT SEXY said:

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Those coordinates show it on Google Satellite view.. it does look like it's really neat.

It'd be awesome to get permission to document it.

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The house was/is huge. I would think a prominent member of the community lived there but the structure is very old.

Slocum on a mobile said:

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AggiePhil said:

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Slocum on a mobile said:

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Bowling alley was originally a Fedmart if memory serves, but I was a youngun then.

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Correct. Chimney Hill had Fedmart, then a bowling alley, and then a series of bars before being abandoned and eventually demolished.

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Don't forget being bought by the city and sold at a loss

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Worse than that.

Appraised at $4.5 million when city bought it for $9 million.

then sold it for $7 million years later.

city originally bought it with hopes building a convention center.

FAT SEXY said:

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I'd love to metal detect that spot. Guaranteed to find a few old coins.

ETA: If anybody reads this and is good at telling house ages from build style, give this one a shot! I'd really love to know more about it.

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I haven't been by in a while because they had been working on the road. I know they had been doing other work along there so it may have been dozed. It was beginning to get harder to see since it was falling in on itself.

I'd sure be interested in information about it as well.

Thanks for that. Yes, I did search CAD but didn't look at the previous deed record. There appear to still be Merkas in the county including some land owned by an LLC on Old Reliance. That house must have been quite the showplace at one time.

taxpreparer said:

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I would have to look at my tax records for his first name,, but I remember doing tax returns for the Lee's, Maria was her name. They did own The Egg Roll House. I still do their daughter's taxes.

The strip center that hosts Harvey Washbangers used to be made up of two buildings, Peppers Deluxe Hamburgers, and Kashims night club. Long John Silvers was a bit further south, like you said.

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I missed the auto-correct. I believe the family that owned Sing Lee was the Liu family.

Not "abandoned", but there are a few pretty old rarely visited cemeteries down Old Reliance towards Kurten

Passed by the house on Merka a week ago and it's still standing but just barely.

FAT SEXY said:

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Maybe I just missed it or it just got dozed this past week.. will have to try going back that way with more daylight

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Drove past today and it's now a pile of sticks.

rsa said:

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The Ghost of DUCK01 said:

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Whataburger owns both the old gas station and Pepe's/Gumby's location. Per CAD, Whataburger is listed for the gas station and actual restaurant, with EJ Tejas listed for Gumby's. If you look at the mailing address of EJ Tejas, it's the same as the two Whataburger sites.

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They also own the first 7 houses along George Bush Dr E that are adjacent t the Whataburger & Gumby's properties.

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Whataburger Inc, doesn't own any on George Bush that I know of. The first two are owned by Dominik Development who has owned they since 2003. I think WB had a deal going on them, but I had heard it fell through?

The next five homes on GB are owned by EG Tejas which is three executives of the Whataburger who own them outright. I guess they could sell them or lease them back to WB. If WB ever expands and turns the restaurnat around to face Tx Ave, as planned they want access to GB similar to what Blue baker has. The rebuild has been scheduled an half a dozen times over the past 15 years. With Whataburger's expansion into Ark, TN, etc. and looking at a couple of other locations in BCS, I bet it's another decade before we see the rebuild.

The old Gumby site is also owned by EG Tajas.

The company Whataburger Real Estate owns the old Shell Station WBRE is owned by the Dobson Family who founded the chain.. Whataburger Inc., majority owner being the Chicago company, owns the current restaurant site.

Slocum on a mobile said:

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FAT SEXY said:

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Truly amazing that the week it was mentioned in a thread like this is the week that it gets toppled.

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The only building more than 200 years old in the state is the Alamo. Because Texas

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There are lost of buildings in Texas that are over 200 years old, although they weren't built when Texas as a country. Actually, some buildings may have been built in Texas that are exactly 200 years old as Mexico founded the Province of Tejas in 1821,

Eliminatus said:

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Slocum on a mobile said:

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akaggie05 said:

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Is the BCS Books/Comics/Video place still there off of Texas and Inwood? That place always seemed like a front for something... the folks I saw coming and going weren't there to buy comic books.

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It was Dungeons and Dragons books and Sci-fi paperbacks.

Guilty as charged

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Plan to head there next weekend. I'm an absolute bibliophile and heard about it recently. I'll let y'all know if I find books or am offered "product" or "services".

If I don't update just assume I am tied up in the basement with no skin.

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Given the people I saw come and go from there when I lived a street over, I'm not worried about you