Well, folks, the day has finally come. The former Walgreens at Westheimer and Highway 6 has reopened. This will mark the building’s first permanent retail tenant since closing as a pharmacy around 2017. Now and Forever also marks the return of a gas station to this intersection. Before the most recent expansion of Highway 6, every corner of the intersection, except the mall, hosted a gas station. This gas station, however, aims to be a …
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Now & Taking Forever, who’s behind the new Walgreen’s Gas Station on Highway 6?
Update 7/17/22: Over 2 weeks later, I realized that a draft version of this was published, well the full thing is here now! Anyone whose driven near West Oaks Mall recently has probably seen the work being done to a former Walgreens building at the corner of Westheimer and Highway 6. If you’ve been following this blog for a while you may have seen the building before. We checked it out in 2019 as a …
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All quiet at the Taco Cabana
Taco Cabana is a unique restaurant, starting in 1978 from a single location in an old Dairy Queen in San Antonio they brought they idea of Drive Through Tex-Mex across a good portion of the Southern United States. Taco Cabana was so successful early on they even experienced a few imitators by the 80s such as Two Pesos who would later be famously sued by Taco Cabana. By the 90s the family involved with founding …
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This Week in Demolition: A philanthropist’s River Oaks Mansion and an abandoned Federal Building
This Week in Demolition, we’re spoiled for choice! Let’s start out with some houses of note. Our most expensive residential demolition of the week is no doubt 3315 Del Monte. Located in the heart of old River Oaks this 1960s mansion is not original to the neighborhood. It was built by Albert Alkek, one of the early pioneers of the Texas petrochemical industry being involved early on with Sinclair oil. After Mr. Alkek and his …
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Whos been painting Eckerd?
Remember Eckerd? Sure you do, it was the second largest pharmacy chain in the United States at one point! And its blue and white color scheme with purple, red, and gold accents are peak “90s aesthetic”. Even if you’re not familiar with the store, you’e likely to agree they looked awesome! Eckerd stores looked nice, had locations nearly from coast to coast and were all unfortunately doomed. This was largely due to the 1996 merger …
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Geoffery’s Bargain Box of Toys: The Toys “R” Us Concept you probably never saw
On the heels of Toys “R” Us second departure from the Houston area (which I unfortunately have no photos of). I wanted to take a look at a store that TRU opened in Houston only months before their bankruptcy. You might be thinking, oh I already know all about Geoffrey’s Toy Box, however that was deployed post bankruptcy! You might even think, oh well duh everyone knows about the rural, child-sized Wal-Mart stores simply named …
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Random Retail: Sight-Seeing down 90-A
May 18th marked the 5th birthday of Houston Historic Retail, The site existed a few years prior as a free WordPress blog. Some readers have been here since day one and I thank you all for your unending support. Welcome back loyal reader! With the ongoing COVID crisis I haven’t really had any chances to get out and take that many photos. I have made some updates, like new photos of West Oaks Mall, and …
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Mercado Cerrado
In a somewhat shocking update to the Mercado 6/Big Kmart saga, the flea market in West Houston has bit the dust. The store which I visited on two separate occasions in the past few years, has been purchased and gutted. The news seemed to break early this year around the time I published my last update. A few online reviews noted that “the store” was closed, but I naively assumed this meant individual shops. Driving …
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7-Eleven’s less than triumphant Houston return
Interested in 7-Eleven locations coming to Houston? Find out the latest news here! As with many of the subjects of my website, Houstonians of a certain age will remember when one of the largest convenience stores in the area was 7-Eleven. Originally founded in urgh… Dallas, the chain operated under the name “Tote’m” initially. It would not be until after World War II that the store would famously change their name to represent store hours …
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What’s left of West Oaks Mall
Update 1/2022: Obviously this article gained traction somewhere on Facebook, but I can’t figure out where. I was actually already in the middle of preparing a more recent update to the mall, including some photos from the last month. If one of you kind souls could share with me which group/page this post was shared on, I’d appreciate it! -Mike Welcome back, today we’re taking a look at West Oaks Mall. A place which is …
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