The Barrington Suites (Temple, Texas)

Picture from 2017 from "Killeen 304", cropped. Source.
Expanding from the Southwest H.K. Dodgen Loop page (and originally appearing on Carbon-izer.com) is The Barrington Suites, a combination apartment/motel which always served as such and opened in 1984 originally. It sounds like it could be a winner in theory, with its close-to-Scott & White location for long-term (month) stays but reviews are mixed (as permanent motel room tenants is usually a disaster).

One thing that it could probably use to help sell the "motel" side of the business (and add some class to the residential side) is an on-site restaurant/coffee shop (which it desperately needs, but lacks). In doing research for this I found that while this is the only one of its type around there were once several others, with three in San Angelo alone. The one on Knickerbocker Road has been gone for years but old aerial photos shows it as looking almost identical (the other two are apartment buildings now, but look less similar).

Next to The Barrington is Lowe's, built in 1996. The Lowe's faces the freeway and has 605 S.W. HK Dodgen Loop as an address but as part of construction, a new street, Lowes Drive, was created. Its construction replaced a direct exit from the Temple Mall to the frontage road but the road goes back behind the store and into residential neighborhoods, with several houses directly on it.

Albertsons on Perkins Road (Baton Rouge, Louisiana)

This Albertsons looks like it's seen better days, but at least it's not Albertsons Sav-on anymore.
Numbered as #2711 in the pre-merger days (I believe it's just #711 now) but after 1996 (I'm not sure what the original was) and dating back to at least 1987 (I can't find much on this store), this Albertsons supermarket at 7515 Perkins Road is one I visited in August 2025 (which is when this photo was taken). At some point in the late 1990s or early 2000s, Albertsons added an Albertsons Express gas station (it did not have a convenience store, only a kiosk) which was operational until Alimentation Couche-Tard bought successor company CST Brands (it was effectively operated as Corner Store but the name was never put on there).

My previous notes for this store was that a salad bar was added in a renovation under the "LLC" days, but I either didn't pay attention to the deli (a very real possibility) or was removed after COVID (also a very real possibility).

I found it strange that half of the HBA department is in the main aisles (and the stuff near the pharmacy has comically short shelves).

Out in front of the store (I'm not sure when they moved in, but they were there as of 2008) is Mr. Gatti's Pizza at 5888 Essen Lane and Taco Bell at 7541 Perkins Road.

Community Coffee Buda and Dupree Drive (Buda, Texas)

This is another Google Street View image. Tucked off a side road in Buda is Dupree Drive, which is a collection of small industrial buildings. The reason I'm covering this is to cover 98 Dupree Drive, which I originally covered at this page. Community Coffee used to operate CC's Coffee House in Texas, which I covered on Carbon-izer but they pulled out of the state years ago. However, they still maintain distribution in Texas, with this location servicing Austin-area grocery stores. It has been in this location since approximately since 2008 (I don't know what the original tenant was).

The right of Community Coffee is Shorty's Wraps at 94 Dupree Drive. 99 Dupree Drive appears to have been vacant for several years (possibly since 2011), 91 Dupree is Floor Pro Warehouse, and going back toward Industrial Way is 12 Dupree Drive, home to a four-suite office building (PumpTex Inc. and HydroPlus are here as of 2025). This has been here since at least 1995.

Google Maps Link

Copperfield McDonald's (Houston, Texas)

Modern McDonald's buildings don't have flags anymore. (Vintage West Houston, 2007).
Courtesy John Williams of Vintage West Houston (who, back in the mid-2010s operated a great site called West Houston Archives) we have the McDonald's in Copperfield...before its rebuild! This incarnation lasted from 1986 to 2009 when it was rebuilt from the ground up.

There continues to be a McDonald's at 7302 Highway 6 North, of course, but it's not the same.

The Home Depot in the Heights (Houston, Texas)

A highly stylized Street View image
Despite confusing access from Durham and Shepherd which suggests a late 1990s/early 2000s retrofit, the Home Depot (999 North Loop West) has been here since January 3, 1994. An expansion in 2005-2006 added a new expansion and pickup area to the south side of the store, though the expansion doesn't connect the parking lot to West 26th Street. Even accessing from Brinkman Street isn't much better for some of the other tenants around it like Chick-fil-A (925 North Loop West and added in 2014), Whataburger (built 1999), and Pep Boys (909 North Loop West, added sometime prior to 1995).¹ Worse, the roads to access Brinkman, West 27th Street and West 28th Street, aren't signal-controlled, and suggests that it's not meant to be access from Durham/Shepherd. A true freeway-oriented development if ever there was one.

1. Around the mid-2020s Pep Boys ended its retail business to focus on auto service only and the retail portion became an AutoZone.

This page is a breakup of North Loop West Entries

The Ark of I-4 (Plant City, Florida)

This picture is from August 2014. It still looks very much like this but a bit more run-down as a decade has taken its toll.
Apologies for no recent posts! I was recently contacted by Sing Oil Blog in regards to Exprezit, turns out he photographed the same Quincy Exprezit I did with some more information on the (mostly defunct) chain.

Coincidentally, we return to Florida to look at the "Ark of I-4". I've previously written about this on Wikimapia once, a decade ago, and linked to a newspaper article ("'Ark' Still Awash With Unanswered Questions") that no longer exists on the Internet. Thanks to the magic of Newspapers.com, it's back. This article is from 2008 and describes what the original plans were (a war memorial and gift shop), though it doesn't explain what's been going on for most of the last twenty years.

The photo also shows the large Marathon gas station sign, at some point within the last year or two the sign fell. It's rare for something like a hurricane to take out these tall signs but I have to assume the sign's foundation was compromised somehow.

The situs address is 1858 Branch Forbes Road.

Red Roof Inn La Marque (La Marque, Texas)

Official picture via Google Maps
This hotel at 5201 Gulf Freeway in La Marque has definitely seen better days, but Google reviews indicate there's still some life in it yet.

I stayed at this hotel back in August 2008 (I discussed it on my Mall of the Mainland page) and while I don't have pictures of it from that time I do have information. It opened in early 1983 as a 160-room Holiday Inn (Holiday Inn La Marque/Texas City) and in fall of 1998 lost the name (briefly becoming a La Quinta, then Ramada Inn a few months later). It flipped several names in the next decade, including "The Grand Hotel" as of early 2006 (with "Grand Slam Sports Bar"), then Travelodge by 2007 (with "RJ's Sports Bar", I seem to remember this being smoky and outdated)¹ and then Americas Best Value Inn & Suites in late 2010. RJ's later became Jimmy's Bar & Grill, which is still open. (It closed for a time in the early 2020s for obvious reasons). It assumed its current flag, Red Roof Inn, between 2023 and 2025.

I have a Travelodge directory from 2008 but it mentions this hotel having only 130 rooms, not 160 rooms like it was under Holiday Inn. It's possible some rooms got combined into suites but there's also the theory that some rooms got closed off later.

1. That being said, I had a pretty decent view of Travelodge back then. Their tendency to put their name on some of the worst motels out there has caused me to doubt its pedigree.

This post was originally posted on Carbon-izer.