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"Grand Slam Sports Bar"), then Travelodge by 2007 (with "RJ's Sports Bar", I seem to remember this being smoky and outdated)¹ and then Americas Best Value Inn & Suites in late 2010.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.

Bristol Farms Westchester (Los Angeles, California)

Source: The Los Angeles Times, March 18, 1979
I'm doing something significantly different today with the first California post on Numbered Exits, this time exploring the history of 8448 Lincoln Boulevard in Westchester, California. This opened in March 1979 as Alpha Beta, with the newspaper advertisement as shown above. The journey to its current tenant, Bristol Farms, began working in 1988 (when the store was less than a decade old) when parent company American Stores Company purchased rival Lucky Stores, triggering a lawsuit by the California Attorney General. In the end, American Stores converted most of the Alpha Beta stores in Northern California to Lucky, with only a small portion in Southern California converted. The rest of the chain (numbering about 145 stores) was sold to Yucaipa Companies (which ultimately sold them to rival supermarket chain to Ralphs). This was one of the ones that remained with American Stores and rebranded as Lucky around 1991.

Google Street View as of this writing. In 1999, American Stores itself was purchased by Albertsons, which converted the store to its own brand and a few years later, in the midst of ongoing restructuring efforts, purchased the small Bristol Farms gourmet foods chain. In July 2005, the decision was made to close down this Albertsons store and convert it to Bristol Farms.

While it was small for Albertsons standards, it was Bristol Farms' largest when it reopened in July 2006 with a major inside-and-out renovation. (The Albertsons employees were sent to other stores). By that time, however, Bristol Farms was under new ownership (through "New Albertsons Inc.", a subsidiary of SuperValu). SuperValu then sold the Bristol Farms chain to investors (through a company called Good Food Holdings) in 2010, which in 2018 was sold to Korean retail chain Emart. I've never been to this store so I don't have pictures of the inside, but the story of this one is interesting enough.

The Victorian (Galveston, Texas)

Ad from The Eagle, 9/28/1989. I hate to admit it, but that is closer to 2005 than the present day.
I don't want to wax nostalgic about vacations too much but I went to Galveston in September 2005 (my dad had a business trip) and for many years afterward, I thought it was one of the most memorable weekends I had, even if I couldn't really explain it later. So I thought it would be fitting to at least cover one of those establishments, especially as I dismantle another one of the Carbon-izer Road Directories. (I have been wishy-washy on keeping them).

For that trip, my dad (and by extension, my family) were put up in The Victorian at 6300 Seawall Boulevard, which doesn't really exist anymore in its current form. When it was built in the early 1980s and still very much the case in 2005, it was a hybrid hotel/conference center and condominium complex. I remember being mildly intrigued at the mixed-use concept, but at some point in the mid-2010s the hotel portion was closed and converted to additional condominiums. (An attached restaurant, last operating as the Seawall Bistro, closed as well). The hotel suite where I stayed in is no more, obviously, though I'm not sure if the suites were converted into small condos, or if they were renovated more extensively.

Country Harvest (Houston, Texas)

From the Houston Chronicle, 1995
Before I split it off for this post, the Antoine Drive in Houston page mentioned 1010 Antoine, which used to be SteaKountry Buffet. However, it didn't start as SteaKountry, it started out as Country Harvest, a buffet restaurant out of California, in spring 1995 (sitting in the IKEA parking lot). By fall 1995, the restaurant's chain only other location (in Richardson) would close. While it seems that it closed by the end of December 1996 it quickly reopened as SteaKountry Buffet, a name it would have for a number of years afterward. When it became SteaKountry Buffet, it started serving some Mexican dishes (even advertising in a Spanish-language section in the Houston Chronicle in 1997) though changed hands in 2009 and by 2017 was serving exclusively Mexican dishes. By 2018 it adopted its current name, Ranchero King Buffet.

While I talked about IKEA briefly in my Katy Freeway page, there was another building near the IKEA, a strip mall (1020 Antoine), which remained until the store was rebuilt in the early 2000s. This was a strip center; one of the old listings has Supercuts as one of the tenants (Suite C). Most recently (August 28, 2025) an article appeared on Ranchero King Buffet on the Chronicle's website.

Finally I should mention that where IKEA and Ranchero King Buffet sit today was once an apartment complex, 1002 Antoine. I looked up and down for a name for these apartments--newspaper archives, city directories, and more, but just couldn't find one, despite the fact it had at least 150 units.

McDonald's / Shell (Montgomery, Texas)

This is a modified Google Maps Street View shot from the mid-2010s.
As I mentioned in the post on Hi-Ho, Highway 105 meant something to me at one time. In December 2003 I was really into McDonald's at the time (in terms of unusual menu items and restaurant buildings) so I loved this combo McDonald's/Shell gas station when I saw it (located at 15476 Highway 105). It was only a few years old at the time (I'm not 100% sure it opened with a Shell in 1999). Originally (until the mid-2010s), the canopies that added additional seating along Lake Conroe were painted yellow and red, but now they're tan. Timewise was also adopted as the convenience store name at some point. The McDonald's was "de-mansarded" in the late 2010s.

In 2003, the nearby strip center and the apartments behind it weren't developed yet, giving it a much more isolated and private nature. This of course appeared first originally on Carbon-izer.com as many recent posts did, but future posts in the Highway 105 series will be original.

Mazzio's Pizza in Temple (Temple, Texas)

This is the same scan (c. 1991) that appears on sister site Brazos Buildings & Businesses.
Another spin-off of the SW H.K. Dodgen Loop page, Mazzio's Pizza opened in Temple in 1984 with its address originally being 1906 Glendale Drive but became 1420 S.W. H.K. Dodgen Loop as that became a frontage road for the highway later. Unlike the College Station location which closed by late 1997, the Mazzio's Pizza remained and kept its older logo for years (I seem to remember it hanging onto it even into the late 2000s, though it had switched to the current logo by 2008). Sometime around late 2013 it was shuttered and replaced by "Henderson's" restaurant in 2015, which by November 2018 became another restaurant, Bay Street Steak & Grille; however by summer 2019 it was already gone. The new Denny's opened in fall 2020 and is the first in Temple since the one off I-35 (the old Kettle) closed. (See Carbon-izer's I-35 in Bell County page).

Target Cherry Lane (Fort Worth, Texas)

This was when it was still open as a Target, so before 2008. (Bing Birds Eye View).
Here's a post that was originally supposed to be on Carbon-izer but exclusive to Numbered Exits. In spring 2010 I took a trip to Fort Worth and while I sadly don't have any pictures from that trip I do have a few images I took from the old "Bing Birds Eye View" (back when they had mid-2000s shots) of the old Target that was near our hotel. Bluepages reports the Target (T-74) at 2600 South Cherry Lane opened in November 1979 and closed in July 2008, when it was replaced by the store at 751 Alta Mere Drive.

A slightly closer look. (Bing Birds Eye View).
Additionally, a stand-alone Payless ShoeSource (2610 S. Cherry Lane) was boarded up and closed. This store operated from approximately spring 1981 to March 2008. In late 2012 the building was repainted and reopened as "Premium Title Loans". A Payless ShoeSource did exist in Ridgmar Mall proper from 1987 to the chain's bankruptcy in 2019 as well. There's a page for Bastrop's stand-alone Payless ShoeSource stores here on Carbon-izer.com though I need to fix it as the pictures are upside down as of this writing. I may have some more pictures of this Payless (also from Bing Birds Eye View), though that may have to come later (I already delayed this post as it was!).

The Target had direct access to West Freeway's frontage road (I-30), and as of December 2023 was subdivided into smaller, office-like tenants including Perkins Aircraft Windows Inc., Blue Haven Pools, Conti Warehouses, Midcoast Energy, Required Team Gear, and Momentum Upstream.

Finally, the front part of the Target parking lot was redeveloped with a small strip mall building (2606 S. Cherry Lane) that has of March 2024, Cherry Lane Cleaners, Wally's Liquors, a vacancy, Donut Express, A Plus Nails, and Star Relaxation. Finally, a Holiday Inn Express & Suites at 2620 S. Cherry Lane to replace the hotel at 2620 S. Cherry Lane was built sometime around the mid-2010s.