Florida Rock Industries (Orlando, Florida)

Ad for Florida Rock Industries from January 13, 1990. The logo is kind of interesting.
I have hundreds of pages of addresses from across the nation that I build this site from, and among them is 5109 Carder Road. 5109 Carder Road is owned by Argos RMX (formerly Florida Rock Industries until 2014) and was once located directly off of Carder Road, before a good chunk of Carder Road was turned into an extension of John Young Boulevard; rather than just going across the railroad and turning into Lee Road, the new extension added flyovers to connect to Forest City Road to the north.

The plant has been there since 1979, and Wikimapia, which I used to contribute to¹ mentioned that there was a new self-supporting communications tower built in 2004 after the old one collapsed as it was held up by guy wires and one of those guy wires got struck by a truck. Mostly what piqued my interest was despite the new six-lane boulevard, it had added a new, tightly-designed railroad crossing, despite the fact the old one never seemed to get much business. (Tightly-designed isn't a turn of phrase, they had close clearance signs). Unfortunately Argos seems to have abandoned the spur past the crossing but perhaps it could be reused in the future.

1. I finally got sick of it and decided to do things my own way, see the March 31 2022 update on Carbon-izer.

Shell Express (Navasota, Texas)

Dithered for style reasons and to cover up Google Street View's inadequacies
As previously discussed, this is another "breakup" post, this time tackling this page. The main subject in question of this post is a Shell gas station at 9323 Highway 90.

Opened around 1999 (as Texaco, changed in 2003) with a Popeyes and Domino's Pizza inside the store, and advertising both on the store (a "sign split" with Popeyes, and Domino's located mid-way down), the Popeyes sign has since been removed from the roadside signage (but still exists--likely because they didn't want to change it to the newer "Popeyes Louisiana Kitchen" signage) while the Domino's closed in summer 2012 (I knew someone that worked there--a combination of Pizza Hut being next door and in the area for decades and their location in a back of a gas station was hard to deal with in a small town like Navasota). Next door is the Pizza Hut in question, having moved to 9305 Highway 90 around 2001 from an older location closer to downtown. Next to it is Sonic Drive-In (9249 Highway 90), which also moved from an older location around 1999 (previously at 814 S. LaSalle Street, which is no more—I can't tell what it was afterward, this blurry 2007 view seems to indicate "Market Square" or something like that.

Meanwhile, the Domino's was replaced with Sum-Yum Chinese Food in 2016, but it closed in October 2024 (archive).

Lakehills Cinema 4 (Austin, Texas)

Opening ad from 1978, this is different from the CinemaTreasures copy (higher resolution and higher contrast).
I'm dismantling "Other Roads in South Austin" to focus on South Lamar and US-290 West, so among those that are getting sliced include 2428 West Ben White Boulevard, the late Lakehills Cinema 4. It operated from 1978 to 1999 under a variety of owners and in 2005 became the new location of Strait Music Company in 2005, but in May 2023, Strait Music Company "South" relocated to 3201 Bee Caves Road Ste. 140. After this, the building was heavily tagged and demolished soon after.

A Strange Whataburger in Lockhart (Lockhart, Texas)

I hate to rely on Google too often, from Google Maps' photos, by Patrick Hanley. (source).
The origins of this "Oddaburger" are shrouded in mystery. Located at 100 State Park Road in Lockhart, Texas, it opened in 2005 and replaced "Bumpers Drive-In" of Texas (per records, and it had a similar location in Giddings), but it only lasted less than a year (2001 to mid-2002) and I can't even confirm it was related to Bumpers Drive-In in Mississippi. It's quite possible as they're selling franchises for the rest of the country (provided its not one of 15 states that regulate franchises). In any case, it retains its original architecture.

This page is spun off from Various Lockhart Businesses.

24 Hour Fitness at 2500 Dunstan (Houston, Texas)

Sourced from Loopnet. That other building in the background (not the two-story one) is part of the same structure.
Before the many revisions of Carbon-izer I had started working on a Rice Village page, and the remains of that will be used on this website.

2500 Dunstan Road was originally built as the six-story University Savings & Loan Association in 1964 and by the late 1970s was known as University Savings Association. In the mid-1980s, University Savings Association closed and in 1987, President & First Lady Health & Racquet Clubs took up a good part of the space. As previously described on the Katy Freeway page (specifically, 9823 Katy Freeway), the health club chain was known as Bally's President & First Lady Health Club by 1994, and Bally Total Fitness by 1996 (in part due to parent company Bally Entertainment spinning off Bally Total Fitness). By 2010, however, Bally Total Fitness was starting to wind down business and was selling off its health clubs, with this closing in June of that year, as banners for the successor tenant 24 Hour Fitness appeared by the end of the year and ultimately opened in March 2011. (British Swim School opened in 2025, but operates within 24 Hour Fitness).

Hooters at the Selma Town Hall (Selma, Texas)

Picture from Loopnet. I messed up...I didn't mean to do "breakup" entries in a row, so I'll do two original entries in row this time. The first of these is Selma, Texas' city hall, built (per BCAD) in 1929 and was operational through the 1970s (if not the 1980s) before being renovated as City Hall Grill (15412 Interstate 35 North), operating from around 1993 to 1999. Unfortunately the eBay page I archived didn't save more than a thumbnail but you got a discount if you had a paid traffic ticket, paying homage to Selma's history of a speed trap. Around 2002, it became Hooters. It's very distinctive looking...when I passed by it I knew it definitely wasn't built as a Hooters, thinking it might've been some large Mexican restaurant that went under some years before, not something from close to a century ago.

Saigon Cafe (Temple, Texas)

I like the little marquee lights on the sign, though I don't think they do patterns, at least, not anymore. (Google Maps Street View)
I'm back with another entry ripped and slightly updated from the SW HK Dodgen Loop page (as of this writing), 220 SW H.K. Dodgen Loop. Located on the opposite side of Fryers Creek Lane from Cactus Jack's, this has been Saigon Cafe since 2010. Other restaurants here included Mulligan's Grill (1980-1989), Emperors of China (1992-1993), and Mr. Fajita's Buffet (1994-2004). The signage for Mr. Fajita's Buffet stuck around for several years after it closed, and it originally had the address of 520 Ramada Drive (at some point this and one other got changed to SW HK Dodgen).

At the time I thought it was pretty good but otherwise I can't remember much of it, including what I actually ordered....