Louie Mack's (Lakeland, Florida)

placeholder. full post coming tomorrow

Temple Towne Center (Temple, Texas)

Many Staples stores have closed over the years, but this one still remains. (From the PDF linked below). I haven't done a deep dive into this shopping center yet. From what I can piece together it replaced a smaller shopping center anchored by Winn-Dixie around 2001, but no parts of the original center remain. The circa 2021 PDF I have on file features all of the junior anchors that are still there now (except for Bed Bath & Beyond getting replaced with HomeGoods) and McAlister's Deli moving from its strip mall spot to a stand-alone location at 2416 S.W. H.K. Dodgen Loop. This used to be a Fazoli's that was there from 2003 to 2014. Other than that the anchors seem to be pretty consistent. There's, from left to right, Staples, Shoe Carnival, Ross Dress for Less, Marshalls, HomeGoods, Ulta Beauty, Five Below (these two I believe were originally Goody's Family Clothing), Bath & Body Works (moved from the mall, used to be Rue21 Etc.), Petco, smaller stores, and Hobby Lobby.

The problem is that Temple is relatively poorly documented and when more information comes up I'll add it to this post. It probably wouldn't be covered at all if I had not vowed to dismantle this post.

Melodie Drive (West, Texas)

KD's Smokehouse was a relatively short-lived. (See article for source).
Originally this was part of the "I-35 in Waco" page and today we're covering two businesses on Melodie Drive, a street in West, Texas that acts as a two-way road for the businesses behind it as the frontage road itself became one way. The first of two businesses that we will cover is 114 Melodie Drive: The hotel opened as Czech Inn in January 2006, built by Jerrell Bolton (who owned the car dealership behind the hotel), with its address, 114 Melodie Drive, named after his late wife Melodie, murdered in a 1985 robbery. In the first half of 2013 it was rebranded as a Best Western amidst the construction of I-35 and around 2018 or 2019 was rebranded as a Holiday Inn Express & Suites, which it still is today.

While there's still a bit of vacant space that could be used for something in the future, 214 Melodie Drive was developed around 2007 as KD's Smokehouse. The advertisement seen at the top of the page is from the August 2009 issue of Waco Today (as KD's), but it closed around 2011. In November 2013, it was renovated and reopened as Slovacek's Travel Center, an Exxon station much like their flagship plant in Snook, but much nicer and featuring sausage, kolaches, and all the convenience store fixings. There's also a dog park on the premises, though plans to add a 40-foot fire hydrant were dropped at some point. There's an article regarding the opening of Slovacek here. In early 2022, "Slovacek's Etc." was built in the south end of the parking lot. It appears to be some sort of store selling outdoor furniture and goods, though I can't find much more on it.

Lastly, there's the Golden Trails Senior Apartments that opened around 2021 at 314 Melodie Drive, but that's the least interesting of the other two here.

Lowe's at the North Loop (Houston, Texas)

The gang's all here in this early 2020s aerial.
The disassembly of North Loop Entries continues (and I should note that the previously and recently covered Taco Cabana has closed down). The image above shows the current configuration of Lowe's and adjacent businesses (not including the two office buildings). It appears that there was an apartment complex or two prior to Lowe's (1521 N. Loop West) opening in 2000, unfortunately at press time we couldn't research those.

The CVS (1525 N. Loop West) replaced a Shell station in 2013 (the Shell station was not accessible from the adjacent parking lots). The Murphy Express (1527 N. Loop West) was built around 2010-2011 in the Lowe's parking lot proper. The white-patched parking lot was redone in 2017, I'm not sure why it's there.

South First Square (Austin, Texas)

From this PDF
I don't have a lot of information on this one today. The grocery store at 611 West Ben White Boulevard was A&P when it first opened in 1966. The grocery store later changed hands to locally-based Foodland, which sold in 1996 to Cutrer's City Market, which by 2007 was simply City Market. From what I can find City Market sold to Arlan's Market, which closed this location shortly after, reopening in 2013 as Mi Rancho Meat Market. In late 2015 or early 2016 it was rebadged as the current name. Sharing the address and building is a restaurant called Bamboo Garden, this was Godfather's Pizza in the 1980s, and I'm not sure of the building out front. It looks like it was originally a restaurant.

While it's not connected to the shopping center anymore (poles were inserted into the concrete), the 7-Eleven (601 W. Ben White) has been here since the 1986 (though it likely originally had Citgo as a gas brand).

King Arthur's Castle (Grapevine, Texas)

1985 ad, source.
I'd like to thank Anonymous in Houston for cluing me into this one, a unique gas station with expanded food offerings (salads, barbecue, baked potatoes...but no fried chicken) that opened in 1985 and operated into the early 2000s and torn down soon after. The address of this place was 920 E. Northwest Highway, which is used by a Starbucks opened in 2007; however, the Starbucks occupied the plot of land just west of King Arthur's Castle.

As you can see below in this Google Earth aerial from 2001 the gas station had a turret on top of it as well as some other small signs in front of it; however, I'm not sure what, if any gas brand it offered.

Temple Mall (Temple, Texas)

The mall is mostly empty these days.
Located at 3111 S. 31st Street; while not on the H.K. Dodgen Loop list that we're trying to dismantle, I'd like to take time to cover another mall, Temple Mall. This is going to be a short one as I took pictures and did a deep dive (well, from what I could with the resources) which you can see here.