Waco's Wyatt Food Store (Waco, Texas)

Kroger's lone stand in Waco was only for a year. It was not Kroger's only attempt in the Waco-Temple-Killeen area, though!
Have I got a story for you. It involves Kroger, H-E-B, Pancho's, and the Taliban, and it all goes back to an iconic arch.

In February 1961, Kroger opened its first Central Texas location of Wyatt Food Stores, a grocery chain based out of Dallas. Alongside this was Wyatt's Cafeteria, a restaurant chain which was owned by Earle Wyatt (having sold the supermarket chain to Kroger in 1958).¹ These held the addresses of 512 N. 20th Street and 510 N. 20th Street, respectively, though oftentimes the grocery store used the 510 address. A year later, however, Kroger announced it would be selling the Wyatt store to H-E-B, which changed over in March 1962² (replacing one of their smaller stores³, the merchandise from Wyatt was moved back to Dallas stores while H-E-B used one of theirs), ending Wyatt's Central Texas expansion. H-E-B continued to operate the store. Meanwhile, Wyatt's Cafeteria closed this location in 1969 and replaced by a Pancho's Mexican Buffet in 1970 (which did not last a year). H-E-B later absorbed the space, as the space was enormous, with 12,000 square feet of space (compared to the main store's 22k square feet, and in 1975 a 34k square feet supermarket was quite respectable). In October 1983, with the opening of a new store at 1428 Wooded Acres Drive, H-E-B shuttered the store for good, and that's how it would remain for the next 25 years. In 1985 there were plans to open a "tire warehouse and distribution center" on the site but neighborhood resistance caused the city to deny the request. Fast forward to 1999, when Antioch Community Church chose this site for their new church site. (A picture of the site as to how it appeared in 1998 is there).

Antioch briefly made national news when two of its missionaries were detained shortly before 9/11 in Afghanistan by the Taliban, and we know from articles at the time Antioch used the 510 address. By 2007, Antioch's building still resembled the old Wyatt/H-E-B, though no longer had braces for the lettering. Around 2012, the church began to build an expansion in front of the current building, deleting the Wyatt facade.⁴

But the arch persisted.

Located to the corner property and ground level (and briefly sporting some spots of paint from previous years gone by, with bits of red and blue paint toward the roofline), the arch stands near the corner of North 20th Street and Fort Avenue. Even if its original purpose is forgotten by many, it's heartwarming to see early 1960s retail architecture maintained and restored in some way. Below are a few other pictures and ads of relevance.

1. "Wyatt Food Store Opens Here Tuesday", Waco Tribune-Herald, February 12, 1961.
2. "H.E.B. Open At Wyatt Site Today", Waco News-Tribune, March 8, 1962.
3. This replaced a smaller H-E-B store at 18th Street and Austin Avenue.
4. At this point, the church also switched addresses to 505 N. 20th Street (occupying a former Sears Auto Center, which it also renovated).