This page covers Interstate 35 North in San Marcos, that is, the section from Yarrington Lane near Kyle to Guadalupe Street closer to downtown, where the numbering resets. The initial version was Version 8 to continue with the old Interstate 35 in Hays County before it became Interstate 35 South as it is currently.
As the new Version 8, we take off 61 Kyle and Buda entries and continue with the rest. Well, sort of. The San Marcos I-35 numbering a bit weird. While some of them aren't consistent depending on what side of the highway, the numbering for North I-35 starts at Guadalupe Street. I've also trimmed off the last 14 entries as for some reason the numbering for Interstate 35 South starts at 1200, and of what was on 7.x, only eight actually had Interstate 35 addresses, and the McSchlotzsky's is its own article. I've also taken out the Springtown addresses from this page—515 Springtown Way, 200 Springtown Way, 1180 Thorpe Lane, and 1160 Thorpe Lane.
Additions: Studio 6, Extra Space Storage (Mill Street), Calvary Baptist Church, The 1856, 1703 N. Interstate 35 (additional apartments for The 1856), Panda Express, 1506 N. Interstate 35 (strip mall with Chipotle), 1430 N. Interstate 35 (strip mall with Starbucks), McCoy Corporation, 310 N. Interstate 35 (Freddy's and a defunct Hooters), Dutch Bros Coffee, 200 N. Interstate 35 (strip center with Eyemart), 180 N. Interstate 35 (stillborn Salad and Go), and Red Lobster.
Updates: Sunoco, Extra Space Storage (formerly titled as "LifeStorage" near Uhland Road), El Pollo Rico (retitled from "1109 N. Interstate 35"), McDonald's, 1011 N. Interstate 35, and 1004 N. Interstate 35 (retitled from "7-Eleven")
Studio 6 / 2212 N. Interstate 35
This three-story hotel (Studio 6 San Marcos TX) opened in 2018 with 80 rooms.
Extra Space Storage / 1907 N. Interstate 35
This was under construction as of March 2025 but it's done as of June 2026. I'm not sure when it exactly opened.
Calvary Baptist Church San Marcos / 1906 N. Interstate 35
This church was built around 2007 and not a converted retail store as I originally assumed.
Sunoco / 1903 N. Interstate 35
This started as a Texaco in 1989 (possibly older but unlikely) with a generic food mart. Between July 2015 and May 2016, the Texaco closed. In January 2017, a Stripes (with Sunoco) opened near the Texaco's site. It didn't directly replace it, but it did use the same address. The gas station is still Stripes as of March 2025.
The 1856 / 1805 N. Interstate 35
This apartment complex used to be "The Verandah" prior to 2024.
1703 N. Interstate 35
This apartment complex acts as a second phase to The 1856, and prior to this was Avalon Apartments. It looks like it was always designed as a second phase to 1805 (or maybe this one came first), though the two properties aren't contiguous.
Motel 6 / 1701 N. Interstate 35
Also known as "Motel 6 San Marcos - North", this motel was clearly something else originally...Motel 6 motels do not normally have a pentagon house-shaped sign. Until around 2016-2017, this was "Ramada Limited" (a low-end version of Ramada), which appears to be the original tenant.
Shell / 1699 N. Interstate 35
This gas station converted to a Shell around 2014 (give or take a year) with a new convenience store facade and got the Refuel convenience store brand by February 2020. Prior to this, it was an old Citgo with a Mobil-shaped sign and a debranded Quix (painted over).
Extra Space Storage / 1615 N. Interstate 35
This opened as 2016 as Alcove Storage. By October 2017 it assumed the LifeStorage name, between 2024 and 2025 it became Extra Space Storage.
Howard Johnson by Wyndham / 1601 N. Interstate 35
This was Stratford Inn and became Howard Johnson Inn (rebranded to "Howard Johnson by Wyndham" sometime later) in the late 2000s or very early 2010s.
Premier ER & Urgent Care / 1509 N. I-35
You may remember my old former Restaurant list. A Kettle restaurant was here from 1978 to sometime in the 2000s, when it disconnected to become "Pancake Restaurant" before finally closing in 2011 (though the numbering changed at some point, apparently this was considered 2121 N. I-35 at some point). After sitting vacant for over half a decade, it was eventually torn down for Premier ER & Urgent Care, which replaced the "PANCAKE" sign with "PREMIER".
Panda Express / 1550 N. Interstate 35
This stand-alone Panda Express opened 2025.
1506 N. Interstate 35
This strip center, built in 2024 has (from left to right) Chipotle, Skip's Beer Wine & Liquor, and First Watch. Skip's opened sometime late in 2024 or early 2025 after Chipotle and First Watch.
1430 N. Interstate 35
The counterpart to 1506 features, from left to right, Starbucks (opened July 2024 with the other tenants coming by the end of the year), Round Table, My Dental, Nothing Bundt Cakes, Jersey Mike's Subs, and Christus Urgent Care.
In-N-Out Burger / 1437 N. I-35
In 1992, this space was developed as a Shoney's, and like the Waco and Temple locations (covered in these I-35 pages) was converted to Jim's in 1999. Jim's didn't last long here (longer than Temple or Waco, which isn't saying much) and by January 2008 it was home to Bikinis Sports Bar & Grill (having opened a few months earlier). After Bikinis closed in 2015, it was demolished and rebuilt as an In-N-Out Burger, which opened in June 2016.
Hawaiian Bros Island Grill / 1439 N. Interstate 35
Like Kyle's, this HBIG was also built as a Pollo Tropical and closed at the same time. In 2021, it reopened as a Hawaiian Bros Island Grill. It replaced a Philips 66 (it had been one since at least the early 1990s) and closed in the late 2000s or very early 2010s. (Tax records indicate 7-Eleven had wanted to open here in the early 2010s but ultimately they never did). By 2016 it was demolished with the Pollo Tropical coming soon after.
McCoy Corporation / 1350 N. I-35
The corporate headquarters of McCoy's Building Supply. They've been in this building since it was built in 2008.
Texas Bean & Brew House / 1328 N. Interstate 35
From 1985 to around 1998 this was "Casa de Pico", a Mexican restaurant, then "Dos Flores Tex-Mex & Grill" (2005 to around 2009), then Japan Latino Sushi & Steak from approx. 2010 to 2019. It was a Japanese restaurant (not fusion). Texas Bean & Brew House has been here since 2019.
If there was something in the 1998-2005 timeframe, I don't have information on it.
Saltgrass Steak House / 1141 N. I-35
Logan's Roadhouse opened in 2000 as a new building but closed between 2016 and 2017. Saltgrass opened in 2019.
El Pollo Rico / 1109 N. Interstate 35
Long John Silver's operated here from approximately 1977 to 2020 (had the address of 35 Long Street, at least initially). Sometime around the mid-2000s it was either extensively renovated or rebuilt to be co-branded with A&W;, but this was removed in the early 2010s.
Mucho Taco moved in shortly after LJS's demise, but it closed in April 2023 citing high inflation costs. El Pollo Rico moved in by year-end.
McDonald's / 1105 N. IH 35
There has been a McDonald's at this site since the mid-1970s (another McDonald's was built just one exit down sometime around the late 1990s but this one remained). Another lot next to it has been used for parking since the mid-1990s, there's a sign that has the Golden Arches and "McDonald's Bus-Truck-RV Parking". I need to do more research about its older address and nearby defunct businesses.
1011 N. Interstate 35
This former Burger King opened in 1987 and by the late 1990s had built an enclosed playground. Around 2015 it was closed. By 2024 it was demolished except for the superstructure of the playground structure.
1004 Interstate 35
This 7-Eleven was a convenience store/gas station called Quix that 7-Eleven purchased back in 2012. The Quix name came in 1992 when its parent company converted from Payless Gas. It originally opened in 1987. Fixtures and signage indicate it may have been branded Chevron at one point. Between summer 2024 and March 2025 it was permanently closed.
Classic Inn / 921 IH-35
This was a Microtel Inn in the early 2000s and later rebranded to "GateWay Inn". Between June 2019 and February 2020, GateWay Inn was renamed as Classic Inn. It was originally built around 1997. Some records erroneously call this S. IH-35.
Fuego Tortilla Grill / 913 Interstate 35
Fuego Tortilla Grill's second location (first one in College Station). It is the only one in the chain that occupied an existing building, in this case, an extensively renovated KFC which existed from 1990 to 2012 (it actually moved). Fuego opened here in September 2014, though at the time, there was another establishment called "Fuego Coffee & Ice" in San Marcos that has since closed.
Like it's College Station cousin that switched to "24/6" (closed Mondays) after a food sickness outbreak, at some point the San Marcos location did the same. As a footnote, the tortilla chips are just plain colored, not "team colors" like the Waco and College Station locations.
San Marcos Tourist Information Center / 617 IH 35
I'm not sure when the tourist information center opened, but I'd be remiss in not mentioning that I did visit here back in 2010 when I really saw San Marcos properly for the first time. Thanks to a ~1998 aerial mounted on the wall, it was here I was able to see the Highway 21/80 intersection as I remembered it as well as Springtown as a "mall".
I had wanted to make a whole post on my old blog on that 2010 trip and while the memories would've been fresher, the execution would've been much sloppier.
White Rock Inn / 801 IH 35
This motel has changed hands a few times and I don't know what the original one is. It was Parkside Inn & Suites in January 2008, Knights Inn in May 2011, and White Rock Inn in March 2021 (still Knights Inn in 2020). While I'll go to Guadalupe Street eventually, this is where I intend to end so South Texas Retail can pick up where I left off due to a handshake deal some time ago.
Interestingly, from various sources, White Rock Inn was the original name.
310 N. Interstate 35
This has two restaurants (suite 101 and suite 201). Suite 101 is Freddy's Frozen Custard & Steakburgers and opened September 2016. The other one, Hooters, opened at around the same timeframe but closed June 2025 (Hooters is closer to Flores Street).
Dutch Bros Coffee / 216 N. Interstate 35
Part of the redevelopment of the old Luby's (see 200 N. Interstate 35), this Dutch Bros opened in 2023.
Shell / 207 N. Interstate 35
Also known as San Marcos Truck Stop (and also is known to have the address of 207-209, or just 209), this gas station/truck stop currently features "Restaurant Pollo El Rey". The station is currently a Shell and has been since at least the early 2000s, but the station itself goes back to the early 1960s.
200 N. Interstate 35
This strip center was built on the site of a Luby's Cafeteria, opened sometime around early 1994 and still branded as Luby's Cafeteria until closure 2/28/19. It was demolished by August and was an empty pad for a few years before the strip center development. As of 2022 it had Eyemart and Smoothie King.
Krispy Kreme / 121 Interstate 35
This building was built in 2007 as a Seattle's Best Coffee coffeehouse, but in early 2009 the Austin franchisee broke ties with the chain (in part due to Starbucks buying Seattle's Best) and renamed the stores as Texenza Coffee. When it closed in 2011 (the chain closed a year later), Krispy Kreme was quick to fill the space, opening by the end of the year.
Pluckers Wing Bar / 105 I-35
This building operated as a Red Robin from 2006 to 2008. Pluckers opened in the spot in early 2009.
Red Lobster / 100 I-35
Our last entry we'll cover this page is Red Lobster, showing up around 1996 and almost facing Highway 123 like McDonald's does. The rest of Interstate 35 beyond this point probably won't get a dedicated page, but we'll add the special ones on Numbered Exits.