Southwest Parkway in College Station
If I had to describe "which road best represents my childhood", it would have to be Southwest Parkway. There was the Citgo there at the corner of Southwest Parkway and Wellborn, before everything around it was built, a common fuel and convenience stop (more will be discussed when the gas station is added), the Texaco station at Welsh Avenue, those weird townhome-style apartments catty-corner to that (Embassy Townhomes), South Knoll Elementary School (where I went to school, and was once covered on this site, though mostly I described its dark, pre-renovation corridors), and small streets where family friends lived.

It was there in the happy childhood times of my life and some of the darker times like food delivery. A lot of this is based after what I originally wrote in Wikimapia (see the March 2022 update), in some cases verbatim, which in turn is based on my writings and memories of the avenue in the late 1990s and early 2000s.

Later on, thanks to a food delivery job, I knew most of the apartment complexes too well...and many cases, they didn't tip. But enough on that! Let's go down this road!

This page is currently on Version 2.1. It mostly corrects a few grammar errors and makes a minor update to Grove at Southwood.

Citgo / 101 Southwest Parkway
Directly at the northeast corner of Southwest Parkway and Wellborn, this was originally a Citgo/7-Eleven when it opened in June 1986 (7-Eleven stores, at least in this part of the country, were paired with Citgo gas). In 1993, 7-Eleven left the area but the stores (now under E-Z Mart) kept the Slurpee machines (later rebadged as ICEE), so this was the cold slush drink headquarters growing up. Unfortunately, the machines later broke down and the owners did not replace them, ending the destination for frozen Dr Peppers. In 2004, the store converted to Zip'N, and I remember when the store's name was a ground display surrounded by bushes (this was done away with in a station renovation). Later on, the gas station parking lot was integrated with Southwest Crossing around it.

Today, the station is run down and while it's still technically a Zip'N, there's a sign above it saying "Lucky Food Mart" or something along those lines.

Copper Creek Condos / 301 Southwest Parkway
This condo project was finished in the mid-2010s and was the first is also the first new residential development on the north side of Southwest Parkway since the late 1990s. The parking lot is accessed from behind the Southwest Crossing development.

Parkway Circle Apartments / 401 Southwest Parkway
As I did do food delivery, I became familiar with these apartments (among others), like learning not to enter through the center section. They were built in 1982 and have a somewhat nice stone exterior, something that has held up better than its neighbors.

Crossing Place / 400 Southwest Parkway
These three-story apartment buildings are accessed by a single parking lot that winds through the complex. In January 2015, this went from being Crossing Place Apartments to simply Crossing Place. One thing to note about this one was built in 2002, and prior this was a bunch of small trees in a row; deliberately planted. I don't know what type they were but it was never a fruit grove and it isn't obvious in the 1995 aerial picture.

Madison Pointe Apartments / 503 Southwest Pkwy.
Formerly Oakwood Apartments and built in 1980. The name change came in the late 1990s.

The Wick / 430-502 Southwest Parkway
One of the oldest apartments on Southwest Parkway (first phase in 1975), these apartments, formerly known as Willowick Apartments, were rebranded as "The Wick" in January 2017. This has amounted to little more than a repaint.

It does not have a good reputation but perhaps the oddest thing is how the stairs jut into the main sidewalk or don't touch it at all, and the upper level doors are several inches from the second floor, almost as if everything was built wrong.

University Place Condominiums / 521 Southwest Pkwy.
Cheap three-story condominiums built in the early 2000s. Each building has its own separate address, starting with 515 and going counter-clockwise to 529.

Hillstone on the Parkway / 528 Southwest Parkway
Hillstone saw construction in the 1990s, but like University Place, each building has its own address from 520 to 548.

Southwest Stor-Mor / 602 Southwest Parkway
This self-storage unit has a car wash (self service) in front of it. I don't recall the original name but it currently goes under "Splish Splash Car Wash" with cut-out painted blue letters in Comic Sans.

The Grove at Southwood / 603 Southwest Parkway
These were called Brownstone Apartments originally and sometime around 2001 became Renaissance Park Apartments. It assumed its current name sometime around mid-2021 it became "The Grove at Southwood" with a color scheme of grey and lime green (though the lime green doors had been around for a few years. Parts the apartment complex (the parking lot is not contiguous) holds the 1600 Welsh address.

Shell / 1800 Welsh Avenue
This Shell, once branded as "Max Food Mart" until sometime around the late 2000s or early 2010s, was a Texaco until January 2003 when it was rebranded as a Shell following a deal involving the newly merged ChevronTexaco and Shell. It was a Texaco at least through the late 1990s, and county records show that it was built in 1990 (presumably as a Texaco). The stoplight was built in the 1990s.

Catty-corner to the Shell is the Embassy Townhomes. While not an apartment complex, Embassy is designed to look like East Coast brownstones that are off-set from the road with a small yard. Brazos CAD indicates they were built in 1970.

Going south from the gas station is a few businesses off of Welsh. I won't cover Welsh as an independent street to cover, but it includes the former Student Korner and adjacent restaurant (see the blog post here). It's next to 1806 Welsh (there's only one tenant here, Monograms & More in Suite G). Other old tenants include CME Testing & Engineering Inc. (Suite C) and Farris Pools & Services (Suite B), but those are long gone.

Beyond that is a more recent building built around 2015 (after over 15 years of a sign promising construction of a building), M&M Apparel at 1810 Welsh. Beyond that is the CSISD offices at 1812 Welsh, which was built as a normal office building but later purchased by the district. Finally, one other apartment to note is Hunters Point Apartments (formerly Yellowhouse Apartments) at 1806 Yellowhouse Circle. This is at the southeast corner of Southwest Parkway and Welsh, but has no acess from Southwest.

The Vintage / 1101 Southwest Parkway
Getting back on Southwest Parkway, we have The Vintage which is covered in a bit more detail here at Brazos Buildings & Businesses.

South Knoll Elementary School / 1220 Boswell Street
Going further down Southwest Parkway, with small streets leading to houses and duplexes, we get to one of the main anchors of Southwest Parkway...South Knoll Elementary School! This used to have a section on the blog but it was removed at some point, so allow me to entertain a bit more about it here. The school was originally built in 1967 as a K through 5 school (at some point in the late 1980s 5 was moved to Oakwood) and a few years later two new buildings were built, one with a gym (as well as art/music/computer classrooms) and one for kindergarten classrooms.

When I first entered South Knoll toward the late 1990s the school still had its original layout. The main building had a cafeteria (facing Southwest Parkway), a library (inside the main corridors), and on the Langford side, a science lab. It was also very dimly lit, with concrete floors only lit by the occasional light. In spring 1998 construction began to radically change the school. The school was brightened up with modern colorful tiles and traditional florescent lighting. The science lab was moved to inside the main classrooms (roughly where the library was, but I don't remember the specifics), the library was moved to the old cafeteria space, and a new cafeteria was built to link to the kindergarten building. The building with the gym and the art/music/computer classrooms was also redone to match the main building, though it remained a separate building.

At some point after I left (but after 2011), the building was renovated again, with the office now blocking access to the main school (security purposes) and the walls became teal. Since I left in 2002, the other access in and out of the school have all been sealed up. At one point there were deliberate gaps in the fence to Southwest Parkway, those were sealed a long time ago, and even the culvert under Southwest Parkway was later blocked up.

Despite these security features, I couldn't help but grin after an article published in 2018 that a kid did manage to "escape" from the school and walk close to three miles outside of its gates. The police had to get involved since it was a missing child case, and no doubt the kid got into deep trouble, but it still had me thinking, "Man, that kid is going to be the coolest kid in school after he gets out. If that happened when I was there, high fives all around."

Parkway Baptist Church / 1501 Southwest Parkway
This church built a new sanctuary building around 2003-2004.

Energy Plaza / 1701 Southwest Parkway
Office building. Many of its tenants are not actually headquartered in College Station. The building got a face lift in August 2015, and with it a new name (it used to be called United Plaza).

Cedar Ridge at College Station / 1600 Southwest Parkway
Another apartment complex I delivered to. These used to be known as Parkway Apartments, a name now being used by Parkway Place off of FM 2818.

Arbor Square Apartments / 1700 Southwest Pkwy.
Between Cedar Ridge and Arbor Ridge is Anderson Street (United/Energy Plaza is at the northeast corner). We'll cover it a bit more when we get around to Holleman but this is the end of it heading between the complexes, and serves as the main access point to Bee Creek Park, and by extension, Adamson Lagoon, a swimming pool my family went to growing up.

1712 Southwest Parkway
A strip center anchored by Fuzzy's Taco Shop, which opened in 2010. The center was renovated in the early 2010s, previously where Fuzzy's is (suite 100), there was an E-Z Mart (formerly 7-Eleven until 1993) with gas pumps (Citgo, but no canopy). As of April 2021, the tenants from left to right include Pro Nails & Spa (CR Nails from the early to mid 2010s), Wild Side Smoke Shop (since 2015, briefly Mak's C Store in 2010-2011), Haircuts at Whitney's (for well over a decade, this was just simply signed as "DENTIST". It eventually got a real sign, Dr. Black Dental Care, which was not the original dentist here, in 1999 it was Jeannie Williams, DDS, and around 2013 Black moved to a new location at Rock Prairie and Edelweiss). The last tenant was Prestige Cleaners and later Aggieland Cleaners, though the location seems to be closed.

Shipley Do-Nuts / 1716 Southwest Parkway
Covered a bit more on the blog here. It also contains a bit of a prototype for what would be this page.

Arby's / 1800 Southwest Parkway
This Arby's still has 1980s-era signage (not a "big hat" but none of Arby's logo changes either). I wrote a post on it on the blog back in 2019 using an even an older picture (from 2013). And here we are at Texas Avenue. Beyond this point, Southwest Parkway becomes Southwest Parkway East, which we'll get to another time.

Take 5 Oil Change / 111 Southwest Pkwy. E.
This automobile lube center (oil change) has changed hands several times. In December 2016, it became Take 5 Oil Change after being American Lube Centers for a number of years.

Aggieland Credit Union / 201 Southwest Parkway East
This credit union has been here since 1997. I did write a blog post but there's not much more information than what I've written here except a photo.

A Gold's Gym at 200 Brentwood Drive East faces the opposite direction and is directly behind the credit union, and the whole parking lot interfaces with Take 5 Oil Change, as well as the PNC Bank Building, CVS, and Drew's Car Wash (see the Texas Avenue page).

Wendy's / 202 Southwest Parkway East
This Wendy's was built in 1984 (though it may have opened in 1986). It's a bit out of the way from the Texas Avenue corridor and access isn't great, but it has survived here for decades. It was the first Wendy's in College Station proper, the oldest surviving Wendy's restaurant, and following the closure of the Holleman Drive/FM 2818 location, the only Wendy's in College Station.

Country Inn & Suites / 1010 Southwest Pkwy. E.
The Country Inn & Suites by Radisson College Station opened in 2010. It's near the Holiday Inn, which opened earlier.

At this point, Southwest Parkway East intersects with Earl Rudder Freeway. Raintree Drive is across the bridge.


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