I had debated making Dunvale Road a "traditional" page or just making it a page like other "one-off" pages as I've done in the past that cover two or three related businesses. In this case, it's a bit of a hybrid. The focus is on three businesses (two of which are gone) but there are other Dunvale addresses I can write about. These entries previously appeared elsewhere in the Houston section of Carbon-izer (namely the Westheimer Road page) but have been re-edited for this page.

In January 1994, Wal-Mart Stores opened a Wal-Mart (store #2066) and Sam's Club (store #6465)¹ next to each other, sharing a parking lot, though the stores sat on distinctive lots, with Wal-Mart at 2727 Dunvale Road and Sam's Club at 2827 Dunvale Road. A few years later, just to the south of them, AMC Theatres opened one of their "gigaplex" theaters in May 1997 at 2949 Dunvale Road. You couldn't go from the Wal-Mart/Sam's Club parking lot to the movie theater, but it did make Dunvale Road a destination for Westheimer Road area residents and shoppers.

This newspaper ad (local copy) mentions valet parking (with free car washes) and "Gourmet Cinema" (I'm told this was more "arthouse" fare). Note that the particular ad mentions the NC-17 comedy Orgazmo, but in a smaller font than the rest of the films.

In May 2002, the Wal-Mart completed an expansion, upgrading to a Wal-Mart Supercenter, and in 2005, part of the parking lot was blasted through and reconfigured to have access between Sam's Club/Wal-Mart and the movie theater. But this happy marriage was short-lived. In 2008, Sam's Club was slowly remodeled (and officially reopened in August 2008) as "Sam's Club Business Center" (similar to Costco's Costco Business Center). It eliminated several consumer categories (optical, pharmacy, jewelry, apparel, tire and seasonal) in favor of expanded food and business-related options, but less than two years later, Wal-Mart Stores decided it was not in their best interest to continue operating the store, and it closed in January 2010.

Luckily Garden Ridge moved in later that year² but in August 2015, the store (renamed to "At Home" in fall 2014 like the rest of the chain) closed, and within six months, the site had been leveled and the construction of the new apartments (the Everly) were well underway, permanently cutting off the Walmart (as it was branded by this time) and the AMC Theater.

According to Jason McMillon, when writing for Houston Historic Retail, lease issues due to high land value caused AMC to stop investing in the theater, and of course, when COVID-19 hit, it broke the back of AMC entirely, and the lease was likely rejected in the bankruptcy and reorganization of the movie theater chain. Following this, the theater was broken into over 240 lots plus streets as the new "Dunvale Village" subdivision.

While the AMC and the Sam's Club have turned into housing, the Wal-Mart Supercenter is still there; rebranded to simply "Walmart" by 2011 with a new tan exterior (in 2021-2022 it was repainted as gray with blue accents and it's probably different now again). The Walmart used to have a McDonald's inside but later had a Charleys Cheesesteaks. Google also mentions "Churro Mania" inside as of August 2026, but it co-exists in another lease space in front, not replacing it.

The addresses below do not represent all of Dunvale's addresses but are current as of August 2026.

The Hideaway On Dunvale / 3122 Dunvale Road
The website for this bar alludes to being used as a church in a previous life, but if it was, it wasn't at this location. It's been here since 1991.

3401 Dunvale Road
An extension of Turtle Pointe apartments off Richmond. See the Richmond page.

Briarmeadow Charter School / 3601 Dunvale Road
This was built in the early 1960s (and later expanded by the end of the decade) as Green and Green Inc., which manufactured flavors for food and beverages, but at some point in the early 1970s it went under and was purchased by Foodmaker as a plant to Foodmaker for manufacturing purposes (supplying their Jack in the Box restaurants) which expanded the building to its current size. It also appears that this served as their regional headquarters. Around 1982 it was sold to Ruska Instrument Corporation (which it still was in 1990) and by December 1997 the contents of the building were auctioned off (I assume Ruska stayed there until then). In 2000, Houston ISD took over the site and Briarmeadow Charter School opened in fall 2001.

1. Bluepages is MOSTLY accurate, if slightly out of date on in-store dining; it's Houston, Texas, not "Westheimer, Texas".
2. Sam's Club had built a gas station at some point prior to December 2001, but this was demolished and paved over after they left.

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