This page puts back together several newer pages that have been made in its wake: the three Houston Files posts on the issue, McDonald's, Taco Bell, and Wendy's.

The addresses I'll cover here will go in reverse order, because that was the way I was entering Houston when these made the biggest impact. Besides, it was right here where the Beltway 8 intersection was, and even into the late 1990s was the point when you were at "Houston". Previously, many of these photos appeared on Brazos Buildings & Businesses in a short-lived experiment to add Houston entries.

The Wendy's (16055 Northwest Freeway) of course had the iconic sign structure appearing at the top of this page and originally opened in 1984. It had the "solarium" design as Wendy's had during that time. It is unknown if the tarp was put on the solarium before or after it closed, as the windows made it harder to heat and cool the building (there was no tarp in 2011). The restaurant closed around fall 2012, and was demolished within months of when these pictures were taken in March 2013. (Some were taken by my friend K.G., like this one, which I had to crop because I was in it).

The second of these was McDonald's. The The address of the McDonald's is a bit in question. Normally, addresses on the north side of Northwest Freeway or Hempstead Road (when they parallel) are all even-numbered, as there's nothing on the south side (railroad), and when they are together they share addresses as they are in parallel. When Northwest Freeway is split away from the railroad, they have odd-numbered addresses. The McDonald's and the other stores in the "wedge" approaching Beltway 8 had both. As a result, legally this McDonald's is 16001 Northwest Freeway but also operated as 16002 Hempstead (despite the signage being 16001).The McDonald's opened in 1980 and was listed as being rebuilt in 2000 (as per HCAD), which was a bit unusual given that the 1970s/1980s McDonald's were not yet being demolished en masse at the time. The cinderblock construction does indeed suggest that it was a new restaurant...and the parking lot not being touched suggests it was destroyed prematurely by a fire, perhaps. In 2012, the McDonald's closed, and stripped most of its iconic roof in the process. By June 2013, the building was demolished. You can see the Street View of the McDonald's still in operation here.

The Taco Bell had the address of 16009 Northwest Freeway (I'm not sure why I put 15950). It was built in 1993 and had red, green, and yellow striping outside. Like the other restaurants it closed around fall 2012.

Other pictures from this set:

There were a few other buildings demolished in the same area, like the auto shop next door, which you can see at Houston Freeways (the fast food pictures were taken the exact same day as mine! Strange minds think alike, I suppose).

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