Old Main Drive was once "Main Drive"For obvious reasons, highway ramps are not included. Neither are unnamed detour roads (such as at Villa Maria or Harvey Mitchell).
2nd Street: The College Station (Northgate) road had partially closed off to pedestrian traffic. The promenade was completed in 2002, so it probably closed off in 2001.
Abbate Rd.: Partially incorporated into Jones-Butler Rd. in 2004. It used to connect directly with Cain Road. The incorporated segment is Holleman Drive.
Arnold Road: Abandoned in the early 1990s between Victoria Avenue and (Old) Schaffer Road, later cut off past the current Schaffer Road in the late 1990s. These cut off segments are bike paths today.
Amanda Drive: Now Canterbury Drive*
Arrington Road: See "Old Arrington Road"
Blaine Drive: Now Dover Drive.*
Barron Road: Originally featured sharp curves, old curved section became Barron Cut-Off Road.
Boyd Drive: Proto-"Brandon Heights" road. Part of it still survives as a portion of Willow Loop.*
Cameron Drive: Appears to be the predecessor of Welsh between Rock Prairie and around what is now Westchester.*
Chris Drive: Now Abbey Lane.*
Christine Lane: Destroyed in 2006 for the Woodlands of College Station. Linked Welsh to Wellborn (but no one really used it, as it was a dirt road)
College Main: Closed off in 2012 between Patricia and University for a pedestrian mall that is rarely used, except at night, when they closed the road anyway.
Corey Drive: In the 1990s, it was slightly modified and renamed Westchester Avenue. Corey Drive only went north-south.*
Culpepper Drive: College Station side mostly destroyed in U Centre development, connected Inlow Blvd. (CS) to University Square shopping center. Currently connects shopping center to Cross Street.
Dowling Road: Once crossed the railroad tracks and connected to Wellborn. Truncated and rerouted when FM 2818 was built. Traces of this still existed until the overpass construction started. In the late 1970s or early 1980s, it was separated into two roads by North Graham Road.
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Roads created from this include North Dowling Road, most of South Dowling Road, and some of Timberline Drive.
Duncan Lane: Closed off railroad crossing in 2005. I want to say I remember that it had lights and gates...did it?
East Loop / East Bypass: Unofficial names for the Highway 6 bypass. Usage ceased when it was re-dubbed as "Earl Rudder Freeway".
Elbrich Road: Small private road across from Cain, incorporated into Navarro Rd. in late 1990s or early 2000s. A 1980 phone book lists a "Frank Elbrich Sr." in the area.
F. Ken Nichols Road: Went parallel to curving part of Front Street, and had Front Street on both ends. Even before it was destroyed for Century Square, it was empty and in bad condition. Fairway Rd.: Closed access to Wellborn after Villa Maria underpass work.
Fed-Mart Drive: Renamed to Tarrow Drive E. I love these "old retail" names: in case you didn't know, it was because the FedMart was right there (I need to make a post about it sometime). Other examples in other towns that haven't been renamed are J. L. Hudson Drive in Michigan (the mall's biggest anchor was a J.L. Hudson department store), Caldor Road in Massachusetts (the Caldor discount store is now a Walmart)
Finfeather Road: Rerouted to connect to Agronomy Road in late 2000s.
Fish Tank Rd.: Renamed Nuclear Science Rd. in 1990s.
Front Street: Originally went south of Hensel (east side of University Apartments) and curled around to Calvin Moore. Closed and destroyed in University Apartments/Century Square redevelopment. Had been in bad condition for years. FM 2818: The "West Loop" was renamed Harvey Mitchell Parkway in 1999. This was probably for the better, as although FM 2818 was in signage in addresses and names, it had a lot of other unofficial names ("West Loop", "Loop 2818", "2818 Highway": there might be more)
Gabbard Road: At the time Traditions Blvd. was built as being attached to this road, it was still Gabbard. Became Traditions Drive completely in 2010.
Gandy Road: Between modern-day Holleman Drive S. and Old Wellborn. Originally dirt, ended at Old Wellborn with yield sign. Curved into I&GN at other side. Incorporated into Rock Prairie Rd. circa 2001.
Graham Road: The original Graham Road was broken up and extended. Currently, the roads believed to be expanded from the original Graham include Victoria Avenue, Old Schaffer Road, a bit of Hasselt Loop, Graham Road, and North Graham Road.
Green Rd.: Closed access to Villa Maria during and after Villa Maria underpass work. It was for the better.
Greens Prairie Road: Cut off in 2005 from the highway and rerouted to Arrington Road (the "new" Arrington at the time, both lanes turned left), the rest became William D. Fitch. Eventually, it was extended as part of Caprock Crossing to the highway. Haupt Lane: Destroyed c. 2014 for construction of the Barracks subdivision. Private road. Harvey Mitchell Parkway (FM 2818): The intersection with Wellborn was reconfigured into an overpass in 2009-2011.
Holleman Drive: The section formerly known as Jones-Butler, between N. Dowling Road and Saddle Lane, rerouted to connect with the current expansion. Existed 2004-2011. Parts of this can still be seen.
I&GN Rd.: A segment of I&GN (between North Graham and Rock Prairie) was renamed Holleman in late 2010.
Luther St. W.: Between the railroad and Marion Pugh, closed early 2000s. The railroad crossing closed before that (early 1990s or late 1980s, take your pick) but did not truly connect with the Luther Street east of Wellborn Road.
Jamin Circle: Now Regal Row. It originally connected to Arnold.
Jeffrey Street: Now Benchmark Drive (renamed sometime late 1980s/early 1990s).
Jersey Street: Renamed George Bush Drive in early 1990s. In addition, when Jersey Street expanded in the 1970s or 1980s, some was cut off. The cut-off portion was renamed Old Jersey Street. The driveway down to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints also contains some of the original Jersey Street.
Jones Road: Separated into two parts when Villa Maria extended to TX-47 in 1995.
Jones Bridge Rd.: Renamed Raymond Stotzer Parkway after the underpass was done. Could've been done in 1960s through 1980s.
Jones-Butler Rd.: Between Harvey Mitchell and Rock Prairie. Opened late 2004. Renamed Holleman Drive S. when it was clear that it wasn't going to connect with the rest of Jones-Butler (2010)...except for the part between Harvey Mitchell and Dowling, which was used for a detour and was eventually closed.
Kim Drive: An early "Brandon Heights" road, later destroyed for the private neighborhood park-turned retention/detention pond. A part of it still survives as the east-west portion of Sunflower Trail.*
Koppe Bridge Rd.: Had an actual bridge condemned in the 1960s. Connected to Burleson County. While I never took the picture, I take credit for increasing the notability and popularity for this, as I've seen that picture multiple other places.
Krenek Lane: Renamed Krenek Tap Road in early 1990s, unless the map I had was wrong.*
Marion Pugh Rd.: The old I-GN segment between North Dowling and 2818 was named this (after years of having no name) around 1999. Renamed Jones-Butler in 2005. "De-named" in 2010. Closed in 2011. Also, the segment near George Bush was realigned slightly to better line up with the newly four-laned road in the late 1990s.
Marsh Blvd.: Renamed to Lakeway Drive sometime in the 1990s. (both are water-themed, but one is one more attractive than the other).
Matt Street: Gone entirely. It was a cul-de-sac loop from Shane to Amanda*
Meadowland Street: Partially closed (University Drive entrance) in Spring 2012 for the Plaza implosion and eventual Northpoint Crossing redevelopment. Rebuilt and rerouted into Northpoint Lane.
Milam Avenue: College Station side, on campus property, empty road for years but destroyed in 2013 for U Centre development. Connected Inlow Blvd. (CS) to Cross Street. Miller's Lane: A dead-end road incorporated into FM 2818 in the early 1990s. Extended east from Texas Avenue.
Mint Rd.: Between Welsh and Sunflower Loop. Incorporated into Edelweiss Road. Still noted by road color change (kind of reddish).
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Nathan Drive: Renamed Benchmark Court by the 1990s. It originally connected to Victoria Avenue, now ends in a cul-de-sac.*
North Dowling Road: The intersection with it and Harvey Mitchell Parkway closed in 2009.
North Graham Rd.: Closed between Old Wellborn and Victoria in early 2000s. Renamed between Victoria and Regal Row as Castlebrook, although interestingly that section was built a bit later.
Oakway Drive: Side road off Holleman, ran on west side of the Sears Parts & Repair building. Little trace remains today.*
Old Arrington Road: Arrington was called Old Arrington shortly after TX-40 was built, with the "new Arrington" a stub road between Greens Prairie Road and William D. Fitch Parkway. Around 2009 or so, the rest of Arrington was finished off but a part of the original Arrington was still "Old Arrington". Around 2013, the section of Old Arrington between Highway 40 and a concrete plant had its pavement removed and closed permanently soon after.
Old College Road: Since until the 1980s Wellborn curved into what is now Old College Road, many addresses for what is now unambiguously Wellborn (like 801 Wellborn Road, home of Fish Richard's) were listed as "801 Old College".
Old College Main: Alternate name for what is now College Main, lasted into the 1980s. It's not used at all anymore. Unknown if this was the road name.
Old Highway 6: Historically, ran from Dowling (see "North Dowling Rd.") down to the Navasota River. Right of way traces still exist of where an old bridge might have been. Sections have been incorporated as Straub and Old Wellborn: it's kind of murky.
Today, at least, a railroad crossing connecting the road "Old Highway 6" was closed off in 2005.
Old Rock Prairie Road: See "Rock Prairie Road".
Old Wellborn Rd.: A segment on the west side of the railroad was closed off in early 2000s. More was closed off before that, however.
Patricia Street: Part of it was closed circa 1997 for the Northgate Promenade.
Renee Lane: Truncated circa 2006. Eagle Avenue runs over where the original ending was.
Restwood Dr.: Became part of Villa Maria later, post-1972. Curved into where day care is today into Spruce.
Rock Prairie Road: Severed section created (Old Rock Prairie Road) after they connected the two Rock Prairie Road segments circa 2003, but the severed section did not connect. Was replaced with Scott & White Drive around 2010-2013.
Sandy Point Road: Rebuilt intersection with 21 in the late 1990s or early 2000s. Left a disconnected segment.
Schaffer Road: Later named "Old Schaffer Road", today an unimproved road/bike path near modern-day Graham Road. Hasselt Loop occupies part of the right of way.
Shane Drive: Proto-"Brandon Heights" road. Part of it survives as a portion of Willow Loop.
Sherwood Drive: Went from Dowling to the far end of Robin Drive. Built into Rock Prairie Road extension circa 2001.
Sherry Drive: Now Honeysuckle Lane.
Skrivanek Drive: No longer connects to Joseph Drive, which was reconfigured circa 2005 or so.
Stephanie Drive: Now Nottingham Drive.*
Stephen Drive: From Victoria Avenue to Regal Row. Briefly N. Graham, now Castlebrook.*
South Dowling Road: The intersection at North Graham was rebuilt circa 2002-2003.
South Graham Rd.: Renamed Graham Road circa 2002.
South Tabor Road: Until around 2009-2010, connected into Main Street. Converted into a cul-de-sac.
Southbound TX-6 Frontage Road: Truncated in late 2000s. What used to go from Wal-Mart all the way down to beyond Greens Prairie now ends before Deacon. The section between Treehouse Trail and Deacon now is rerouted into Texas Avenue.
Southwest Pkwy. W.: Renamed Corregidor Drive in mid-2000s.
Southwest Pkwy.: Rerouted to build overpass and connect to Raintree.
Spruce Avenue: Originally went straight past Timber, over creek, curved into Restwood.
Sulphur Springs Rd.: Renamed University Drive sometime in the era between the late 1960s through the early 1980s.
Sutton Place: Undeveloped subdivision off the East Bypass (Highway 6), incorporated into Holleman Drive in the early 1980s.
Texas Avenue: Before the bypass, this was used even down to Rock Prairie Road. It's also why places like D&D Moving still have Texas Avenue addresses.
TX-21/US-190: Rerouted to bypass Kurten in 2005.
Timber Drive: Originally connected to Cavitt directly, intersected at Spruce.
Turkey Creek Rd.: Originally both sides (Bryan and College Station). An additional segment was closed circa 2008, but still has signage and pavement, leaving the possibility of reopening. Furthermore, it was further bisected by F&B Road's extension (also in 2008).
Twin Lakes Circle: Connected off Abbate near lake, will be demolished for Mission Ranch redevelopment. Viera Drive: Now Yorkshire Drive*
Walnut Road: The curve was cut off, the part from North Dowling segues into Arboleda Drive, the other part is an unlabeled, unimproved road going toward Hickory. This change happened in 2013-2014.
Wellborn Rd.: Rerouted in 2010 in two areas: the southern terminus near Navasota, the Harvey Mitchell interchange, and a few years prior, the Villa Maria underpass.
West 20th Street: Closed railroad crossing in 2009.
West 21st Street: See "West 20th Street".
West Martin Luther King Jr. St.: Disconnected unpaved(?) segment that connected to Mumford.
William Joel Bryan Parkway: Rebuilt intersection with 21 in the late 1990s or early 2000s. Left a disconnected segment. Also at one time known only as 25th.
Notice that the TAMU roads aren't even listed: here's what's up with them. A&M has a bad habit of cutting off roads to build buildings or pedestrian plazas, creating one-way roads, time operated gates (between 6am to 6pm, most roads on campus are closed to all but pedestrians, bicycles, and authorized vehicles). Let's not even get into parking on campus, either.
PARTIALLY GONE:
Houston Street - In the 1970s, with the MSC expansion/renovation, Houston Street permanently closed between Joe Routt and Lamar as a pedestrian walk was built between Rudder Tower and the MSC. Also, at some point, Houston Street had different routes at both the Sbisa area and the Kyle Field area (in the early days of campus). In 2012, Houston Street's last leg, between Asbury and Northgate, was closed off, converting that beautiful shaded area with the historic Northgate Post Office right there into a bike path. A southbound-only Houston Street connects from University around where Freebirds is.
Lamar Street - I don't know when Lamar started to separate, but now it exists in about three chunks. The section between Houston and Throckmorton closed around the 1970s (likely). This is about the time when Rudder was built and Military Walk closed off. Finally, the part that loops around to Old Main was originally Lamar (Bizzell went straight). This is now considered a part of Bizzell (though Google Maps still labels it as Lamar). Interestingly, the part that ends at what is now Heldenfels did not exist until the 1960s or so and never connected.
Spence Street - In the distant past, Spence Street connected what is now University Drive to what is now George Bush Drive, in a situation similar to what Houston Street was like. However, in the 1950s, the south leg of Spence was abandoned entirely (where the Commons is today). Meanwhile, at some point in the past (1989, it looks like), Spence Street was closed between the Anthropology Building and Ross Street to make for a pedestrian walkway and a dead-end parking lot for the Glasscock Building, as well as connection to a parking lot behind the 1972 wing of the Chemistry Building. However, in 2011, that all changed and Spence Street was reconfigured to extend south of Ross Street, except it was cut off past the Central Parking Garage. Still, it was a net loss.
Nagle Street - Nagle Street begins off campus, on a road called Brookside Drive in Bryan. Greenway Drive curves into it (traffic on Nagle southbound must yield), then you have to turn left to continue on Nagle when you get into Northgate: otherwise you stay in Foch Street. In the past, it continued into campus south of FM 60, you had to turn on Ross and onto Nagle again (it ran directly in front of the Chemistry Building, it was a bit offset from the rest of Nagle, and the stairs from the Chemistry Building led directly onto the street), and it continued until the Quad.
Obviously this closure happened a long time ago: the "entrance to the Quad" is now a wide pedestrian plaza, the road closed when the 1968 portion of the Evans Library was built. In the 1970s, there was a dirt parking lot where the Chemistry Plaza is.
At some point, the Nagle Street portion between Ross and modern-day University Drive was renamed Ireland Street, while the Nagle in Northgate remains as Nagle, as well as the Nagle near Heldenfels and south of the Evans Library.
Old Main - The road that is now Old Main once connected to Military Walk.
Bizzell Street - At one time, the "curves" where Bizzell arches back into New Main was once Ross and Lamar. Bizzell ran straight, behind the Administration Building. These are now parking lots with dead ends.
Coke Street - Coke Street once went far beyond the "loop" where it becomes Lamar, then Throckmorton--Coke Street once continued further north, intersecting with Roberts Street, just north of the Cushing Memorial Library is now.
Jones Street - Jones Street went a bit farther and connected up to Military Walk.
Joe Routt Boulevard - Originally a four lane road from Clark to its eastern terminus near the Trigon. After the MSC closed, the section was closed and turned into new pedestrian and bike facilities for the MSC. When it reopened, however, it was a one lane road with bike lanes, buses only. Additional work is underway to transform the other part of Joe Routt (which WASN'T touched by the renovation) into a similar set-up (although it was open to regular vehicular traffic)
COMPLETELY GONE:
Military Walk - Today, Military Walk is a pedestrian walkway that connects Sbisa to Rudder Theater (which, by extension, is the MSC--but the integration is less than it used to be) but at one time it was drivable. Military Walk (yes, that was the name of the road) connected Lamar Street to Ross. It was converted to pedestrian use in 1975.
Ferguson Street - Closed before the 1970s. It's now a parking lot, which may or may not have been torn up for the Old Main underpass.
Roberts and Hubbard Street - I put these together because they are, essentially the same road and have similar patterns. From the Administration Building, they looped from Bizzell (the part that's now parking) to behind the Academic Building and back again, essentially looping what would eventually be the Evans Library. Later on, these became just redundant streets that didn't go past Spence (surrounding the modern day Architecture Quad, aka Grassy Knoll aka the area callously demolished for that hideous liberal arts building) before disappearing by the 1980s. Roberts was the one on the north side.
Russell Street - Russell Street once went from modern-day Wellborn Road to Houston Street, housing the "project houses", which we'll hopefully get to discuss another time. By the early 1990s the project houses were gone except for one, which had been renovated into the University Police building (more on that later, again). It no longer connected to Wellborn Road and instead terminated in the Mt. Aggie parking lot (yes, Mt. Aggie was in Main Campus). When the University Police building was finally flattened, Russell was severely truncated and became just part of the Hagler Center parking lot. The entrance is still the same, but only the part closest to Houston.
Henderson Street - Henderson Street went from Jones to FM 60. The southern terminus is between McFadden Hall and Hughes Hall, the northern terminus is the entrance to Lot 30b, which closed due to the construction of the Northside Residence Hall. Henderson Street was the road that the Special Services Building was closest to.
MISCELLANY:
In 2011, Clark Street was renamed to Gene Stallings Blvd.
The Nagle/Ireland Street thing is profiled above.
Lubbock Street - According to an old map on Project HOLD (and a virtually identical one my father has), Lubbock was the old name of Joe Routt. Though there's another road by the name of Lubbock that runs south of Lamar, and at least near the Commons is a two-lane road that looks like it's never been touched after it was initially paved (stranger still--the pavement until a few years ago looked like it was made out of playground gravel: some things are just mysteries)
A road called "John Davis Crow" off of Houston Street was once called Sesame Street, which since it shares a name with a well-known PBS show, is off the list of "acceptable road names".
There was once a traffic roundabout (similar to around the Albritton Bell Tower) here, at Old Main and Houston (back before there was the Albritton Bell Tower and its roundabout). The building in the back, is of course, the YMCA Building. The guy circled is a man named Cal Boykin.
Old Main Drive was once "Main Drive"
Here's a map of the campus from the early 1970s, photographed from a book in the Evans Library. You'll notice a lot of the roads have closed (remember, Hubbard and Roberts once continued southwest), but others, like Military Walk, is still open, as well as Spence going all the way from Lubbock to FM 60.
Also, this map from the 1940s was used.
There's an old streetsign preserved (though not in the original location) near the Academic Building.
There's still scads of old roads and old routes that I didn't cover because I didn't have enough information: A&M's roads were once all different at one time (Bell Street, for instance, was over College Main and Houston), and there's roads I have no idea where they were (according to a '39 directory, there was once a "Putz Road").
last updated 1/15