Local businessman E.F. Boydston (1888-1945) purchased this former feed lot in 1927 for $400 and, seeing an opportunity to serve travelers, built a wooden shed and gas station that year. Overnight visitors could build campfires, and by 1931 he had added three wooden cabins with garages. The buildings were later faced with rock, and more cabins and garages were added in 1935. The original wooden gas station was covered with petrified wood in 1935 when the highway was widened, and the Boydston family continued operating it until 1988. The Texas Lunchroom, a one-room frame building, was built in 1929, renamed the Texas Cafe in 1935, faced with stone to match the rest of the complex, and enlarged with second-floor living quarters. Popular with local high school and college students, families, and travelers, the cafe closed in the 1960s after a highway bypass west of town diverted traffic from the area, then reopened in 1993. As one of the few intact tourist camps built across Texas in the mid-20th century, the property is significant for its association with the early development of automobile tourism.