Bryan/College Station Area History. Tell your story or what you know or remember.

32,456 Views | 149 Replies | Last: 4 yr ago by Poot
capn-mac
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Wow, memories.

For Chace, I remember eating at "Beef 'n' Brew" the restaurant cobbled together from old railroad buildings and cars, that has since become the Tap.

There used to be a n old-fashioned grade-crossing gate out by Harvey. For wanting to be an "upscale" (in 1979) steak joint, they served all beverages in mason jars kept in coolers.

I'm surprised no one has mentioned Youngbloods, the then-famous fish joint which is now Carney's. Thursday was all-you-can-eat popcorn shrimp (and fries, lots of fries). The Friday & Saturday special was a seafood sampler with a bit of everything. They made a decent chicken-fried steak, too.

The original Bryan Walmart was a major transformation. There was a creek which ran from under the bridge on Texas, back to Burton Creek. The Wm developers had to put in huge culverts to get that parking lot to span over the watershed.

Before it was Chimney Hill, it was a FedMart. This, too, was a transformation. They cut lime into the topsoil 60" deep on that site before building the building.

We thought it an odd location, as it was across the street from the "unofficial" CS dump. This spanned from about Rosa's to well past the water fountain. When the Hilton went in, somehow, someone, got a load of dirt over all the trashbags and appliances, never to be seen again. Not until they built tha west half of that center, at least.

RHe current Ken Martin's on 29th opened as "Pacific Coast Highway" which was decent chow, just too spendy for the time.

Dear old Dominik Dr in CS--how could that be mentioned without invoking "Danver's"? Stuffed loaded baked potatoes affordable at 70-80s student prices. Beer on tap at the register, too. Late ra microbrewery ,then Blue Baker, then a clothing shop.

Across Texas was the US Post Office, Brown's Shoes, then the former Gibson's chopped into smaller leases, with Engineering & Office Supply, adn the Barber to the Stars. Academy knocked down a big chunk to put in their first store in CS.

Oh, and the the one Chinese restaurant in town (until Hunan opened) was on South College near where Washington crosses (China House?)/ Strictly Cantonese fare, too.

________________________________________________________
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Occupational hazard of my occupation just not being around
1984Consol
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We moved into that house summer of 1983 and moved out in 1991 and into our newly-built house at 2903 Durango Court. That area of deacon just past Welsh was brand spankin new and Welsh ended at Rock Prairie. Rock Prairie ended at Victoria but the pavement just STOPPED. There was just one of those barriers at the end of the road. Victoria was a very small snub of a road with two even smaller snub-lets of roads coming off of it. I am amazed how much that area has grown! Thank you so very much for all the history you have shared. Its really cool!
stinkerbelle
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Tinsley's Chicken on corner of MLK and Texas Ave., Wehrman's Cafeteria on 25th Street (now Wm. Joel Bryan), La Familia on corner of Texas Ave and 24th Street was a Burger Boy, building across the street from Longhorn Tavern downtown was a Piggly Wiggly, Potts Jewelry downtown was our families jewelers for all of our Jewelry needs. The Billiard room downtown. The Health Dept on the corner of Wm. Joel Bryan and Texas Ave. was a Safeway. There was a Club at the Doux Chene Apartments and they had the La'Bare dancers once night a week and it was women only with 4 for 1 drinks until 11 pm and when they open the door at 11 to let the men in, they were lined up a mile (knowing there were a bunch of drunk women that just watched a bunch of men strip and strut their stuff and hoping to get lucky). Lakeview Club on Tabor Road. Mall walkers at Manor East Mall. Pooh's Park. Christmas Parade through Downtown Bryan with real floats. The cave room at Ken Martin's Steakhouse when it was on Texas Ave. 7-11's on every other corner. There is so much more, but I am in a fog right now, going on about 35 hours with no sleep.
Rufus T. Aggie
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quote:
For Chace, I remember eating at "Beef 'n' Brew" the restaurant cobbled together from old railroad buildings and cars, that has since become the Tap.

There used to be a n old-fashioned grade-crossing gate out by Harvey. For wanting to be an "upscale" (in 1979) steak joint, they served all beverages in mason jars kept in coolers.

Before it was Beef & Brew it was the C&S Transit Company. They moved the railroad depot from Waller to the location. That is why there was a crossing gate near the street. After it was Beef & Brew it was a few nightclubs like Lipstick and Confetti.

aggieann
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AG
In the early '70s, my friend and I were exploring the fields and woods just north of Southwest Parkway and found an old log cabin one room shack. I wish I had gone back with a camera.
bcstx06
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Does anyone know when Bryan and College station connected? I think there were small towns or communities between the two. Correct? Is it true that the two cities at one point had talked about merging into one? Also the school districts.
Jim65
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AG
bcstx06 -
Before CS was incorporated, in the area behind the defunct Luby's and just north of what is now University, there was a community known as "Coonerville", owned by the Cooner family. During the 1950's, the area south of Rosemary on the B/CS border was undeveloped other than the slim corridor down Texas Avenue/Highway 6. North Oakwood subdivision existed and Hensel park did not. South of Hensel Park, the University had produce fields (mostly potatoes) that were served in Sbisa and Duncan.

My family had a farm about where A&M Consolidated High School now stands and after they left the farm, my grandfather worked for the University and lived in a house at the edge of the above-mentioned potato fields. My other grandparents had a farm that is now part of the parking lot of Scott & White Hospital. That was a few miles south of College Station which basically ended north of Fort Shiloh and what is now the College Station cemetery.

I lived in Bryan from 1953 to 1966, moved away and then returned to retire here in 2008. I'll be glad to try and answer questions from the 1953-1966 era.
Spyderman
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AG
Lots of horned toads in the area that is now South Knoll Elem back in '66.
PS3D
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I think the last time Bryan-College Station seriously considered merging was in the 1980s (I think it was Bryan wanting it). In the mid-1990s, InSite Magazine discussed it but I don't think it was a serious discussion still on the table.
frog_killer
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AG
Can't go back as far as some of you, Born in 88, but I remember the Academy shopping center before it was updated. Mom would take me to the Barber Shop for my crew cut, then wander around in academy and look at the bulk fishing worms if I sat still haha.


Also, wasn't Burdett and Son's in that shopping center before they renovated?


I remember them building Bowen Elementary and extending copper field drive all the way out to 60/University. Before Tiffany park was built and developed there were trails me and my friends would explore around and pick dewberries
PS3D
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Yeah, Burdett & Son's was in that center. Academy did use to have the "bait bar" in the store, it was later removed. Probably left to right as I remember it in the last days was Academy, Burdett & Son's, a mattress liquidator, Copy Corner, Jason's Deli, then Joe's Books. I could be wrong on a lot of those things, but I remember that Joe's Books was closest to George Bush, and is about where the ramp is now. Jason's was one of the last things to be razed, and for a while, it hung off at the edge of the center.

Under Redmond Terrace's original "wiggly roof" was an interior passageway much like a mall, but by the time of the early 2000s, a lot of stores renovated out the roof and interior passageway. B&S used to use that area to display larger items like kayaks.

At Bee Creek Park, there was a bridge that connected to Longmire's apartments, but it was destroyed at a point before with only a gas/water conduit leftover. Eventually this was all cleared and rebuilt when they clear-cut Bee Creek around 2006.

[This message has been edited by PS3D (edited 5/5/2014 10:37a).]
techno-ag
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AG
Anybody remember the name of the pharmacy / soda shop in the building where TexAgs HQ is in now? Got many a delicious malt in that place back in the day. A nice lady upstairs gave piano lessons, I recall.
PS3D
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Adamson Lagoon used to be the greatest, but things happened:

1. Got way too crowded. I remember when at closing time, there weren't very many people there. On some days, there would be only a few families there. The amount of people made the shallower end downright unpleasant to be in, and the overchlorination went it all worse.

3. It got way too expensive, which was hard to justify since there were so many people there and it was getting harder to justify it. The overcrowding happened because the population of CS started to ramp up and the city never built any more pools.

3. The diving board was removed, I think not too long after the second slide was added. This was because of someone being an idiot, getting hurt. The chaining down of the snake was the same concept. Idiot gets hurt, ruins it for everyone.

Speaking of idiots at parks, the peacocks at Central Park were removed the same way--since there was no zoo in the area, the peacocks were the closest thing a lot of us got to seeing a fairly exotic animal.

More stories I could expand on:
South Knoll pre-renovation
When the city ruined Wolf Pen Creek
Family Video Center
Converting to Shell (Texaco)
The mall in the late 1990s and early 2000s
The old University Police building
BlueMiles
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AG
quote:
Probably left to right as I remember it in the last days was Academy, Burdett & Son's, a mattress liquidator, Copy Corner, Jason's Deli, then Joe's Books. I could be wrong on a lot of those things, but I remember that Joe's Books was closest to George Bush, and is about where the ramp is now. Jason's was one of the last things to be razed, and for a while, it hung off at the edge of the center.


Was this the parking lot on which the original Olive Garden sat, before it burned?
PS3D
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Olive Garden was originally at Holleman and Texas, where Chase Bank is now. It burned down...2004?
PS3D
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[This message has been edited by PS3D (edited 5/8/2014 9:33p).]
toolshed
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AG
Nope, Olive Garden was in the location of Chase bank in front of Hastings at Holleman and Texas.
DBSwooper
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That was an interesting sight, Olive Garden on fire. The Starbucks across the street was open then and I stopped there on the way to the dropzone that morning. The site where the new Olive Garden sits was where Red Lobster was supposed to build and move to from the parking lot in front of Best Buy, but the parent company decided to rebuild Olive Garden first.
wtr1975
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AG
quote:
Lots of horned toads in the area that is now South Knoll Elem back in '66.


I still remember catching horn toads as a kid on Francis and Marsteller back in '62 when in the third grade at College Hills the first year it opened.

[This message has been edited by wtr1975 (edited 5/9/2014 12:27a).]
aggie59
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AG
In the mid to late 50s Uncle Eds was at the location where Fish Richards went in on Wellborn (been gone for yrs.) ,shuffleboard,cold beer, wooden floors with sawdust. Zarapes was in a white frame house that sat in the middle of an open field on the North side of University, East of Texas Ave(first queso and chips) and we used to go to the (Clay Pits) South on Wellborn,then to the West for beer busts and swimming.
justalocal
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I remember when you didn't have to pay to park in Northgate.
Cancelled
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AG
Baskin Robins by the subway in Northgate.

JD Wells

I ate at Fort Shiloh one time.

I ate at the Red Bandana one time.

I saw faces of death at the movie theater in the mall.

I used to park on George Bush and walk to Dunn Hall

I lived in University Towers.

You used to be able to run around on Kyle Field.

Rust stained shirts from Deware (and the pool at Deware).
Big Dogs in Bryan (oil wrestling and foxy boxing).

College Station end where Texas meets hwy 6 in CS (rock prarie was out there, but not much was going on)

Southwest Parkway was pretty nice at the time




wellboriginal
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quote:
I used to park on George Bush and walk to Dunn Hall



I remember seeing some cars with shattered windows or windshields due to golf balls being hit badly from the golf course.
Cancelled
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AG
quote:
I remember seeing some cars with shattered windows or windshields due to golf balls being hit badly from the golf course.


It was the risk I was willing to take rather than paying to park, but no guarantee of a spot and then never wanting to move your vehicle because you found a spot.
PS3D
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A lot of people talk about Junek's having good BBQ, but Rolling Ridge BBQ (Shell) at N Graham and Wellborn was good too.
PS3D
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quote:
I used to park on George Bush and walk to Dunn Hall


So the extra-wide bike lanes at George Bush Drive (Jersey) was originally parallel parking? I think I figured that...
1984Consol
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PS3D (or anyone), please tell me more about when the city ruined Wolf Pen Creek. I know not long before we moved away in 1997, they had just put the ampitheater in and thats pretty much all there was . Holleman got a new cross street, Dartmouth, and new apartments began springing up. Thats all I know from that time.
meinkee
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Saenz Tamales on WJB
Rodriguez Tamales..baby Casa Rod at Coulter & s. College
Mom's a family style luncheonette on 25th in an old house.
Jane Lee Dance School

Medleys
Cental Tx Hardware tHE place for wedding registry crystal,China and a shovel!
Pruitt's Fabric CS

PS3D
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quote:
PS3D (or anyone), please tell me more about when the city ruined Wolf Pen Creek. I know not long before we moved away in 1997, they had just out the ampitheater in and thats pretty much all there was . Holleman got a new cross street, Dartmouth, and new apartments began springing up. Thats all I know from that time.
When the bridge was built, it was over the small "lake" that surrounded the amphitheater. At some point in the late 1990s or very early 2000s, this was partially backfilled with dirt so that the "lake" was only around the amphitheater. What was once a bridge over a sizable body of water was now a small trickle of water surrounded by dirt. It may have been done for flooding-related purposes, but it made the bridge way off scale to what it was built for.

The grass ended up re-growing, but the area really wasn't the same again.




95_Aggie
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AG
quote:
this was partially backfilled with dirt so that the "lake" was only around the amphitheater.

I'm pretty sure it was mother nature that did that backfilling. They even tried to dredge that area once with no luck.
PS3D
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quote:
quote:
this was partially backfilled with dirt so that the "lake" was only around the amphitheater.

I'm pretty sure it was mother nature that did that backfilling. They even tried to dredge that area once with no luck.


No, that was man made. If that was true, then WPC northwest of the park would look completely different as well, which it isn't.
halibut sinclair
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AgnCS is correct. PS3D's history stories are often filled with inaccuracies.
1984Consol
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Looking at those two pictures, it it impossible that Mother Nature did that. Why /how could she fill up only one part of the creek and not the whole thing? Drought may have CONTRIBUTED to it, but to have one side of the creek filled in and the part around the ampitheater to still be full of water, THAT is most definetly human's contribution.

Filled with inaccuracies or not, I love reading about the stories PS3D tells. How far back can you go with your recollections, hallibut?)

I appreciate any and all stories/contributions, innacurate or not. Thank you, PS3D
starbuck128
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AG
This is how I remember it too. Before the Wolf Pen creek area was developed, that area was a eye sore for the community. It was a marshy area prone to flooding and there was a lot of discussion about what to do with the spot. They built the amphitheater, dug out a lot of the dirt to make a man made pond to contain and beautify the flooding, and built trails around it. The current sidewalk used to border the pond. The first big rain partially filled the new pond with dirt, and the city dug it out again. It filled up again after the next rain, and the city called a truce with mother nature.
toolshed
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AG
Mother nature most certainly can do that, and most certainly did do it. When you try to dredge out a creek bed for a pond and that creek carries silt with it, it begins collecting at a choke point. Throw in heavy rains like we had in the late 90's, the silt in the water simply fills in what you dug out. It's the same reason they have to dredge shop channels and harbours, silt fills them in.

If you look at the banks of the creek up stream, some are steep sandy banks that collapse in the heavy rains and wash downstream. I clearly recall the city's efforts to dredge this area for a River Walk type atmosphere and watching the money wasted at it quickly refilled itself. Some of the silt came from up the hill toward the arts building where they pumped it. It simply washes back in the pond area.

I believe the city had plans for a whole district of shopping, eateries, etc along the creek area and the arts building, but the creek is a far cry from the River Walk!

Even San Antonio has to drain is river walk once a year to clean out not only the trash but the sludge and silt that washes in from the river itself.
 
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