Rebel Draft House

Imagine an old white stucco type building here.

Here it is...Rebel Draft House (or rather, 301 College Main) as it appeared in the mid-1990s (I have a color version but it's substantially more blurry). Anyway, as it appears here it was Second Chance Resale operated by the Salvation Army. Before that it was White Auto Parts, which closed sometime in the 1980s.

Of course, it doesn't look like that now...it's not even the same building anymore. In the late 1990s, the city invested money in Northgate and tore down the old building and erected "Northgate Center" (Brazos CAD says 2002 as build date), with one of its earlier tenants being New York Sub (not sure on the spelling, nor if it was the same as the New York Subs in Southwest Crossing, though the time frame suggests that they were the same) in suite A. Well, that lasted a few years before it gave way to bars entirely (one bar actually).

I took this shot, which I pictured here in May 2014 looking east (from the other side of the building), with the Happy Yogurt facade in the front. While RBD has the distinction of serving me my first beer on Northgate (and that was only because I was on the right side of campus when that bomb threat happened in fall 2012), I don't care for it as it, like all the other bars, crank the music up so loud it's hard to hear anything (the bars probably had their best afternoon ever).

In 2011, this was Luckie's Ice House (and before that, "The Drink", apparently). Between the time as Luckie's and RDH, RDH didn't do much more than just throw the Luckie's sign away. I'm sure I'm missing other tenants, though.

Anyway, as for what it looks now from (roughly) the same angle, I took this picture in June 2014. Big change, huh? The Chase bank sign is just an ATM.

Updated October 2015 with fixed errors and links. Further update in March 2019 to account for new building, with April 2020 updates fixing links

Townshire Shopping Center

Bad sign when there's a "Now Open" sign nearly a year after actually opening. (May 2014)

Opening in 1958 (it advertised to even Hearne) with Safeway, Lester's, Hotard Cafeteria, Kelly's Toylane, Stacy's Furniture, Texas State Optical, Woolworth's, the "Laundromart", and Sears, Townshire was one of the first big shopping destinations that started to draw attention away from Downtown Bryan, arguably the first shopping center in Bryan.

The Sears was at a slightly different grade than the rest of Townshire. At only 21,800 square feet, which was rather small (a "B" class store) for Sears, especially since a "full size" Sears was 10 times that size at the time. After Sears moved out, it would become Central Texas Hardware for a while, and eventually facilities for Blinn (which happily vacated it after their new campus in Bryan was built, as by the time that happened, the building was in horrible condition).

Here's the 1964 tenant list from a document about Montgomery Ward's consideration of moving out of downtown:



Lester's pulled out before the downtown Bryan location did, in 1973 when it moved to a stand-alone location.

Safeway probably moved out in 1977 to its later home catty-corner to where Village Foods is now, and eventually to its current home, where it lasted less than 2 years (at best) before becoming AppleTree (and you know the rest), but by that time, Townshire was already beginning its decline, with Manor East Mall and newer strip centers, like Culpepper Plaza and Redmond Terrace. Finally, Post Oak Mall opened, putting all of the Bryan shopping centers in deep decline. By the early 1980s, Townshire was getting cleared out.

Townshire reopened in great fanfare in 2002 by the same developers that built the Rock Prairie Kroger center with a new facade and a completely rebuilt north anchor, when the ratty old Sears/Central Texas Hardware/Blinn building was torn down and replaced with the area's third Albertsons supermarket, joining the two in College Station (that would be the one next to Wal-Mart and the one on University Drive East, both of which I covered) and attempted to give the nearby Kroger and H-E-B Pantry Foods a run for the money. Despite seemingly solidifying the grocery race (at the time it was built, H-E-B, Kroger, and Albertsons all had three stores in the area each), it was an odd choice since at that time. Albertsons was retreating from Houston area (after a short run of less than a decade) and San Antonio, with Waco and Austin (and the breakup of Albertsons Inc.) not more than a few years away (the three stragglers, including the one in College Station, would all close by 2011). For all its fanfare, the new Albertsons at Townshire didn't even last five years, and closed in 2006, becoming one of the shortest-lived grocery stores in town, though not even close to unseating poor Weingarten near Post Oak Mall.

But the new Townshire didn't whither up, despite the loss of its largest tenant. CiCi's and a dollar store (now King Dollar, but not originally) kept trucking, and several service-oriented tenants came in.

Around 2012 or so, the Albertsons gas station reopened as a generic "Tigerland Express" (which also never took down its "now open" banner and remained as such after it closed a few years later), and in the summer of 2013, the new Walmart grocery store finally opened.

Of course, Walmart Neighborhood Market was much more downscale than the Albertsons it replaced, but it was much cheaper and closer to what the neighborhood needed. It didn't hurt H-E-B very much, and Village Foods was having its own problems thanks to some extensive road construction. However, it too had problems. While Village Foods was going through out of business sales, it abruptly shut down as part of a major purge Walmart did with underperforming/high shrink stores.

Even when Walmart injected some new life into the shopping center, the rest of the strip never really picked up traffic and largely remains vacant. A partial tenant list is below, with the address in parentheses.

Albertsons - Albertsons #2796 never lasted long at Townshire (only from 2002 to 2006), but it made a profound impact at it. The store featured the "Grocery Palace" ("Theme Park") decor of Albertsons (though missing the high-end features), an upscale décor package that featured specialty flooring for departments. Details of the store when it was at Townshire can be seen here. Check out my other site's section on Albertsons, though it's still under construction as of this writing. The Walmart kept much of the exterior features of the Albertsons but repainted it. (1901)

AlphaGraphics - Bought out Tops Printing, a local professional printing company that relocated here after the redevelopment (2023). May 2014 picture here. (2023)

Buddy's Home Furnishings - Opened sometime in 2014 or soon before. Can be seen in this picture. (2009)

Burdett & Son Outdoor Adventure Shop - Here in the early 1990s before eventually moving to Redmond Terrace Shopping Center. (2017)

CiCi's Pizza - This replaced the old shopping center's open-air arcade with smaller stores. Can be seen in this picture(2003)

Dollar Tree - A tenant after the re-do, here in 2005 but gone by 2014. (1915)

Domino's Pizza - Here as of 1993. (2015)

Goodwill - Was indeed here in the late 1990s. (1913)

Kelly's Toylane - Moved out in the early 1980s to 404 University Drive East, disappeared by 1989. At one time the only dedicated toy store in town. (2007)

King Dollar - This wasn't here in the big re-do, but the prices have crept upwards since 2014 since the header picture was taken, now up to $1.25 as of this writing. A similar thing was noticed at Houston's 290 store. (1903)

Safeway - You can see the original Safeway building here, though it's been heavily modified (it's on the right) and moved out in the 1970s to a comparatively larger store. The former H-E-B Pantry is behind it, but that's for another post!

Walmart Neighborhood Market - See the main post.

Woolworth - Closed at Townshire prior to 1980 (downtown Bryan one remained open).

World of Books - Here in 1980, the address is unknown (it also had a store at Culpepper Plaza at this time).

I realize that I left out a lot (I'll add others over time) but I wanted to mostly update Townshire as a consistent narrative in this March 2020 update.

Redmond Terrace Shopping Center / Texas Avenue Crossing

Author's picture from August 2019. The overcast makes the buildings appear shadowed.
Among the retail establishments off of Texas Avenue is Texas Avenue Crossing (a name not seen on signage, by the way) is also the only strip center for miles around with rooftop parking. Texas Avenue Crossing is the redone version of a previous shopping center called Redmond Terrace Shopping Center, built in 1964 at Jersey and Texas Avenue on the site of a dairy farm. Major stores were Gibson's discount store, Ben Franklin five and ten, Brookshire Brothers, and a post office. All of these were housed under a continuous "squiggly roof" (not unlike the defunct discount store The Treasury). As most of the Gibson's were franchised operations (a few Dallas stores even had supermarket departments), it ultimately was their undoing as franchisees like Howard Brothers and Pamida pulled out. The Gibson's here was quite small (clocking in at around 30,000 square feet INCLUDING the garden center) but did include a pharmacy despite its size. It liquidated in December 1982 and in 1983 was replaced with Academy. The Brookshire Brothers space was sold to Piggly Wiggly in 1973 (the store was small even by Brookshire Brothers' standards, much smaller than Navasota's or Hearne's Brookshire Brothers), though Brookshire Brothers did get another chance in College Station when it opened a new store on George Bush Drive West many years later. The post office was replaced with Joe's Used Books.

Compared to the top picture, this is how it's supposed to look color-wise. (Picture by author, 8/19)
Jason's Deli (a Stacy's Furniture for a time, by address) would be on the far right of the center. Other stores included Burdett & Son's and Loupot's, as well as a mattress/furniture liquidator. Here's a picture of Burdett & Son's, in which you can see the original figuration as well.

Burdett & Son was here from 1997 to 2002, as says their website. Copy Corner is off to the right.


Here's the directory listings for what the center was like as Redmond Terrace circa 1998.

1400 - Stand-alone Zip'N gas station (Shell) at the corner of George Bush (Jersey) and Texas Avenue. The earliest reference I can find May have replaced an older gas station, only 1,000 square feet. This went first around 2002 with little more than some remains in a raised section of concrete to show that something was here. It looks like it was originally an Amoco and became a Shell Zip'N in the late 1980s (#101, chosen as the first store to be rebranded).
1710 George Bush Drive - Not part of the 1400 block, but Joe's Books in the late 1990s was the closest to the George Bush side.
1402 - Brown's Shoe Fit from sometime in the 1980s to the early 2000s
1404 - Copy Corner
1404A - Jason's Deli. I remember how Jason's Deli was one of the last buildings to be torn down, and the first to be rebuilt.
1406 - Piggly Wiggly closed in 1980. It was K&M Sebring School of Hair Design by 1981 which had evolved into Sebring Career School in 1989 (same focus), the last mention of it at this address was Career Technical Institute in 1991. It became Discount Office Furniture by 1992 and very briefly "CC Reprographics" in 1996. It later became Burdett & Sons by 1997 (to 2002)
1408 - The directory for 1998 lists "Vincent AC" or something like that, but I only remember a mattress liquidator being here.
1410 - AR Photography
1418 - Gibson's Discount Center in 1976 and Academy by the mid-1980s. By the 1990s it was rebadged as 1420, possibly due to an expansion in the late 1980s.
1422 - Loupot's Book Store. This moved to the center at Holleman and Texas Avenue and is a Salata today. This appears to be originally part of Gibson's, and originally had a south entrance for a garden center.

In 2001, Redmond Terrace would lose its largest anchor when Academy announced it would move out to the bypass (the new store opened February 2002, a store now closed and replaced by an even larger one), and shortly thereafter it was announced that the entire shopping center would be wrecked for a new center: Texas Avenue Crossing. While one portion was saved and rehabbed (today home of Boot Barn—see tenant list—and I think this was where Jason's Deli originally was), the rest was demolished and built anew, and for the next fifteen years the center was extremely stable tenant-wise.

On top of Total Wine going to Jason's Deli is that rooftop parking area, but it's never been very full. An elevator takes you back near Burlington.

Over at the Shell spot, a new plaza was built with Panda Express (new to the market), Complete Nutrition (formerly "Bath Junkie"), James Avery Craftsman (originally something else?), and Cold Stone Creamery (new to the market).

TAC remains rather popular, having brought new retailers to the market and a popular lunch spot with inexpensive restaurants (Jason's Deli, particularly, remains a popular after-church spot).

Here's the current directory.

1400 - Panda Express in the strip center that replaced the Shell. It opened in 2004.
1404 - Formerly Bath Junkie from 2005 to 2009, later Complete Nutrition. It later converted to Supplement Warehouse (by 2022, though the name on the store didn't change) and closed by spring 2025. (1402 not used)
1406 - James Avery jewelry store.
1408 - Cold Stone Creamery.
1410 - Crust Pizza Company opened here in October 2024 on the north side of the building, replacing longtime tenant DoubleDave's Pizzaworks at the north end of the center (2005 to close May 1, 2023).
1414 - European Wax Center (1412 not used), originally Urban Salon.
1416 - The original tenant here, Charming Charlie, opened in 2006 as one of the first stores in the chain (the chain launched in 2004, and this was only store #5 out of nearly 400). It was vacant before CC. In August 2019, the store and the 260 other stores in the chain (at the time) announced it would go out of business. Rally House opened in 2022 to replace it.
1424 - Pier 1 Imports moved from Post Oak Square and closed in early 2020 before the entire chain filed for bankruptcy protection and liquidated. A few years later, Boot Barn moved to the center from Tejas Center and absorbed 1418, which was originally Mattress Giant and later transformed into another MattressFirm location (it happened not long after they had built a store at the former Blockbuster at Holleman). It would close around 2020. 1420 and 1422 were never used.
1430 - Bed Bath & Beyond until it closed in 2023 and became Burlington by year-end (see update 02-10-2024). 1424-1428 not used.
1440 - This was Pine Boutique in most of the 2010s (I think it closed in 2020). For years Ritz Camera & Image (moved from across the street), closed in 2012, one of the last ones to close. In late 2022, Optimum opened a storefront here.
1432-1438 not used.
1446 - Palm Beach Tan (originally Darque Tan for years)
1450 - Total Wine & More opened in 2022. Formerly World Market before it closed around the late 2010s/early 2020s (before parent company Bed Bath & Beyond sold it). 1448 not used.
1460 - Jason's Deli. 1452-1458 not used.


As a closing shot, I've added a picture taken by my dad from 2002 showing the empty Academy.

UPDATE 10-07-2025: Previous updates archived with some rewritten parts and a new photograph.

FedMart

This ad appeared in a publication shortly before coming to College Station. (Google Books)


Before Wal-Mart...before Kmart...there was FedMart. Founded in 1954 in San Diego by Sol Price and later had concepts "borrowed" by the late Sam Walton, including the "Mart" suffix¹, FedMart arrived in College Station in November 1973, just a few months before Kmart did.

By the time FedMart opened in College Station, the name was a bit of a misnomer (originally a membership-only store for government employees), but it was a large, modern store open to all. The store featured "one-stop shopping" including not only apparel, sporting goods, appliances (even heavy appliances), and other dry goods, but groceries as well. (It also appears to have lacked a bakery and deli). The November 7th, 1973 edition of The Eagle ran a huge 12-page multi-page guide/ad for the store for the store's big opening on November 8th, mostly talking about FedMart's features (but did not include a map). An auto center/gas station was to open in early 1974. FedMart had a bit of unusual merchandise mix, having both discount store items and food, but not a large selection of either. The grocery component was heavily advertised but only offered a few brands or sizes of a given item that a full supermarket would carry more of, even by 1973 supermarket standards, and lacked a lot of the features that a full supermarket would have (no bakery or deli). The College Station store was part of a small handful of stores opened by the company in the Houston area, as in this era, FedMart had picked up numerous sites from Globe, a discount store operated by Walgreens.

A spread in November 1973 showed some of FedMart's many specials. In previous versions of this page, this was just a thumbnail but now you can view it at full size!
The development also straightened out Tarrow with a new road that connected to University called Fed Mart Drive and cutting off the "old Tarrow" portion that curved around toward the back.

I don't have a picture of FedMart when it was operating, but given an old early '80s map depicts the now-closed store as looking almost exactly like one of the San Antonio stores, it's assumed that the College Station looked like it too.

FedMart's time in College Station would only be for less than a decade, perhaps owing to upper management's merchandising decisions (based out of Germany starting in the late 1970s) to expand to a full "hypermarket", which didn't really work in most of the locations (and the concept was largely untested in the United States). Maybe it was just the fact that at the time, the warehouse foods + discount store concept was not as effective as just having a more full-featured discount store like Wal-Mart and Kmart did. In any case, the College Station store, along with all the other stores in the Texas area (San Antonio, Dallas, Houston, Victoria, etc.) closed in November 1981. The chain's Arizona and California stores went out of business less than a year later.

Aerial photo of FedMart around the time it closed, c. 1981

While the building would never be used by a single retail tenant, it was purchased by local investors and converted into Chimney Hill Shopping Center. The first tenants of these would be Kettle and Hillside Lanes, a bowling alley. Kettle #145 would ultimately close just a few years later but with its opening, for a brief time the area had FIVE Kettle restaurants, all open 24 hours—next to Rodeway Inn, a former Denny's restaurant, the College Station location, and the one near campus.

Unlike the other four restaurants, which stood alone, both Hillside Lanes and Kettle would open into each other. (While Kettle was a bit of a nostalgic experience in the 2010s, a smoky diner connected to a bowling alley sounds like a VERY different experience). Western Beverages moved into the old FedMart Service Center building at the corner of Fed Mart Drive (renamed Tarrow Street East within a few years) and University Drive East. The transformation into Chimney Hill Shopping Center (aka Chimney Hill Retail Plaza) started in late 1983 a 70-foot tall landmark sign was erected to serve as the signage for a brand-new shopping center. That same month it was announced that the Western Beverages would be evicted and remodeled for the new Bryan-College Station Chamber of Commerce building (later known as 715 University Drive East).

The name of the center was named after a nearby development of mixed-use development built off Tarrow with townhomes and small office suites (the alley off Arguello Drive serves both). By December 1983 David Gardner's Jewelers was operating in the building (it was here at least into the early 1990s). Soon after, Chimney Hill Bowling Center opened. There was also a new addition to the FedMart building that housed the relocated Western Beverages.

Hillside Lanes closed in December 1983 but quickly reopened as Chimney Hill Bowling Center (within a few days).² In 1990 the bowling alley closed³ and most of the building continued to be a rotating selection of smaller tenants, with the exception of Western Beverages, the second restaurant space, and a second outlot built in the parking lot. This second outlot (besides the Chamber of Commerce) was built as Fletcher's Original State Fair Corny Dogs, which had several small locations in Texas but by the late 1980s they had closed.⁴ This was briefly (for a few months) Burger Express, then Dogs & Such until 2000.⁵ From 2002 to September 2010, a location of Shake's Frozen Custard operated in the spot, but after its closure the building was demolished.

The restaurant space (with the address of 707 University Drive East)⁶ started out as Bill Edge's "Confederate House" restaurant in early 1984 (back when a name like was socially acceptable as Southern hospitality and heritage, and not demonized like it is today), based after a Houston restaurant. Part of the problem was that the area was in recession when it opened, and a "top of the line" steakhouse as it was put was a tough sell in the economy. A name update to "Confederate House '85" and new management (likely other changes as well) didn't help turn things around, nor did another retool (changing it to "Tradition Restaurant & Bar") saved the restaurant. It closed around late 1986 or early 1987. By August 1987, there was another restaurant, Cafe d'Amerique, operating in the space.

One last retool for Confederate House.

Rembrandt's opened in 1992 after a period of vacancy (doesn't seem like there was anything after Cafe d'Amerique, which closed in spring 1988) and closed in 1994...and then The Tavern on Chimney Hill opened in 1997 in suite 406 and operated until 2000. Finally, in 2007, The Republic Steakhouse opened in the spot. Shortly afterward, however, in 2008, the City of College Station purchased the strip center as part of a failed bid to build a large hotel/conference center in the spot.⁷ The early 2010s saw the center start clearing out (Western Beverages went away around as late as early 2014, I seem to recall) and in 2016 demolition began not long after the City gave up on the space and sold it to developers. The idea was The Republic could stay as the lot was redeveloped and be a part of the new development, but plans shifted again and it would move to a new building on the site. (There was also talk of a Black Walnut Cafe being a major tenant). By this point in time, the Chamber of Commerce building had moved out to a new location on Highway 6 (the move happened around 2013-2014) with 2016 seeing the demolition of the structure minus The Republic building, which itself had been new construction. The original FedMart building was gone.

By 2019 new businesses had taken its place. The Republic moved into a new spot at the southwest side of the property (with a bar-within-a-restaurant, Primrose Path). A new Starbucks opened in March 2020 (moving from down the street) with a strip center beginning business soon after, soon filled out with the likes of Five Guys, FedEx Office (opened in early 2022 and moving from its longtime Northgate home), Charles Schwab, and Snooze: An AM Eatery. Drury Plaza Hotel (705 University Dr. East) opened for business around early 2025. In November 2025, Sakura, a Japanese restaurant opened a new building (713 University Drive East) right about where The Republic used to be, sharing its strip mall building with hair salon Drybar.

1. The rest of the concept was lifted liberally from New England chain Ann & Hope, which Wal-Mart forced out of business in 2001. 2. I'm not sure how the Kettle space was reused.
3. I feel like I read somewhere that the lanes were moved to the MSC but I may be remembering how Wolf Pen's skating rink was moved from Bryan.
4. There was another location on Gessner Road in Houston. While no longer a Fletcher's, the building is still the same, and looked identical to the College Station location.
5. A second location opened on Texas Avenue at the short-lived Red Line location.
6. Officially this was 701 University Drive East Suite 406.
7. There were of course, other tenants over the years but I've already covered the major ones. Some of the lesser tenants that were mentioned in the older version of this post included the 1993 tenants like A&M Travel Service, Beneficial Texas Inc. (insurance), Chimney Hill Florist & Gifts, and Qualice Network Services.

UPDATE 01-28-2026: A long-awaited redo of the post has been created, from a new picture to current events to more chronological ordering and so on.
UPDATE 01-30-2026: As the most recent rewrite was sitting in the backlog for a few years before I decided to finish it, there were some things that didn't quite make the cut. Some things from an old "new" draft included an article about the 2013 plan and confirms that Western Beverages was still there as of 2013. The new Republic restaurant opened in December 2018 allowing for the demolition of the old building, and a few more tenants that I didn't previously mentioned. There was "Whoops Bar & Grill" (which I got from a tax listing, and did not seem to open under that name if it all), Tonix/Metro/The Lounge (operated in the last half of the 2000s, a nightclub with three concepts operating simultaneously), A&M Travel Service, Total Tan, Reflections Hair Design, Qualice Network Services, Points Plus, EPI Center, JE & R Finance Inc., Custom Operating Systems Inc., 11th Frame, and Pacific Garden (1986-1990, this may have been in the Kettle's space...though wouldn't have opened into the bowling alley). I had also taken the time to mention that I went into the Chamber of Commerce building a few times to get the latest city map, which I remember being fascinated with as a kid as it included "new" streets, some of which were later built (Highway 40) and some of which weren't (Jones-Butler Road extending south from Holleman but looping and connecting with Southwest Parkway)...which I'm not sure was ever on the books.