The Campus Theater opened in Northgate in May 1940, on the corner of Boyett and University at what is currently 217 University Drive. It was the first movie theater in College Station, and ended up lasting a very long time. Done in an art deco style and with a single screen (it had a balcony and cry room, too!) and showing Son of the Navy as its premier film, by the 1960s it was purchased by the Schulman theater group and operated with their downtown theaters, the Palace and the Queen.
By 1980, it had gotten a reputation as the "X-rated theater" but from what I've gathered wasn't the same sort of thing that was shown in Houston's nastier theaters at the time. When exactly this happened, I'm not sure. In 1973 they had Burt Reynolds' White Lightning (rated PG) but by 1976 it was the one showing the X-rated The Story of O. In January 1980 they had Life of Brian, a bit sacrilegious with some PG-13 humor (if such a rating existed at the time), in February 1982 they had Caligula, but an R-rated cut that was 102 minutes as opposed to the 156 minute unedited release.
In July 1984 it closed and would remain closed for nearly the next decade. The same article talks about the building being "the most charming structure in Northgate, rising above the smaller buildings with neon lights and art deco style architecture". While it doesn't command the presence it used to...not with the apartment buildings rising behind it, anyway...around 1995 it finally reopened as Shadow Canyon, which soon after gave it a dreadful makeover by covering over much of the building in wood to give it a country-western theme, and that's been the type of tenant of it's been ever since. Shadow Canyon did well initially, but it faltered (apparently they had started charging a cover and used gimmicks like wet t-shirt contests to gain attendance). From this article, it officially closed in December 2004 though it played host to the Northgate Music Festival in early 2005.
Unfortunately, none of the successor tenants improved the appearance and arguably made it worse. Next up was Midnight Rodeo, which still has locations in San Antonio and Amarillo (an Austin location has closed since 2013). But the College Station location did not last nearly as long as Shadow Canyon, as it opened in early 2006 and closed by summer 2007 (it was supposed to be a five year lease, and a number of other dance halls owned by the same company closed around the time, such as one at the Katy Mills mall in the Houston area).
1. The original version of this post was far less sympathetic to the Eccell Group, and while similar sentiments have slowly been taken out, it remained up for a long time.
2. For a short time, the marquee from Duke's had been removed and it was called "No Name Saloon" on local media officially. Boulevard 217 got a really bad reputation really quickly if I recall. UPDATE 01-13-2026: Post rewritten. In addition to adding [Costa Dallis] and [College Station] to the post it adds [regrettable renovations] which I've applied to other posts.
