Lester's at 2504 Kent

Built as Lester's in 1973 and lasting at least until 1985, this building has sporadically served as office tenants. When I took this picture in 2013, it had been vacant for the last several years (Google searching indicated a "Lonestar Systems Inc."), but within a year or two had been reoccupied by Greenwood Hall Education Solutions, an office for a California-based education technology company. However, the company abruptly folded in December 2017 closing its Bryan office.

There's also a painted train Locomotives on Parade still on the premises. It's visible from Google Street View but it doesn't appear to be anything photographed and based on the wheels looks like a repainted version of the Foo Foo Choo Choo, and as of 2013, the tiles outside still read "THE SMART SHOP", referring to "Lester's Smart Shop" in old articles and ads.

An anonymous comment says that Houston-based Craig's took over the store shortly after Lester's demise and operated it into the 1990s. While I haven't researched these dates, I did find that in October 1986, Craig's opened off of Westheimer in a store formerly occupied by the Smart Shop, but this was actually unrelated to Lester's. By fall 1993, Craig's had pulled out of Bryan, having shed 10 of its 23 stores between 1988 and 1993. According to a 1989 phone book, Craig's did have a store here, meaning it was one of the 10 closed.


2504 Kent

Updated February 26 2019

College Station Hilton

This was taken in October 2015, and it was actually a lot darker than this, but the flash wasn't on.

The Hilton opened in May 1985 (confirmed), and unlike the Ramada Inn a few miles down, survives today as a Hilton. Plaza Café became Bell Ranch Steakhouse later. Personally, even accounting for inflation (about $109 today), that sounds great, especially in October 1985 (football weekends). And they include alcohol and a gift basket as well? Not bad, not bad at all!



I have no idea what became of Sundance, though. Additional history (renovations, etc.) is always appreciated...though I do believe it renovated at least twice to some extent.

801 University Drive East

updated july 30 2013 to amend opening, updated 2015 to add new photo

Pelican's Wharf / Pasghetti's / Royers' College Station Café / NailSpa

The former restaurant today. Notice the cedar trees, and the Kettle sign. The large "Manor House" sign was above that.

Today, 2500 Texas Avenue South is only a nail salon, but an aerial shows that this building predated the entire shopping center across the street as well as many other buildings along that stretch. It opened in 1977 as Pelican's Wharf, an upscale-leaning steak-and-seafood eatery with restaurants in other Texas cities (the last location, in Victoria, closed in 2010) not unlike a nicer chain restaurant (but still cheap enough so that college students could afford to eat there). Another detail I picked up from TexAgs, was that although it was waitservice, there was no set waiter/waitress assigned to a table and they shared their tips.

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Pasghetti's was the second restaurant in the space, though it's not clear when Pelican's Wharf closed and Pasghetti's opened. From my records it was probably common ownership where the owner flipped it over to Pasghetti's (a build-your-own-pasta bowl place), as Pelican's Wharf was here into the early 1990s. The problem is when the changeover happened, though it's estimated around 1995-1996. According to a comment I had at one time on this blog, one could build a sauce-and-pasta bowl presumably with a drink and a breadstick) for around $4.95. Refills were a dollar. (For comparison, at the time, one of my favorite places to eat in 2012, the Commons food court featured a stand where you could essentially get the same thing for about $6.50-$7 (though no refills).

Contemporary view from Google Maps Street View, Texas Avenue side

In 1997, "Royers' College Station Café" opened here. Often erroneously written and recorded as "Royder's", it was a spin-off of Royers' Round Top Cafe, an eatery with pies and unique menu offerings has gotten the attention of food TV shows and other sources of press for its food, décor, and the fact that Round Top, Texas was (in 1998) less than 100 people. Of course, in a brief time in the late 1990s, you didn't have to go southwest of Brenham to eat here, as there was a sister store right here, in College Station.

By 1999, it was gone and it remained that way for several years before NailSpa moved in, which I believe was 2003, though I can't find first-hand sources for such. It's a shame a vintage restaurant has to be used this way on a prominent corner, but it is what it is.

UPDATE 06-02-2021: The sixth update for this page did a mild rewrite for this article including adding better opening/closing dates. Also it added [southwest parkway] to the labels.
UPDATE 08-12-2024: Corrected typo and attempted to reconcile the Pelican's Wharf/Pasghetti's changeover.
UPDATE 09-13-2024: Newspaper evidence shows that Pelican's Wharf closed in 1995 for Pasghetti's opening later in the year. It looks like Pasghetti's didn't make it to the end of 1996, however.

Redtex Center

Picture from author, August 2019

Originally reported as part of the Aggieland Inn article when, according to a CSTX New Development list (no longer available, at least not very easy to find) had lots 317, 319, and 321 Redmond Drive abandon their public right of ways. These used to be the "Travel Kleen" car wash and the Summit station, which were both demolished circa 2007. I thought they were part of the redevelopment, but it wasn't.

In 2013, a strip mall was put up on the site, with the area's first Sleep Number by Select Comfort and Aspen Dental, with a location of St. Joseph Express being included a year later (I believe briefly it had the pre-CHI St. Joseph logo) but it closed down by 2018. This had the address of 1530 Texas Avenue, along with the name Redtex Center (REDmond Drive and TEXas Avenue), though I don't believe this was always part of the development.


This is what it used to look like according to Loopnet, though the listing has since removed.
I've stopped at the Summit at least once (it was quite run-down) but never at the Travel Kleen--I wasn't aware there was a car wash even there (probably why they closed). Unknown to when either were built, but in the mid-1990s, this Summit was originally a Shell with a Zip'N convenience store. While a number of the older Shells did not make the conversion in 2003-2004 and had to convert to Summit stores, namely the two rural Shell stations profiled elsewhere on this site, the Shell here converted earlier. I'm not sure when this conversion took place. The Shell was at 321 Redmond (the same as Summit), and it was a Zip'N in 1989 (store #102) though it had been removed by 1993. The Shell signage remained up until at least by 1995.

UPDATE 11-11-2022: "Shawarma Factory" opened in 2022 in suite 100 (former St. Joe's site). [Restaurants] and [Texas Avenue] added to post.