East Villa Maria Road and South Texas Avenue
Bryan, Texas
Finding an answer to the question "where was the first shopping mall Wal-Mart?" proved quite elusive. An email query sent to the Wally World corporate website resulted in a less-than-helpful, standard form, "check our website" (which had no such information) response. Readers of the MALL HALL OF FAME submitted several likely candidates. The most plausible was a "Brown era" store, which was added to Bryan, Texas's MANOR EAST MALL.
Originally envisaged as MANOR VILLAGE CENTER, this complex was developed on a 34-acre plot, situated 1.9 miles southeast of downtown Bryan. An outdoor venue, the Schulman Theaters Skyway Drive-In, occupied the northeast portion of the site between 1948 and late 1960s.
Bryan, Texas' John Culpepper and William T. Moore would build their shopping center in phases. The first, consisting of a freestanding (57,500 square foot) Montgomery Ward, was dedicated on May 18, 1961. This single-level department store was joined by a (19,000 square foot) Kroger supermarket, which held its grand opening on April 11, 1967.
Construction commenced on MANOR EAST MALL in late 1969. In addition to Montgomery Ward, the single-level, fully-enclosed center would be anchored by a 1-level (60,000 square foot) Britts. This store, dedicated on October 8, 1970, was an upscale subsidiary of the J.J. Newberry 5 & 10 chain.
A (19,600 square foot) S.H. Kress 5 & 10 opened for business on November 5, 1970. This was followed by a (17,500 square foot) Beall's, dedicated on December 10th. Graves Fashions and Wicks 'n Sticks made their debut in late 1971. At this time, there were nineteen stores and services. The mall would eventually house over thirty.
The first expansion of MANOR EAST MALL added the Schulman Theatres Manor East 3. First features were shown on November 7, 1974. With this addition, the shopping hub encompassed approximately 225,000 leasable square feet. The first anchor nameplate change followed the shuttering of Britts, on July 1, 1976. J.C. Penney opened in the store space on November 3rd of the same year.
The complex was expanded with a third anchor store in 1981-1982. Wal-Mart built a 1-level (83,900 square foot) location onto the southeast side of the existing mall, with the Manor East 3 triplex sandwiched between. MANOR EAST MALL now housed approximately 308,100 leasable square feet and contained fifty-eight stores and services.
Retail rivalry arrived in February 1982. POST OAK MALL {2.8 miles southeast, in College Station} encompassed 800,000 leasable square feet and housed eighty retailers. An expansion of POST OAK MALL, completed in 1985, snatched J.C. Penney from MANOR EAST. The vacant MANOR EAST store was retenanted by Food 4 Less and then 50 Percent Off.
Wal-Mart relocated to a new SuperCenter, located 1.3 miles northeast of the mall, in the fall of 1994. Montgomery Ward was shuttered in 1997. By this time, MANOR EAST MALL was past it's prime. Jack Culpepper, son of the mall's original builder, began to envisage a redevelopment in 1999.
The three-phase project got underway in April 2003 and included demolition of 150,000 square feet of vacant mall space. Remaining structures were refurbished, with stores re-oriented with exterior entrances. Modern, cream-colored facades were added. A newly-built (93,000 square foot) H-E-B supermarket opened for business on on December 12, 2004.
Encompassing approximately 350,000 leasable square feet, TEJAS CENTER, was completed in August 2006. Tenants included Jo-Ann Fabrics, Bealls, Family Dollar, The Theatre Company (a live performance venue in the old triplex space), Hastings Entertainment and Gold's Gym.
Sources:
The Daily Eagle (Bryan, Texas)
Houston Architecture Information Forum / Posts by "RJC0618", "Iron Tiger" and "Scotch"
www.btutilities.com / Bryan Texas Utilities
http://csroadsandretail.blogspot.com
http://www.cinematreasures.org
http://gen.culpepper.com
http://www.stalworthonline.com
Bryan, Texas property tax assessor website
