Tours of Texas - College Station

This blog is dedicated to my cousin.  He knows why.

In all the years I’ve lived in Texas, I’ve never been to College Station.  I knew people that went to A&M but not while they were actually at A&M so, I had no reason to come here.  A few years back, my mom watched a documentary on George H.W. Bush and called me after.  “Did you know his Presidential Library was in College Station?” she asked.  She wanted to do a day trip out here to see the library, etc.  I’m all about a day trip but 3 hours each way is a bit more than a day trip.  We never made it out here together.

Meanwhile, one of the things on my bucket list is to see all the presidential libraries.  I love history and presidential history I find to be particularly interesting.  With COVID still hanging around to a certain degree and other countries “closed” to Americans, why not see what our own country has to offer?  And why not our own state? 

So, here we are.  It took about 3 ½ hours to get here.  It took ½ an hour just to get out of Dallas on a Friday afternoon, and we left at 3pm!  Oh, and did I mention I was driving?  That never happens so add another first for this trip!

I had some preconceived ideas about what to expect.  I looked at College Station on a map and there was no direct way to get there from Dallas.  I figured it was a small sleepy college town in the middle of nowhere.

We crawled down Central Expressway to I-45.  It wasn’t until we got past I-20 that traffic opened up a bit.  From there, it was a straight shot.  Twenty miles before Madisonville (where Buc’ees is), you hang a right at exit 152.  We followed a two-lane road all the way to Normangee (pop. 586).  Then we hung a left on Farm Road 39, another two-lane road, where the speed limit was 70!  This was about what I expected thus far.  Lots of cows.  Lots of farm land.  Houses spread out.  When we got to North Zulch, we hung a right and got onto US Hwy 190.  That was a surprise.  A hidden highway..four lanes wide, similar to 287 out in Mansfield.

We got to the Embassy Suites about 6:30 to find a rowdy group of older folks enjoying the complementary happy hour.  Not older like me but older like…older.  

We love the Embassy Suites because it has what we like to call "separation".  It's a two-room suite, like a small apartment.  In the days before ipads, beats and streaming services, this concept was a blessing for us because John like to stay up after I went to sleep.  At this place, he could stay in the other room as late as he wanted!

For dinner, we found what appeared to be a hole-in-the-wall Mexican place called Jose’s.  The place was very busy.  Lot’s of families.  The margarita’s were good.  The chips and salsa – also good.  I got carne guisada with refried beans and was not disappointed.  Who knew?

Texas A&M University was Texas’ first state institution of higher education and was inaugurated in 1876.  Because of the school’s isolated location, the administrators provided housing and such for those who were associated with the college.  The campus was the focal point of the community.  It was designated as “College Station” by the post office in 1877 because of the train station just west of the campus.

 

The campus is not at all what I expected.  It's very spread out, as is the town itself.  If you don't have some mode of transportation, you're walking....a lot.  This is a view of the campus from our hotel.  Doesn't seem very far but it's at least a couple of miles.

After extensive googling, I still couldn't figure out the whole "Gig'em" thing, but I digress.

The town itself is not a sleepy little town but it is a college town.  It's full of hotels, chain restaurants, and, of course, bars.  They have lots of nifty new apartment communities that have retail on the first floor and apartments up above.  One of the oldest bars is called the Dixie Chicken.  With a name like that, I wanted to go but it didn't work out.  Next time.

Saturday morning, we went down to breakfast and it was teeming with girls!  College or high school, I couldn't tell but they ran in packs.  Come to find out there was a competitive swim meet and all the teams were staying in this hotel.  My guess is that there's always something going on in this town.  Later in the day we found a softball tournament.  One of the buses was from Lewisville!

The George H. W. Bush Presidential Library is located on the Texas A&M Campus.  Though he had no affiliation with the university, when he first become president, he was approached by a friend (who was an alumni of A&M) about building his library here.  After the cities of Bryan and College Station lobbied for the library, Bush agreed.  The library was dedicated in 1997.  Attending the ceremony were all the living presidents at the time along with their wives.  Nancy Regan attended in Ronald Regan’s place and Lady Bird Johnson also attended.  George H.W. Bush, Bill Clinton, Jimmy Carter and Gerald Ford.

George H. W. Bush was the 41st President, and, I believe, the last president to have served in military combat.  

He was a Navy pilot in WWII.  His plane was shot down in the South Pacific.  He was able to parachute to safety though his fellow crew members were not.  When he got out of the service at the end of the war, he used the GI bill and went to college.  Yale.

Prior to that, he married his sweetheart, Barbara Pierce.  They had six children: George, Robin, Jeb, Neil, Marvin and Dorothy. Robin died at age 3 from Leukemia.  The wedding photo.  She was very pretty.  But it seems like once she hit a certain age, she looked old even though she wasn't - kind of like Lauren Bacall and Frank Sinatra.

After college, Bush moved his family to Texas where he did very well in the oil business.  He was a Congressman from Houston, Ambassador to the United Nations, then head of the CIA before becoming the Vice President under Ronald Regan. In 1988, he won the presidency in his own right with Dan Quayle as his running mate.  

The museum had an recreated his desk in the oval office, including a multitude of photos on the credenza behind the desk.  I couldn't believe how open the exhibit was.  Someone could have just walked off with one of the photos!

There were all kinds of photos related to Bush's life and presidency.  

Here's me and some person I don't know in the situation room waiting to be briefed on Desert Storm.

They also had a separate exhibit of for Barbara Bush and her interest in literacy for everyone.  I thought this was a great photo of her.

Bush was unsuccessful in his reelection bid, losing to Bill Clinton.  I thought he was very dignified in his loss to Clinton.

I liked this portrait of 41 and 43.  

The President and Mrs. Bush are buried on the library grounds.  Their daughter, Robin, who died at age 3, was reinterred here from Connecticut.

The site is behind the library down a long winding path.  The place itself is very quiet and peaceful.

After our visit to the library, we drove around the campus a bit.

Kyle Field - home of Aggie football since 1905 and named for Edwin Jackson Kyle who was Dean of Agriculture.  In 2014/2015, it was renovated to increase seating capacity and is now one of the five largest collegiate football stadiums.

Albritton Bell Tower - the tallest structure on campus at 138 Feet.  Donated by Ford Albritton Jr in 1984. 

Next stop was historic downtown Bryan.  The Howell Grocery building was constructed by J. W. Howell in 1906.  The first floor was retail and there were offices on the upper floors.  The building was bought by a developer in 2006.  The bottom floor is now a restaurant and the upper floors, now renovated, are offices.  The La Salle hotel (next to the Howell Grocery), started in 1929 though the building was erected years earlier.  It's blocks from the local train station.  

The Carnegie Public Library.  At the turn of the 20th century, Andrew Carnegie, one of the wealthiest men in the country, would endow money to various small towns to build a library.  The conditions were that the town had to supply the books, the staff and the maintenance of the structure.  The grant for this library was $10K back in 1902.  Most of the libraries that we funded through this foundation are still around today.  This one is now a history museum.

Taking a break.

The Queen Theater was originally a hotel back i the 1890's.  In the early 1900's, they began showing silent movies on the ground floor.  In 1939, the hotel was fully converted to a movie theater.  The first movie shown there was "5th Avenue Girl" staring Ginger Rogers.  The theater was reopened in 2018 as a single screen theater.

St. Andrew's Episcopal Church.  The parish relocated here from Millican in 1864 when the previous location suffered from Yellow Fever.  This current location was erected in 1914.

On South College Ave, originally the only street that led to the university from Bryan, they have a lot of eclectic restaurants.  I liked this one.  It was too early for lunch for me or we'd have stopped in.  They have burgers and such.  Based on the number of cars in the lot, it must be good.  Next time.

At the intersection of I-45 and Hwy 39 - all the that's left of an old Exxon station...Sorry - I just thought this looked a little weird.

Sunday, we headed back home having enjoyed the weekend.