Life of Bryan

By Brady Dyer

 I’ve been on a quest to explore as many parts of the state as I can, and on a recent warm morning, I drove into the quiet downtown of Bryan for a weekend getaway. The seed had been planted last spring, when I attended a museum conference in College Station, Bryan’s twin city to the south. I didn’t make it to Bryan on that trip, but I heard intriguing things about the city—its charming downtown, burgeoning nightlife, and rich history. And I learned of revitalization efforts, which have resulted in the restoration of many of the buildings and a reinvigoration of central city businesses.

The contemporary history of Bryan goes back to the early 19th Century, when settlers came to farm the fertile Brazos River Valley. Thanks to a thriving agricultural industry, during the 1920s and ’30s Bryan became an important railroad stop between the Gulf Coast and northern markets. In addition to commercial travelers, students and their families traveled through Bryan on their way to a small railroad station outside of A&M University known as “College” station. After World War II, with the decline of railroads as a means of travel, Bryan’s affluence began to wane. But in the 1990s, local business leaders began renovating spaces in the downtown area—beginning with the Old Bryan Marketplace, a sprawling shopping destination in the city’s former railroad-docking warehouse, and the seven-story La Salle Hotel, a beautifully restored railroad hotel that dates to 1928. Today, the La Salle, along with more than 50 structures throughout town, is listed in the National Register of Historic Places.

The hotel’s elegant interior—with its soft lighting, rich hues of plum and evergreen, fresh flowers arrangements, and comfortable seating—invites guests to sit and enjoy the lobby in spare moments. Restored and renovated in 2000 (and again in 2010) after decades of alternative uses, the hotel still boasts some of its original decor, including the black-and-white terrazzo lobby floor and Art Deco touches in the elevators. The friendly staff takes seriously their role of welcoming guests to the city, offering suggestions of what to do and where to eat. From my room on the seventh floor, large windows presented a wide view of the city’s attractions—including the red-brick Carnegie History Center, and to the right and left, Main Street, the heart of downtown Bryan.

Thanks to advice from the La Salle staff, I set out for the Old Bryan Marketplace, catty-corner from the hotel. Dating to 1906, the 22,000-square-foot building has had many incarnations—as a railroad warehouse, hardware store, and even a Plymouth-DeSoto dealership. It had fallen into disrepair when current owner Kay Conlee bought the building in 1995 and began renovations. The marketplace opened in 1996, and its success helped inspire other revitalization efforts downtown.

See: Resources

See the full article in the January 2011 issue.

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