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Plaza Hotel, College Station

1960 establishments in Texas2010 disestablishments in TexasBuildings and structures demolished by controlled implosionBuildings and structures demolished in 2012Buildings and structures in Brazos County, Texas
College Station, TexasDefunct hotels in TexasDemolished buildings and structures in TexasDemolished hotels in the United StatesFormer skyscrapersHotel buildings completed in 1960Hotel buildings completed in 1980Hotels disestablished in 2010Hotels established in 1960Hotels in TexasUse American English from December 2020Use mdy dates from December 2020
Plaza Hotel building, College Station, TX
Plaza Hotel building, College Station, TX

The Plaza Hotel (formerly University Tower) was a hotel building in College Station, Texas. The building contained 300 rooms and was 17 stories high. It was located at 410 South Texas Avenue, College Station, Texas 77840.Operated as a Ramada Inn, the initial two-story hotel was opened by Joe Ferreri in 1960 at the suggestion of Texas A&M University's president at the time, James Earl Rudder. High occupancy rates lead Ramada officials to request an expansion, which came in the form of the 17-story tower built in 1980. Ferreri subsequently lost the hotel to bankruptcy in 1987. In the 1990s the property was a private dormitory, The University Towers. The building was acquired and turned into The Plaza Hotel in 2004. The building contained a swimming pool in the atrium (in which a 12-year-old boy drowned on July 23, 2007.), a lounge which overlooked the atrium and pool, a ballroom, a restaurant (Maxwell's, then Remington's), and a penthouse containing a fully equipped kitchen and bar area, dining room, exterior patio, three bedrooms and a master suite with bath and Jacuzzi. The property is owned by Rossco Holdings, Inc. who filed a voluntary petition for reorganization under Chapter 11 in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Western District of Texas on August 2, 2010. Problems for the hotel began as early as 2008, when Brazos County health inspectors shut down the hotel's kitchen and when guests made complaints about mysterious activities. During the final months of the hotel being open, guests complained of a lack of hot water and air conditioning as well as purported hauntings (including that of Civil War General Jack T. Anderson).

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Plaza Hotel, College Station
Texas Avenue South, College Station

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Wikipedia: Plaza Hotel, College StationContinue reading on Wikipedia

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Latitude Longitude
N 30.6281 ° E -96.3354 °
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Texas Avenue South

Texas Avenue South
77843 College Station
Texas, United States
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Plaza Hotel building, College Station, TX
Plaza Hotel building, College Station, TX
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KAMU-FM
KAMU-FM

KAMU-FM (90.9 FM) is a public radio station in College Station, Texas, United States. It is owned and operated by Texas A&M University, and is a sister station to PBS member KAMU-TV (channel 15). The two stations share studios at the Moore Communications Center on the university's campus, and KAMU-FM's transmitter is located at adjacent Hensel Park. KAMU-FM began broadcasting in 1977 with a primary function of a teaching the art of broadcast to Texas A&M students, local high school students and others interested in careers in the radio industry. Potential careers included broadcast news, radio announcing, production, audio engineering, sound, electronics, scriptwriting, audio documentary production, programming, promotion and marketing, syndication, and weather forecasting. Don Simons was the first Station Manager for the National Public Radio-affiliated KAMU-FM. In 1977, he hired Sunny Nash as the station's first Program Director, whose duties included teaching radio skills to student personnel and others with interests in radio, and coordinating volunteers and other contributors. Nash had worked in news and public affairs at WTAW (AM) Country Radio while attending Texas A&M University, where in 1977, she became the first African American journalism graduate in the school's history. Simons also hired Texas A&M University graduate Linda Lea as the station's first Traffic Director. First KAMU-FM staff 1977: Don Simons, Station Manager Sunny Nash, Program Director and Meteorologist Linda Lea, Traffic Director Mike Andrews, Engineer Dana Steele, Student Announcer Bob French, Student Announcer Bob Rose, Student Announcer and Meteorologist Gary Messer, Student Announcer John Copeland, Student Announcer Paul Rios, High School Radio InternLinda Lea created and produced Poetry Southwest, hosted by Paul Christianson, which featured local and regional poets and artists from around the state. A frequent contributor to National Public Radio programs, Sunny Nash created and produced the award-winning KAMU-FM classical music program Collector's Choice, hosted by Dr. Gilbert Plass, still airing currently in syndication. Nash and Bob Rose created and co-hosted KAMU-FM's nationally syndicated series Classical Music from Festival Hill. All performances were recorded live in Roundtop, Texas. The performance lists included Round Top Festival Institute founder and pianist James Dick, cellist Yo-Yo Ma, chamber musician and Yo-Yo Ma accompanist Patricia Zander, pianist and conductor Leon Fleisher, violinist Young Uck Kim, and concertmaster Isidor Saslav. KAMU-FM festival staff included series co-creators and co-hosts Sunny Nash and Bob Rose, series engineer Mike Andrews, and project documentarian Nobutomi Shimamoto. The radio station shares the same facility as KAMU-TV, at the Moore Communications Center. KAMU-FM programming includes 35 hours of local content each week. On March 30, 2007, it became the first HD Radio station in the Brazos Valley.

Dixie Chicken (bar)
Dixie Chicken (bar)

The Dixie Chicken, also known as The Chicken, is a bar located in College Station, Texas, directly across the street from the Texas A&M University campus. The Dixie Chicken claims to serve the most beer per square foot of any bar in the United States.“One of the most recognizable restaurants in College Station,” the Dixie Chicken is known as Texas A&M's "favorite local watering hole." The Dixie Chicken is the oldest and most famous bar in the Northgate district. The Dixie Chicken was founded by local businessmen Don Anz and Don Ganter. Anz had rented a pool hall, the Aggie Den, directly across the street from the Texas A&M University campus. The two businessmen invested about $7,000 to convert the pool hall into a bar. The two renamed the facility the Dixie Chicken, taken from the album of the same name by band Little Feat. The decor was inspired by the cover of a Jerry Jeff Walker album, and featured swinging doors at the entrance, sturdy wooden tables - over time covered in patron's carvings - pool tables, dominoes, and signs on the walls. In a 2014 article, ESPN writer Scott Eden described the bar: "The exterior resembles a honky-tonk as dreamed up by the Disney people who designed Frontierland. On the inside, it's pure Texas, with outlaw country on an infinite loop and Lone Star longnecks sliding down the bars, not to mention photos of old Bonfires all over the walls."The bar opened on June 15, 1974. It soon became a favored hangout of Texas A&M students and aspiring singers Robert Earl Keen and Lyle Lovett. The two often brought their guitars to the bar and played impromptu concerts on the back porch. In the beginning, they were often kicked out of the bar, but as their playing improved, the owners allowed them to stay and play.The bar was the inspiration for the unofficial Texas A&M Tradition of "ring dunking". In the late 1970s a student dropped his brand-new Aggie ring in a pitcher of beer. He was challenged by a friend to drink the pitcher to retrieve the ring. This spread to become a widespread practice among Texas A&M seniors. Due to changes in Texas laws, by 2005 instead of pitchers, students are only allowed to buy 32 ounce (950 mL) mugs of beer on Ring Day at the Dixie Chicken.The Dixie Chicken was expanded in 1981, and in the mid-2000s an additional porch was added. The decor has changed only minimally. Ganter died in 2004, just days after the Dixie Chicken had its 30th anniversary. His daughters, Katy Jackson and Jennifer Ganter, now run the bar. In 2014, the Dixie Chicken celebrated its 40th anniversary, making it the oldest bar in the Northgate, Texas entertainment district in College Station. In April 2006, the Dixie Chicken was named "College Bar of the Month" in Playboy. Complex.com named it the Number 1 Best College Campus Bars in 2013. Notable customers have included United States Senator John McCain and the former president of Panama, Martín Torrijos. In his comments to the Texas A&M graduating class of Fall 2008, President George W. Bush stated that, "Back in my day, I think I would have enjoyed dunk [sic] my ring." The president also joked about the absence of his Secretary of Defense (and former president of A&M) Robert Gates from the ceremony by stating, "It's not like he's over at the Dixie Chicken.”Bottle Cap Alley separates the Chicken from the Dry Bean Saloon. In the early days of the bar, the workers would have so many bottle caps from all the bottled beer that was served throughout the day that they started putting them up and down the alley. Today it's a landmark that encourages visitors to bring and dump their own bottle caps to be a part of the tradition. In recent years, with more people buying beer by the pitcher, different beer companies have contributed their caps to make sure the alley stays beautiful year around. On the night of May 27, 2020, heavy rain and hail caused the roof of the Chicken to cave in. Additional details are forthcoming.