BRYAN, Texas — Bryan is full of historical sites, but none are quite like a small block on the north side of Main Street.
What is now home to restaurants, resale shops and a loan office was once a bustling area of African American owned and operated businesses.
All built in the early twentieth century, the strip known as "The Allen Block" was a revolutionary and unabashed district, thriving during its heyday in the 1920's.
The block acted as an anchor to the northern industrial area of Downtown Bryan, but to many at the time, it was referred to in a crude way.
"The Allen block was in an area of Bryan, the north end of Bryan, that was commonly called 'rat row...' and that era, they were kind of describing a place that wasn't as nice," said Randy Haynes, from the Brazos Heritage Society and City of Bryan.
However, the impolite nickname was no obstacle for the area.
One of the more successful businessmen on the Allen Block even had a pretty interesting way of transporting capital.
"Mr. Allen was apparently a meat processor... he would buy, literally livestock on the hoof and process it there in that building," Haynes said.
According to Haynes, when turkeys were in season, Allen would get them on a train to Bryan, and drive them like cattle through the streets of Bryan.
During Christmastime, Allen would host a petting zoo, of sorts.
"They would buy reindeer. And you could come to their place and see this reindeer...and then you could subscribe and when Christmas came, you could eat part of the reindeer."
After time passed the Allen Block community, like many other areas, began to decline during the stock market crash and again after World War II.
It wasn't until the late 1950's that the area saw some hope in a young man named Jessie Flores, the founder and owner of Flores Finance Company.
Flores gave loans to parts of the community that banks weren't marketing to, bringing some success to what was a run down area.
His son, Roy continues to run the loan office today, alongside several other business owners who are keeping the Allen Block true to its humble roots.
Haynes said, "The thing that makes allen block special is that it's relatively unchanged... you kind of have a sense of the past. And you know, you're walking under that overhang, you can kind of feel like what it felt to walk down that sidewalk in the 1930's."