Note: Despite being in the "Mall Maps" list, this timeline (similar to the Post Oak Mall page does not actually have a map. Instead, this page serves as a complement and expansion to the Manor East Mall page on Brazos Buildings & Businesses, as seen here, which as of this initial publication, has not been updated. As such, this page is somewhat rudimentary and will be expanded on further in future updates.
February 1966: Manor East Shopping City is announced as Montgomery Ward breaks ground on a new building at Texas Avenue and Villa Maria Road.
November 1966: Montgomery Ward opens. Instead of a ribbon-cutting, Texas A&M football coach kicks a football. The 70,000 square feet store replaces the short-lived 400 W. 25th Street store, which was hastily converted from a warehouse after the downtown Montgomery Ward building at 200 N. Bryan Avenue burned down in March 1965.
April 1967: Kroger opens an 18,000 square foot store next to Montgomery Ward. Despite its small size it is one of the two largest stores in the Houston division of Kroger at the time and is briefly the largest grocery store in town before the opening of the comparatively enormous Skaggs Albertsons less than five years later. While it is considered part of the shopping center, it is a stand-alone store in the parking lot.
October 1970: Britts, a department store owned by J.J. Newberry, opens as the east anchor.
November 1974: Manor East "3" Theatres opens (see CinemaTreasures).
February 1975: Britts manager John Young denies the Britt's store is closing. The rumor had been circulating for six months among inflation and recession.
November 1976: J.C. Penney opens after moving from its downtown operation. It features an expanded selection from their old store downtown but at 60,000 square feet still limited compared to the larger stores in Houston. It features a larger selection including a "plant bar" (hanging plants and houseplants), as well as reopening the coffee shop from Britt's. By 1979 this is known as the JCPenney Coffee Gallery (this wasn't one-of-a-kind but rare in the chain).
January 1977: Kroger announces that it will close in April when the former Cooks discount store is remodeled as a Kroger Family Center. Citizens State Bank announces it will take over the building and remodel it after Kroger leaves as it is operating in a temporary building on the mall's parking lot.
December 1978: McDonald's opens a restaurant in the parking lot of Manor East Mall. Despite the restaurant being fully stand-alone, it is stated to be at Manor East Mall and often included in the store lists.
February 1981: Wal-Mart begins to clear land for their 80,000 square foot store at the mall with groundbreaking soon after.
February 1982: Post Oak Mall opens just 3 miles away. This is what would ultimately kill Manor East Mall. Margo's La Mode would close within months to move, but would be the only tenant to be lost to Manor East Mall.
June 1982: Wal-Mart opens at Manor East Mall, its third and final anchor.
February 1983: With Post Oak Mall now a year old and making plans to develop a second addition, there are rumors that J.C. Penney would leave for Post Oak Mall. Culpepper's discussions with the chain seemingly confirm that J.C. Penney has made "absolutely no plans to leave Manor East" and a move would be four to five years away.
June 1985: Chili's pulls plans for a Manor East Mall location citing too much local competition, specifically Fuddruckers and J.J. Muggs. Within a few years both restaurants were gone, but Chili's never appeared at Manor East Mall. https://www.newspapers.com/image/1001856650/?match=1&terms=fuddruckers
October 1985: JCPenney closes its Manor East Mall location after less than ten years of operation to relocate to Post Oak Mall.
September 1986: Food 4 Less, operated by Falleys Inc., opens in the former JCPenney space. Its grand opening is not until November.
September 1989: Hastings opens in the space that was once used for Kroger and the bank. It is not connected to the mall. At some point, Cloth World moved over to the building from the main mall and occupied the other half.
March 1991: A rumor surfaces that Montgomery Ward is to move to Post Oak Mall (they did, after all, have space for a seventh anchor) but Wards officials deny the move (but so did JCPenney's).
September 1991: While I can only find this article discussing it, Manor East Mall goes bankrupt and is seized by NCNB Bank.
October 1991: Food 4 Less announces it will close November 1st, citing its lease cancellation. The lease "originally lasted quite a bit longer", but it would've faced heavy competition due to two H-E-B Pantry Foods opening in Bryan (one of them just half a mile away), and College Station gaining Albertsons, Randalls, and an H-E-B Pantry of its own.
June 1993: A shuffle with junior anchors is announced when Hastings announced it leased the space where Cloth World is, with Cloth World moving to the other half of the former Food 4 Less building (50-Off Store taking the other half) and Hastings knocking out the wall to expand. By January 1994 Cloth World is in its new home.
August 1993: 50-Off Store opens in part of the former JCPenney/Food 4 Less. (I don't think it opened to the mall itself, but I think it might've.)
October 1993: Wal-Mart closes its Manor East Mall location when it moves to a stand-alone Wal-Mart Supercenter store at 2200 Briarcrest Drive.
December 1993: Manor East 3 becomes a dollar theater, this also affects the other Schulman operations in Bryan including Schulman 6.
June 1994: Manor East 3 closes.
December 1997: Last mention of Cloth World in the newspapers, by August of 1998 it would rebrand to Jo-Ann Fabrics.
October 1998: Eckerd closes its mall location for a new stand-alone location nearby. (The move happened around this time.)
January 1999: Montgomery Ward announces its closure (to close by May). Manor East is now in its final act.
March 1999: Family Dollar opens to replace Eckerd. January 2002: H-E-B is announced for Manor East Mall, with it being "just about a done deal". The same article mentions that a "few years ago" the Culpeppers were in discussion with Kmart. (Whether this would take up the Montgomery Ward site and/or be the site of a Super Kmart were never revealed).