Former Ken Martin's Safari Grille

Apart from being in generally poor shape, notice that the STEAK HOUSE was removed first. Picture by author, 2013.

Although Ken Martin's Steakhouse didn't start here at 3231 East 29th Street (it was originally located at 1803 S. Texas Avenue, an auto dealership now) it did end here. Over the years, the Ken Martin restaurant empire included three Pepe's restaurants all in College Station-Bryan, with one at Post Oak Mall co-branded with steakhouse spinoff "Ken Martin's Chicken Fried Steak", Pepper's (a hamburger shop about where Harvey Washbangers is now), Fort Shiloh Steakhouse, and a few others. This building started out as an upscale restaurant called Pacific Coast Highway (1982-1984, though I suspect the exterior was different), with Ken Martin's Steakhouse moving in around 1985. Sometime around 2005 (correct me if I'm wrong, here), Ken Martin's rebranded to "Ken Martin's Safari Grille", which updated and expanded the menu (though, despite the new theme, did not add exotic meats to the menu).

The menu for the Safari Grill is below.

Because I scanned it from a phone book (still very much intact), some of the letters were blurred. That should be "aged to perfection and hand-cut", "garlic mashed potatoes", "texture and robust taste", prices down the line were 9.99, 12.99, 10.99, 14.99, 3.99, 1.99.

For the seafood, "served with rice pilaf", "served with our homemade", the Breaded Golden Fried Shrimp is 9.99.
For the chicken, "lightly breaded and fried", "topped with pineapple", "served with". Extra shrimp with the chicken is 3.99.

In December 2011, after about four decades of serving chicken fried steaks, Ken and his wife retired from the restaurant business and shuttered Ken Martin's forever.

UPDATE 02-28-2023 : A few things were changed since the last update in 2020, mostly streamlining and correcting dates.

G. Rollie White Coliseum and Read Building

A sight you'll never see again! (from AggieMap, which has since removed this picture)
No pictures are enough to replace G. Rollie White Coliseum or the Read Building (built 1954 and 1985, respectively), but I do have some pictures (about three dozen) that I took with a friend at the end of last semester. It was an odd experience: some offices and rooms were stripped, giving a true "urban exploration" experience, but some weren't (people taking finals, for one).

G. Rollie White Coliseum was two levels (an arena and a smaller upper level), with Read Building being four (second level of Rollie is Read's third). Read is connected to the lower Kyle Field decks. These were demolished for the "new" Kyle Field, with Read gutted for the enclosed west side area (but the area seems to be completely rebuilt with no obvious leftovers from Read). In its heyday, G. Rollie was the Reed Arena of the time, hosting graduations, the A&M basketball team, and some big acts in its day, including REM, Jimmy Buffett, and even Elvis Presley.

You can see the pictures of Read and G. Rollie I took on Flickr.

As a bonus, here's an article from October 1985 detailing renovations to G. Rollie, which was probably done in conjunction with the Read Building expansion.

You can see the pre-renovated arena here.

Read Building wasn't much to look at, as it was cleverly disguised as part of Kyle Field.

You could see into Read in this September 2013 picture.

Minor updates in November 2019

Manor House Motor Inn

From a 1988-1989 Aggie Football guide
I went to Adamson Lagoon many times when I was younger, and seemingly towering over the pool area (certainly if you went up to the large slide) was the larger Manor House sign, a motel that was about a quarter mile away on 2504 Texas Avenue South. I don't remember when the towering sign disappeared (as part of sign ordinances, no doubt, a similar fate befell McDonald's just a ways down the road). It also has renovated completely around the time of its name change to just "Manor Inn" (probably much needed, the Days Inn next door remained in a time warp, and it still is like that today.

The original sign (which you can see in the advertisement) looked like this except it was maroon instead of black, as it was a chain at one time, and even in 2001 a Waco location still existed. (Brazos CAD says it was built in 1982, and by 1983 it was clearly open).

UPDATE 04-17-2022: Sometime around March 2022, the hotel rebranded to Red Roof Inn following new ownership.

Furrow Building Materials

Finally, a picture of it in operation, from Project HOLD. Taken circa 2001.
1501 Earl Rudder Freeway (Hwy 6 S)

Opening in June 1984 (the ad below is from 1985) as perhaps one of the earliest commercial buildings east of the freeway, Furrow (everyone called it "Furrow's", though) was the main go-to hardware store in the 1990s for me. It was the type of store that could be called "your father's hardware store", it was for my dad, and I have fond memories of it, too. The company went out of business in 2001, and was in the last stores to close. I remember one of my last visits was on September 11, 2001. It had tile on the floor and drop ceilings, and was by all definitions a classic hardware store: bulk displays of the basics (like nails) that you could fill your bag and weigh, plumbing equipment, an outdoor lumber yard, and more.

To me, this was the distilled version of the "hardware store". It had plumbing, insulation, and other things for DYI work, but didn't have large bathroom displays, no lawnmowers on display, no various household appliances (no smoke detectors if I recall correctly, but may have stocked lightbulbs), no garden center, no flooring. The employees didn't try to upsell overpriced décor for your house, and it was convenient.

There were also lots of candy in bags near the front, about a pound of the stuff each, like, say peanut candy. I remember I got something near the end of the store's days and it was really stale, indicating that they hadn't moved merchandise in that section very often.

Today, Lock N Roll Storage (Official Photo)
Interestingly, the company name was Payless Cashways, and held a number of different names used in towns.

Years later, I would revisit the "small hardware store" scene with Ace of Aggieland, though sadly it just wasn't the same (for reasons detailed there).


Updated October 2017 with new date from reader mail