Columbia Closings   What’s not in Columbia anymore

This one was a well planned closing. The “for lease” sign, and the “closing sale” signs had been up for a couple of months before this little store, on Forest Drive right next to Bruegger’s Bagels, shut down. I’m assuming it closed at the end of August since month-boundries make sense when you have time to plan, though I didn’t notice the vacant space until today.

I never went into Jewelry Mart as it didn’t seem targetted at my gender or demographic but one of my aunts did stop in once, and mentioned that the staff was very pleasant and she struck up a conversation, actually leaving with the manager’s mix-cd of store music after she complimented him on his taste in songs.

I believe that this is the first vacancy for this little strip. It was all built a few years ago, so up until now it has had the original tenants.

I’ve been putting off doing a post on Woolworth’s because I don’t have any pictures of the place, or even any ads. I’m sure I’ll find a newspaper ad eventually, but they don’t seem to have gone in for Yellow Pages ads at all.

Anyway — Woolworth’s was in the original open-air Richland Mall from the beginning. Woolworth’s front entrance was on the Beltline side of the mall, and the back entrance opened into the mall’s main traverse corridor. The way I remember it, Woolworth’s was approximately in the middle of the mall. I’m definitely a little shakey on the layout of all the old stores, but I can definitely say that if you went out Woolworth’s back door, a left turn would point you at White’s on the far end of the mall. I believe that as you were walking to White’s, you would pass Meri’s and, in later years, The Happy Bookseller.

Conversely, if you came out the back door and turned right, you would go past Jackson Camera, Eckerd’s and head down towards the laundromat and Winn Dixie.

If you came in through the front door, there was more or less a clear corridor to the back door, and there were registers in both the front and back. Still facing the back, the right side of the store was more or less devoted to clothes, and I didn’t usually go over there. The left side was much more interesting and had records, pets, various school and office supplies, the lunch counter and the restrooms.

Every year, about this time, we would go to Woolworth’s for new school supplies. I liked Blue Horse brand because all the items had coupons you could clip and send in for premiums. The fact that I never got enough to send in and never actually got a single premium didn’t deter me. (Somewhere about the house there is probably still a cache of Blue Horse coupons..). For pencils I liked Ticonderoga #3 (and always avoided Empire pencils) and for notebook paper, I liked “college ruled”. Aside from the stuff we actually used, there was neat stuff that we never used, though we each had several. This included protractors and drawing compasses (with the deadly points).

The pet department didn’t have dogs or cats — it ran more to hamsters and gerbils as far as mammals went, turtles to represent reptiles, and lots of fish. There were several places in town we would get aquarium fish, but I think we got most of our “neons” from Woolworth’s.

Of course Woolworth was famous, or infamous, for its lunch counters, but as this store was built post 1964, I’m prety sure it always served everybody (at least officially). The lunch counter was, as I said, on the left side of the store, and fairly near to the rear. We didn’t eat there too often, but as I recall it, there was an actual counter with padded swivel stools arrayed around it, and then some booths away from the counter itself. I’m pretty sure I remember the aqua-enamel covered Hamilton Beach milkshake machines, and that the fries were crinkle cut.

The record section was to the right of the lunch counter (though still left of the central corridor) and almost against the back windows. There were a certain amount of “real” records shelved alphabetically, certainly not a deep selection, but probably a fair number of the days hits. The attraction for me however was the cut-out bins. In these, would be remnants: records that didn’t sell for whatever reason (usually because they weren’t very good…) with a notch cut out of the covers to indicate their status, and boxed up indiscriminately to be sent to places like Woolworth’s at reduced prices. The records were in absolutely no order of any sort, but I was obsessive in those days (and broke, which helped) and I would look through each and every record in every cut-out bin. I know I got a number of records there over the years, but at this point, I can definitely recall two, both by the discount repackager Pickwick Records. Both were cheapo repackaging of Beach Boys material from the Capitol era. One, “Wow, Great Concert!” repackaged the first Beach Boys concert album, leaving off several tracks, and the second was an 8-track tape repackaging album tracks from the first two Beach Boys LP’s (Surfin’ Safari and Surfin’ USA) leaving off the hit singles and adding their own typos to the song titles — For years, I assumed that “Moog Dog” referred to the synthesizer, when in fact it was simply a typo for “Moon Dog”. Actually, come to think of it, I also bought a non-Pickwick repackaging the Beach Boys pre-Capitol tracks at Woolworth’s as well. (Always beware if you see an off-brand looking Beach Boys package that boasts “Surfer Girl” & “Surfin’ Safari” it probably dates from the Hite Morgan sessions and has much earlier and more primitive performances — interesting, but not what you heard on the radio).

When I first started going to Woolworth’s, the bathroom was unique amongst all the bathrooms (that I was aware of) in Columbia: It was a pay bathroom. The door handle had a protruding mechanism with a coin-slot, and the handle itself was more like the handle on a bubble-gum machine than a usual door handle. I loved that thing, and annoyed my mother to no end by “holding it” while we were in White’s (which had nice, free, restrooms) so that I could use the coin bathroom at Woolworth’s. In later years, they disabled the coin mechanism and the restroom was free to all, though you could still see that it had once been pay.

If all this weren’t enough, possibly the neatest thing about Woolworth’s was the arcade game past the front checkout counters, against the front wall. This was the pre-electronic, pre-videogame era when in general, pinball machines were the only option. This particular machine had the general pinball format — about two feet wide and four feet deep, but it wasn’t a pinball machine. I wish I could remember the name of it, but it was some sort of “shoot the aliens” game. You would put in your dime, and your joystick would activate. The joystick would traverse right and left, and had either a trigger, or a firing button on top of it. It was connected to a plastic laser cannon at the front of the console, and moving the joystick would swivel the cannon right and left.

Shortly after the game came to life, a mechanical flying-saucer would pop up at the back of the game and move randomly left and right (and sometimes pop down behind the scenary to move invisibly). You had to point your cannon at where you thought the saucer was going to be by the time your blast got to it — you had to guess what it was going to do and lead it. Every time you pushed the firing button different segments of lights along the top of the game would light up, indicating the progress of your laser bolt. To some extent you could still change the direction it was progressing in by adjusting your joystick, but the gross direction was fixed at the start of your shot.

If you guessed right and the saucer was in the area where your bolt impacted, it would make a very satisfying sound effect and all the lights would flash to indicate the destruction. You would also get points, but that was pretty secondary to me, since there were no prizes and I generally wasn’t playing against anyone. And really, it was almost enough to just watch the machine go through its paces whatever the outcome. It’s amazing what they did totally without computers or any electronics — just mechanical know-how and electricity.

Woolworth’s survived the change from the open-air Richland Mall to the ill-fated and enclosed Richland Fashion Mall. As I recall it, the new store was on the second level. If you came into Whites from the Beltline side, it would be out the right mall entrance to Whites. The new store was smaller than the old store, and didn’t have pets. By this time, I was in college, and I only went there once or twice. I recall it as a pretty sad looking affair, and in fact the whole chain was in trouble by this time.

Fairly shortly thereafter, Woolworth’s rebranded itself as Footlocker and shed its dimestore history. They kept a Footlocker store in Richland Mall (I think it was out the left mall entrance to Whites) but I had no interest whatsoever in that concept, and never went in.

Wonder if I still have that 8-Track?

I’m not sure when this plant store on Meeting Street closed — there was a sign on the door, but none of my pictures of it came out because of glass reflections and light ink. According to their website though, they opened (or planned to open) in the Spring of 2009, so I’m guessing they were there about a year. Again, from their site, the place was to be more than a nursery, with local peaches and other produce as well as plants and trees. It sounds a little like the niche that Grice’s was in.

To me it seems like a pretty good location (It’s true that there are big-box stores (and Wal Mart) not too far away, but you have to go through the bottleneck of lights in Triangle City and the big merge on Augusta Road to get to them), but apparently in the event, not good enough.

I don’t actually know what this Meeting Street building (now Chiva Auto Sales) was. I do like it though. The look of the roadside sign, the look of the roof overhang, and the way the windows of the main building are laid out (and the way they slant) make me think it was a fast-food drive-in. Does anyone recall this place?

UPDATE 1 Sept 2010: From the comments and the 1970 phonebook, I’m able to verify this as a Bell’s, and am changing the post title. Also, it was definitely open as late as 1970, so I’m changing the closing date to “1970s”.

I’ve eaten at Damon’s a few times, first I believe in Litchfield Beach at The Exchange in a space which is now a church, and later in Augusta. I’m not particularly interested in ribs, but as I recall they had good burgers and some sort of deep-fried onion-loaf. If I’m remembering correctly, the only thing I didn’t like about the place was they had little teeny-tiny napkins that were really wash-cloths.

That’s Damon’s in general — this particular Damon’s I never got to. Given the location, if I was in the area and craving a burger, I would more likely cross the street to 5 Guys.

It is a nice location though, and it looks like they had a patio which would be very pleasant evenings this time of year. According to LoopNet, the building is being sold as a fully kitted out restaurant, and in fact the Damon’s franchaise itself appears to be still available for the right offer.

(Hat tip to commenter Steve)

[22 Jan 2010]

[12 Aug 2010]

Oliver’s Lodge (pronounced as one word Oliverslodge) is the first seafood restaurant I can recall eating at.

Now, if you’ve read this blog for a while, you’ll know I don’t like seafood and never have. Nonetheless, as a kid I was always eager to go whenever we were at the beach. At that time (the late 1960s), they served a lunch menu until 5pm, and that menu had spaghetti, something I would always eat, so my folks usually tried to arrange for us to arrive just before 5 so I could have my spaghetti and the grownups could have “supper”. The timing was usually touch-and-go since the place drew tremendous crowds, and getting there before 5 was no guarantee of being seated before 6.

Waiting for anything with kids is always dicey, and if there were cousins as well as my sister and me, things could very easily get out of hand, but the location worked towards letting kids “free range”. As you can see from some of the pictures, Oliver’s sits on a large lot fronting on Murrells Inlet itself. There were several huge trees (which are still there) and a derelict john-boat or two (now gone) as well as a dock going out into the marsh where the fresh fish were brought in each day during the time when the place was a working lodging house. In addition, the lot next door was a church which was generally vacant on weekday afternoons, so there was plenty of room to race around, and plenty of things to fool with. Best of all, the lodge’s big back porch always had a low-country “joggling” board — a long flexible plank suspended between two rocker-edged saw-horses. You could get a crowd of cousins on that going back and forth and up and down until the grownups would eventually get alarmed and tell us to take it easy.

My memory is that when we first started going, dining was mostly on the back porch which was, at that time, screened, but not air-conditioned. Aside from my spaghetti (or baked-potato or whatever I ended up having ot get if we missed the 5pm deadline), the food was basic Calabash Style fried seafood with piping hot delicious hush-puppies.

The building was always a bit ramshackle. I don’t know when it stopped being a boarding house and went to restaurant only operation, but the big upstairs area was largely unused in my memory. When we started going, there was still a customer restroom available upstairs, and I always liked going up there and looking around — by the 1970s I believe the upstairs was wholly closed to customer access.

Also in the 1970s, the owners tacked up plastic sheeting over the screen porch. And I do mean “plastic” and not plexiglass or anything solid. Whenever anyone would open a door or the air conditioning kicked in, the sheeting up over all the walls would billow in and out.

It seems to me that as the 70s went on, we went to Oliver’s less and less. It’s not that anyone stopped liking it, but more that other options became available as the coast commercialized. The last time I recall going with a large party of cousins was probably in the late 1970s just as my generation was heading to college. We ate inside rather than on the porch, and my cousin Mike stuck his nose in a big sawfish nose hung on the wall — a picture that I’m sure will surface eventually. I think we also played name-that-drink charades with the bar menu.

After that, I believe the next time I ate there was the last. I think it was the early 1990s, and I was either alone or with a very small party. We (or I) was on the back porch, and I noticed that the plastic sheeting had been replaced with plexiglass. The menu was also radically different, and it was evident that Oliver’s had undergone a change in ownership. The defining moment for me was when they brought out the huspuppies and I found they were served with raspberry butter. That might be good, but it wasn’t Oliver’s.

After that, and after I started spending a lot more time at the beach I thought of going back a number of times but somehow never got around to it. Last winter I actually made the effort, but it never worked out. I would find that it wasn’t open weekdays during the off season, or that it was only open for lunch, or not open Mondays or — that it was apparently never open.

That last was a conclusion I flirted with, but never quite committed to. After all the website was still up [try this archived version once that link goes dead] , I could see the tables set through the window, and there was no note on the door..

Finally I went back on 12 August this year, and this time it was obvious that the place was closed: There was a big bar across the front doors, Coke had put a sticker claiming the fountains inside and the place was seriously overgrown. All these photos except 2, 3, 4 & 5 come from that visit.

So when did the place actually close for the last time? That’s hard to say, but look at photos 2, 3, 4 & 5. These were taken on 22 Jan 2010. In particular, look at the place settings on the back porch table. Although a chair has been moved, it is clear to me that the napkins, plates and silverware in the 22 Jan photos are exactly the same as in the 12 Aug photos. So, sometime before 22 Jan, the bus staff laid out all the place settings — and never came back.

As I was taking these photos on 12 Aug, two different cars pulled into the lot looking to eat, and both parties took their own pictures and shared stories of eating there as kids as well.

Read the rest of this entry »

I noticed in The Free Times this week that Simply Savory on Devine Street had closed.

At this point, their web site is still up, and it’s a bit melancholy to see that their contact page lists them as being “next to Ben & Jerry’s and Birds on a Wire“, both of which have been gone for a while themselves.

Also according to that page, they opened on 10 September 2007, so they had an almost three year run, which is not bad for that area and this economy.

I only went in to Savory once. I was actually looking for Ben & Jerry’s which was already gone at that point, but decided that as long as I was there anyway, I might as well check it out. I believe this was before they added their cafe area, and as I’m not a wine person, my impression of the store was that they sold mainly jars of condiments and spreads along with esoteric kitchen items. Given that I was ignoring the wine, I’m not sure how accurate that impression is, but I found it a bit like The Island Gourmet at the Hammock Shops, or Plum Pudding on Laurens Street in Aiken. I believe they had a couple of jars of something open for dipping and sampling, and that it was pretty good but not something I ended up buying.

(Hat tip to Eva at The Free Times)

Read the rest of this entry »

I wrote the first closing on this location when it was Mangia! Mangia!.

Shag Bistro opened not long after Mangia! closed, and while I never went there, I got the impression that it was an attempt to establish a place with more mass appeal than a somewhat upscale Italian restaurant. The name suggests something very casual and beachy, or at least the Shag part does. I’ve never been entirely certain what Bistro is supposed to connote in a restaurant name, but inasmuch as I have any impression, it goes in the opposite direction of casual and beachy.

Why didn’t I ever get to Shag Bistro? Well, it’s pretty much the same reasons I only got to Mangia! Mangia! once: location and presence-in-mind. That is to say, it’s an awful long way to drive, and I usually would forget it even existed.

Of course, it’s not a long way for people already in the area, but I suspect both Mangia! and Shag were just a little ahead of their time. I think everyone expects the metro area to hit Pontiac at some point, but while it might have already happened in the old economy, I suspect it will still be a while before the recession passes and the metro area starts building out again. The move of the Verizon call center from Richland Mall to Spears Creek will probably help area restaurants, but I guess it was too late for Shag.

(Hat tip to commenter Cheryl)

Here’s a little antique store in West Columbia that I’m afraid I never got around to visiting. Here’s what commenter Larry had to say about it:

Small but missed is the Attic Treasures on Meeting Street (I think). It was a typical antique mall with lots of booths offering things from lots of people. It was in this odd building and a bit smaller than most but still a great place to find neat things like an old manual typewriter for $15.

It sounds like the kind of place I would find interesting. I really don’t like high-end shops with a lot of antique furniture, I like places with a lot of “old stuff” — the warehouse antique mall on State Street being a prime example (as was the lamented Dixie Used Furniture in the Vista.

In fact, I bought the first Closing-Cam at an “antique mall” in Fernandina Beach, making it the first “antique” digital camera I’m aware of..

(”Hats Off To Larry”)

I only went into Superpetz a few times. I’m pretty sure I got pigs ears for my sister’s dogs there once, and think I was in there one other time, though I can’t remember what for. The place was kind of a Wal Mart for pet paraphernalia, with the non-WalMart touch that you could actually take your pets inside with you.

According to the chain’s web site, this was the only Columbia store, which makes me suspect issues with the chain as a whole rather than the standard “things don’t do well on Decker” issue. This closing is a further blow to the Fashion Place plaza which housed Superpetz, although it did recently make good the Cici’s Pizza vacancy with the opening of Gabby’s Pizza in that spot.

(Hat tip to commenter Matt)