Columbia Closings   What's not in Columbia anymore

It's a little unclear exactly when Elie's closed. The offical announcement on their Facebook is 12 June 2016, but comments suggest the place had been closed for some time by then.

I wanted to like this place, in an interesting little converted house on Saint Andrews Road, and in the event stopped by twice some years ago. Both times they were out of what I ordered, and I never got around to seeing if third time was the charm.

The signs announce that a hair salon is coming.

Longtime Main Street stalwart the Army Navy Store has moved into the old ReStore location in Capitol Square at 463 Sunset Boulevard.

This story in The State when the move was just a possibility recounts some of the store's history including:

But the store soon became known for more than just military surplus.

"When Michael Jackson was in town and his car pulled up out front and he came in shopping for jeans," Zalkin said, "I remember you couldn't even see the sunlight coming in through the front windows of the store for all the faces that had crowded around for a look in at him."

This story at Cola Daily describes the actual move.

The Main Street building was bought by Agape Senior, headquartered across the street.

UPDATE 18 December 2023: Note that I was wrong about the storefront in Capitol Square into which the Army Navy Store was moving into. It was actually to the left of Restore & Jin Jin, and has now closed. Also updating tags and adding map icon.

(Hat tip to commenter Justin)

I believe I may at one time have had swimming lessons at the downtown 'Y', though it is very hazy now. I remember for sure that I had Karate lessons there, something which my mother was in favor of to try and get me out of my books every now and then, and something which I personally hated (the same thing was true of Little League). In the event, I would sneak over to the neighboring RCPL when I was supposed to be in class.

I had not often thought of the 'Y' since then until my sister recently mentioned that it was moving from this historic building to a new one at 1447 Hampton Street.

According to the 'Y' website, that move is this weekend, and the new 'Y' should be open on Monday 11 July 2016.

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This building is directly across the street from the former Budget Inn on Zimalcrest, and apparently housed a mail order pharmacy until late 2015 (judging from the fact that there is a stack of 2016 phonebooks at the front door).

Judging from LoopNet, the pharmacy was the whole building, and the whole building is now available.

Commenter Mr. BO pointed out this Bluff Road closing after recently wanting a pizza on that side of town, but it appears that Stromboli's was gone long before that.

I wish I had known about this place when I was working out on Bluff Road, so that maybe I wouldn't have had to drive all the way to Garners Ferry to find a halfway decent lunch.

(Hat tip to commenter Mr. BO)

I'm guessing that what happened here is that Advanced Auto Parts bought out Carquest Auto Parts and consolidated this store into their existing location at 7316 Garners Ferry Road. At any rate, I don't think this was an Advance Auto Parts for long, if at all, because the label scars exactly match the Carquest signage visible in this Google StreetView, and Carquest is listed in the 2015 phonebook.

Marshall's moved off of Parklane just in time to get caught by the flood in the new Rosewood Crossing shopping center:

I noticed recently that their old Parklane storefront is now a church thrift store.

(Hat tip to commenter Dustin)

I'm guessing about the closing date here. The last post on their Facebook page is from February 2016, but I think the closing is much more recent than that given the signs are still up and the fixtures still in place.

I actually thought I had done this one, but I can't find any trace of it in the alphabetical list. Maybe we just talked about it in the comments somewhere.

At any rate M Cafe on Sumter Street across from the Y has been closed since July of last year. I was a bit surprised that it had been that long, and that all the furnishings and fixtures are still inside what I would think would be a pretty valuable piece of real estate.