Columbia Closings   What's not in Columbia anymore

When I heard about the closing of the Harbison O'Charley's, my first thought was that I hadn't remembered one was over there, and my second thought was: Why Would I Go To O'Charley's?.

In fact it's always seemed to me to be a pleasant enough place without any real "hook" to get me in. I went to the one at Columbia Mall several times, and the one in Augusta at least once, and basically recall only that they had pretty good chips & salsa and burgers.

Interestingly (or not) this one closing made me try the one on Two Notch again -- I got in there, and found that a) they didn't have the chips & salsa anymore, and b) they were out of hamburgers. I had never heard of that before!

The State says that this one shut when the company

closed 16 underperforming stores Monday.

and that

The Harbison location was the only one in South Carolina to close.

(Hat tip to commenter William)

UPDATE 17 July 2011 -- work on the building and facade for the conversion to a Buffalo Wild Wings is ongoing:

UPDATE 24 September 2011 -- They're getting close.. and have certainly changed the look of the building!

UPDATE 31 October 2011 -- As commenter Andrew has already noted, it looks like they're set to open on 7 November 2011:

UPDATE 19 August 2022: Updating tags and adding map icon.

I don't know what was wrong with the old ones -- I used them just a month or so ago, and they seemed fine, but the Kangaroo Express in front of Trenholm Park (and across from Keith's K&A Automotive) spent several days taking out the old ones and putting in these. Maybe they needed something that goes above $9.99 per gallon..

UPDATE 10 May 2016 -- Well, I'm not going to post about every Kangaroo becoming a Circle K, but since I already had this post, I thought I would note the transition:

Wonder what happened to all the people who paid for the "'Roo Mugs" promotion?

I noticed this place in Eastover on the west side of The Sumter Highway just past Horrell Hill last week. This former restaurant and pool hall has obviously been there quite a while, and has just as obvioiusly been out of business for many years too. (In addition to the clinging vines, most of the roof seems to be gone as you can tell in some of these shots). I suspect from the "Video Games" signage that it was last open during the video poker era, but not until the actual end of that era as it does not seem to be listed in the 1998 phonebook.

I got Rivers Variety Store and The Locker Room from the signs. Googling the phone number, (803) 783-5440 brought up the Jerry Thompson name.

UPDATE 21 Dec 2010: Added Laundry to post title based on the comments.

UPDATE 31 January 2023 -- This building has been razed:

Also adding map icon.

I eat at Groucho's from time to time -- most often at the Forest Drive or Pawleys Island locations. (Curiously, I've never been to the Five Points original store). I never made it to this location, on Broad River Road at Intersection Center.

This particular strip of Broad River, with easy access from the Diamond Lane in the back, used to have quite a number of fast food joints. Some like Sandy's and Church's are hanging on. Others like Pizza Hut and Taco Bell have moved. Others like Taco Cid have simply closed.

The care someone took to line the old signs up with the checks on the floor is rather touching.

(Hat tip to commenter Thomas)

UPDATE 22 November 2011 -- It's now an Indian grocery as shown in this not very good pic:

UPDATE 28 August 2023: Updating tags and adding map icon.

Back in the 1970s, Shoney's was a big deal, and we ate there quite often. At the time, they were afilliated with the Big Boy chain, and they always had "Big Boy" comic books as free premiums for the kids. I can't recall any of his specific plotlines at this remove, but he (Big Boy) and his girlfriend Dolly, always had some sort of food related adventure in the front of the comic leaving the back for puzzles and mazes.

We ate most often at the Two Notch location (now vacant) but I think we did come to this one from time to time.

After dropping the Big Boy tie, Shoney's coasted pretty well for a while, then started getting into trouble and closing a lot of stores. At one point they tried to diversify by getting into hotels (Shoney's Inn) something for which apparently they didn't have the necessary skill set, and that hurt them some more.

I believe this one closed well before the Two Notch one, and has been a Lizard's Thicket for quite a number of years now.

UPDATE: Closing date changed from "1970s" to "late 1980s" based on commenter Weston's info.

UPDATE 10 September 2020: Update tags, add map icon.

This isn't quite the post I thought I would be making. Here's the thing: I remember a local restaurant that was on this side of Rosewood Drive for many, many years. It was on my "someday" list though I didn't get to it and it was torn down after I moved out of town. The only anecdote I can remember about it right now was that in the late 80s, or maybe the 90s, USC had a famous football coach (whose name I can't remember, let's call him Freddie) commit to come coach the Gamecocks. The whole town was in a commotion, and this restaurant put up on their signboard: Freddie heard about our food!.

Then, of course, the Chicken Curse struck, and he reneged on the deal and decided not to come to Carolina -- leaving the restaurant flat-footed for a couple of days with a very ironic sign.

Anyway, I was pretty sure this was the spot, but the only thing I can see before the old building was torn down to put up the Eckerd's which became Rite Aid is a pool hall called Charlie's which tried several times (apparently with success in the end to get a liquor license).

UPDATE 7 Dec 2010: Updated post title to Charlie's Cue & Cushion based on the coments.

UPDATE 10 August 2020: I have not noted it previously, but this Rite Aid closed as all the others did, and is now a Walgreens. Also added map icon, added Rite Aid to the title, updated tags.

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I have to admit I'm drawing a blank on this building. It's on Covenant Road just below the final Forest Lake TV location, and just above the former Danielle Le Shay Gallerie. In fact, google searches on "3618 Covenant Road" turn up the Danielle Le Shay name, but that was 3620.

Anyway I'm sure I've driven past it hundreds of times since 1969 and must have seen it in operation as a number of different businesses over the years, but none of them is coming to me now. I will say that it has a cleaner-ish look to it.

UPDATE 15 Jan 2011 -- OK, I spent some time with the city directories, though I only got up to 1995 before the library closed, but here's what I have for this building:

1970 -1972 -- Powers 60 Minute Cleaners
1973 -- Boland's One Hour Martinizing
1974 -1977 -- Vacant
1978 -- The clock Doctor
1979 -- Vacant
1980 - 1981 -- Brinson's Quality Cleaners
1982 - 1984 -- Vacant
1985 -- Haywood Electrical Corp
1986 -1987 -- B C Bike Inc
1988 - 1990 -- Vacant
1991 -- Jomacies Cafeteria (hard to read my handwriting, but I think that's it)
1992 - 1995 Vacant (I did not have time to check past 1995)

I believe The Clock Doctor is still around in that little strip of trailers across from the Two Notch K Mart.

UPDATE 3 February 2021: This building and the one next door were razed in December 2020:

Also updating tags and adding map icon.

The point when North Main Street turns into Wilson Boulevard and crosses over I-20 never seems to prosper for some reason. Or at least so it seems with it having lost Denny's, Gaz-Bah and Pizza Hut.

I suspect the Pizza Hut was one of those brand-destroying kiosk type locations and probably no big loss, but I used to notice the sign when I lived in Aiken, and would travel I-20 west many weekends. I thought I was familar with most Columbia Pizza Huts and could never quite place where it was, as I was expecting a freestanding building.

I have to say that the enclosing "Travel Plaza" has seen better days and is confusing to get in and out of to boot. I had no idea until I took these pictures that the little I-20 industrial frontage strip is called "Plumbers Road". I wonder if it had a plumbing dispatch office on it and got named that during the great 9-1-1 sevice street naming binge of a few years back or it has always been that. There is also a Day's Inn a bit further down the street, and I expect they must work really hard to find "reasons to pick our location" on their marketing...

UPDATE 26 June 2023: Updating tags, adding map icon. Also noticed this Pizza Hut is listed twice with the other listing under the Wilson Boulevard address. Oh well.

I posted before about bygone Columbia grocery chain Edens. After I located one of the buildings on Rosewood, I have been looking for some of the others from time to time when I remember. I didn't have any luck with the two Main Street locations, but here is the Harden Street one.

Growing up, this was always Eckerd's to me, and it never really occurred to me that it had not been built as a pharmacy. Looking at it now though, I'm pretty sure this must be the original grocery building from the 1950s. In particular, I don't think anyone would site the doors on the street instead of the parking lot on any building newer than that. In fact, thinking about it, I'm surprised nobody ever changed that.

UPDATE 24 Nov 2010: Added Greenbax Stamps and Thrift Store to post title based on comments.

UPDATE 30 Nov 2010: Changed "Thrift Store" to "Community Thrift" based on Dennis's comment.

UPDATE 26 November 2019 -- This place is now Pet Supermarket:

UPDATE 10 August 2020: Update tags, change Eckerd's in post title to Eckerd Drugs.