Columbia Closings   What's not in Columbia anymore

You can still see the empty placard in the K-Mart sign showing where the Advance Auto Parts sign used to be -- If K-Mart were in better shape itself, they probably would have pulled that down, as it looks decrepit and bad for their brand.

Anyway, the way I recall it, this space which apparently dates from 1970 like the K-Mart, was in its first iteration, a Western Auto.

The Western Auto that I remember best was the one at Trenholm Plaza, where I used to browse the Western Flyer bikes and buy those huge 1-volt carbon-zinc batteries with the screw terminals for hobby projects. I know I went into this store a number of times, but I can't really reall anything specific about it. Wikipedia says that Western Auto was acquired first by Sears, and then later by Advance Auto Parts, which phased out the Western Auto name (mostly) in 2003 (though many stores had already switch to "Advance" by then), and in fact this store was an Advance when it closed.

That history is a bit ironic since K-Mart like Western Auto was bought by Sears. If Sears had held onto the Western Auto brand a bit longer (Sears dropped Western in 1998 and bought K-Mart in 2005), they could have had some sort of super-mega store in this building

UPDATE 4 April 2022: Updating tags, adding map icon.

Honestly, what more can I say about Sounds Familiar? I've written about it here, here, and here: Nice Columbia based record store chain that had a good selection, and knowledgeable staff but fell victim to the Internet revolution as did most record store chains. This location, on Parklane near Columbia Mall, was the penultimate one to close, leaving the Rosewood store alone for the last month or so. Note to the almost antique "cassettes and records" slogan given on the sign. I wonder how many of either they sold in the last 10 years?

However little else I might have to say about the chain, I will say that today was a magnificent day for taking pictures, especially if you like clouds -- and I do!

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I just noticed the other day that this Hess filling station by the K-Mart on Two Notch Road was gone. It's by the Wendy's that's gone, which is by the Casual Male which is gone, making that strip something of a desolation row.

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I drove up in the parking lot of the Kroger on Fort Jackons Boulevard because I had noticed some activity there and wanted to see what was going on. In the event I'm still not sure about that, though it appears to be water utility work, but while I was there, I noticed that this Goodyear car repair place on the Kroger outparcel was gone.

There's no date on the note they left on the door, but I believe it's fairly recent. I've used the one on Forest Drive, and they seem pretty decent, so I'm not sure what the issue here was. From this real estate report it appears that the property was built in 1974. I guess that would be not long after the Starlite Drive In there went out of business -- I know it was still there in 1973.

UPDATE 5 April 2009: I see in a comment about the Garners Ferry Kroger that I had forgotten that this place closed in April of 2008 -- I've updated the post title to reflect that.

UPDATE 29 February 2012 -- As mentioned by commenter Andrew below, this building has now been razed:

I wrote at some length about Robo's on Main Street some time ago, and that's the location I overwhelmingly went to to hone my Galaga skills (and by hone, I mean, I was "ok"). That made sense as I lived across the street from there, but when I was home and had access to a car, I would come to this location from time to time. I recently parked near there to get some pictures of the Advance Auto Parts demolition, and decided to take this shot.

At this remove, I'm not entirely sure which storefront Robo's was, but I think it was the one to the left of the blue dumpster. My memory also says that this location was something of a poor stepchild in the Robo's family -- I recall it as being smaller, less busy, and having a smaller variety of games. Unlike the University location, it didn't have a clear constituency (ie: college kids), though I suppose there are plenty of residences in the general area. I'm not sure if it outlasted the Main Street or Dutch Square locations -- it did have the advantage of not having its building torn down, but I think Main Street had folded long before that happened to its former home.

Well, it's getting close to swimming time again -- the days are warming up, and the worst of the pollen will be over in a month or so. Of course, if this were 1975, it would already be swimming time at Trenholm Park.

That's right, when the pool at Trenholm Park first opened, it was totally enclosed, heated, and open year-round. In fact, I can remember swimming in that pool when there was snow on the ground. It also had the scariest high-dive board in town, and it was something of a dare to go up and off of that thing. I never would actually dive off it -- I would just cannon-ball into the 12ft section (one of the deepest around as well -- enough to make your ears really hurt).

I can guess what happened to the high-dive: insurance, but I really have no idea what happened to the enclosure. I just recall coming back to town one day, driving by and going hey, wait a minute!. If I had to guess, I would suspect some Richland County funding issue.

The last time I swam there was 1996, when I was recovering from a car-wreck, and wanted somewhere I could walk without really putting any weight on my leg. The entrance building at the front of the pool with the changing rooms and showers seemed unchanged from the 70s, so I suspect that the shell over the pool itself was always structurally separate. And despite the absence of the diving board, and a lifeguard regime that seemed a good deal more, um, authoritarian than I recalled -- the kids still seemed to be having a great time.

Here's another of Columbia's vanished drive-ins. I don't think I was ever really aware of this one. North Main was not on any of our regular routes -- for years I had only the vaguest idea where even Columbia College was. I'm saying this closed in the 1970s because in the late 70s, one of my school groups would sometimes do fundraisers at lunch by selling corndogs, and I would go pick them up from the North Main Piggly Wiggly, where somebody's father worked. I think I would remember seeing a drive-in in the area, and I don't.

At any rate, this one seems not to have gone porno, at least in the time-frame we see here (the first ad is from 1971, the second from 15 April 1973): Nothing rated harder than GP (equivalent to the range covered by today's PG & PG-13). Yog is even rated G!

I went to North Main to see what's at 5801 now, and it's a small strip mall with a barber-shop and a tax office. I think the drive-in must have covered more ground, so it's possible some of the other structures at what are now 58xx addresses may be on parts of it as well.

Thanks to reader Terry for the 1971 ad!