Columbia Closings   What's not in Columbia anymore

Here's another victim of the decline of downtown retail, a store that with the front sign, awnings and recessed entrance almost perfectly typifies those bygone days..

I'm not much of a clothes shopper as I've noted quite a number of times here, and I'm even less of a shoe shopper. Growing up, we used to do most of our shoe shopping at Jack's on Sunnyside or Poll Parrot at Trenholm Plaza (I think I still have some premiums from that store..). Once I grew up and noticed that my feet were no longer changing size, I discovered that if I picked a shoe that was made year after year, I could just order a pair sight unseen and never have to "shop" for shoes, and that's pretty much what I've done with size 10M Sebago Docksides.

I'm not sure exactly when this store closed, but given the "2007" support sticker on the door, I'm guessing 2008.

UPDATE 9 Feb 2010: Added a picture I missed the first time.

Assuming that things are working correctly, you most probably will have noticed a Google AdSense ad box between the list of pages and the first post on the page.

I actually signed up for AdSense in the middle of last year, but when I changed the blog to the current theme, which I like quite a bit, there was really no place to put ads that wouldn't mess of the flow of things since the theme has only one sidebar. I consider the recent comments very important, so I didn't want to push them down, and there's not really any point putting an adbox halfway down the page. I finally took the time to go through the tutorial and figure out that I could probably put in a horizontal adbox near the top by hacking it into the theme's header HTML code.

That's how. Now why? This is a hobby blog pure and simple and that's not changing. At the same time, if I can make a little money with it, well, I am certainly not averse to that. Frankly, I have my doubts. By its nature Columbia Closings is a very local blog for a medium sized city, and simply does not have the traffic stats that something with a wider geographical appeal might have. My other venture into commercialism, the Columbia Closings Cafe Press store has so far cleared me a grand total of $10.00 (and cost, if I recall correctly, $60 to set up, so I'm still $50 under water on that -- not that I mind as it was fun to put the calendars and other products together).

So, we'll see what happens. If the ads bring in a miniscule amount, I may drop them, otherwise not. At any rate if you surf without javascript turned on, or if you Firefox users load the adblock plugin, you should be able to avoid seeing them.

Edna's, of course is a Columbia institution that has been on Broad River Road since forever, but at one time there were at least two other connected restaurants. One was off of Forest Drive behind the Tasty Bake Shop and had indoor seating with unique folk-art on the walls.

The other, listed in the above ad from the 1970 Southern Bell Yellow Pages, was at the site of what is now Anthony's Dairy Bar, which itself has been there a good while. (And Columbia seems to have had a lot of "dairy bars", a name I don't recall seeing in any other city).

To the best of my memory, we never stopped at Two Notch Drive In. In fact, when we started going to restaurants almost everything had gone to indoor seating with the exceptions of the original Columbia McDonald's on Garners Ferry Road, and Bell's Drive In on Forest Drive or that's how it seemed to me anyway.

When Rich's came to Columbia with the opening of Columbia Mall it was kind of a big deal. Up until that point, Rich's was an Atlanta name and had the kind of cachet that exotic brands tend to accumulate. I was given to understand that at one point special shopping busses were charterted to run from SC to Atlanta mostly just to shop at Rich's.

Even The State got into the act, running several puff pieces on the store. I can recall one in particular which made the claim that the store was so famous for its customer service and ease of return that a woman once "returned" her husband to Rich's which took him "despite having no record of the sale".

Given that I was almost completely indifferent to style, I was never overwhelmed by the idea (or actuality) of having a Rich's in town, but I liked the odd "pipey" outside architecture of the store, and the quirky way it had an almost patio on the first floor and an interesting elevator which boarded there.

Rich's wasn't all about fashion. It opened during the tail end of the "a department store should have everything" era and so had a full selection of electronics and cookware like a Sears.

It also had a book department at the bottom of the escalator, and that was one of my regular spots to hit when visiting the mall. It tended to best-sellers and remainders so you never knew quite what you would find there. I know I got two volumes of Richard Burton's unexpurgated translation of The Arabian Nights there which I still have, though I never saw the other 15 or so.

At some point Rich's ran into trouble. Wikipedia suggests it started with the death of Richard Rich in 1975. I suspect over expansion and Richway may have contributed. Whatever the case, the chain was sold to Federated which also owned the Macy's name, and the Rich's brand was retired on 6 March 2005.

The old Columbia Mall Rich's store continues to operate as Macy's to this day, and if you consider things just in terms of continuous operation, is one of the last original stores in the mall (along with Sears and Radio Shack) -- there are no books or stereos though.

UPDATE 7 Feb 2010: Somehow I wrote "Frank Rich" above instead of "Richard Rich" (now there's a good comic book name..). I've fixed it (Thanks JT!). Check the comments for more info..

To this point the website for New Orleans Riverfront Restaurant is still up and says the place was founded in 1996, which means it lasted about 13 years. Somehow during all that time, I never managed to make it over there. Of course my memories of New Orleans itself are that I generally ate Italian there aside from the obligatory beignets at Cafe du Monde. Still the Riverwalk at sunset was so picturesque when I went to take these pictures that I wish I had taken a Saturday afternoon lunch or two on the overlook. Offhand, I can't think of a restaurant in Columbia with a better view. (Though you could argue for The Top Of Carolina, I suppose.)

(Hat tip to commenter Steve.)