Columbia Closings   What's not in Columbia anymore

When I did the closing for Rudy's Upper Deck, commenter Bobby P. wondered how much longer the adjacent Subway would be able to make it. Unfortunately, the answer turns out to be "not long". I don't go to Subway too often as the booths and atmosphere don't really suit me, but they do make a decent sandwich.

This makes it three vacant storefronts in a row (Subway, Rudy's and Fast Cash Advance) at The Shoppes At Meeting Place, and at least one more non-contiguous one.

(Hat tip to commenter Peter)

UPDATE 18 January 2012 -- Some sort of work is going on here:

UPDATE 5 April 2012 -- Open again, yet still closed the day I drove by:

UPDATE 17 June 2022 -- This place is closed again, this time apparently for good. Also updating tags and adding map icon.

I figured I could at least get a street address by tracking down the Colliers Keenan listing for this Leesburg Road property just east of I-77, across from Greenlawn Cemetary and alongside Pringle Road, but for some reason, I can't find it on the Colliers site.

That being the case, I know essentially nothing about this building other than it is in poor shape and looks to have been a car repair garage. The trussed arched wood roof is very nice although open to the sky in most places now, and there are a couple of mysteries posed by the coat hangers and the jaunty mascot.

UPDATE 1 November 2011: Added the full street address to post title.

UPDATE 21 January 2014: Commenter badger suggests the correct street address is 819 Leesburg Road. I don't have any better guess, so I have changed the post title to use 819 instead of 821. He also suggests the business was either Berne or Laberne Equipment, so I am adding those as well.

UPDATE 28 August 2017 -- This building has now been razed as shown in these not very good drive-by shots:

UPDATE 25 October 2017 -- Construction is starting here. Unfortunately, I did not get a good enough picture to read the sign saying what is forthcoming:

UPDATE 27 January 2018 -- The new structure is framed now, and, as you can see if you click through and look very closely at the sign, is to be a Dick Smith Body Shop:

On my way to the Fairgrounds Monday to pick up some artwork, I noticed that this Midlands Tech area dry-cleaner had closed. The building is one of Columbia's surprisingly many stone facade structures. From the outlines of a bay doors on the back, and the gull-wing lights at the corner of the lot, I suspect the building may first have been a gas station.

UPDATE 28 June 2017 -- This building has now been razed:

Continuing on yesterday's Garners Ferry Road theme, commenter Gary Lemons sends in the above 1969 yearbook ad for Chicken Coop restaurant. I've done a little research on the place but didn't really find out much. The official address was as I've given it in the post title, and the restaurant first listed in the November 1963 Southern Bell Yellow Pages, and last listed in the January 1983 directory. During that time, they never bought a Yellow Pages ad, but a twenty year run shows it wasn't really necessary.

As far as I can tell, the building is long gone and the vacant lot pictured is the old Chicken Coop site. The parcel is on the South side of Garners Ferry almost across from the new Richland County recreation area. Although it is currently undeveloped, this LoopNet listing shows an artist's conception of the new strip mall which is to be built on the site.

I have to admit I had no idea that this little place existed, despite driving past there a number of times over the past few months, and I have to wonder if the location was a factor in the place closing. In theory, it is visible from Garners Ferry Road, but in practice, this strip sits behind Ruby Tuesday and is not very conspicuous. Even if you are taking Patterson Road to the Wal-Mart across the street, Ye Old Fashioned would be on the side of the strip away from Wal-Mart...

Judging from the still extant web-site, The Old Fashioned is a Charleston institution, with this location being their first venture out of the Low Country. I have to say that the menu looks pretty good, though I probably wouldn't have driven all the way over there for lunch.

(Hat tip to commenter ginagate)

UPDATE 18 December 2011 -- Now open as Anthony's Old Fashioned Burger & Fry Co.:

UPDATE 8 January 2020 -- Updating the post address to remove the 7490 Garners Ferry Road address. The 7457 Patterson Road address seems to be the official one, though I have seen both. Added map icon.

OK, you know the drill by now if you've followed my State Fair posts from previous years: I like what I like, and I like to take pictures of it, so there's nothing new or astounding here, just old friends like the Buxom Beer Girl, The Cotton Candy Stands and the ducklings, but I enjoyed being out and about amongst the neon and greasy delights as usual. I took the tripod, but really couldn't get into setting it up to try for HDRs this year, so I just got one, which is not as good as those from last year (2010). I did take a few videos this year, in particular the one above (which has some issues with light spikes, but is quite watchable) and one below the jump.

Meet your party at the (Time Warner) rocket!

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Then:

Now:

I would notice this little coffee shop on the Sumter Highway sometimes as I was heading for the beach, but if I was taking that route, I would either have taken care of my caffeine needs at Starbucks or it would be the outside of business hours anyway, so I never got around to stopping. It looks to have had a nice, quirky, interior.

Currently the rubric for Somewhere in Time Antiques is again visible on the building's west side, and commenter tonkatoy reports this interesting little building has also been a gas station and a magistrate's office.

(Hat tip to commenter tonkatoy)

I'm not actually sure what Encore did or sold. One online directory lists it in the following, not very helpful, categories:

Categories: Home & Garden | Furniture | Used Furniture | Retail Shopping | Clothing | Vintage & Used Clothing

At any rate, it was in the same Forest Drive and Beltline location which used to house Jackson Camera, Ritz Camera and Brequoj, and is now gone.

Sewing & crochet shop Hook 'n Needle was a long-time retail stalwart at Intersection Center. In fact, I'm pretty sure they were the last shop there to either go under or move. Happily, the latter applies here, and at some point this year, Hook 'n Needle moved to the North-West corner of Boozer Shopping Center.

The first three pictures of the old location are from 29 August 2008, the fourth is from 4 September 2010 and the last three are from 24 September 2011.

The church rebuilding Intersection Center continues to make good progress, and hopefully I'll have some pictures of the repurposed Service Merchandise and the new fountain up soon.

UPDATE 22 January 2020: Add map icon, update tags.

Here, next to Rudy's Upper Deck in The Shoppes At Meeting Place is another of Columbia's many defunct personal finance storefronts. Of course, in these times, it helps to be too big to fail..