Columbia Closings   What's not in Columbia anymore

It could be worse.

This 2004 story from the Columbia Star is a nice little write-up, and implies that invitation and stationery shop Nan's Notes started in this Sparkleberry Crossing storefront sometime in 2003 (probably late 2003). I noticed a few weeks ago that a closing banner was up, giving them around a nine year run -- not bad at all in this economy.

The article also mentions in passing that they got a good bit of business from people who noticed the shop while at one of the strip mall's restaurants, so I suppose that the demise of Al-Amir, Coldstone Creamery, D's Wings, Let's Dish, Mirage and 7 Grill can't have helped.

Here's another closing in Sparkleberry Square. I can't say much about Dress Barn other than they sell women's clothes, and I always thought it was an iffy name ("that dress makes you look like the broad side of a barn"). Interestingly (or not), Sparkleberry Square has now flanked Kroger with clothing closings, men's to the right of Kroger and women's to the left.
(Hat tip to commenter Andrew)

Fashion's Unlimited was the follow-on operation in this building to S & K Menswear. I had noticed it several times driving through the area, but had never managed to get pictures to update the S & K post until quite recently.

When I posted them, commenter Andrew mentioned that he thought Fashion's Unlimited was already itself gone despite the prominent "Now Open" banner, so next time I was in the area, I stopped to make a closer check.

According to the door sign, it turns out that Fashion's Unlimited has moved into Dutch Square and that this building is now on the market again. Given the length of time that the old Sounds Familiar storefront has stayed vacant, I don't expect any quick turnaround.

(Hat tip to commenter Andrew)

Commenter Sidney reported this closing just recently, but it appears to me that it may have happened last year. At least, this little thrift store on the east side of Cedar Terrace is listed in the February 2011 phonebook but not in this year's (February 2012). I think the little window bunny is the sadest thing..

In the same wing of the plaza (though not really in front of the thrift store) is one of those generic soda machines that you very rarely see anymore. It looks as though it may have been doing duty there for the last 40 years.

(Hat tip to commenter Sidney)

I noticed this vacancy on Percival Road (between Alpine & Smallwood Roads) the other day when I was running out to Sandhill and decided against taking I-20. According to this year's phonebook (February 2012), the new location for Jacob's Heating & Air is 2213 Screaming Eagle Road, several miles towards US-601 from here. Assuming they are after the Columbia market, that seems like it would be a lot more truck miles per year, but perhaps they are after Lugoff & Camden.

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Someone can probably look at the gas price signs and make a better guess at exactly when Socastee Mini Mart went under, but I'm pretty sure it was open last summer and not last November 13th (when these pictures were taken -- Unfortunately, it was not a sunny day).

The place is on SC-544, probably 5 miles on the Socastee side of Coastal Carolina. SC-544 is the handy little cut-through from US-501 to US-17 and can save you a lot of grief if you end up inbound to Myrtle by the north route. It's less useful than it used to be though, as there are now more lights and a constant 45MPH speed limit. For many years, the road had a real rural character, and this station is a holdover from that era. Now however the area is getting more and more built up, and "regular" chains are starting to move in.

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This garage, which apparently caught fire some years ago, is on Dreyfuss Road, just down from the intersection with Assembly Street, and to the north side of the stadium.

I didn't see an intact street number on it anywhere, so I can't google the address to see what it was. It was pretty clearly a commercial garage, but I don't see any evidence of lifts or pits, so prehaps it was more of a dispatch and storage garage than a service one. In any case, the visibility and location are poor for anything catering to the general public. I've put the closing date as the very indefinite "2000s", but even that's just a guess -- 1990s wouldn't surprise me. At any rate it's been derelict long enough to be fairly heavily tagged.

Anyone know what this was?

UPDATE 23 June 2012: Well, commenter badger provides and address "1011 Dreyfuss Road" and a link to this WLTX story about the Christmas Eve 2009 fire that gutted the place. With that address, I was able to find a number of former tenants of the place, and I have changed the post title from "Garage" to a list of names. I also note that I was wrong about the place not catering to the general public.

Appropos to a discussion on the future of newspapers that I was part of in an online newsgroup, I was moved to take the following photos.

As Al Stewart said:

In the village where I grew up
Nothing seems the same
Still you never see the change from day to day
And no-one notices the customs slip away