Hampton Pontiac Jaguar Inc / Elliot Close for Senate / Ware We Customize, 2024 Main Street: 1990s 17 comments
I don't think I can actually remember this vacant showroom on Main Street being Hampton Pontiac Jaguar, but that's how it's in the EPA database and it clearly was a showroom of some sort.
One of the follow on operations, Ware We Customize was apparently automotive also.
In 1996 the building seems to have been the headquarters for Elliot Close's unsuccessful Senate bid against Strom Thurmond.
Currently it's looking pretty delapidated, and is flagged as unsafe, but apparently the property has been bought by some sort of religious organization and has been flagged as Hope Plaza Campus, so I would expect to see some repairs, or perhaps a tear-down and new building in the near future.
UPDATE 4 October 2016 -- This building has now been razed:
17 Responses to 'Hampton Pontiac Jaguar Inc / Elliot Close for Senate / Ware We Customize, 2024 Main Street: 1990s'
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Tom
17 Jan 11 at 6:44 am
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I used to drive by that building every day on the way to work, and as I recall it has been a few things more. I definitely remember the Ware We Customize place, because I watched their progress as they opened, and then later closed. They had a huge display of rims in the windows shown in pictures one and two, and I was always afraid I'd drive by one morning and it would be smashed. I swear it was also another place after WWC, but I can't remember what it was. I could be wrong.
Matthew
17 Jan 11 at 8:46 am
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There was a story in the State a while back about a consotium of churches turning this into a large homeless shelter/help center/vocational rehabilitation place. I thought the Salvation Army was going to be involved. Isn't the old motel/Salvation Army HQ right across the street?
JBL
17 Jan 11 at 5:08 pm
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I know this place was opened as late as May 1989 as a Pontiac dealer, as I test drove a Grand Am at that location back then. Ken Hyatt Chrysler Plymouth was kitty Corner across the street, that building is now a business center.
tonkatoy
18 Jan 11 at 7:41 am
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When I was four years old, my parents bought a blue 1965 Bonneville with a Turbo-Hydramatic transmission from that dealership. I tried my best to convince them to get a Grand Prix instead, because it had a power antenna that you could make go up and down from inside the car, but to no avail.
Jim
20 Jan 11 at 11:04 pm
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Dad bought a Bonnieville from them. Got into a wreck with it about 3 blocks east on elmwood. He was so mad!
BC Bobby
2 Mar 11 at 1:21 am
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The dealership was indeed at that location, but moved in the early 90s. It is not located on Fernandina Road as Hampton Automotive/Hampton Jaguar
Clif
2 Mar 11 at 3:24 pm
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The dealership was indeed at that location, but moved in the early 90s. It is **NOW** located on Fernandina Road as Hampton Automotive/Hampton Jaguar
Clif
3 Mar 11 at 10:07 am
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Figured that was what you meant :-)
I remember receiving a mystifying flyer in the mail once telling me if I responded I would *not* be eligable for some great deal.
ted
3 Mar 11 at 10:44 am
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The process of Hampton Automotive planning the move began 'full throttle' in 1990
Andrew
15 Jun 11 at 12:17 pm
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I think it was a Pontiac Chrysler dealership before Hampton Jaguar. I remember Jim Varney the actor who played Ernest P. Worrell in the Hey Vern commercials made an appearance at an autograph signing party there at one of their sale promotions in the late 80's.
31 Dec 11 at 2:27 am
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Ned, that was at Ken Hyatt Chrysler-Plymouth, which was kitty corner from Hampton Pontiac. ken Hyatt was famous for selling 'convergance' vans.
tonkatoy
3 Jan 12 at 8:08 am
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Anyone know what happened to the old White Cross Drug stores that used to be in Columbia during the late 60's?
Del
3 Jan 12 at 11:42 am
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In the 1950s it was Hampton motors and it was a dodge Plymouth dealer and in later years it became a Pontiac dealer
22 Jun 14 at 2:34 pm
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In the 1950s it was Hampton motors and it was a dodge Plymouth dealer and in later years it became a Pontiac dealer
thomas elders
22 Jun 14 at 2:34 pm
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You can say that again!
badger
22 Jun 14 at 4:54 pm
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I remember the old Hampton Pontiac very well. My father and I would visit them often in 1977, 1978 and 1979 so I could look at the lineup of new Firebird Trans Ams facing Elmwood Avenue. I remember they had blue, red, yellow and white ones most of the time, but occasionally a black SE would be on the lot as well. It must have left an impression because I ended up buying a used 1979 Firebird Trans Am in 1985 (after the prices had dropped), as well as 1996 and 1998 Firebirds later in life. Great memories of places, cars and times long gone.
Michael S. Coffey
31 Mar 23 at 10:34 pm
I remember the car dealership being there from the 1960s until the 1980s. At one time there were several new and used car dealers within a one to two strip of Main St. from Richland to River dr.