Columbia Closings   What's not in Columbia anymore

This former car lot and storage building outlet is on Garners Ferry Road in Hopkins adjacent to the old Sister Rose/Wateree Arms building. I'm not sure when the car lot closed, but Best Built Barns is in the February 2010 -- February 2011 phonebook, but not the next one, so I'm saying it probably closed in 2010. Certainly it was looking a bit overgrown in mid July 2011 when I took these pictures.

Well, I did Curves a few days ago, so here's another franchised women's gym on the other side of town.

I admit having never heard of Butterfly Life and entertained some idea it was a wild flower shop before reading the fine print. It still seems a bit of an odd name as butterflies certainly aren't known for their long lives or robust constitutions...

I do believe I saw another Butterfly Life opening in the Wal-Mart plaza on Bush River Road.

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.

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)

This building on Garners Ferry next to Day's Inn and just down from Fantasy Lingerie and Maurice's Gourmet Barbecue has been vacant for a while as even the driveway is getting a bit cracked and overgrown. The last occupant was General Sales, Inc. who have since moved to Huger Street. I'm guessing they weren't the first tenants though, or at least I don't see why a food service company would have underground tanks as seems to be the case from the DHEC notice.

I recently noticed this little strip on Broad River Road, a little north of Boozer Shopping Center and on the other side of the road. It is mostly offices and services rather than retail.

Palmetto Parent Magazine seems to have started here around 2007. They are still very much around and putting out magazines, with their current office being at 6027 Garners Ferry Road. I have to say I really like their covers.

Big thanks to commenter Gary, who sent in these pictures of Sloan's Drive-In on the Sumter Highway, and says that it was located near Universal Drive. The pictures are from an old Lower Richland yearbook, and apparently the restaurant owner was a LR booster to judge from the signs.

I have to say that I absolutely no memory of ever seeing this place, and we used the Sumter Highway to go to the beach for most of the 1960s and early 70s (until I-20 made Screaming Eagle Road an attractive option). Gary puts the restaurant in the 1970s, but I'm a bit skeptical. The design aesthetic looks much earlier to me, 50s or 60s, and I can't find a yellow pages listing for the place in my 1970 restaurant pages (or any other of the '70s pages I have here at home). Anyone have any personal recollections of the place? The country could certainly use a good $0.19 hamburger!

UPDATE 23 October 2011 -- Ok, I have done a little checking at the library, and this is what I found out about Sloan's:

They first listed in the December 1967 Southern Bell phonebook, and last listed in the December 1969 directory. They ran the same Yellow Pages ad (reproduced below) in each year of their listing. Also, as mentioned in the comments, the 8010 Garners Ferry Road address where Sloan's sat has been subsumed as part of Grace Hill Plaza, which is officially 8006 Garners Ferry Road. Also, the official name was Sloan's Charcoal Hamburgers so I have changed the post title from Sloan's Hamburger Drive-In to that.

I normally wouldn't do two Garners Ferry posts in succession (unless I were out of pictures..), but commenter Terry mentioned this place just yesterday (after a spam comment brought it back to the top of the "recent comments" list) saying:

I visited Steve’s on Garners Ferry 3 or 4 times and they had really good sandwiches. Every time I was the only patron in the shop and a lunch crowd of one will not go very far. The parking lot in front of the store is usually packed so I do not know where all the shoppers were.

Well it appears that a lunch crowd of one has gone as far as it could, and the place is now closed. When I first posted about it (in the closing for Larry's) in February 2010, Steve's had taken over two old Larry's locations (that I knew of for sure). Now it appears that both of them have gone under.

More curiously, the sign in the window proclaims "Hibachi Grill Coming Soon" when Mushi Mushi hibachi just a few units down in the same strip closed in September 2010..

UPDATE 3 November 2011 -- Looks like Japan Grill is close to opening:

UPDATE 25 October 2018: Update title with suite info. Add map icon. Update tags.

I had noticed this building on the Sumter Highway in Hopkins several times over the past few years, usually just as I had passed it. I never really got a good look, but had it in my mind that it must be an abandoned motel as in Stratford Arms or Cornell Arms (though I don't believe that building was ever a hotel). With that mindset kind of locked in I had to do a double take when I finally stopped by and found that the "arms" were fire-arms.

The place listed in the February 2008 phonebook, but not the February 2010 one so I'm guessing it closed in 2009, though the condition of the roof-line is pretty bad for just a few years off. I'm not sure what the building would have been originally. Certainly Wateree Arms was not the first tenant (and is in fact not listed in the Feb 1997 book). It was obviously a store of some sort, but not, I think, a gas station as there is not room in front for pumps.

UPDATE 15 July 2011: Added Sister Rose, antiques and riding school to post title based on info by commenter tonkatoy.