Columbia Closings   What's not in Columbia anymore

The White Mule is another recent casualty of Main Street, following shortly after the closings of Henessey's and Kimbrell's.

I'd heard the name from time to time, but really wasn't exactly sure where it was. Judging by the stairs in the entranceway, it was a basement club, and judging from the menu on the still extant web site it was a little more upscale than your basic burgers & nachos show-pub.

The State story mentioning the closing dates it to "last week". Given that the story ran on 7 January 2012, the inference I draw is that The White Mule closed out with the year at the end of 2011.

(Hat tip to commenter Tom)

UPDATE 23 January 2012: Added Jammin' Java to the post title based on the comments. I recall the name, but never realized this is where it was.

As long as I'm doing defunct downtown restaurants, I might as well do Mayfair Grill as it comes up fairly often. (And often gets confused with the Mayflower restaurant).

Unfortunately, it's another place I know very little about.

I can say that it first listed in the November 1954 Southern Bell telephone directory, and last listed in the January 1984 edition. They never ran a full yellow pages ad, but did have a slogan under their listing for a number of years, one which I seem to have misplaced for the nonce.

I can also say after consulting an old city directory that the property at 343 South Main was another restaurant, called Louis' Grill immediately before Mayfair Grill opened.

Here's what commenter Peter Hoffman had to say about the place:

The “Mayflower Diner” was on South Main Street, across the tracks from the station, on land that’s now part of the Swearingen Engineering Center property (the empty space between the phone lines and the track).

It was a great place to eat. A complete cross-section of Columbia would be there from students, to blue-collar, to state politicians. The food was really good ‘meat and three veg’ and served on willow-pattern plates and the prices were something a student could handle.

It’s been about 30 years since the place was demolished in the name of ‘progress’ but I still miss it.

And here's an amplification and slight correction from commenter badger:

Oh, and that little diner on South Main was actually the “Mayfair” Grill. I think it was open till around ’85. Across from it was the old SCE&G headquarters, currently occupied by USC.

Noticed this vacancy on North Main near the trestle the other day, presumably another casualty of the housing crash. The building didn't strike me as anything special from the outside, but I have to say the interior description sounds surprisingly opulent:

I noticed this vacant funeral home driving down Main Street near River Drive the other day. I could weed the pictures down further, but I like the clouds in the long shots too much to lose them.

You can still see the label-scar for the business name on the front of the building, and on the turned-inside-out roadside sign if you look closely enough. I had no doubts what the building was even before seeing them however as the design is pretty unequivocal. That's not to say it's generic -- I really like the sharp points and slopes of the roof-line. The online property data says it was built in 1960, which I have no problem believing, and LoopNet says it sits on a 1 acre lot, which I would not have guessed.

Here's another place I never visited. Inasmuch as I was aware of it at all, I figured it was probably too fancy for my tastes.

I hadn't realized how poorly focused my picture of the door sign was until looking at it on a normal sized screen. I believe it says something to the effect that they are closed for renovations and will re-open in November. If so they only have a few days to meet the posted deadline. I have to wonder if the sign isn't wishful thinking however, as the phone has been disconnected, and the web site is bringing up a default "no page" page. The only hopeful reason I can think of for those two omens is if a change in ownership is involved along the way...

(Hat tip to commenter Midnight Rambler)

UPDATE 30 November 2011: Added the street address to the post title having forgotten to do so initially.

UPDATE 24 January 2011: Added Ruff's Hardware to the post title based on the comments. I remember the Ruff's at Richland Mall, but don't believe I ever went to the Main Street one.

UPDATE 17 Feb 2013: Took the "(temporary?)" tag off the post title as it is plainly not coming back at this point. (Hat tip to commenter Justin for pointing that out).

The end of Kimbrell's on Main Street was hardly a surprise. Their sign says they had been there 49 years (or almost my entire lifetime), but the character of Main Street has changed so much over the years that even blocks where there are signs of life (Kimbrell's was on the same block as the new Mast General Store) don't make sense for heavy retail like furniture. A modern furniture store needs lots of display space, as well as an easy way to get trucks in and out, and Main Street doesn't really have either.

There are a number of other Kimbrell's locations around town, and the signs indicate that operations from the Main Street store have been consolidated in Piggly Wiggly location on Marshall Street.

I hope that whatever happens to the old Main Street store, someone saves the old and classic Kimbrell's sign, though I realize that would be confusing in some cases, it seems to have worked well for the Kress building.

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This storefront, on the same block as the new Mast was until recently one of Columbia's improbable number of wig stores. I'm not as surprised that it closed as I am at how long it lasted in what has been a pretty poor location for retail since at least the mid 1970s. In fact, though I wish everybody well, I am sceptical of a long term "Mast effect" on this area, especially given that a number of the closings on this block are fairly recent.

If You Build It, They Will Come

But will they stay?

Apparently the city has poured two million dollars into this small shopping plaza on North Main, with very little to show for it.

Last year they lured Cici's Pizza away from its longtime location on Decker Boulevard and things were looking up. This year not so much. Recent years saw the closing of another nearby city sponsored restaurant, The North Main Deli, but just across the street Zesto's still seems to be going strong. Perhaps there's a message there.

(Hat tip to commenter MB)

Hmm, this is the reverse of the situation on the Grand Strand. There businesses close when school is in session, but this closing is because (I assume) school is out of session. At any rate, the Firehouse Subs in University Corner over the old Varsity Billiards and next to the old Stuffy's and Big Bird has closed its doors for "the summer" as of Friday.

UPDATE 6 July 2011: As commenter E points out I have completely misinterpreted the sign, which mearly states that during the summer they close at 9PM.
So, as Emily Litella would say: "Never Mind!"

UPDATE 30 September 2021: Add map icon, update tags.

As reported by The State this venerable hotel at the corner of Main & Lady Streets will be converted into a upscale condo called The Palms with 54 "resort-style" units. They will also have a view of what is apparently the only pool on Main Street.

Given that the article talks about the developer struggling to find financing for the project for several years, and the fact that the Rodeway Inn is listed in the Feb 2011 phonebook, I can only guess that the developer owned the property and continued to run it as a hotel until things came together. I admit to being surprised how long it lasted as a mid-to-lower-mid market motel in an area that if it gets anyone (after all who in the general population wants to visit Columbia and stay on Main Street?) would get high-roller business and government connected types.

(Hat tip to commenter Tom)

UPDATE 26 May 2012: Here's a State article on the opening of The Palms.

UPDATE 9 October 2024: Add map icon, update tags.