Columbia Closings   What's not in Columbia anymore

If this auto lot, just south of the New Brookland Baptist Church, had an office, it must have been in a trailer.

Seems like it would be a good place to sell Christmas trees, but it's too late for this year, I guess.

(Hat tip to commenter James)

Bicycle shop Summit Cycles was in this nice old house near the top of the hill on Meeting Street, just down from WECO. There's not much more I can say about it, other than if you got your bike there, I'll bet you could coast all the way to the State Museum, lights permitting..

(Hat tip to commenter jonathan)

I was surprised when I went looking in old phonebooks and found that 2011 was the last listing for Columbia Screen & Awning -- This is a place I remember being advertised on the radio when I was growing up, so I figured somehow that I would hear when it closed. The marquee on this little West Columbia storefront (next door to Maunz Electronics) says they had been in business since 1959, which is a pretty good run. Archive.org has some of their old site snapshots archived here.

I hate this time of year -- not only do I really dislike cold weather, but it gets dark so early that I really can only get daytime pictures on weekends. And even here, I missed my window for getting over there and ended up having to crank up the ISO or use flash.

(Hat tip to commenter James)

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I don't know much about this place, but I believe they moved here (more or less across from Tony's Pizza) from Meeting Street.

I don't know anything about this bath store on Sunset, but nonetheless I can say

This Place Rocks

(Hat tip to commenter James)

Here's another rainy day set of pictures...

This little dry-cleaning building is more or less across from the old Maunz Electronics and just down from the former Sub Cabin. Judging from the sign, it was also an Eagle Cleaners at one time as well. It appears that they did a bit of light office support as well as cleaning. The sign suggests that they moved, but I am unable to find another location for them in the phonebook.

It was pouring down rain today when I noticed that Modern Lighting Center on Meeting Street was closed. I have always liked the big carraige light they had by the street (the link shows a nice picture of it). According to their sign, lights out was on 30 November of 2012.

UPDATE 3 December 2014 -- This place is now Columbia Flag & Sign Company, though vestiges of Modern Lighting remain:

I've always liked this little extreme 'A' Frame building on Airport Boulevard just east of the airport entrance.

It appears that it switched real estate businesses from Sunbelt Properties to Lindy, Inc. sometime late last year or early this year as Sunbelt is still listed in the February 2013 phonebook.

I know the building predated Sunbelt by a good deal, but don't know what it was originally built for. The only other 'A' frame in town I can think of was a Mr. Swiss on Beltline but the look isn't really that similar.

My first thought at seeing this former First Citizens branch at the corner of the Charleston Highway and Platt Springs Road was that there must be some sort of sporting event in the area as the lot was packed full of cars taking advantage of the Sunday bank closure to park there.

A closer inspection revealed the actual facts, which are that the bank is gone, and the lot is being used as an impromptu (I could see no business sign at least..) used car lot. I've heard the old GM described as a bank that sold some cars, perhaps the concept is spreading...

UPDATE 20 October 2022: Adding map icon and updating tags.