Columbia Closings   What's not in Columbia anymore

I was Shoppes At Woodhill this afternoon, and noticed that Hair Tamers next to Qdoba was gone. I am over there fairly frequently, and think I would have noticed it before if it weren't pretty recent, but I can't say for sure (especially as my eyes tend to slide right over beauty shops).

I have to say that the name itself conjures up the image of Bugs Bunny fighting the hair monster ("Gossamer"):

UPDATE 30 June 2011: Commenter gary says they have moved to Landmark Square so I have added "moved" to the post title. I'll try to get a picture at some point.

This burned out body shop sits in an odd little area that I really knew nothing about. I noticed it the other week when I was getting onto I-77 West-bound from Garners Ferry Road. The area is rather industrial, with a transformer substation and nearby rail-spur, and must have been, I think, radically different before I-77 was pushed through. I'm saying "South Bolton Street" based on mapquest -- I couldn't actually see any name on the little spur leading from Planters Drive to this building, and if it's really a public street, it's a pretty forgotten one at least for any maintenance crews.

In particular, there's Veteran's Road and Old Veterans Road which must have been re-routed at that time. I also suspect that there was another road where the I-77 on-ramp is now that ran in front of the building, as the name is painted on the side which is not currently accessible by road. As for what that name is exactly, I can't say. I thought I could read it from the on-ramp, but I can't recall what I thought I saw, and the picture I took from there turned out quite poorly as far as being able to make out those letters. The "Body Shop" is clear enough, but for the first part I can only get "c-o-r-r-e-something-something".

I'm just guessing as to the time-frame for the closing. Certainly it's been long enough for the exposed interior to be pretty thoroughly tagged with graffitti.

UPDATE 28 March 2011: I've added the name "Correll's" based on the comments.

I actually had Colony House's going-out-of-busines circular given to me by my sister a few weeks ago and of course put it "somewhere I can't possibly forget it", meaning it has completely vanished for now.

As I recall, it was a bit vague about when Colony House would actually close its doors, but I believe it should be done by now. Apparently the store was founded in 1945, so that was a pretty good run. I can't actually say much about the store from personal experience as I've only bought one new piece of furniture in my life, and it wasn't from there. Colony House is across Garners Ferry from San Jose about where Pelham Drive comes out and it's a nice brick building though the parking lot is a bit hard to get in and out of.

As of now, the web site is still up, though it has no mention of the closing, and indeed seems not to have been updated since 2008.

UPDATE 2 Feb 2011 -- Well, I jumped the gun a little bit, as of 29 Jan, it's still open, though apparently winding down:

Updated the post title date to "Feb 2011" rather than "Jan 2011"

UPDATE 28 June 2016 -- The building has been razed, and the site is now in preparation to be a Discount Tire:

I noticed this place in Eastover on the west side of The Sumter Highway just past Horrell Hill last week. This former restaurant and pool hall has obviously been there quite a while, and has just as obvioiusly been out of business for many years too. (In addition to the clinging vines, most of the roof seems to be gone as you can tell in some of these shots). I suspect from the "Video Games" signage that it was last open during the video poker era, but not until the actual end of that era as it does not seem to be listed in the 1998 phonebook.

I got Rivers Variety Store and The Locker Room from the signs. Googling the phone number, (803) 783-5440 brought up the Jerry Thompson name.

UPDATE 21 Dec 2010: Added Laundry to post title based on the comments.

UPDATE 31 January 2023 -- This building has been razed:

Also adding map icon.

Here's another vacancy in the old Robo's/Slot Car building behind the Fort Jackson Boulevard K-Mart.

Their sign says they've moved to the Augusta Highway, but the phonebook shows that the Augusta location co-existed with this one, so I think it's more of a consolidation than a move. I don't know about that location, but this one is not ideal for drive-by traffic. You have to be coming into the K-Mart the back way to see it, and given that the K-Mart auto bays on that side are closed (and I believe the garden center may be as well) and that the general "pull" of K-Mart is pretty low right now in general, it can't have got a lot of notice.

I posted about Friedman's Columbia Mall store here, and I suspect the same story applies to this one, in Garners Ferry Crossing.

In brief, Friedman's went bankrupt, came out, and then went under again in 2008. A few stores bought by another company stayed open as Friedman's until that company went under, a bit later in 2008. Actually, you could probably guess that the company went under by looking at the storefront. Companies that are still in business like to take their signs off of failed stores so their branding doesn't take a hit.

It's interesting how in this one little plaza, not more than a few years old, they've already had 1, 2, 3 other visits from the reaper.

UPDATE 25 October 2018: Add tags, add map icon, update post title format.

Here's another vacant storefront in the same plaza as Mushi Mushi. I have found out the the plaza is actually called Garners Ferry Crossing, but have not been able to identify this store through google.

It sits in between Casa Linda and H & R Block, and has apprently been vacant for a good while, although it obviously did have a tenant at one time judging from the evidence of a removed sign above the awnings.

UPDATE 26 Sep 2010: It looks like commenter MB is correct that this place was a Physicians Weight Loss Center, or at least there was one listed at 7546 in the 2009 phonebook and there's not one now. I'm thus changing the post title from the generic Storefront to that. (And, no, they apparently don't use an apostrophe in their name for some reason).

UPDATE 25 October 2018: Add tags, update title format, add map icon.

I'm not sure when this NAPA Auto Parts on Garners Ferry Road, just across the street from Aldi closed. However, it's in this year's phonebook (which would have come out around Feb 2010), so it can't have been too long ago.

The photos are shot against the sun and so aren't too good, but you can see it's quite a sizeable building. It seems to have been a machine shop as well as a parts store, and so similar in size to the one on Millwood.

UPDATE 19 December 2012 -- It's now Kids Club USA:

Mushi Mushi (can anyone translate that?) was in the little strip adjacent to the Wal Mart and old Fire Mountain Grill / Ryan's on Garners Ferry Road (and almost next to the old Larry's Subs).

There are actually a number of vacancies in this complex, which seems to me to be in a reasonably good location -- there's direct access from Wal Mart and an additional light for side access from Garners Ferry. Of course, in this case, the old Ryan's being a Hibichi Grill itself now can't have helped.

I never ate at Mushi, in fact I don't think I've eaten at any "hibachi" place. I certainly couldn't get my mind around sushi, I'm afraid. Maybe if they had tried this concept I might have stopped by..

(Hat tip to commenter Midnight Rambler)

UPDATE 25 October 2018: Add tags,update post title format, add map icon.

I'm not much of a fabric guy. I think I have written before about how my mother used to frequent fabric stores at Forest Lake Shopping Center and Trenholm Plaza, and how the dye in the air would always make me stuffy and my eyes tear up. Furthermore, I never learned to sew -- so I never visited Jo-Ann Fabrics in Landmark Square on Garners Ferry Road at I-77.

They seem to be doing pretty well though, as they have just moved to a much larger location, the old Goody's building on Two Notch Road by Wal Mart.

The move does something to recoup the Goody's bankruptcy blow to the Two Notch plaza, but certainly doesn't help Landmark Square any. At one time (when Woolco was the anchor) the place was doing pretty well, and I would have thought that having I-77 come through would have helped, but apparently not. (And, I'll admit it is a bit of a pain to get onto Garners Ferry when you're headed towards the airport on 77).

UPDATE 22 March 2011 -- here's the Garners Ferry facade work mentioned in the comments:

UPDATE 20 May 2011 -- It's to be It's Fashion Metro: