Columbia Closings   What's not in Columbia anymore

Boardwalk Plaza was an odd little shopping center down the hill from Dutch Square on Bush River Road. At this point, my memories of the place are very hazy (for instance, I distinctly remember a Book Dispensary location there which I cannot verify in any directory..). However, my memory is that the "boardwalk" part of the name came from the fact that the "plaza" was really a bunch of trailers which sat above street level and so were connected with a wooden walkway rather than concrete sidewalks.

None of these pictures are actually the Boardwalk site. As far as I can tell, the address 1023 no longer exists on Bush River Road. The last block before I-26 is 900, with the Days Inn / Comfort Inn at 911 Bush River Road apparently being the last building before I-26. That leads me to think that I-26 coming through blew away the 1000 block. However, my memory is that I-26 was completed well before 1984.. Also, I used to walk to Boardwalk from Dutch Square, and thought it was closer than that.

Anyway, the 1973 City Directory, only listed one business at 1023 Bush RIver Road: Ray C. Parker Package Stores, Inc.

By the next year, while 1023 had no shopping center name attached to it, the sole listing for Ray C. Parker Package Stores, Inc. had expanded to:

Ray C. Parker Package Stores, Inc.
Bicycle Center of Columbia
Etc Bath & Boudoir
Leaf 'n 'petal
Trulas-West
Whit-Ash Furnishings
World Of Sounds & Sights Inc

In the 1975 City Directory, 1023 Bush River road is first identified by the name Boardwalk Plaza and has building numbers identified. It had the following tenants:

Ray C. Parker Package Stores, Inc.
3) Leaf & Petal
4) Orange Owl gifts
5) World Of Sound & Sights Inc
World Of Turquoise & Imports
7) Vacant
8) Bicycle Center
10)Aquarium Pools Of Columbia
The Different Drummer ("joke products")
12) Vacant
15) Dutchbrook Interiors
16) Dan Dee Toys & Gifts
17) Vacant
18) Design Studio Inc

By 1979, the City Directory indicates a nearly total turnover:

1) Ray C. Parker Package Stores, Inc.
2) Cheap Joe's Jeans & Sportswear
4) The Final Touch
5) Vacant
6) Adams Tailor & Alterations Shop
7) Underwater Works Ltd
8) Muldrows Bar-B-Que
10) Muldrows (Overflow)
11) Vamps
12) Vacant
13) Vacant
14) Shamrock Hair Design
15) Rosco Recreation Store
16) Vacant
17) Bum's Shirt Factory Outlet
18) Korner Keg
19) Celsios Foam Insulation

1984 is the last City Directory to have an entry for Boardwalk Plaza at this point, the founding store, Ray C. Parker was gone. The tenant list was:

1) Vacant
2) Bum's Bummers shirt outlet
4) Wise Floor Covering Inc
5) Vacant
6) Adams Tailoring & Alteration Shop
7) Underwater Works Limited
8) Vacant
10) Columbia Shaver & Appliance Service
11) Vacant
12) Sims Music
13) Columbia Flag & Banner
14) Shamrock Hair Cutters
15) Direct Mailing Service
16) Vacant
17) Vacant
18) State Farm Insurance
19) Quick Print Center
The Frame Shop

I would have still been living in Columbia at this point, prior to taking a job in North Carolina in September of 1985, so you would think I would have some memory of the place closing and being torn down, but apart from radio ads for Bum's Bummers it was apparently totally off my radar screen..

UPDATE 15 March 2011: Folks, I am able to present this major picture update courtesy of one of the owners of Bum's Bummers, Barbara Summers, and the good offices of her son Lane. All these photos are property of Barbara Summers, and I use them with her kind permission. (I see in "preview" it turned out a bit confusing -- the captions for a set of pictures come after those pictures). [D'Oh! Had "Lane" as daughter rather than son -- fixed!]

Here's the plaza sign. At this point, the plaza's original entrance had been blocked off by construction of the motel that would replace the plaza.

Here are various views of the old plaza itself, already in somewhat of a disassembled state in some of the shots.

Here is Barbara herself standing on the boardwalk which gave the plaza its name.

Here is Bum's Bummers getting ready to go to 2700 Broad River Road.

Bum's is on the move, heading out then crossing I-20 moving north. Note the "Coming Soon" sign -- no kidding! Finally touchdown at the new location. (Also note the classic look Rush's in the background of two shots).

Here are Bum's and Shamrock in their new location.

Here's some notices of the move. (Note the Broad River Road Taco Bell and Pizza Hut.)

Business resumes after the move.

Construction starts on the permanent buildings at 2700 Broad River

Burger Time opened late last year, or early this year in the old Annabelle's space in Dutch Square, behind a very nice new entranceway. I never got around to trying it out as what I had heard from commenters here was not encouraging. It was never entirely off my list of places to try, but it was pretty far down, and I see from these pictures that had I gone, I would only have gotten as far as the door as I don't eat at "B" places. (Heavens knows that "A" places can be dodgy enough!).

At any rate it's not an option anymore. After taking the Intersection Center pictures in the previous post, I hopped over to Dutch Square in time to see the Burger Time fixtures being carted out the doors and into a waiting truck. The easel says that they are relocating, but no address is given, which is not a good sign.

This closing puts Dutch Square down three restaurants in the past year (Chick-Fil-A and PIccadilly being the other two -- I'm not counting D'avino's Pizza since it was quickly replaced with another pizza operation)

Well, back to Dutch Square for another closing...

Gamestop was in Dutch Square on the south side of the main corridor just down the hill from customer service, and the Eckerd's/Piccadilly side corridor.

I don't know a lot about modern video gaming (give me Galaga, Gorf, Joust,Pengo any day..), but this is the third such store that I am aware of closing in the past year (after Game Crazy on Garners Ferry, and Play N Trade on Forest Drive). On the other hand, the Gamestop on Harbison is still going, so it's more likely an artifact of the continuing downward spiral of Dutch Square than anything else.

(Hat tip to commenter Jason.)

UPDATE 14 February 2025: Updating tags and adding map icon.

Well, another original Dutch Square merchant bites the dust. This cafeteria started with the mall as a Morrison's back in 1970. At some point, Piccadilly bought the Morrison's chain, and the place stayed open with mearly a nameplate change, so I do consider it the same operation over the whole period. The place was on the north side of the mall, on the west entrance corridor, the one where Edkerd's used to be.

I don't believe I have eaten in a cafeteria since the early 1990s. In my mind, they were always associated with visits by elderly relatives, and involved liver, weird rice that didn't stick together like it should, and various carrot concoctions. I do believe the last one I ate in was, in fact, a PIccadilly. I had just started working in Augusta Georgia, and for some reason or other we needed some maps at the office to plan a trip (this was pre Mapquest), so a co-worker and I drove down to the ill-fated Regency Mall on the Gordon Highway to visit a bookstore and eat lunch. I could tell the minute we stepped inside the mall that it was on its way down (what can you expect when the anchor store was Montgomery Ward?), but nonetheless we got our maps and stepped into the Piccadilly. I saw enchiladas, and made the mistake of thinking that cafeteria enchiladas would be like mexican-restaurant enchiladas -- man, they were bad! (To go even further afield, I was probably the slowest guy this co-worker knew, and he was the fastest guy I ever knew. Not on this trip, but on one of our lunch trips, he locked me into his car and was already back into our building before I even realized the inside locks wouldn't work without a key..)

Anyway, with the closure of Piccadilly, I believe only Radio Shack and The Rogue remain from the original contingent of Dutch Square stores.

(Hat tips to commenters Andrew & Joe.)

Here's another recent vacancy in Boozer Shopping Center. I don't know if it's just coincidence, but there were a number of storefronts that moved out at more or less the same time, including The Book Dispensary, Gift's of Love and this one, Ron Grahams Allergy Center.

I don't know much about the place, but the full name is Ron Graham Allergy & Air Quality Center Inc, they can help you filtering all the allergens from your home air, and they are now out in Lexington on Sunset Drive near the Target and McAlister's Deli.

This move leaves Boozer at least three storefronts to replace on the north side of the center.

I finally got around to taking some pictures of The Village Tavern. This place was on Berryhill road, which is a frontage road on the north side of I-20, starting at Bush River Road and going east. I did not take it all the way to the other end, but it seems a fairly quiet road with very little traffic (though there is, of course a constant rumble from I-20 itself).

The area where the tavern building sits is quite pleasant. Visibility of I-20 is mostly screened by vegetation, and the tavern plot is very lush and grassy with Stoop Creek running behind the building, under a Berryhill Road bridge, I-20 and eventually into the Saluda River.

The tall neon sign at the edge of the property was the only part visible from I-20, and I would see it for years as I drove past either on errands in town, or on my way back to Aiken. Somehow I never got around to checking the place out while it was still open though.

Commenter Walt wrote this back in February:

I hope they found another place!

Read the rest of this entry »

This ad from the 1974 Southern Bell Yellow Pages is similar to other ads for the Flaming Pit that I have seen in that it never gives a real street address for the place. That, and a complete lapse of mind that let me confuse I-20 with I-26 led me to originally post some pictures of what was certainly the wrong building for the place!

We never went to the Flaming Pit, though I seem to remember radio commercials that made it sound like a very exotic place. (I didn't do "exotic"..). I'm not exactly sure what "Open Hearth Charcoal Cookery" is, but combing that with the name of the place, I envision a large central grill in the middle of the dining area (hopefully very well ventilated with charcoal involved..) where your orders were cooked as you watched.

I'm a little surprised that the bar was The Wells Fargo Lounge given that Wells Fargo is, in addition to its evocative history, still around and presumably trademarked..

UPDATE 15 June 2010: Removed incorrect pictures, and corrected the text in which I was completely wrong about the location!

Well, it was probably inevitable, but Columbia's original Chick-Fil-A and one of the last original stores in Ductch Square has shut down. They had been in that same location for 40 years, which is like since the Pre-Cambrian in mall-time. I'm not a fan of chicken and don't believe I've ever been in a Chick-Fil-A to get so much as a drink (though I could be wrong, 40 years is a long time!), but I've always admired the chain a little bit for sticking to their guns about not opening on Sunday no matter how much more expedient that might be.

I'll try to get a shot from the other side of the corner at some point, there was a whole table of people seated there at the time.

On the plus side, a new pizza operation has set up in the recently closed D'Avino's on the other side of the hall from Chick-Fil-A

UPDATE 16 July 2010: Added a second picture.

UPDATE 28 January 2021: Add tags, full street address, map icon.

PowerOne Computer Warehouse was a rebuilt PC store that I believe opened on Saturday 29 August 2009. I say that with some confidence, because I had taken a bunch of pictures of the nearby The Aquarium & Pet Shop on that day, and stopped in at PowerOne on my walk back over to Fuddruckers where I was eating lunch.

I found them in the midst of something of a mini-crisis because they had not intended to open on 29 August, but there was a printing error in all the flyers that were distributed in the paper forcing them to open several days before they were ready. This meant that almost nothing in the store had a price on it, and in many cases not even of description of the PCs processor speed, amount of RAM, OS version etc. It looked like they had some pretty good stuff in the store, but as I didn't really need anything, I didn't persue the prices of any the systems.

I don't know if the unplanned opening somewhat "wrong-footed" them as the Brits might say, but for whatever reason, they didn't make it to New Years.

I recall seeing Dugan's Sports Bar from time to time as a drove Bush River Road, but I don't know anything about it other than that it preceded PowerOne into the 1807 storefront.

UPDATE 4 Jan 2010: Commenter Jeff notes that home theater company Sound Advice was once in the space.

UPDATE 22 August 2012 -- It appears that the place is preparing to open as one of the many new (and controversial) "Internet Sweepstakes" operations in the Columbia area:

UPDATE 24 October -- Well the sweepstakes thing never happened; I believe the law came down on all of them before this one got opened. Anyway, it's Sissy's Furniture now.

I've posted pictures before of the older style, steeple-topped A&P stores. This one, on a Dutch Square outparcel was one in the "new" style A&P adopted before leaving the South Carolina market. (I'm not counting the "supercenter" type stores such as in North Myrtle Beach).

I don't believe I ever went into this store. I certainly spent plenty of time at Dutch Square as I've mentioned in a number of posts, but during most of that period I was a tween or teen, fixated on books and music, and hardly shopping for groceries at all (not to mention that Dutch Square was on the other side of town from our usual grocery destinations). I'm guessing the 1990s as the (vague) closing date for this store, but it could as easily have been the 1980s.

I think that after this store closed, the area was actually pretty grocery-less, with no stores I can think of in the same general vicinity. (Food Lion had a Bush River Road store, but it closed too).

UPDATE 12 March 2011: Updated closing date based on commenter Andrew's research.