Columbia Closings   What's not in Columbia anymore

I had driven past the Old Mill in Lexington a number of times since the great flood of 4 October 2015 which burst the dam, but I had never taken the time to stop and have a look. Since it was a nice sunny day and I had some time, I took the opportunity to check it out on 21 May 2016.

It appears to me that there were two channels out of the now dry mill pond to the creeks that cross under US-1. The south fork, which is now basically stagnant with no connection to the water flow out of the former pond and the north fork which comes through the dam washout, and is flowing quite vigorously. Since the channel clearly predates the dam breach, I guess there was a spillway in the dam for this channel to power the equipment of the original mill, and that this spillway gave way in the breach.

The dam itself is an earthen embankment and apart from the breach on the end nearest to the mill complex is still largely intact. I was able to get on top of it and walk almost to the breach. (I could have walked *to* the breach and gotten some better pictures, but I didn't see any reason to give another portion of the dam the temptation to give way with me on top..)

I'm not sure what the plans for the site are. There does not appear to have been any start at reconstructing the dam, and of course as the mill is no longer active, there is no necessity to do so, but the pond is a nice setting for the various restaurants and businesses in the old mill comples..

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This Lexington Mexican spot on a Target outparcel was originally a Casa Linda.

As this closing is close to events in the news, I want to be very careful what I say, but you can read some background in The State here.

As of a few days ago, the Forest Drive Pancho's was still open.

(Hat tip to commenter ED)

There's not much to say about the closing of the Lexington Ryan's that hasn't been said elsewhere. I will note that I am a little surprised that this store, and the Two Notch Store both still have all the branding and signage up. Usually when a company that is still active closes a store, they like to get that down quickly to avoid associating the chain with failure. In my mind that means things are perhaps even worse than they seem, if that's possible.

(Hat tip to commenter ED)

UPDATE 7 June 2021 -- As mentioned in the comments, this place has been razed before becoming a gas station:

Also adding map icon.

This storefront, co-located with a convenience store, was orginally Kotas Sandwiches. After that closed, the place re-opened for a while as Kotas Your Way!.

It appears from the signage, and the food truck parked in the lot that the new owners have closed the storefront and now concentrate on catering chiken & pizza from two food trucks.

UPDATE 11 July 2016 -- Now PK-BBQ:

Mari's Lake House was the followup operation to Bentley's Beach House in this North Lake Drive building in Lexington.

As far as I can tell, the setup was very similar, with even the same AMF Sunfish still sitting in the parking lot. I'm pretty sure the free beer offer was new though..

(Hat tip to commenter badger)

UPDATE 30 August 2016 -- Now Levi's Lake House:

UPDATE 27 January 2022: Adding map icon. Putting in a closing date, which I apparently forgot to do originally.

As mentioned by a number of commenters over the last several months (and in this State article), the Hardee's location at 415 Columbia Avenue in Lexington in front of the Bi-Lo has moved to 1105 West Main Street and the former building has been razed.

The razed spot will be rebuilt as a Captain D's. The new Hardee's site is the former location of Clamp's BP Station.

UPDATE 11 December 2015 -- The construction of the Captain D's on this spot has started:

UPDATE 8 June 2016 -- Here is the new location for this Hardee's:

UPDATE 19 June 2021: Adding tags and map icon.

As shown in the first picture, the main suite for Bike Street USA was what is now Jackie's Uniforms, but the Bicycles signage remains on the second suite they had to the right of that. As you can also see from the firt shot, the store started as Bike To Nature, which moved here from across the street when its original building was slated for demolition.

After moving, the store was bought by the Bike Street USA chain, which went bankrupt in November 2014 as described here.

I had come from Pizzera Uno to the Pastime Pavilion in Lexington to see a movie. In point of fact, I was hoping to still find the latest Mad Max move showing though it was dropping out of first run at the time. I had done a quick google before leaving home, noting that the time and place for Max would make it convienient to a restaurant I hadn't been to for a while.

It all went well until I got to the theater and found that I should have taken time to click on the movie descriptions as well as times as the movie turned out to be about a dog.

Anyway, as I was walking back to the car in sort of disgusted amusement, I noticed the plaza's Marble Slab Creamery was closed. There were no explanatory notes or signs, but cleary the place had been cleaned out even though the marquee was still up.

Commenter Megan reports this Lexington Hibachi spot as closed around the start of the month.

But you can still get some dogs..

(Hat tip to commenter Megan)

UPDATE 8 September 2016 -- It appears the follow-on operation, Clean Eatz is now in operation:

A Three Hour Cruise..

I'm not too familiar with Gilligan's, but I know there was at least one other in Litchfield Beach which closed last year and is now an ABC store. This one was in Lexingtion on North Lake Drive just east of the Books-A-Million strip mall.

I think that clearly this building and the old Zorba's On Two Notch shared the same design. Whether that means this was originally a Zorba's or that they were both originally something else I'm not sure.

(Hat tip to commenter John Barrs)

UPDATE 24 February 2015: Updated the closing date in the post title based on the comments.

UPDATE 19 August 2016 -- This is now Mr. D's Steakhouse, now owned by the mayor of Lexington, Steve MacDougall. Here is The State story of the restaurant's opening, and here is The State story on MacDougall going from manager to owner.