Columbia Closings   What's not in Columbia anymore

I took a few minutes to walk Crowson Road between Devine and Fort Jackson Boulevard today. I did not attempt to go onto the old Kmart which was rather cordoned off, but work is definitely underway back there. I heard from a waitress at Ruby Tuesday that the pet store unfortunately lost some animals during the flood. Currently none of those stores are open.

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One of the most iconic images from the flood was the inundation of the TitleMax building on Devine Street. Some other pictures were actually just as incredible, but the bold color scheme of this storefront really made it stand out. One such image is here, and one shot from the other direction is here.

I finally got a chance to take a look at the damage last Saturday (17 October 2015), and it is even more severe than I expected in that while I thought the building would be a total loss, I was somewhat surprised to see the lot a total loss as well. I'm not sure it comes across well in these pictures (shot against the sun for the most part unfortunately), but the whole lot on the Liberty side of the building has dropped at least three feet.

The Free Times suggests that the site will not be rebuilt:

"That was built in the floodway; it would never be allowed to be built today," says Erich Miarka, program director of the Gills Creek Watershed Association. "Since that building was completely destroyed, I don't think they'll be allowed to build there again."

As an aside, I'm not sure how you get two street numbers offset by six in the same building, but that's what seems to have been the case.

UPDATE 19 January 2016 -- TitleMax now has a sign up for their new location:

UPDATE 18 February 2016 -- It appears something is about to happen here, as the property is now fenced off. My guess would be a demolition:

UPDATE 28 March 2019 -- Well, today was the last day for this iconic building. It was still partly standing when I took the first couple of shots, but when I got done eating and drove across the street, it was pretty well flattened. I expect it will be on WLTX tonight, as they had a camera crew there:

UPDATE 19 January 2021 -- It appears a carwash will be going in here:

Also, adding a map icon.

I was driving Two Notch this evening, and noticed that the Sansbury Eye Center by FedEx Office was closed. A closer look at the door revealed that this office has moved to 2313 Beltline, next to the Subway.

In fact, I had noticed the new sign for Sansbury on that building, but since I did not realize it was a move and not a new office, I didn't bother to take any pictures. I'll get a few next time I drive by. I was struck by how big this Two Notch space is -- I don't think the Beltline location is anywhere near as extensive.

There seems to be some confusion about the actual street number of this spot on Shakespeare Road. When it was Joyner Sales Co, it was listed as 6112 Shakespeare, but most sources seem to list Dealer Auto Salvage as 6110 Shakespeare, and Loopnet lists the lot as 6108 Shakespeare.

At any rate, I noticied the other day that the property is once more vacant. I was on the way somewhere and couldn't stop to get any better pix, but things don't appear to have changed greatly since the first set I took almost five years ago, aside from untrimmed vegetation.

I'm not sure of the actual closing date as I can't find the place in any of my phonebooks under the name on the sign, but I drive by often enough that I'm assuming I would have noticed it if it closed years ago (though doing this site has proved that is not always an accurate assumption..)

Well, you may best remember this spot as Red Wing Rollerway:

but whatever follow-on operation KNC Trading did, they're not doing it any more.

The vans pulled up in late August, and now, as of 8 September, the building is empty and has once more been sold:

UPDATE 12 June 2018 -- This place is now a latin church, Centro Cristiano:

UPDATE 10 August 2022: Adding map icon.

As I was driving down Laurel Street the other day, I noticed that American Business Machines at the corner of Laurel & Sumter had moved. According to their sign, they are now at 406-D Williams Street, which seems to be somewhere down by the new USC baseball stadium.

Their sign and google suggest that ABM is a typewriter shop, but I doubt there is much business in that now, and the one time I stopped by, I was looking for bulk shredding services.

This Boozer Shopping Center storefront lists in the February 2015-2016 phonebook, so I'm guessing is closed sometime this spring. And, no, they weren't responsible for the Patient Rarking -- I think there's a medical operation in the same wing.

I was eating lunch at Grecian Gardens the other day, and noticed that the building next door (North) was vacant. It turns out that this was the former location of Agape Primary Care & Therapy who have now moved down the road into Lexington at 4711 Sunset Boulevard.

This former motorcycle shop is just down from the old Shoney's on Bush River. I'm not quite sure when it closed because for some reason I can't find it in my phonebooks. There are two calendars behind the counter, but I neglected to zoom in on them..

UPDATE 19 April 2016 -- As mentioned by commenter Andrew on the Shoney's post, here is an excavator on the Shoney's lot before it was used to knock down this building:

This new-ish but odd little building is on Knox Abbott in between Taco Bell and Wendy's.

For the life of me I can't remember what it was right now, and am unable to come up with a street number to google it.

UPDATE 16 September 2016 -- This is one of the posts lost in a database crash. Originally it was just titled "Building", but based on the comments as I bring it back, I'm changing the post title to Kleen Kare Dry Cleaner as that what it was to be, though it never opened due to the big crash of the late 2000s.

UPDATE 11 June 2019 -- This is now Carstar auto repair. Not sure if they do the actual work at this location:

UPDATE 15 Novemeber 2023: Update tags.