Columbia Closings   What's not in Columbia anymore

Dick Smith is the latest dealership to abandon Beltline Boulevard. This location is just past the PIggly Wiggly and almost across the street from the former Newsome Chevvy World.

The new location opened just a little while ago at 9940 Two Notch Road:

This, of course is the location of the former Brickyard Shopping Center, which was totally razed for the Dick Smith buildings.

UPDATE 23 December 2011 -- As reported in the comments, the former Dick Smith on Beltline has been demolished:

When I first wrote about this Two Notch building a few weeks ago in a closing for Huddle House, it was For Sale but still in business. Now, it is still For Sale but out of business.

It's not a bad little building and I'm sure something else will go in. Certainly, the adjacent Hi LIne Imports didn't stay vacant long.

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've noticed this car care operation on the corner of Gervais and Barnwell Streets a number of times over the years, though I never stopped in. In particular I believe I used to drive by on my way to the dentist, and other times I would just wonder at the way businesses sometimes cluster, as Master was catty-cornered to an almost identical Firestone operation and just a few blocks from a Goodyear.

I really like the Jasper Transmissions plaque -- It has that late 50s, early 60s design esthetic that is really nicer than what you generally see now.

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Xtreme Customs was at the corner of Broad River Road and Briargate Circle, just across from the old location of Delhi Palace.

I'm not sure if this place closed or moved. There is a business of the same name listed in the phonebook as being in Lexington, but there are no "we've moved" signs on this location directing traffic there, so it may be another owner. I see their last promotion was 'HUG SAL'. Without seeing her, it's hard to know if $8.99 was reasonable or not..

Buck Cooper Motors is a right at the intersection where Two Notch and Shakespeare flat-iron into each other and is actually a tiny little lot for a used car place. I've noticed for a while now that there were no cars on the premises. I stopped by a couple of weeks ago, and there was a sign on the door to the effect that all cars had been moved to another Buck Cooper location. That sign seemed to be gone when I went back by today.

UPDATE 17 Feb 2011: Added Phillips 66 to the post title based on the comments.

UPDATE 9 April 2011 -- It's now Classic Auto, tinting and carwash:

National Tire & Battery (now a Tire Kingdom) was in this Columbia Mall outbuilding more or less behind the old Penny's location. I actually did go there once a few years ago when my car started really thinking about things before turning the starter over. I usually put Die Hards in my cars but for some reason or another I was not able to get served by Sears that day. I'm not building up to anything here -- it was perfectly acceptable service and a battery that lasted several years. (I've actually had much worse luck with alternators than batteries anyway). I guess I would have been hosed if I had needed to take advantage of the battery warranty as they closed fairly shortly thereafter, but in the event it wasn't an issue.

I don't believe the building was vacant long at all as Tire Kingdom moved in shortly thereafter. I find it a little amusing that this large, freestanding building has only a suite number, while all the little suites at The Shoppes at Meeting Place have full street numbers.

I don't think I can actually remember this vacant showroom on Main Street being Hampton Pontiac Jaguar, but that's how it's in the EPA database and it clearly was a showroom of some sort.

One of the follow on operations, Ware We Customize was apparently automotive also.

In 1996 the building seems to have been the headquarters for Elliot Close's unsuccessful Senate bid against Strom Thurmond.

Currently it's looking pretty delapidated, and is flagged as unsafe, but apparently the property has been bought by some sort of religious organization and has been flagged as Hope Plaza Campus, so I would expect to see some repairs, or perhaps a tear-down and new building in the near future.

UPDATE 4 October 2016 -- This building has now been razed:

Here's a vacant building I noticed driving I-20 westbound, and seems to have had a number of car-related operations in it over the years.

The name that comes up most often in google searches on 217 Plumbers Road is T O C Classic Cars & Trailer Sales (with some variations on the name). The name is always written with spaces between the 'T', 'O', & 'C', so presumably it stands for something, but I never saw it expanded. One of the google hits gave me their old URL, and I was able to find an archived version of their site from 2005 here, giving their mission as:

T.O.C. Classic specializes in restoring the 1967 to 1973 Camaro.

They were in the 2008 phonebook (printed Feb 2007) but not the 2009, so presumably they closed during 2008. Perhaps they fixed all the Camaros..

All I know about Summit Muscle Cars is that they took out an ad on the autabuy site which is still up, but which basically says nothing about the companay at all, though it does have a pretty cool flaming logo graphic.

Rock Hill Public Auto Auction is actually the first google hit for 217 Plumbers Road. The name makes its line of business pretty clear, though it is a bit mystifying why it was not in, you know, Rock Hill..

And finally Schroeder's Towing does not show up in google at all, despite still having a sign on the building window. Given that the whole lot is surrounded by a scary electric fence, my conjecture is that it was the most recent operation in the location and needed some deterrent to people attempting to untow their cars.

UPDATE 29 March 2014 -- It's now Berkeley Outdoors, which seems to be a boat store:

Carzzz is yet another vacant used car lot on Two Notch Road. The name makes me think of those rip-off movies you find in the cheap bin at Wal-Mart or at The Dollar Store where you're supposed to think you're getting a Disney movie, and instead it's some Eastern-European knockoff. Lightning McQueen it's not..

This building, on the northwest corner of Two Notch Road and Beltline Boulevard, was once, in the not too distant past, a Payless Shoe Source, despite striking me as a very odd location for such. In fact, the location is awkward for most uses as it is fairly hard to get into and out of.

The Carzzz web site is still online (and copyright 2010). It's interesting that the picture they use there does not have the old UK style telephone booth on the corner of the store sidewalk. I wonder what the story of that is? I have a dim memory that the nearby Chappy's Authentic English Fish & Chips may have had such a thing, but even if it that were true, I'm not sure how it would end up there.

UPDATE 23 December 2011 -- Work is ongoing here, but no indication of what is coming next:

I have some pictures of the sad fate of the British phonebooth I need to upload too.

UPDATE 10 January 2012 -- As mentioned, here are some pix of the demise of the phonebooth, from 1 October 2011:

UPDATE 25 January 2012 -- As reported by commenter Andrew, this is to be a dental clinic. In fact, as I was in the area yesterday, they were preparing to replace the banner type sign for Family Dental with a permanent sign -- something that was accomplished the next time I drove by (though I did not get a picture of it). With the opening of this clinic, the corner of Two Notch and Beltline will have two dental operations, as the old Eckerd on the opposite side of the street is now Small Smiles dental clinic.

UPDATE 28 January 2012 -- All the signage is up:

UPDATE 27 February 2019: Add tags and map icon.