Columbia Closings   What's not in Columbia anymore

The State has the story of this Lexington closing for Stephano's. The long and short of it is the owners are retiring, and the building will re-open as The Root Cellar, "featur[ing] locally grown meats and produce".

It's still hard for me to believe that a restaurant opened in 1977 has been around almost 40 years -- 1977 seems like just yesterday.

UPDATE 9 June 2016 -- Here is The Free Times on 'The Root Cellar'

UPDATE 11 July 2016 -- The Root Cellar:

I'm not sure what is being built in front of Target at 10200/10202 Two Notch, but the former Synergy Wellness & Weight Loss building has already been razed and the former Northeast Animal Clinic building is aparently not long for the world. Both businesses will continue in new locations, Synergy at 10607 Two Notch and Northeast eventually at 10171 Two Notch, but currently at 7352 Parklane.

You can see good views of the razed building at this Google Streetview link.

Here's the new Synergy location. Pretty sure from the look that it's a former Russell Jeffcoat:

(Hat tip to commenter Benjamin Higgins)

Read the rest of this entry »

I was driving South on US-17 from Pawleys to Charleston last Saturday when I happened to notice this former store on the East side of the road in McClellanville. I actually drove past it, but then decided to turn around since the light was good, and I had no confidence it would still be there the next time I was in the area.

I had figured it for an old small general-store/country-store type of operation, and I suspect that was indeed the case, but a closer inspection turned up the fact that it had most recently been a thrift shop, and indeed a good bit of the merchandise was still in the interior, including books, lamps and various small kitchen electrics.

Also, as I went around the back of the store, I caught sight of the old house to which the store was presumably attached, and it is an impressive two story structure dating, by looks, to the early years of the 20th century, possibly the 1920s. The brick columns and porch in particular put me in the mind of my great-aunt's Vox community house in the Pee-Dee. There are real estate signs for the whole three acre property, but since they are for commercial activity, and the house is obviously not being maintained, I suspect both buildings will be soon knocked down, which I feel is an especial shame for the house. I would love to have a house like that on a lot with oaks & magnolias like that -- though perhaps not on a four lane highway.

Read the rest of this entry »

This closing is a fallout from the chain's bankruptcy which includes the shuttering of 113 of its 739 US stores:

If you're a teenager shopping for clothes, you're probably not going to Aeropostale, a fact that became glaringly obvious when the apparel retailer filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection Wednesday.

Maybe they shouldn't have put stale in their name..

The location of trees in front of this Sandhill storefront, and the desire not to be in the window's reflection made getting good pictures iffy, but you can see the standardized Store Closing and discount placards that show up at many of these managed sell-outs.

(Hat tip to commenter James R)

I remember driving past this building some years ago and being pleased that such a classic design was still in service. I'm a sucker for anything with gull wings, and whatever this related type of design is called. The aerodynamics make it look like with a good headwind, it would hover like Sally Field.

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..

Read the rest of this entry »

I noticed driving by the other day that the old Howard Johnson's on Zimalcrest Drive at Bush River has closed for remodeling. I believe it has most been under a number of flags since the Hojo days, but most recently, it was a Budget Inn.

This place is a bit unusual in that it has a strip club Thee Whiskey Tavern operating out of a suite of rooms. I have never heard of such an arrangement elsewhere (and don't know if the club is closed during the remodel). You will also remember that the attached restaurant Punjabi Dhaba suffered a fire in early 2014, and has since been torn down.

UPDATE 28 June 2016 -- Renovations continue:

UPDATE 30 August 2016 -- Well this place is open again, now as Hawthorn Suites by Wyndham which at least sounds a bit more upscale this time. I will have to check to see if Thee Whiskey Tavern is still co-located or not:

UPDATE 11 September 2016 -- Well Thee Whiskey Tavern is still there, something of an anomaly in a property that's trying to go a little bit more upmarket than Budget Inn:

This is not a new closing, but somehow I had missed this vacancy on Devine Street next to Handpicked until the real estate sign in the window caught my eye last week.

Belladea was a women's clothing store whose Facebook page is stil available here.

Following up the real estate sign, I found a LoopNet listing which shows a picture of the suite's next occupant The Curtain Exchange. I'm not sure exactly when that closed, but I would guess sometime in 2015.

I had done a closing for the Columbia Mall Hancock Fabrics but had not got around to dropping by the Harbison Court location until this last weekend. In the event, I wasn't able to get a good shot of the place for various reasons, but this store too is part of the chain's ongoing liquidation since their February 2016 bankruptcy and will close soon.

By the bye, the link above also links to this piece which is a pretty exact description of my childhood memories of fabric stores.