Columbia Closings   What's not in Columbia anymore

I had to carry a beeper once in the 80s for a few months. It was an unpleasant experience, but not one I thought anyone still had. To my surprise, there are still half a dozen or more companies in the Paging section of the Yellow Pages, although it looks like there will be one less in next year's book.

UPDATE 17 January 2015: Changed the closing date from 2014 to to 2013 and added TransSouth Financial based on the comments.

The first phonebook listing I find for The Tremont Motor Inn is in the July 1958 book where the address is given simply as Hwy No 21 Cayce and the phone number is the old style AL 4-5121.

Later phonebooks would give the address with more specificity as 111 Knox Abbott Drive and update the phone number to 254-5121.

From its inception through 1984 the Tremont did not purchase a Yellow Page ad. In fact, the first one that I saw was in the February 1985 phonebook. This one, pictured above, gave the new phone number as 796-6240, indicating, I believe, a change of ownership.

The last listing I saw for the Tremont was in the February 1994/1995 phonebook. This was followed by the first listing for the Riverside Inn in the February 2002/2003 book, leaving an eight year gap. I presume the building was run under another flag during those years, but I would have to consult a city directory to find what it was, and did not have time on my last visit to the library.

The building was in a great location on a large property close to the river with a park-like expanse of walking paths, and I suppose it was quite nice for many years. Unfortunately, by the time my cousin booked a room in the fall of 2013 (to be close to USC for some seminars), she found it dirty and run-down to the point that she felt unsafe.

The actual tear down was quite leisurely, extending over a period of about four months. On my initial walk-through, I was unsure how much of the property was actually the motel, as there were some buildings out back that appeared to be in use by other businesses, but in the event it appears everything was demolished. For some reason, every time I went out to get pictures, I either got there late just as the sun was fading, or the day would be heavily overcast. There are a few bright shots, but that was the exception.

I'm not quite sure what the green carpeted area by the pool was. It almost looked like the motel had a little putting green, but I didn't see a hole there. Of course now the whole place is more or less a hole...

29 September 2014:

7 October 2014:

29 November 2014:

26 December 2014:

UPDATE 2 February 2015 -- Commenter TahoeChic pointed out an old Tremont postcard on Ebay, which I have bought and scanned, putting the image at the top of the page. Notice the differences in the property from the time of the postcard (which gives the "AL" prefix phone number, so it probably dates from the early 1960s) to now. For instance the big roadside sign was gone, the short brick wall along Knox Abbott drive had yet to be build, there was a canopy in the parking lot, the pool area was not enclosed and had a diving board, and it does not appear the the final front-office building had been built.

Commenter fourlizards found a Tremont key and took a picture, I have added that under the postcard.

Photosets:

Photoset 28 September 2014

Photoset 7 October 2014

Photoset 19 October 2014

Photoset 29 November 2014

Photoset 26 December 2014

Discount Cars & Trucks was the follow-on operation to Go Used Tires in this old Esso building in Dentsville.

I have to say I can't actually recall seeing any cars or trucks there, though I know there must have been some.

Hook 'n Needle was one of the last shops to move out of Intersection Center, leaving its original location for Boozer Shopping Center in 2011.

Commenter Andrew reports that the place closed in that location late in 2013 or early in 2014 and that the owner sadly passed away shortly thereafter.

(Hat tip to commenter Andrew)

You can look at the corner view in the LoopNet listing for this building at North Main & Confederate and see a portrait format marquee on the side.

Somewhere I have a picture of that marquee up close with the name of the place visible, but as is often the case, knowing I have a picture and being able to put my hands on it in a timely fashion are two sadly different things. Commenter Justin believes this was a window tinting business, and that sounds plausible to me. What google pulls up, however, are references to two different used car operations. If that's accurate, I think they both would have to be from some years ago, as I cannot recall the lot being anything but empty in recent years.

(Hat tip to commenter Justin)

I did a previous closing for this building when it was Lexus Of Columbia.

Insurance brokers Cutler & Associates were the follow-up business in this location. Sadly, it appears that Mr. Cutler has passed on after what sounds like a full and fruitful life.

UPDATE 10 May 2016 -- This building is now Pool Tables Plus:

I've posted this building before, but for a store which was actually in Boozer Shopping Center. Now that the building has been completely remodeled and is open as Auto Zone, I'm taking the opportunity to make a post which more correctly describes its history.

You can look at the comments on this post (which I need to totally revamp and correct) for some of that history, and this article describes the sale of the property to Auto Zone and mentions the call center tenant (which was not Spherion, which commenter Adder tags as a temp contractor).

Well, you've seen the signs, now you can get $10.00 off.

I went to this Jiffylube near the I-20 interchange on Two Notch several times. While sitting in the heat and watching traffic up and down Two Notch is no garden vista, the deck was nice as it got you out of the waiting room and away from the TV.

The siting of this store was interesting as it was directly next to a Precision Tune, just as the Knox Abbott location is almost directly across the street from one.

Update 10 October 2016 -- Now Quackt Glass windshield repair:

I was unaware of Technesis on Meeting Street, but commenter Frank notes:

Technesis at 536 Meeting St in West Columbia has closed.
This was the followup operation to Microprice around 2010.
The owner sold the customers to another IT company out of Charlotte and closed the doors.

It is nice that the customers were taken care of in the closing.

(Hat tip to commenter Frank)

Here's another vacant storefront in Tillman's Plaza on Two Notch. I happened to glace across the street as I was at Kinko's, printing some documents and noticed it was gone.