Columbia Closings   What's not in Columbia anymore

This corner space at Trenholm Plaza was most recently occupied by The UPS Store, but when I was growing up, it was Ed Robinson's, though I probably never knew it by name.

My mother did not believe in clothes dryers, opting for a clothes-line in the back yard. This was fine most of the time, but since rain is not unknown in the Columbia area, every now and then we would be faced with a need for clothes that were not yet dry. In addition to that, in the 1960s I had the impression that our washer was something of a lemon. There were fairly frequent calls to the service man, and more than once I recall the floor covered in sudsy water.

When we needed clothes washed or dryed, there were two choices: either the laundomat by what is now city hall on Trenholm Road, or the one in Trenholm Plaza. I think that when my mother had to deal with us children, we tended to end up at Ed Robinson since she could let us "free-range" around the plaza while the clothes were cycling.

As I recall, the staffed laundry was in the east end of the building with the laundromat area being in the west end. The laundromat area was filled with tables and wheeled hampers, and smelled of soap and hot lint. As I recall, the tables were some sort of plastic, or covered with plastic and hued aqua-marine. I would sit on them, and swing my legs back and forth (this must have been before I could read, or I would have had a book). As a boy I was fascinated by mechanical devices of all sorts, and I was particularly fixated on the gas dryers which lined the west wall. Not only did they have sort of retro-spaceship-control sliders for varying the temp from "warm" to "way too hot", but they were large enough (floor to ceiling) that I could imagine actually riding in one (this was during Gemini & Apollo) with more room to spare than the astronauts had. The start (or "blast off") process was particularly satisfying as you put your quarter in a slot way at the top of the machine (I had to use a chair), turned a knob which had a very satisfying action, heard your coin drop with a cheery plink, and then got to push the starter button which wound the whole thing up.

The washers were not quite as interesting, but did have a variety of little plastic tops you could put on the agitator for reasons which escape me now, and of course you could always play "open the lid -- washer stops" / "close the lid -- washer starts" until my mother would make me stop so she would get a full wash from her quarter.

I'm not sure when the cleaner closed. I know it was still there in 1970, but think it was gone by the time I left town in 1985. As for myself, while I agree with my mother that line dried clothes are nicer than tumble-dried ones, I don't have her patience. The line is still in the back yard, but the clothes go in the Kenmore. (And for all that I tend to be a "they don't make them like that anymore" guy, I don't think I've ever had to call service on a modern washer or drier..)

The original plan for Trenholm Plaza was to tear down the whole wing, and The UPS Store moved across the way in anticipation of that, but in the event the economy collapsed and management scaled their plans back to doing a remodel instead. Most of the spaces have been re-filled, but the old Ed Robinson space is currently still empty.

UPDATE 29 November 2011 -- It's to be a Cafe Caturra:

UPDATE 7 February 2012 -- The Cafe Caturra looks about ready to open:

Well, thankfully, according to WLTX nobody was injured though $2,000,000 damage was done to the building by the fire which started in an oil heater.

This AAA Car Care Center opened rather recently, being built after a number of pre-existing buildings were taken down in May of 2008.

UPDATE 25 Dec 2010 -- More pictures from 21 Dec and 22 Dec:

UPDATE 30 Dec 2010 -- Here are some more pix from 26 Dec:

UPDATE 25 Feb 2011 -- Well, they've completely knocked down the building now (and the burned out SUV is gone..):

UPDATE 25 May 2011 -- rebuilding has started, here are some pix from 13 May 2011:

UPDATE 1 June 2011 -- Work continues in these pictures from 29 May:

UPDATE 30 August 2011 -- Nearly done:

UPDATE 20 October 2011 -- Open again:

Back in the 1970s, Shoney's was a big deal, and we ate there quite often. At the time, they were afilliated with the Big Boy chain, and they always had "Big Boy" comic books as free premiums for the kids. I can't recall any of his specific plotlines at this remove, but he (Big Boy) and his girlfriend Dolly, always had some sort of food related adventure in the front of the comic leaving the back for puzzles and mazes.

We ate most often at the Two Notch location (now vacant) but I think we did come to this one from time to time.

After dropping the Big Boy tie, Shoney's coasted pretty well for a while, then started getting into trouble and closing a lot of stores. At one point they tried to diversify by getting into hotels (Shoney's Inn) something for which apparently they didn't have the necessary skill set, and that hurt them some more.

I believe this one closed well before the Two Notch one, and has been a Lizard's Thicket for quite a number of years now.

UPDATE: Closing date changed from "1970s" to "late 1980s" based on commenter Weston's info.

UPDATE 10 September 2020: Update tags, add map icon.

I have to admit I'm drawing a blank on this building. It's on Covenant Road just below the final Forest Lake TV location, and just above the former Danielle Le Shay Gallerie. In fact, google searches on "3618 Covenant Road" turn up the Danielle Le Shay name, but that was 3620.

Anyway I'm sure I've driven past it hundreds of times since 1969 and must have seen it in operation as a number of different businesses over the years, but none of them is coming to me now. I will say that it has a cleaner-ish look to it.

UPDATE 15 Jan 2011 -- OK, I spent some time with the city directories, though I only got up to 1995 before the library closed, but here's what I have for this building:

1970 -1972 -- Powers 60 Minute Cleaners
1973 -- Boland's One Hour Martinizing
1974 -1977 -- Vacant
1978 -- The clock Doctor
1979 -- Vacant
1980 - 1981 -- Brinson's Quality Cleaners
1982 - 1984 -- Vacant
1985 -- Haywood Electrical Corp
1986 -1987 -- B C Bike Inc
1988 - 1990 -- Vacant
1991 -- Jomacies Cafeteria (hard to read my handwriting, but I think that's it)
1992 - 1995 Vacant (I did not have time to check past 1995)

I believe The Clock Doctor is still around in that little strip of trailers across from the Two Notch K Mart.

UPDATE 3 February 2021: This building and the one next door were razed in December 2020:

Also updating tags and adding map icon.

Not really a closing, but I was at Bruegger's Sunday, and happened to notice that the building housing Be Beep and The Happy Cafe is being re-roofed.

The Be Beep area was roped off, but they aren't open on Sunday anyway so I doubt they'll have any downtime.

As usual, I got to the library about 5 minutes before closing time, and was trying to look up several things. One of them was old City Directory listings for Trenholm Plaza. In the event, I got two, one for 1964, when I would have been three years old, and perhaps dimly conscious that we were going to the same places a lot, and one from 1970 when I would have been nine years old, and looking forward to Western Auto visits to window shop at all the "hobby batteries" and bicycles.

I'm pretty sure Trenholm Plaza was a golf course not too many years before 1964, so that wave of stores is probably pretty close to the original list:

While many of those stores lasted for years, the USPO is the only original tenant left.

There are a lot of hold-overs in 1970, but a good bit of turnover as well:

Interestingly (to me), I can't for the life of me recall a Gene's Pig 'n Chick in Trenholm Plaza at all, and I would have thought it would have stuck in my mind. I don't recall those dentists either, and in fact am a little surprised by seeing non-retail there.

Of these TP stores, I've done closings for:

A&P (sort of)

Edisto Farms Dairy

Liggett Rexal

Standard (Federal)

Tapps Twig (sort of)

UPDATE 11 October 2013: Look at this great 1979 picture of Trenholm Plaza. Be sure to zoom all the way in, and pan around. Thanks to commenter Dennis for finding this!

Interesting item in The State yesterday. There will be a series of Forest Acres history lectures in Town Hall over the next month, given by local historian Warner Montgomery, who has written the forthcoming book Forest Acres:

As promised below, this is commenter Dennis's map of the original Richland Mall. He also sends this note:

Hi ted

Well, finally, here's a first attempt at a Richland Mall layout, circa 1968.
Please feel free to correct!

Obviously it is just a sketch, and proportions etc. are extremely
approximate. Not to scale!

1. J.B. White's

2. a jewelry store -- King's?

3. no idea -- what was in this area?

4. Hickory Farms

5. The Shop for Pappagallo (women's shoes way too expensive for our family)

6. Baubles 'N Things (not sure about this one)

7. Mr. Popper's

8. Meri's Records

9. maybe this was Baubles 'N Things

10. ?

11. Pet-A-Rama

12. Ruff Hardware

13. Berry's on Main (actually at Richland Mall - always thought this was a
dumb name)

14. Winn Dixie

15. Redwood Cafeteria - not sure this was a plain rectangle; it may have
been an L shape. For a while the corner closest to White's had a separate
entrance and a little soda fountain area.

16. Hickory Farms' second location after the moved "across the aisle."

17. Woolworth's

18. Colonial Stores / Big Star

19. Eckerd's

20. What was here? A little travel agency, maybe? Remember travel agencies, before the internet?

21. Gerald's Shoe Repair

22. Merle Norman Cosmetics (or maybe they were 23)

23. Russell Stover (before they put their own building way out in the
parking lot)

24. coin laundromat; owned by the cleaners next door. The manager had a little walk-thru between the two.

25. dry cleaner's -- Ed Robinson's, maybe?

26. automated Post Office, like the one at old Woodhill Mall. An exercise in frustration every time.

27. Russell Stover's own building, far enough from the mall to make sure
they went out of business.

The white boat shapes in the center walkway were fountains when new, then, like every other property owner that gets completely fed up with the trouble and expense of fountains, the owners turned them into planters. Sometimes they covered them with carpeted plywood and used them as stages. I met Jolly Jim and J.P. Sidewinder there one Saturday. Was there a third one down closer to White's?

The white lines between Woolworth's and Colonial show the bike rack, used constantly by me.

The little gray inset into Colonial was their loading dock, which always
stunk. Speaking of stink, there was a really ugly dumpster in the parking
lot right out the back door of Redwood Cafeteria that reeked and bred vermin in ways that defy explanation.

28., 29., 30. The shady backside of the mall had a few offices that held no
interest for me. One was a State Farm agency, I think, and one was the
mall's business office.

Thanks, Dennis!

Have at it folks..

UPDATE 19 Sep 2010 -- Well, I went down to the library today and ended up looking in the old "City Directories". I hadn't really paid a lot of attention to those, since they tend not to have interesting ads like old phonebook yellow pages. HOWEVER what it turns out they *do* have is complete (or at least pretty complete) listings of shopping center tenants. Herewith the Richland Mall listings for 1962 (which I believe was the mall's first year of operation), 1975 and 1985:

1962:

1975:

1985:

UPDATE 21 June 2011: Added [at top] a view of the old Richland Mall including Whites, Russell Stover, Richland Mall Theater, and part of Redwood Cafeteria from an old Chamber of Commerce promotional book.

UPDATE 9 February 2012 -- Well Richland Mall is rezoning:

According to The State:

The new zoning allows the mall owners “all kinds of options,” including space for offices, residences, hotels, restaurants and schools, according to Mark Williams, Forest Acres’ city manager.

UPDATE 21 May 2020 -- Here's a nifty color shot of the old Richland Mall centrial corridor at the Colonial. Unfortunately I can't inline it due to copyright, but it's worth a click.

This one was a well planned closing. The "for lease" sign, and the "closing sale" signs had been up for a couple of months before this little store, on Forest Drive right next to Bruegger's Bagels, shut down. I'm assuming it closed at the end of August since month-boundries make sense when you have time to plan, though I didn't notice the vacant space until today.

I never went into Jewelry Mart as it didn't seem targetted at my gender or demographic but one of my aunts did stop in once, and mentioned that the staff was very pleasant and she struck up a conversation, actually leaving with the manager's mix-cd of store music after she complimented him on his taste in songs.

I believe that this is the first vacancy for this little strip. It was all built a few years ago, so up until now it has had the original tenants.

UPDATE 2 Feb 2011 -- It's to be Wristwatch Doc watch sales & repair:

UPDATE 14 Feb 2011 -- apparently Artisan Jewelers is the official name (but why not put that on the roadside sign?):

UPDATE 16 November 2017: Adjust address in post title, add tags.