Columbia Closings   What's not in Columbia anymore

Commenter Midnight Rambler sent these photos (some time ago) from 18 November 2011 saying:

For those who camped out for concert tickets, these pictures bring back
memories. I took them in Nov. 2011 knowing the new business building would be going there.

This parking lot faced the North side of the Coliseum, fronting on Greene Street and was built over by the new Darla Moore School Of Business around 2012.

(Hat tip to commenter Midnight Rambler)

Came across these pictures from 2012, and as far as I can tell, the building, just past the closed Wal-Mart & Murphy's, is still there, but it ceased being Bush River Auto Mall around 2018, moving to another nameplate, Automotive Showcase at that that time.

It's a nice little house.

This location of Pelican's was in the old Winn-Dixie plaza at the corner, and was apparently some sort of bank at one time.

I had noticed that it was no longer sporting the Pelian's colors, but hadn't gotten around to checking it out. Apparently this location shares ownership with the Rosewood one, and closed in early May, which is not what I would normally expect, as that is just as the SnoBall season is really starting.

The place as been redone with really odd orange awnings above, and black below to block out the Pelican's branding. It seems, somehow, to also have acquired a new set of windows on the side nearest Decker.

When I mentioned that Old Chicago in this plaza had closed, I neglected to say that the across-the-parking-lot neighbor, Flapjacks Pancake Cabin had also closed. You will remember that this location was a former Western Steer which then became a strip-club. At the time there was speculation that the (then) new Wal-Mart was pressuring the city to de-zone the club to make the area a bit more family friendly, and it appears that Flapjacks didn't exactly leave under their own steam either. This Facebook is all rumors, but it appears that the plaza owners have non-restaurant plans for that wing of the property.

In the event, Flapjacks was there for about ten years. Here is the Sun News on the place moving in. (Notice that the original plan for the Old Chicago spot was a Quaker Steak & Lube, which never happened).

The chain still exists, and now appears to be restricted to Tennesse. For now, you can still see their Garden City page here.

That does beg the question on the location. Google & the street address say this is Murrells Inlet, but to me it is pretty clearly Garden City.

UPDATE 7 October 2025: Found a picture of the lighted sign and added it up top.

I don't have much to say about this place beyond that it was another Scooter's Coffee and closed with the rest in the area.

I do think it is nice that the lights are still up.

I'm trying to recall the last movie I saw at Dutch Square, but I believe it was during the AMC era, and I don't believe I ever went to the Bow Tie operation.

This decade has not been a good one for theaters, and I expect it to get worse and to not ever return to previous levels. That's a shame as there is nothing like sitting in a full house during a good movie, but times move on. I know that the old Spring Valley Commons Theater went to storage and office space. We'll have to see what happens here, but I don't expect another cinema to move in.

Here are The State & The Post & Courier on the closing.

Overstock moved into this location sometime after Bed Bath & Beyond went under in 2023. Now they are closing as well. Their Facebook doesn't give any end date, but apparently the final to-the-walls sale is in progress.

Actually I had just noticed this place several weeks ago, and thought to myself that sitting outside on the patio would be nice on a sunny fall afternoon, but like all too many places, I waited too long.

Iron Hill Brewery was a 29 year old company according to USA Today, with 19 locations along the east coast. There were signs of trouble recently as the company closed its original store, and two others. The trouble came home on 25 September when they closed the remaining 16 stores, and filed for bankruptcy. The USA Today story does not specify what chapter was filed, but the company's closing note made hopeful noises about a return someday.

Interestingly, I see from the closing list that they had opened a location in Geenville at 741 Haywood Road, the site of a former favorite place of mine, Don Pablo's, although I don't believe I ever did a closing on it.

You can check WIS, WLTX, or The State for (some) details on the local closure, which is a bit of a blow for The Bull Street District.

When I went by on Sunday, there were definitely people inside the place, I don't know if they were packing up, or evaluating the building, but it seems like a pretty nice one, so hopefully something new will come in before too long.

(Hat tip to commenter Heath)

I have the feeling that this place had a different name when I was growing up, and indeed you can see that the current marquee seems to be installed over a, different, previous one. During those years, it was not at all unusual for a "real" store to be in downtown Fernandina. There was a grocery store where the antique mall is now, Wass Drugs, the local department store, run by by a childhood friend of my father, a gas station, and several sundries shops. Now it is all pretty much restaurants and touristy shops -- not that I don't enjoy that, but a bit of the character of a "working city" is gone.

I don't have many specific memories of the hardware store, except that I'm pretty sure my father would walk over from my aunt's house now and then to pick up things for the various small repair projects he did for her on our visits, such as tacking the stair-covers down again. As it happens, I needed a dowel when I was in town in December of 2023, and walked over from the hotel and got one. The place was very old-school of the sort you don't see much anymore -- think the downton (not Five Points") incarnation of Hiller Hardware.

They have been trying to sell the building for a couple of years, and this summer seemed to have stepped up the efforts, and posted official closing signs. I'm unclear if they are still open at this time or not -- I don't see anything online, and google doesn't have them down as "closed", but if not, it's just a matter of time.

The Woody moved from the Vista to this Main Street corner in 2020, and continued in operation after the passing of founder Woody Windham last year. Unfortunately with the new SC liquor liability laws, the family is unable to keep the doors open past October.

They say they hope to open in a new location as a real restaurant, but there are no firm plans for that yet.

In the meantime, the upstairs neighbor, Hendrix, will be taking over the space to open a pizza restaurant.

You can read about the closing in ColaDaily, The Post & Courier, The State, and on WLTX.

It seems to me that South Carolina's nightlife scene has been greatly altered almost surreptitiously & through the back door.