Columbia Closings   What's not in Columbia anymore

Well, that didn't last too long.

Spunky's Auto Sales was the follow-on operation to Prestige Hitech Autowerks which moved down the street into the old Dick Dyer bodyshop. They opened sometime last fall (the picture I have is from October 2013) and lasted, I'm thinking, until last month (April 2014).

I continue to like the gull-wing lights at these old service stations. The roofline is nice too.

UPDATE 20 November 2015 -- This place has been extensively remodeled and is to become a gas station:

pix 8 August 2015

pix 16 August 2015

pix 23 August 2015

pix 12 September 2015

pix 18 October 2015

pix 6 November 2015

UPDATE 14 March 2016 -- Almost ready to open as King Fuel. It appears the store only needs to be stocked:

At one time this corner storefrong in Capitol Centre was one of my favorite restaurants Cucos Mexican Cafe. I believe it's been more since then than the two businesses I currently have on the post title, C & V's Sports Cafe and Elements, but that's all that google is coming up with for me now.

Anyway, I noticed on my last drive through that it is empty again, and is due shortly to become a Bingo hall.

This little financial center was in the old A & P shopping center at the top of the hill on Sunset Drive. Most recently the complex was a church, but there remained a few commercial storefronts during that phase. In fact, as far as I can tell, the adjacent beauty parlor is still open for business.

Apart from the old "steeple" style A & P architecture, this part of the plaza is interesting for the skylights which you can see in the fifth picture. Somehow the name Cash-O-Matic invokes the same era as the buildings.

UPDATE 21 June 2022: Updating tags and adding map icon.

UPDATE 27 April 2025: I am adding "Shopping Center" to the post title after "Cash-O-Matic" because the whole place looks to be about to go. I stopped by a week or two ago, and noticed that the building on the right hand end (which I think was last some sort of Dollar General-ish store) has either undergone a partial demolition, or the roof just fell in. Does anyone know if this strip ever had a name? I can't ever recall seeing a roadside sign for the place as a whole.

To answer my own questions, this was Sunset Shopping Center, and the property was bought by a church to build apartments, but the job eventually turned out to be to big for them to handle, so they are now working with a third party developer on the project.

I have changed the "Shopping Center" in the post title to "Sunset Shopping Center"

Here's another Boozer Shopping Center storefront, and an interesting busines story.

Assuming that the Sound Advice whose site is here is the same one (and I think it is), then the history of the chain is here. The first store opened in 1974 and it sounds like the original owners decided to sell out and move to Florida around 2004. After that (according to them) the new owners ran things into the ground and then the original owners bought the remnants back in a fire-sale and are now running mostly online with some showrooms in Florida.

I noticed this empty storefront for Aqua Care Pool Service as I was driving down Saint Andrews recently. It's not too far from the big curve and factory. I remember I used to swim so much in the summer that my eyes would get glued shut with sleep due to chlorine irritation. Nowdays it seems the only time I hit a pool is if I'm at a hotel, and probably not even then..

On the other hand -- no jellyfish.

Here's a vacant little Leesburg Plaza storefront. It's not too clear initially what it was:

So let's take that sign and equalize it:

And then flip it:

OK then -- based on phonebooks, it looks like Shell PC & Networking Solutions probably closed shop in 2010.

The only picture of Columbia Gold & More that I have is one taken for the Gold Beauty Supply closing, which shows a partial image in the right corner.

When I went by Boozer Shopping Center today, I happened to notice that not only was *that* gone, but the follow-on operation J & J Wireless had come and gone as well.

This little sandwich shop is attached to a convenience store / gas station on the West side of US-1 heading into Lexington. I had driven past it a number of times in the previous months, but had never really seen it. This time, when I stopped at the store, I noticed that it was there, and that it was closed. What reviews I see online are positive, and indicate it was open at least into June of 2013.

Old:

New:

Starbucks has now moved from its original Woodhill location by Panera Bread down to the corner formerly occupied by Qdoba.

The new location gives it a drive through window, but perhaps more importantly in my view, moves it away from Panera. It has never made much sense to me to have a coffee and pastry shop located... right next to a shop that sells better coffee and pastries in a more comfortable setting. Without the drive-through all they had going for them was staying open a little later.

UPDATE 30 November 2021: Updating tags and adding map icon.

I'm not sure whether this was a move or a closing as the company is certainly still around, but Kaplan Test Prep And Admissions is no longer in this little building on the north side of Gervais. The rest is left as an exercise for the reader. Please use a #2 pencil only.