Columbia Closings   What's not in Columbia anymore

Jewelry Warehouse has been making a number of changes recently. First they closed their longtime Platt Sprints Road location and moved it to Parkland Plaza, now they are closing the Sparkleberry Square location on Two Notch near Sandhill, and the co-located Garnet & Black Traditions and Tiger Paw memorabilia stores.

I have not seen a firm closing date posted, but I believe that the store is still open for now (25 March 2014), or at least it is still listed on the chain web page.

When Wendy's first arrived in Columbia (at two notch in Dentsville), it was one of my favorite places. You could place your order, pay, and pick up a, good, customized, burger almost without slowing down. Of course, I was only about 12 then, so my tastes were bound to change, and anyway the stores seemed to get slower and slower as the years went on. So it is that I believe the most recent Wendy's burger I've had was about five years ago on a trip to Aiken.

Still, even though I wasn't stopping in, I've always been surprised to see the stores close, first on Two Notch, then at the beach, and now here on Beltline by Richland Mall. They did a very fast tear-down of this store to include signage, order boards and drive-through menus. Looks like the register is still booted though..

(Hat tips to commenter Chris & my sister)

UPDATE 26 March 2014 -- Some daylight pix:

T-Bones (no relation to Tbonz) was in Murrells Inlet on the US-17 bypass almost directly across the street from the old Rosa Linda's South.

I only ate at T-Bones once that I can recall, and that would have been not too many years after they opened in 1988. I had a burger, and it was pretty good.

I'm not sure why I never went back -- perhaps because there were closer options for burgers, and because I have a general list of favorites I try to hit when I'm at the beach. At any rate, though I didn't stop again, I often admired the best slogan on the beach as I was driving by, though I would have used a colon instead of a comma.

I noticed this weekend that the place was closed, and the realty sign suggested it was not an entirely voluntary state, which the article linked above confirms. Of course it would seem so far that closing it didn't actually help the bank that much..

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*Something* is going on..

UPATE 22 March 2014: RIP Rock 93.5!

WMFX And WARQ Morph Into Columbia's Rock Station, Fox 102.3, OM/PD Dave Stewart Resigns.

After 22 Years WARQ Columbia (93.5) Leaves Rock/Alternative

I noticed the other day that this car service center just east of Midlands Shopping Center was no longer in business.

The real-estate write up calls it "downtown Columbia", which seems a bit off to me.

Here's another Landmark Square storefront, this one a framing and gifts operation.

According to their referral sign, they moved to 4339 Fort Jackson Boulevard in late 2011, and according to the February 2013 phonebook, they are still there.

There's a lot of land clearing going on in the Bluff Road area south of I-77 by Gills Creek, so I'm not sure how long this little wreck of a building will stay there, but apparently it was Bluff Road Paint And Body Shop. From the advanced state of decrepitude, it could have easily closed in the 1980s, but given that the sign is still there, I'll call it 1990s until I hear differently. Maybe I'll park and walk out to it as some point as well.

UPDATE 16 June 2014 -- A full photoset of a walk back into the property:

I really can't remember the Columbia East Theaters. I think their heyday was when I was living in Fayetteville, and when I came home during that period, I had plenty of go-to theaters closer than these. Various commenters have described how they started out as a twin theater, later expanded to a quad-plex and ended life as a $0.99 cent venue.

Commenter Dennis mentions that the building pre-existed the theaters and was once The New South Music Hall, a live music club.

Currently the building, and surrounding defunct shopping plaza, is part of the Word Of God Ministries, a church which has also rehabilitated the old Intersection Center / Sam Solomon plaza on Diamond Lane.

7351 Garners Ferry Road is an approximate address, taken from a listing for former plaza business The Talk Of The Town Hair Gallery.

(Hat tip to commenter Brent Carter)

12 March 2012:

11 March 2013:

11 March 2014:

I took an annual trip to Aiken last week, and was amazed at the amount of storm damage over there. I had though all the "worst tree kills since Hugo" headlines were a bit of hyperbole since I didn't see anything like that here in Columbia.

Not that that has anything to do with this post. While I was there I also noticed that the Blockbuster in the Bi-Lo parking lot on Silver Bluff Road is finally getting a new tenant. Given how many Blockbuster closings I've done here, I figured I might as well add this one too. (Eventually, I'll get the Litchfield Beach store as well).

UPDATE 5 October 2020: Updating tags, adding map icon.