Columbia Closings   What's not in Columbia anymore

Commenter Larry points out this State story on the closing of Palmetto Candy & Tobacco. This Columbia institution is on Lincoln Street across from the Seaboard station, and is someplace I have always meant to check out. In the event, as is often the case, I have apparently waited too long.

As the 21 April story (which places the closing time as "about a month ago") notes, there is a "remodeling" sign on the store door, but I find that more often than not in these cases, that is kind of a "the cat is on the roof and won't come down" way to break bad news. This is especially the case given the customer base was apparently largely "filling stations, corner markets, baseball leagues and swimming pools" -- the types of operations which will quickly change to new suppliers and then be reluctant to make yet another change if the place reopens.

(Hat tip to commener Larry)

UPDATE 19 March 2022 -- I just came across this 26 August 2008 shot of the place in operation:

Also updating tags and adding a map icon.

Well, another day, another closed gas station on The Sumter Highway. This one is recent though, closing some time in March I think, though it can probably be figured accurately from the gas prices.. While I was taking these shots, the guy from the adjacent Subway came over and wanted to know if I was looking to buy the building. I'm not sure I ever did convey exactly what I was doing (which really doesn't make much sense to any rational person).

I like the canopy here, and the way it slightly "vees" rather than being completely flat as most new ones are. I think most modern construction has lost something. Notice too that the pumps have analog/mechanical displays. The one for 89 octane looks as though it was not happy to get up into the $3 range. Also note, one of the common features of a recently closed business: The new phonebook parked against the door.

As an added bonus, the drive home from here was very scenic:

(Hat tip to someone whose comment I can no longer find)

UPDATE 24 November 2014 -- The Hot Spot is open again (and apparently has been for some time):

UPDATE 22 January 2017 -- This place has now re-flagged as O M Mart:

UPDATE 31 January 2023: Adding map icon.

The follow-on business in the Jack's Shoes building, Leapin' Lizards,

Columbia’s only Parent-Friendly Inflatable Play Center

has closed down. Looking at the (archived) link above, it does appear to me that it would indeed be a lot of fun for those in the bouncy-castle demographic (and future Wipeout contestants have to come from somewhere :-).

This closing follows that of the somewhat more elaborate Monkey Business in Lexington by about two years, and, I believe follows the re-opening of the nearby Little Gym which was damaged during the D's Wings fire.

(Hat tip to commenter JohnBom)

UPDATE 22 April 2012 -- Here are some more and better pictures, including the still extant Forest Drive sign:

I noticed this abandoned gas station a few weeks ago coming back into town on the Sumter Highway. It sits where US-378 (The Sumter Highway) and SC-764 meet at a fork in the road.

I'm sure that the painting on the facade is sufficient to identify what brand of station it was, but I'm drawing a blank on it right now, and as often as I have driven (or ridden..) that road since the 1960s, I'm almost certain I never stopped there.

These pictures were taken about 5 minutes too late -- Just before I got to the area, the sun had broken through the storm clouds for that glorious late-afternoon-post-storm light you get sometimes, but by the time I started snapping, the clouds were already rolling back in. I wish I had the honey-suckle pumps in that light..

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Well, here's another property of indeterminate address. I know that it's at the north-west corner of Percival Road and Jamaica Street, but I didn't see an address on the property, and google is not helpful here. It's certainly in-between John Boy's Auto Repair & Service at 2921 and Stone's Wholesale at 3001.

Just looking at the place, I suspect this was a failed retail strip-mall, but it could also have been a service plaza. Either way, I have no memory of having seen it in operation, though I must have. It appears that all the windows were broken out at some point, or perhaps there was a fire inside. At any rate the place is in poor shape at this point.

This building on the South side of Shakespeare Road near Columbia Mall has been a number of things over the years, none of which really made an impression on me.

Judging from google, the last two seem to have been a hair salon, which closed sometime before 2009, and a church, which seems to have moved last year.

As far as I can tell, at least going by the lack of signage, the building is currently vacant, but also as far as I can tell, it does not seem to be for sale.

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I don't know if this was the same Awesome Mattress business that was on on Two Notch in the old Zesto building that is now Hola Mexico, or a different one. If it was the same one, it didn't last too long in its new location, wihch is not one that catches my eye often. In fact, I don't ever recall going to this little Columbia Mall outparcel strip-mall for anything, and would be hard pressed to name any store that has ever been there..

UPDATE 1 June 2012 -- It's now a Richland County Sherriff's station:

This distressed building, on Old Legrand Road just off of Parklane near the Farrow intersection, was obviously a store of some sort, judging from the marquee space above doors in front. It also appears to have had a really nice ceiling at one time, though no more. I considered taking a closer look at the back rooms which are visible here, but decided that was the kind of place where people who don't want company might stay. There's what appears to be a pump shed on the right side of the building, so I'm guessing this place was never on city water.

Google has a pretty good satellite view of the place:

View Larger Map

Looking at that, it appears there is another decrepit building on the same lot further back from the road.

UPDATE 14 April 2012: Commenter sugarbear1 provides one of the names for this place: Mr. B's Railroad Tavern. I have put that in the post title and have taken out the generic "Building". Also changed the "1970s" closing date to "1990s".

UPDATE 15 April 2012: Changed the closing date again to "late 2000s" based on the fantastic photos commenter Dennis dug up (check his link in the comments).

UPDATE 24 April 2012: OK, I did some research at the library. Interestingly, this location apparently never had a telephone listing, and I had to get the infromation from on "city" directories.

The first such listing is in the 1983 city directory, and gives the address (which is clearly *now* on Old Legrand Road) as 8444 Parklane Road. The listing is for

Mr. B's Railroad Tavern (Thos Hammonds)

I assume Thomas Hammonds was either the business owner or the property owner..

The last listing was in the 1991 city directory, and the 1992 directory lists the address as "vacant".

The Febuary 1993 Bellsouth directory is the first to list Mr. B's Railroad Tavern as being at 6531 Two Notch Road. The last listing was in the February 2000 directory. Here is a shot of what's currently at that location:

I'll note also, that it turns out "Mr. B's" is a pretty popular name for various places, and there were a number of other places with that prefix during the same time period. In fact, there is currently a Mr. B's at 3128 Two Notch Road just east of Beltline which appears to be a bar and venue.

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