Columbia Closings   What's not in Columbia anymore

I ran across this old country grocery the other day at the eastern intersection of Leesburg Road and Old Leesburg Road. I haven't been able to match the name and address in google to have any idea when it closed -- Just looking at it, it could be any time from 1970 to last week. (Although he "hours" sign on the door does look more modern than 1970). Anyway, it's the kind of place where you can imagine a barefoot kid walking in on a hot day for an RC Cola and a Moon Pie (and dropping peanuts into the soda..).

I noticed Saturday that the Dunkin' Donuts in the old Mister Donut location on Forest Drive is closed and some sort of remodeling work is going on. Offhand, I would say they are trying to make it look more like one of their new locations.

Given what seems to be happening, and the fact that the sign hasn't been taken down, I would expect this place to re-open fairly shortly.

UPDATE 5 April 2012 -- Work continues:

UPDATE 16 April 2012 -- Open again:

It seems unlikely that this building, which is partly a car wash and partly a barber shop, at 5100 Two Notch road is the one which originally housed China Royal Restaurant, especially as the 1976 yellow pages ad says that they could seat 250 people. It is however at the same address.

It's interesting that this stretch of Two Notch used to have a number of restaurants, including aside from this one The Ranch and Huddle House

UPDATE 26 March 2012 -- Interesting. Commenter Mike says that in fact China Royal was in the same building that also housed The Ranch and is now This Is It! Video on one side and a nightclub on the other:

The address of that building is now 5024 Two Notch Road, and the current asignee of the 5100 address (above) seems to make sense as it comes right as a new block starts..

Today's pictures come from commenter Alaska Jill, who says:

Booker T. Washington School/George Rogers Mural: I knew I'd best get
pictures of those while I could, too. These were taken on a chilly
Sunday afternoon in February 1999. The mural of George Rogers was a
Blossom Street landmark and could not be missed.

George Rogers and I were at Carolina together, though to the best of my knowledge, we never crossed paths. What I remember though, is that his winning the Heisman Trophy in 1980 was a big deal. A *really* big deal. Quite possibly a deal that was visible from earth orbit, and influenced local gravitational fields..

It was also somewhat of a surprise. I clearly recall that in the run-up to the award announcement, the Daily Gamecock ran an editorial under the head By George, He hasn't got a chance! enumerating all the reasons why it wasn't going to happen. Not being a sports fan myself, I recall the campus events around John Lennon's death that same year more clearly, but I was certainly aware big events were afoot!

I'm not sure when the murals went up, but they were, as Jill says, landmarks for many years. (The road near the stadium and fairgrounds was renamed for Rogers in the same period). I have the vague memory that the Booker T. Washington building itself was at one time a public high school before the property was taken over by USC. I think both the mural and the building came down while I was living out of town, or at least I have no memory of what happened. Today I can't exactly match where it was on Blossom with what's there now...

George Rogers played pro ball until 1987, and is now retired. Wikipedia doesn't really say anything about him after that. It would not surprise me if he had a car dealership or a real estate business somewhere.

(Thanks to Alaska Jill).

UPDATE 18 July 2018 -- Here are some more pictures from commenter JHT who says

You can see this was taken before he was even drafted into the NFL as it is blank.

I noticed the other day that the eastern-most storefront in Tillman's Plaza was empty. I've written about this building before, as it was the last location of The Byte Shop, one of Columbia's first computer stores. The first picture above comes from that closing.

There is a Play It Again Sports on Bower Parkway, but I don't know if it moved from here.

UPDATE 19 July 2012 -- It's now 5 Star Rental Purchase (with a rather "Patrick" looking mascot):

I first wrote about this storefront in The Shops At O'Neil Court in the closing for the O'Neil Court location of Capitol Newsstand, and after that more or less forgot about it.

I noticed today that the follow-on operation to Capitol, Fitness Solutions has gone as well.

The first picture above is from that Capitol closing, taken pretty much exactly three years ago. I don't know why I didn't try for a closer shot other than there were probably people inside, but you can vaguely make out that some equipment is on display. At the time, I thought the place was a gym, but a little googling today reveals that it actually sold exercise equipment.

You can also notice that everything else in the first picture is now gone as well..

UPDATE 24 March 2012: As noted in the comments, the store moved to Bower Parkway and renamed to Carolina Specialty Fitness. I've updated the title to say "moved".

This is one of those storefronts and names (like another on Decker) that give away nothing about what the company actually does. The slogan General Merchandise Wholesale doesn't add much more to it.

Whatever Beniel did, it thought it was worthwhile to locate in a retail plaza rather than an office complex somewhere, so I guess they did count on the public stopping by.

High Point On Decker, with the Bi-Lo and McDonalds is one of the more successful strips on Decker, but I know this slot has turned over a few times in recent years. I don't recall the other tenants except that I'm pretty sure it was a computer store at one time. I distinctly recall taking my father's printer there for warranty work, and it being a bit of a problem that I hadn't bought it there.

UPDATE 23 March 2012: Added Pick-A-Flick & Moovies to the post title based on the comments. Also, apparently this was *not* the computer store, which was next door.

Commenter (and blogger) April pointed out this closing of yet another Columbia restaurant I knew nothing about. From her review, it sounds like a nice place, if probably a bit tony for me.

I've heard the phrase "objects of virtu" before (probably in an SF story), and according to the always accurate Wikipedia:

The Italian humanist Giovanni Pontano described these objects as "statues, pictures, tapestries, divans, chairs of ivory, cloth interwoven with gems, many-coloured boxes and coffers in the Arabian style, crystal vases and other things of this kind . . . [whose] sight . . . is pleasing and brings prestige to the owner of the house." They all spoke to the wealth, taste and virtu of their owner.

-- John Brewer, The Pleasures of the Imagination

Judging from the way the peeling front awning reveals a palimpsest Dianne's, I suspect this whole space was once part of Dianne's, but since I've never visited that place either, I can't say for sure.

(Hat tip to commenter April).

Hi-Lites Ladies'Clothing ("Name Brands At Outlet Prices") seems to mainly follow a small town strategy. Apart from this Cayce store, the chain's locator page lists the other Carolinas' locations as

Albemarle, Atlantic Beach, Clinton (NC), Laurinburg, Lincolnton, Monroe, Mount Olive, Newton, Sanford, Shelby, Whiteville, Bennettsville, Dillon and Lancaster

It's interesting that by putting their "Columbia" store in Cayce, they got a somewhat similar area, but inside a fairly major Metro. Of course, apparently it didn't work out for them.

Parkland Plaza had been on a bit of an upswing lately, with the Ace Hardware re-opening, and the Dollar Discount being replaced, but this closing and that of Dollar General (which I will probably get to soon) along with the continuing vacancy at the old Parkland Pharmacy/CVS site put the place back almost to square one.

(Hat tip to commenter tonkatoy)

UPDATE 4 April 2012 -- I went back when I could stop and got some better pictures:

Well, this closing has been discussed fairly extensively in the comments, but I first heard of it from Eva at the Free Times.

I like coffee and ice cream, but somehow never even knew that Peace, Love & Rocky Roast existed in the Vista even though I hit The Mellow Mushroom and Five Guys fairly often, and drive down Gervais on a semi-regular basis.

The store's facebook page and web site mention Vista rents as the main issue here. It doesn't seem to me that Vista properties are turning over quickly enough that driving out existing tenants is a good idea -- I notice that the complex with the antique bookstore has been on the market a good while as has this place (or at least it still looked vacant last time I thought to check).

Apparently PL&RR is looking to relocate to State Street in Cayce, but I'm not sure exactly where.

(Hat tips to Eva and the commenters)