Columbia Closings   What's not in Columbia anymore

Independant mailing storefront National Mail Services on Saint Andrews Road by the old Fred's closed at the end of December. If you look at the Fred's post, you can see that for some reason, they were not on the shopping center marquee, but apparently enough folks knew they were back there for a 22 year run, which is good for any business!

(Hat tip to commenter Tom)

I just noticed yesterday that Forest Acres Pet Supply & Grooming, next door to the old Powers 60 Minute Cleaners in Ravenwood had closed. This was an independent pet accessories store which had been there a good few years (and outlasted some big box stores like Superpetz).

You can see it in operation in the background of this shot:

UPDATE 21 January 2014 -- Interesting. Commenter Bryan notes a new pet store at 4230 Bethel Church Road, and when I took a look at it, I saw that the name is different, it's Super Starr Pets, but the phone number is the same as that for Forest Acres Pet Supply. That certainly argues for some connection -- perhaps one owner is carrying on after another retired or something like that. Anyway, here it is:

UPDATE 3 February 2021 -- This building and the one next door were razed in December 2020:

Also adding map icon.

I noticed this empty building on Millwood the other day, and a little research shows it was Jack Oliver's Pools & Spas before they made their move to the old Good Wood building at 3303 Forest Drive (keeping the location's signature giant rocker).

The new location:

I first wrote about this lot in the closing for North 1 Drive-In, a location that had a certain notoriety amongst teenage boys. Interestingly, the address given during the theater days is 8757, which is two blocks off of the current number. But then this was pretty much the boonies back then.

Not being a big exercise fan, what I constantly noticed about the New Life incarnation was the electronic banner on the top of their roadside sign. This normally ran a digital temperature reading, and it was never right -- Generally it wasn't even close.

Like Columbia Athletic Club before them, New Life has apparently lost the local battle against the (very fit) 500 pound gorilla that is Gold's Gym. Curiously, apparently the only New Life location remaining is in Cedar Rapids Iowa.

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I first noted this location on Two Notch near Baskin Robin when it was empty after having been Express Check Advance. Since then, Moneygram has started up, and now, vacated this little storefront.

This is the third, and last, suite in the building at 4732 Devine to feature here. You have to wonder, given that every tenant has either closed or moved, if this building is to be torn down or if some new tenant wants the whole building.

Here's another tenant in the building at the corner of Devine and Rosewood. Fields Chiropractic was in the right corner suite here, and have since moved up the street to 3930 Devine and into what I have to say is a much nicer building (though my rainy day, shot in passing picture isn't very good).

(Hat tip to commenter Rick)

If this auto lot, just south of the New Brookland Baptist Church, had an office, it must have been in a trailer.

Seems like it would be a good place to sell Christmas trees, but it's too late for this year, I guess.

(Hat tip to commenter James)

Bicycle shop Summit Cycles was in this nice old house near the top of the hill on Meeting Street, just down from WECO. There's not much more I can say about it, other than if you got your bike there, I'll bet you could coast all the way to the State Museum, lights permitting..

(Hat tip to commenter jonathan)

I was surprised when I went looking in old phonebooks and found that 2011 was the last listing for Columbia Screen & Awning -- This is a place I remember being advertised on the radio when I was growing up, so I figured somehow that I would hear when it closed. The marquee on this little West Columbia storefront (next door to Maunz Electronics) says they had been in business since 1959, which is a pretty good run. Archive.org has some of their old site snapshots archived here.

I hate this time of year -- not only do I really dislike cold weather, but it gets dark so early that I really can only get daytime pictures on weekends. And even here, I missed my window for getting over there and ended up having to crank up the ISO or use flash.

(Hat tip to commenter James)