Columbia Closings   What's not in Columbia anymore

As far as I can tell, the opening of I-77 hasn't really helped Landmark Square much. It's nice they got one of the new Krispy Kremes, but the rest of the place still could use a good makeover.

Looking back in the Feb 1997 phonebook, says that this little shoe storefront was founded some time after that (though there was a "Shoe City" on Garners Ferry back then..) and lasted until this year.

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I noticed recently that this place, next to the old Galaxy World arcade was vacant, but had no memory of what it was.

The sign was inside propped up against the window, but I didn't want anyone thinking I was fooling around with their car, so I didn't get out. Google says it was a party rental store, Thompson's Grand Rental Station.

I'm sure that wasn't the first tenant though. The building is another one of those buildings "of a certain age" in Columbia with rock facades, and the odd little bay-window nook on the back side looks as thought it may have been a drive-up window at some point.

According to my fuzzy memory, this little stretch of road, now elevated above Two Notch proper was once Two Notch itself before I-77 was cut through. I also think there was a little locksmith kiosk up there for a long time, even after Two Notch moved.

UPDATE 12 September 2012 -- It's now a Harley store:

I figured I could at least get a street address by tracking down the Colliers Keenan listing for this Leesburg Road property just east of I-77, across from Greenlawn Cemetary and alongside Pringle Road, but for some reason, I can't find it on the Colliers site.

That being the case, I know essentially nothing about this building other than it is in poor shape and looks to have been a car repair garage. The trussed arched wood roof is very nice although open to the sky in most places now, and there are a couple of mysteries posed by the coat hangers and the jaunty mascot.

UPDATE 1 November 2011: Added the full street address to post title.

UPDATE 21 January 2014: Commenter badger suggests the correct street address is 819 Leesburg Road. I don't have any better guess, so I have changed the post title to use 819 instead of 821. He also suggests the business was either Berne or Laberne Equipment, so I am adding those as well.

UPDATE 28 August 2017 -- This building has now been razed as shown in these not very good drive-by shots:

UPDATE 25 October 2017 -- Construction is starting here. Unfortunately, I did not get a good enough picture to read the sign saying what is forthcoming:

UPDATE 27 January 2018 -- The new structure is framed now, and, as you can see if you click through and look very closely at the sign, is to be a Dick Smith Body Shop:

This building on Garners Ferry next to Day's Inn and just down from Fantasy Lingerie and Maurice's Gourmet Barbecue has been vacant for a while as even the driveway is getting a bit cracked and overgrown. The last occupant was General Sales, Inc. who have since moved to Huger Street. I'm guessing they weren't the first tenants though, or at least I don't see why a food service company would have underground tanks as seems to be the case from the DHEC notice.

While I was stuck in traffic Wednesday afternoon on Two Notch at I-77, I noticed that Golf Headquarters, in the old Galaxy World building, is gone, or has been bought out.

The signs for Edwin Watts Golf are still quite temporary looking, and I'm pretty sure I drove that stretch in daylight quite recently, so I'm calling early this month as the changeover date. It continues to amaze me how much commercial activity is centered around the most boring game in the world -- (with apologies to my college roommate..)

UPDATE 7 January 2013: Fix street address from 7813 to 7814. Add pictures.

This burned out body shop sits in an odd little area that I really knew nothing about. I noticed it the other week when I was getting onto I-77 West-bound from Garners Ferry Road. The area is rather industrial, with a transformer substation and nearby rail-spur, and must have been, I think, radically different before I-77 was pushed through. I'm saying "South Bolton Street" based on mapquest -- I couldn't actually see any name on the little spur leading from Planters Drive to this building, and if it's really a public street, it's a pretty forgotten one at least for any maintenance crews.

In particular, there's Veteran's Road and Old Veterans Road which must have been re-routed at that time. I also suspect that there was another road where the I-77 on-ramp is now that ran in front of the building, as the name is painted on the side which is not currently accessible by road. As for what that name is exactly, I can't say. I thought I could read it from the on-ramp, but I can't recall what I thought I saw, and the picture I took from there turned out quite poorly as far as being able to make out those letters. The "Body Shop" is clear enough, but for the first part I can only get "c-o-r-r-e-something-something".

I'm just guessing as to the time-frame for the closing. Certainly it's been long enough for the exposed interior to be pretty thoroughly tagged with graffitti.

UPDATE 28 March 2011: I've added the name "Correll's" based on the comments.

I'm not much of a fabric guy. I think I have written before about how my mother used to frequent fabric stores at Forest Lake Shopping Center and Trenholm Plaza, and how the dye in the air would always make me stuffy and my eyes tear up. Furthermore, I never learned to sew -- so I never visited Jo-Ann Fabrics in Landmark Square on Garners Ferry Road at I-77.

They seem to be doing pretty well though, as they have just moved to a much larger location, the old Goody's building on Two Notch Road by Wal Mart.

The move does something to recoup the Goody's bankruptcy blow to the Two Notch plaza, but certainly doesn't help Landmark Square any. At one time (when Woolco was the anchor) the place was doing pretty well, and I would have thought that having I-77 come through would have helped, but apparently not. (And, I'll admit it is a bit of a pain to get onto Garners Ferry when you're headed towards the airport on 77).

UPDATE 22 March 2011 -- here's the Garners Ferry facade work mentioned in the comments:

UPDATE 20 May 2011 -- It's to be It's Fashion Metro:

I just thought this one was a little odd. The ad is from the 1985 Bellsouth phonebook. Sometime between then and now, the name of this backgate restaurant at Fort Jackson Boulevard & I-77 was changed from Saki to Saky. If you look at the photo, you can see how the 'I' was replaced by a 'Y' in the mural (which is very similar, though not identical to the Yellow Pages art).

The only reason for something like this that I can think of is that the ownership changed at some point, and the new owner didn't have permission to keep using the same name, but was able to keep something very similar..

I've been with Bank of America since it was North Carolina National Bank though it seems to change names often enough that sometimes I just think of it as North Carolina Nations Bank of America (actually there are even more other names it has absorbed as well). I'm afraid they haven't had a very good last few years, and I suspect it will be a while before they start absorbing anyone else (and indeed, it could go the other way..).

None of which is appropos as to why I have no memory at all of ever having seen this branch at Landmark Square before I noticed it closed driving down Garners Ferry Road the other day.

UPDATE 1 Oct 2010: According to The State, this building is to become a Krispy Kreme. (The story is a bit vague on whether it will be a full Hot Dougnuts Now! location, or will get doughnuts bussed in from Cayce).

UPDATE 9 March 2011 -- Work has started, presumably on the Krispy Kreme conversion:

UPDATE 28 March 2011 -- Work proceeds, and the official Krispy Kreme "coming soon" sign is up:

UPDATE 20 May 2011 -- The Krispy Kreme is open!