Columbia Closings   What's not in Columbia anymore

The part of this building at 904 Knox Abbott Drive that is now a cleaners was the original location for Silver city comics, which is now up the street in an old Hardee's building. I used to drive over from USC every Thursday ("new comics day" back then) to see what was out that week. I would park along the west side of the building, and do vaguely recall 906 being the insurance agency though I don't recall Reyland Medical at all. I know that Silver City moved out after a fire, but I can't recall if it affected 906 as well.

Anyway, since I used to go there so often, I always notice the building as I'm driving by, and saw a massage operation setting up shop there late last year. It seemed to be one of those places having a hard time getting started, at least I never saw any cars there, or indeed any sign that it was open. Finally going to Krispy Kreme one evening, I noticed a sign pasted to the door, and figured it had gone under, but when I stopped to take a picture, the sign said something about a "grand opening" instead. I think that was in mid-February. Then when I went by last weekend, I saw the (generously timelined) "Artsy Fartsy" sign you see here.

UPDATE 29 Oct 2010 -- Well, Artsy Fartsy is to be a coffee bar as well as an art gallery:

Appropos of nothing, but sometimes you just have to turn around, go back and get the picture (car shadow or no..)

Shop at the Brown Sign With the Sewing Machine in the Corner!

At one time, South Carolina was a major player in the textile field, and I always assumed that these "factory outlet" stores scattered across the state had some South Carolina "factory" behind them, though it was never spelled out in the long running series of radio ads that always included the tag line about the sign.

I never went into one myself, but they were a feature in various shopping trips made by my female relatives. I can't remember all the locations now, but for sure there were Columbia (actually West Columbia / Triangle City), Salley and Surfside Beach.

The first pictures are of the old Surfside Beach location. This storefront (briefly an alteration shop) is at 1511 Highway 17 North (on the east side of US-17 Business between Inlet Square Mall and SC-544). Since these pictures were taken, they have finally gotten around to taking down the brown sign.

The final picture is of the West Columbia location in Triangle City. Their sign is long gone, and the location now seems to be an eyeglass botique.

I don't know exactly what happened to The Factory Outlets. My presumption is that "the factory" closed during the decline of the domestic textile industry, but that's just a guess. At any rate, while the 12th Street location was in the 1998 phonebook, I don't think it (or they) lasted much later than that.

UPDATE 25 Sep 2010 -- Well, I found the Darlington Factory Outlet (1486 Harry Byrd Highway -- almost across the street from the racetrack), and it looks like you can still get women's fashions there!

(also added the street address for the Surfside Beach location)

UPDATE 10 July 2020: Added some tags. Also adding the map icon for the 12th street location.

A couple of people have mentioned this former KFC building on Rosewood Drive. According to commenter Beth, it closed as Taste of China Hut about 3 years ago, and is still owned by the same folks. I see that there are still Taste of China Huts on Decker Boulevard and Main Street.

This setup is interesting in that the dumpster alcove is freestanding and brick. I came up on it from behind and couldn't figure out what in the world it was until I got to the other side.

Notice the sign for Football Parking stowed behind the building -- It seems like a long way to walk from there to the stadium, but if you're crazy enough to brave a game day anyway, I guess it's not out of the question.

(Hat tip to commenter Beth, and some others I've forgotten..)

UPDATE 11 July 2014 -- This building is gone:

I've updated my original post on Touch of India. Please leave any comments there.

Here's another old-school five and dime type operation on Main Street, right next to Silver's.

I'm not sure I ever went into McCrory's. Certainly it was already in decline when I was growing up, and for that type of retail, we were more likely to go to Woolworth's at Richland Mall, Dodd's at Forest Lake or Rose's at Trenholm Plaza.

My memory is that it did survive up to my college years in the early 1980s, and that it then tried to morph into a Family Dollar type operation which did not last long.

This Loopnet listing is interesting in that it has an optimistic artist's rendition of the building converted into

Renovated 31,000 SF of Class A office space for sale or lease. Suites available from 1,500 SF to 30,000 SF.

That is slated for 2011, but I don't think I've ever seen work going on at the site, and it looks rather sad right now with all the plywood.

UPDATE 19 March 2010: Added Revco Drugs to the post title based on the comments (and verified in the 1998 phonebook).

UPDATE 21 September 2012 -- These pictures from 12 January 2012 show work on the site:

This building, across the street from Richland Mall and just south of Moe's has been a number of things over the years, with none of them seeming to last long. Right now, I can only find two other names (and a Doctor's practice) before H2, but I'm sure there were many others as loopnet says the building dates back to 1969. Part of my difficulty may be that the address is sometimes given as "2100 Beltline Boulevard" and sometimes as "2100 N Beltline Boulevard". One operation I sort of recall had an odd name as though it was a Christian Youth Fraternity or something like that.

I'm not sure what "joining" means in the case of H2 and Tonic. I suspect it just means "we transferred your membership". The H2 facebook page seems unchanged since last year, so it's possible the place was closed for a while before I noticed it.

UPDATE 21 May 2010 -- Here's an ad for European Health Spas (as mentioned in the comments) from the 19 Feb 1979 edition of The State. I can explain why the street address doesn't match. The ad lists 2204, which apparently doesn't exist today (at least as google-able retail), but clearly the ad namechecks "Richland Mall". Perhaps there was a street renumbering in the 1980s? Anyway I've added it to the post title and here's the ad:

UPDATE 29 July 2010 -- Apparently it's going to be Austral Salon next:

OK, indulge me on this one!

Al Stewart's 1976 Year of The Cat, is one of the best albums of the 1970s. It's not always the case that very popular albums are good, and it's even less often that very good albums are popular, but in this case, Year of the Cat was definitely both. Stewart seems to have always thought of himself as more of a "folkie" than a rock star, so pairing him with producer Alan Parsons was something of a stretch, but in retrospect, it seems impossible to imagine anything else.

There's not really a weak song on the album, and "Year of the Cat", classic though it is, isn't even the best track, an honor won by the haunting "Flying Sorcery". I used to play "If it Doesn't Come Naturally, Leave It", as an audio argument against a particularly ill-starred project which was stomping us into the ground, and as I get older "On the Border" with its

In the village where I grew up, nothing seems the same, though you never see the change from day to day..

lyric seems more and more apt.

So anyway, I was very happy to see that Stewart was coming to Newberry last week. The Opera House is very easy to find from I-26, and seems to be run entirely by pleasant, retired women. It's quite a small venue, and Stewart brought only one other person on stage with him, guitar player (and Phd..) Dave Nachmanoff. Now, why Al Stewart, with one of the best known albums of the rock era is playing small town South Carolina with a one man band, I can't say. I'd like to think that it's because he's really more into the "folk" thing than the over-the-top "rock tour" thing, but you sometimes hear about how famous people were locked into bad record contracts, had expensive divorces or crooked managers, so who knows. The key thing is that he was in good voice and seemed happy to be in Newberry. The set list was pretty eclectic, and while he did hit a number of "Year of the Cat" tracks, he opted out of most of his other radio hits, so I heard a good number of songs that were new to me.

Afterwards both Stewart and Nachmanoff sat in the lobby chatting and signing autographs. It was quite an enjoyable and low key evening, and I could still hear the next day, and my sinuses weren't clogged up with smoke..

This building, at the intersection of Percival Road and Old Percival Road, which loopnet says was built in 1960, has been a variety of things over the years. I used to be aware of it peripherally in the 1970s when I started to drive, and would go out to Bell Camp via Percival Road, and later when I would take Screaming Eagle Road to the beach. The only two tenants I can locate via google are Davis Open Air Market, which I kind of remember, and Percival Quick Stop which I do not.

I'm not really sure when the last business closed here, but I think it's been vacant for several years. The next incarnation, a Latin sports bar, looks nearly ready to open.

UPDATE 28 March 2019: Add tags and map icon.

Stuffy's was a sandwich shop in the University Corner retail block at Main & Devine streets, across the street from the old Towers dorms (now the new Honor's Dorms).

This picture was taken recently walking up the hill on Devine Street from Assembly Street, and is of the back side of the Stuffy's building. (The front side sign is gone). I might have walked up on the landing to get a better shot, but just as I had finished taking this one, someone walked out onto the landing to take a smoke-break. I presume this was one of the servers from Al-Amir, which now occupies the 629 Main Street space. For some reason, I neglected to get a new picture of the front, but you can see the space (rather poorly) at the University Corner link above.

I have to admit that I never ate at Stuffy's. I'm not sure why except that while I was in college I was on the "meal ticket" plan which put me at The Russell House and Capstone more often than anywhere else. Also, the sandwich I want is rarely exactly what's on a menu-board. From google, it appears that there are still Stuffy's open in Richmond Virginia. This is the only web page I could find. It's not very good, but it is good enough to confirm that the Main Street Stuffy's was in the same chain -- I can remember that guy-eating-a-sandwich from the Columbia ads.

UPDATE 27 December 2012: Corespondent wblood1 sends this 1980 picture of Stuffy's and The Big Bird. You can also see a bit of the demolished 7-11 on the left: