Columbia Closings   What's not in Columbia anymore

This block of three storefronts on Broad River Road, next to the former Tires & Beyond looks to be completely vacant now. It's interesting to take a look at Google Streetview over the years:

It appears that the A suite (on the far right) was Express Barber Beauty until sometime after August 2019.

Wonderful Grace looked to be moving into that suite around November of 2021, and was gone by September of 2022.

R & R Taxes moved into the B suite sometimes after August 2019, and was already gone by November 2021.

Moya was there in the C suite from at least August 2011 through September 2022, and has since moved down the road to 3106 Broad River Road, and is apparently still there.

I meant to get back, get out of the car and get some decent pictures, but in the event I never did. At any rate, Midlands Tech was doing some demolition on the Rosewood side of the campus recently. It looks like they're putting up a "Midlands Technical College Center For Business and Information Technologies". Anyone know what they took down?

This old-style retail storefront is on Society Hill's main drag, next to an insurance agency. As far as I can tell from looking at Google Streetview, it may have been open as late as 2012. You can check there for a view of the "Buttercup" sign, which is no longer present. There is also a nice one taken in 2018 here. The flickr link says that Buttercup Ice Cream started in Hamlet NC in the 1920s and lasted into the 1960s, surviving as Mello Buttercup. Here's one of the whole building from the same photoset, and a much better shot than any of mine.

It's not clear to me if the ice cream operation was part of the flowers, craft & framing business, but it is on that end of the building, and the main sign does call out Coca Cola, and the Pepsi coolers inside, so beverages were also sold there.

This stretch of road does the neat trick of being US-401, US-52 & US-15 all at the same time.

Here's a self-service car wash adjacent to Seven Oaks Shopping Center which appears to be defunct. The name may be Seven Oaks Car Wash, Inc., or it may not.

The Circle K at Clemson Road & I-20 is apparently undergoing the same teardown/rebuild of the gas islands that a number of other local stores have been through recently. I haven't kept good track of the time these conversions take, but it should be back in a month or so.

(Hat tip to commenter Mr. Guy)

UPDATE 2 October 2023 -- Still under construction:

I wasn't aware of Heathcliff's Jewelers in the vista, until commener Justin mentioned that their building was up for sale.

While I was googling them (and not finding much information), I did turn up a photo of the block which appears to have been taken in the 1970s, and is interesting. The copyright is unclear, so I'm not embedding it, but take a look at the building when it was Palmetto Interiors.

(Hat tip to commenter Justin)

I did some driving around in parts of the state I don't usually get to during July. I think I've featured a few of those closings already, and there will be some more in the future. As far as I know, I had never been down this stretch of road in Bennettsville before, on SC-9 heading towards Dillon.

I honestly don't think I've ever eaten in a Huddle House either, though it's possible I did in Fernandina once. Anyway, I've always thought of them as sort of a discount Waffle House, and the, almost uniformly bad, reviews for this place don't dissuade me from that notion. (To be fair, there are some positive reviews). At any rate it sounds to me they were having extreme post-COVID staffing issues, and I think you can disregard the the Now Hiring signage.

I don't know much about Mikino's -- I believe the only place I've eaten at Seven Oaks Shopping Center is Zorba's, but it seems to have gotten good reviews.

Commenter Heath noted it was closed, and commenter Gypsie found a Facebook page to the effect that it was permanent.

(Hat tip to commenter Heath)

I remember growing up, when this store was White's, the book department at the top of the escalator was one of my favorite places to browse as they would usually have a selection of Tom Swift, Jr books as well as random other interesting tomes. The escalator itself was cool because it was so narrow that you could grab each handrail and hoist yourself off your feet while you made the trip, all the while listening to the floor-caller making coded announcements like Five Nine, Five Nine!.

When they knocked the original Richland Mall down, they skipped this building, and it stayed on as White's until the chain went under, or was bought out -- I forget which.

After that, it became Belk, but honestly, this store has been getting ready to close for the past five years or so. It seemed as though every time I went inside, the place had been more hollowed out and threadbare. It started most notably on the second floor, especially after the doors to the far side of the mall were permanently closed and gradually continued up there until finally the escalator was shut down and the whole floor closed off. This is basically the path the Dutch Square store walked down. I can still recall how spooky it was to go up to the men's room there after the rest of the floor had been vacated.

Ahthough I haven't been in since the closing was announced, things were looking pretty sparse on the ground floor as well, the last time I went by. I'll try to get some inside pictures at some point during the process.

Here are stories on the closing from The State, WLTX, and The Post & Courier.

(Hat tip to Mr. Hat)

UPDATE 6 September 2023: Commenter Andrew notes that the place closed today, so I am updating the post title to note that.

Le Clos was a little French restaurant in a 1906 cottage just across the street from the Hampton Inn in Fernandina Beach's historic waterfront district. I'm not a big French cuisine fan (at least for main dishes), but the pasta looked very good, so I stopped by one night and can verify it was excellent, along with (as you would expect) great bread, and a fantastic creme brulee.

I was surprised then on my most recent visit to see the place with the sign down and stripped internally. At first the story seemed rather clear-cut as described here: The owner decided to close the place, although she was able to place the staff at other local spots. A thread on TripAdvisor suggests a more confusing story, as does the cafe's web site which suggests it may re-open this fall.

Whatever comes next, it appears the building will need some work.