Columbia Closings   What's not in Columbia anymore

I ran across this closed video rental store in South Congaree some years ago, and as nearly as I can tell, it closed in the 2010 timeframe. I'm not sure about the adjacent insurance agency, but now those slots are filled by Forgiven Baptist Church and Grace & Beauty Salon respectively.

Apprently this section of Edmund Highway is South Congaree's Main Street.

Looking at the Google Streetview, this place was open at least through January of this year, which is kind of surprising considering there is a big U-Haul operation in the old Dick Smith Ford location, and another in the old Dentsville Kmart location, both of which are not far from here. I see that as well as renting trucks, trailers & moving supplies, this location was also a propane re-filling site.

One thing I did not realize when it was in operation, and the lot mostly filled with rolling stock is that the lot seems to have been cut out of a hill and leveled -- the property on the other side of back fence is a good bit higher, and the brickwork has somewhat unusual buttressing to deal with the stress.

It appears to me that Tha River, follow-on in this building to Pon Di River, has closed. There is no note on the door, but I stopped by on two consecutive weekends to find it not open during prime hours, and the second week, the portable sign advertising specials was gone from the parking lot. It also appeared to me that at least on the left side of the building, there were no tables inside.

I can't find a Facebook, but their web site is still up, and doesn't suggest any issues.

The ATM on this site was rather odd, in that it was a walk-up ATM not associated with a branch bank, like a survival from another era. The only other one like it that I can think of is on Greystone Boulevard.

I'm not sure what the fencing around the site signifies. Perhaps they plan to replace it with a more conventional drive-up machine. At any rate, I think the current next closest location is the drive-up beside the former branch below Tram Road.

(Hat tip to commenter Gypsie)

Stronghold Gym took over in the Woodhill outparcel which used to be Hampton Hill Athletic Club sometime late in 2016.

On my last visit to Jimmy Johns, I noticed that they were no longer there, and the space had been taken over by an expansion of Life Storage.

It turns out they have moved to Trenholm Road, into the former location of The Cat Clinic (which itself moved in 2018).

The building, below, sat, partially converted, for so long, that I had started to thing plans for a gym there had fallen through due to the pandemic (and I suspect that *was* a factor in the delay), but, as you can see on their site, the move was completed on 16 August, and the facility is now open.

I see that I haven't posted about Columbia's Greek Festival since 2014 for some reason. I generally try to go by if I am in town, and it's always a nice experience. This year, I didn't really have time to do much more than swoop in, grab some goodies and swoop out again, but Saturday was a beautiful day, and there was a good crowd of people enjoying the food, booths & music. In the event, I'm glad I did go Saturday even though I didn't have as much time as I wanted since Sunday was an awful, rainy day, and that had to have put a damper on the festivities.

Pretty much placeholder pictures, as I just did a drive-by when I should have stopped, but this Waffle House is apparently undergoing the same upfit as a number of other midlands locations. It should be back in a few months, still looking like a Waffle House...

(Hat tip to commenter Tom)

UPDATE 9 October 2023 -- Still in progress:

UPDATE 26 June 2024 -- Open again:

As mentioned by commenter Thomas, this family owned builder on Two Notch by the Citgo station is closing as the owners retire. A good part of the lot is utiitarian buildings, so we'll have to see if somebody moves in, or if it gets rebuilt first.

(Hat tip to commenter Thomas)

I was going down to the Greek Festival last weekend, and noticed this Dollar General (in a former Eckerd) on the corner of Taylor & Barnwell streets. was closed.

The sign doesn't give any reason, but assures us that it is temporary. If I had to guess, I would say staffing issues, but of course I don't know.

I'm not a golfer, though some of my friends are very into the game. That said, I always thought it would be neat to ride the cable-car gondola across the waterway here at the Waterway Hills Golf Club.

This article on the closing of the club says it was designed by Robert Trent Jones and opened in 1975. As it closed in 2015, that's a 40 year run, which is not bad given the pace of change on the Grand Strand. The course was purchased by the company owning the adjacent Grande Dunes, but it appears to me that as of yet, nothing has been built on the former course.

You can see a picture taken from a gondola here. Also, I am going to try something new (for me) here. Google Streeview often has images I am unable to match, as they preserve things that have been long torn down in their year-by-year views of the same spot. My assumption had been that I could link to those, but not embed them, but in looking at the actual terms of use, it appears that embedding is OK. So, below I am embedding an image from June of 2013, which shows the course in operation, and a gondola en-route. You can click on the embiggen square to get fullscreen.

Looking at other Streetview images, I can say that the cable car infrastructure was torn down sometime between January and July of 2019.