Columbia Closings   What's not in Columbia anymore

Commenter Mr. Hat reported recently that this cupcake bakery in the old Kmart complex on Fort Jackson Boulevard, Rosewood Crossings, will be closing on the 15, and commenter Andrew provided this State article which confirms it.

Their Facebook has the same information, but adds they will be running specials for the rest of the week. Check it out and stop by if your sweet-tooth calls.

(Hat tip to Mr. Hat)

I noticed while I was driving Clemson Road to I-20 recently that the front building on this long-time auto lot appeared to be vacant. The back building, with the huge flag which has flown for many years is still there, and appears to be Jim Hudson Chevrolet.

As nearly as I can determine the vacant building was first Capitol Hyundai and then Stivers Hyundai. It appears that Capitol closed sometime before 2020 (though their Facebook is still up) and Stivers took over the franchaise after that. Apparently they recently built a site on Farrow Road and have moved out there.

This was the Fatz location in Camden. As of 10 September 2023, there is still muzak playing on the patio (as was the case for the Florence location. This building is on a nice parcel very convenient to I-20, so I suspect something will move in before long.

This spot at the corner of Two Notch & Beltline was previously the home of Hursey's Trading Post & Advance On Checks with Auto Money going in sometime between 2014 and 2016. Google streetview shows it here as late as September 2022.

I'm thinking there may have briefly been another operation after this, as the current color scheme of the building is a red & black one, completely different from the green & yellow theme of Auto Money.

I should probably also mention that at least through 2011, the side of the building closest to Burger King was a separate suite housing My'Kuls Exclusive Gift Shop.

Here's another former Fatz, this one on US-501 in Conway on the main drag towards the beach.

Google reviews suggest this was re-purposed as an Asian buffet sometime around 2019.

Whitehall TV was an old-school television repair shop across from the former Clusters Of Whitehall just about where Bush River Road turns into Tram Road. I don't really know anything about the place, but I do know that people rarely get TVs fixed today as they don't have tubes or really any replacable parts at all anymore, which can't have helped things.

Google reviews suggest the place has been closed at least seven months, and commenter JohnR thinks it's about a year, so I'm just going to put 2022 as the date.

(Hat tip to commenter JohnR)

UPDATE 8 September 2023: Change reference "Tram Street" to "Tram Road".

UPDATE 9 October 2023 -- Here are some post closing shots:

The Florence Fatz Cafe still has a billboard on I-95, and the music in the foyer is still playing, but like all the rest, this location is now history.

Apparently the Southern 500 had just been run, and I had a heck of a time getting out of here and back onto I-95!

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I saw a real-estate sign driving by here in mid-2021, but as there were cars down there, I wasn't sure the place was actually closed. When I ran across the pictures again today, a google search confirmed that Hill's is gone, probably sometime in 2021.

The LoopNet page has a better picture than these.

I'm not sure why the sign says "Transmission" when all the online sources say "Transmissions", but I went with the plural.

To the best of my memory, I had never been in Clio until July when I drove through on SC-9. The town has obviously seen better times; Wikipedia says the current population is 726, but the downtown is still mostly intact if often vacant.

In the early years of the 20th though, it was a bit of a boom-town as the railroad came through, and took advantage of that to put up a Vaudeville theater to host acts travelling from New York to Miami. It was called an Opera House as such things tended to be, because that sounded classier.

According to The SC Picture Project and The Eccentric South, the place survived as a theater into the 1950s.

Currently it seems to be mostly empty, with a retail operation in the lower corner that looked not to have been open in a while. In the meantime, the pocket sized local police department hangs off the other side.