Taylor's Family Restaurant, Fire Lane Drive: 1990s 2 comments
Taylor's was a meat & three on Fire Lane Drive, opposite what was then The Spring Valley Theaters (which is now the Lowes site), and beside (logically enough given the road name) the fire station.
I remember the place as being nice enough, but not, in my mind, as good as Lizard's Thicket. My mother liked it better though, so we went there fairly often when she was in the mood. I do remember liking the cornbread quite a bit, though I can't recall exactly why right now. I don't know the why of this either, but eventually the place stopped working as a restaurant and switched over to a catering service. Perhaps the location was simply too hard to spot from Two Notch Road, though as you can see, they had a highly visible sign which still remains even after the catering operation has changed names to A & J.
Heavenly Ham, Trenholm Plaza, September 2008 no comments
Well, it appears the ongoing renovations on Trenholm Plaza have claimed another casualty. I noticed on the second of September that Heavenly Ham has gone ahead and closed shop in advance of the demolition of that wing of the shopping center. Apparently they are not relocating, but are just referring customers to the HoneyBaked Ham store on Two Notch. (HoneyBaked bought Heavenly in 2002).
If you look closely at the picture with all the network cables, there is a "Best Of" award from The State in the category Ham Store underneath it all. I don't doubt that it was deserved, but I confess I find the category "Ham Store" a bit contrived. How many entrants could there have been? There's not even a Yellow Pages category for "Ham". Again, that's not a criticism of the store, which as far as I know really did have good ham.
UPDATE 18 Feb 2010 -- The site (extensively remodeled) is now a Chipolte:
Newsome Chevy World, 4013 West Beltline Boulevard: 2000s 8 comments
We were a Ford/Mercury family in the 60s and 70s, and are now mostly a Toyota one, so I don't know much about Chevys or this dealership. I'm saying that it closed in this millennium since there is a prominent URL posted on the building, but I'm pretty sure it's been 5 years or more since this was a going concern.
Actually following that URL leads to Capitol Chevrolet on Newland Road. This is that new dealership off of Clemson Road. I'm guessing they bought out Newsome in Columbia, though Newsome dealerships still seem to exist in other cities. (As an aside, this is the dealership with the humongous flag that I used for a 4th of July post. It was getting a bit ragged, and hasn't been up lately -- I hope they get a new one soon).
It looks like the old Newsome lot is starting to see some tagging and vandalism. I don't know who won the auction, but they need to get something going there pretty soon, or area will continue to decline.
UPDATE 30 Jan 09: Looks like the place is to be torn down soon:
UPDATE 13 April 2011: For some reason, the demolition never happened, and the place is still standing.
UPDATE 23 December 2011 -- And here is the still undemolished building:
UPDATE 10 June 2016 -- Well, at *some* point the building finally was demolished, and now something new is going up, I don't know what:
UPDATE 30 August 2016 -- Construction continues:
UPDATE 4 October 2016 -- Whatever they're building is coming along:
Coconuts Video Games, Dutch Square Boulevard: 1990s 19 comments
Truthfully, I don't remember this place at all. I was walking around Intersection Center the other day, and coming up on the place, I was sure it was a defunct restaurant, probably a Mexican one. I think given the architecture, that probably is the case, but clearly after the restaurant departed, the building had another life as a video arcade.
Of course I could be wrong about that. I think I would remember a video arcade and I don't recall this place (plus it would have been in competition with the one inside Dutch Square), so perhaps the "video games" referred to are console cartridges etc. To confuse my recollection even further, I'm pretty sure there was a music store chain called Coconuts in town during the 80s/90s as well.
Anyone go to this place?
UPDATE: Everyone seems to agree that this was a Burger King, not a Mexican restaurant, and that it lasted into the 90s. I have changed the date on the post title line from 1980s to 1990s
USC Burger King, 1211 College Street: 1990s 15 comments
I was rather surprised when I learned in the 90s, that all of the Burger King restaurants in Columbia were run by the same franchisee. I know Columbia is not a huge city, but it's not tiny, and I just assumed that a chain like Burger King would have a number of local franchisees. Of course, the only reason I know this at all is because the local franchisee had a complete falling out with the Burger King corporation itself during the 1990s. I don't remember the details now, and I'm sure there was a lot of finger pointing on both sides, but the upshot was that all the Burger King restaurants in Columbia ended up being shut down -- all of them, and for a long time. It was kind of an unprecedented situation in my experience.
It didn't matter much to me becase a) I was living out of town at the time, and b) I was increasingly disenchanted with fast food places at the time (this was before outfits like Moe's and Five Guys made fast food fun again) and especially with Burger King. Nonetheless, it was odd to drive past all the Burger Kings and see them stitting empty. This particular Burger King was on College Street between Main and Sumter Streets right by Cool Beans coffee shop. I had eaten there a number of times over the years, and they always seemed to do a good business with the college crowd.
Eventually, corporate found new franchisees for most of the BKs in Columbia, and made an event of the general re-opening, even getting South Carolina's "Blues Doctor", Drink Small to cut some celeberatory commercials. By then though, the University had already bought the USC BK, and it never reopened. The building has since been razed, and the land is now yet another offical USC parking lot.
Hold the pickles, hold the lettuce!
UPDATE 22 March 2010: Added full street address to post title.
Ye Olde Comic Shoppe, 519 Meeting Street (West Columbia): 1980s 20 comments
I didn't read a lot of comics as a kid. I had a stash that was left to me by an older neighbor friend when he moved out of town, and those I read over and over, and when we went to the beach, sometimes I would buy a copy of The Rawhide Kid or Sergeant Rock from the rack at Lachicotts if I had the money, but in general I didn't have the money. Besides, when I got my $3.00 from mowing the lawn, I wanted to spend it on Tom Swift, Rick Brant or Doc Savage.
All that changed in the 80s, when I finally had a little money coming in. Coincidentally, this boom time for me happened about the same time comics went into a major boom. DC was shaking things up with The Crisis on Infinite Earths and Alan Moore was proving with his incredible run on Swamp Thing that comics could be the vehicle for well-written adult horror.
As comics boomed, the distribution model changed from drugstore spinner racks which were indiferently stocked by magazine jobbers and always seemed to miss crucial issues to dedicated comic book stores. At the peak of the boom, Columbia had at least four first run comic stores. There was one on Forest Drive near the Fort Jackson gate, Heroes & Dragons at Boozer Shopping Center, Silver City on Knox Abbot Drive (not at its current location however) and this store, on Meeting Street.
I can't recall now what it was called, but I often checked it on new issue days (I think comics shipments arrived on either Wednesday or Thursday at the time) to see if they had anything I hadn't seen at Silver City (which I considered my main store).
Of course with every boom there is a bust. Comics were hit by a one two punch, first the "black & white" glut and implosion where the market for "indie" (non Marvel/non DC) black and white comics completely collapsed. (Just as an aside, The Teenaged Ninja Mutant Turtles started as an indie b&w comic which was an obvious parody of Frank Miller's work on Daredevil) then second, the industry was gripped by a speculative frenzy based on varient covers for each comic (one comic might be issued with 4 different covers, including gimmicks like embossed or 3-D covers on the theory that that made them "collectible"). Well, of course it turned out that nothing collected by the thousands is worth anything (Action Comics #1 is worth a lot because nobody collected them and almost all of them were thrown out) and the twin busts took out a lot of comic shops. To this day the industry still hasn't fully recovered, and with competition from video games and the Interenet likely never will.
This particular store went into a kind of slow-motion, never acknowledged, bankruptcy. One week I came in to look at the new comics and was told "Oh, the truck didn't come this week", so I browsed last week's leftovers a few minutes and left. When I stopped by the next week, and those were still the only comics there, I understood what was happening: There was not enough money to pay the distributers for new issues, but they weren't going to admit that, and were going to try to sell a few back issues for as long as the rent and utilities were not an issue (which was, I presume, the end of the month).
After the final closing, I think a couple of different operations moved in over the years, but for the last 5 years or so, it's been a tanning store so you can look good in your own superhero costume.
UPDATE 3 Oct 2008: Changed post title to reflect the name "Ye Olde Comic Shoppe" given by "Jim" in the comments. Also changed "Cayce" to "West Columbia"
Taco Bell, 4716 Devine Street: 2000s 29 comments
I had noticed for a couple of years that this Taco Bell was gone, and kind of wondered what happened. The location seems pretty good, with easy access from both Garners Ferry and Rosewood, and the chain is in no trouble, so it piqued my curiosity a bit, though never until recently at a time when I both had my camera and could stop.
In the event, my question actually was answered by a sign that explained exactly what had transpired. It still seems a little curious in that I think there is enough distance between this and the new location that the market could have supported both stores.
Obviously no name-brand restaurant is going to take up residence in a building that is clearly a former Taco Bell, but I think the site would be nice for a local restaurant. It doesn't fit into the concept of a fast-food chain like TB, but Gills Creek runs along the edge of the property, and I think you could build a very nice creekside deck there for spring and fall al-fresco dining.
UPDATE 20 December 2009: Changed the address from "Garners Ferry Road" to "4716 Devine Street".
UPDATE 9 May 2012 -- After a prolonged zoning battle with the city (or it *seemed* long anyway) this place is finally open again, as an "Adult Superstore":
(Also resized all pictures to 600 pixels wide, which I guess I wasn't doing consistently back when this was first posted).
Budget Tapes & Records, Sumter Street across from The Horseshoe: 1980s 40 comments
Well, talking about The Record Bar brings another record store to mind, one I haven't thought about in years.
In the early 1980s, there was a record store just across from The Horseshoe, on Sumter Street. It was on the ground floor of the building next to the restaurant that was McDonalds, then Lizards Thicket and is now, I think, Tios. This particular building also had a Sandy's Hotdogs and a video arcade.
I liked to stop into the place from time to time since it was almost on campus, and was a shorter walk than going down to Five Points, and despite its small size, it had an interesting selection of music. I remember in particular, that they had an import copy of The Beach Boys "Stack O' Tracks" album, one of the oddest releases ever put out by a major rock group, and long out of print in the US at the time, and a Stan Kenton album I wanted. Despite the fact that I bought both, neither could have been hot sellers on a college campus in 1980..
I'm guessing that the owner must have been pretty plugged into the local music scene, because of one incident I remember in particular. I was browsing in the back of the store, and a guy walked in with a bunch of 45s. The owner put one on the turntable, and the store was filled with this incredible stripped down bass-heavy New Wave groove under a piercing vocal:
A-Bomb woke me up -- only thing alarming was the noise!
At the end, the guy who had brought the 45s in said he was still a little unhappy with the mix, but that they were going to go with it. I didn't know it at the time, but the guy with the 45s almost had to have been Jeff Calder and the song was "The A-Bomb Woke Me Up" off of the Swimming Pool Qs first album The Deep End. It was a little slice of history, and a band that should have been huge.
I'm pretty sure the store was gone by the mid 80s, and I can't even recall the name now. It was not New Clear Days. NCD was in the same building, but upstairs where this store was downstairs, and came in much later. Anyone remember what this place was called?
UPDATE 17 Sep 08: Originally this post was just titled "Record Store", but the consensus seems to be that it was "Budget Tapes & Records", and I have changed the post title accordingly. Thanks folks!
Welsh Humanities Building Reflection Pool, USC: 1970s-2000s 7 comments
I was on campus the other day, and noticed the final passing of a landmark that's been gradually disappearing since the 1970s.
The Welsh Humanities Building is just past the Pickens Street footbridge on the way to Capstone. It was built in the early 1970s, and when it was first completed, there was a reflection pool in front of it. In that pool were vaguely birdlike abstract sculptures which bobbed up and down as water flowed over them. As a kid, it reminded me of those toy drinking birds that keep dipping into a glass of water, and I always enjoyed watching them.
The motion of the birds was the first thing to go. I don't know if the orignal artist was no longer available to keep them up, but at some point, they apparently broke, and facilities people turned off the water running over them. After the birds sat motionless for a number of years, they were finally totally removed from the pool. The pool itself continued to be maintained at least into the 80s if memory serves.
That changed when the pool was permanently drained, and chairs and tables for students using the mini restaurant on the ground floor of the Welsh building were put in. This continued for a while, then the old pool itself was filled in level to the rest of the surrounding plaza.
Then finally since the last time I was in the area, probably 2003, a whole new building has been built on the plaza, including most of what was the pool. The new building appears to be a wi-fi coffee bar combined with a "light meals" type of lunch counter. On the whole I think I'd prefer the birds.
Seaboard Air Line Station, Gervais Street: 1991 34 comments
The first time I can remember going to the train station was when I was quite small. My father knew one of the Seaboard engineers, and arranged for us to see his engine one night while he was taking a train through town. Altough I was fascinated with big machinery at the time, I really can't remmber much about it, other than the fact the engineer told us how we could leave pennies on the track which would be flattened as he took the train out of the station. And although I suppose train traffic had been long on the wane even then, I also recall how active and noisy the place seemed to be, with idling engines and people bustling back and forth.
After that, we went down to the station about once a year, when my Aunt would take either the Silver Star or Silver Meteor from Jacksonville to Columbia. Often, this meant that she would arrive late at night, and I can remember that our ritual for going to pick her up would include a stop at the Krispy Kreme on Taylor Street (near the Big-T) to get hot doughnuts to eat while we sat and waited for the train.
I only took a train from that station once. When I was in elementary school, my mother arranged a "train party" for one of my birthdays (I suppose I was 7 or 8). Parents brought my classmates down to the station to catch the train to Camden. My mother rode with us on the train, and when we got to Camden, we were met by my father and some of the other parents who had driven over while we were en-route. We had a picnic with cake in a Camden park, then my father and the other parents drove us all back to Columbia. I don't recall much about the station itself on that trip except the for some 2nd-grade reason, a friend and I got fascinated by a stamp machine in the place and bummed some change to see it operate. In the event, it only dispensed half a stamp, which we thought was very noteworthy. (The train ride itself was noteworthy because the passenger car had a water cooler rather than a fountain, and it had neat conical paper cups).
If memory serves, the Seaboard Diner was also originally located at the station. After the station closed, it relocated down Gervais several blocks towards the river, and was finally torn down at some point during the vistafication of the whole area. I suppose that process is still not totally complete, as you have a bit of the old
left in with the new

I don't know if there is a word for the style of the building other than "train station", but it's a style that just screams train station even when you see it in small towns where the tracks have long since been pulled up. I think the current tenant, The Blue Marlin seafood restaurant has been in the main part of the station more or less since it closed. I believe the mix on the other side of Gervais has been a bit more volatile. My memory is not clear exactly clear on how the station originally worked. I guess that when a train was long enough, it was parked across Gervais during loading and unloading.
After 9/11, I got tired of how awful flying had become, and decided that the next time I had to go to DC, I would take the train. Of course I had to use the new station by then, but it was a nice experience. Riding the train is amazingly civilized. You can get up and stretch whenever you want to, or get a snack, and at mealtimes they serve real food in the dining car. I can see why my Aunt elected to take the train from Florida, especially before the Interstates were done. It is also, however, amazingly slow, and I can't see it ever catching on again. I was amused a few years back by the wrangle between the state government and I believe Wacamaw county about who was on the hook to fix the train drawbridge over the Inland Waterway at US-501. I think the county claimed that they had a "treaty" with the state dating back 50 years that said the state was responsible, and the state finally said OK, this time, but never again. That's been over ten years ago now, and there still hasn't been a train over that bridge and onto the Wacamaw Neck, and I fully expect that it is just as likely that one will pull up in front of The Blue Marlin first.
"All Aboard!"