Columbia Closings   What's not in Columbia anymore

Well, I did Curves a few days ago, so here's another franchised women's gym on the other side of town.

I admit having never heard of Butterfly Life and entertained some idea it was a wild flower shop before reading the fine print. It still seems a bit of an odd name as butterflies certainly aren't known for their long lives or robust constitutions...

I do believe I saw another Butterfly Life opening in the Wal-Mart plaza on Bush River Road.

I was a little surprised when Google turned this building up as a funeral home. Given the radio tower I had guessed it was some sort of maintainence facility with radio dispatched trucks. Of course, Bostick-Tompkins moved to Colonial Drive in 2001, so it could have been several things since then (though Google doesn't turn them up, and Bostick-Tompkins apparently still owns the building). Also, given that the City Data tax information says the building was built in 1967, and Bostick-Tompkins was established in 1988, it could have been several things before that.

All I know about Curves is that it is a franchaised gym for women. I do rather like the idea the name suggests: that being fit isn't the same thing as being a bony stick.

Colonial Village, the little strip across from Dutch Square on the way to I-126, has never really seemed to thrive. To me it seems like it should be a good location, but the only thing of note that has lasted over there is The Melting Pot.

I figured I could at least get a street address by tracking down the Colliers Keenan listing for this Leesburg Road property just east of I-77, across from Greenlawn Cemetary and alongside Pringle Road, but for some reason, I can't find it on the Colliers site.

That being the case, I know essentially nothing about this building other than it is in poor shape and looks to have been a car repair garage. The trussed arched wood roof is very nice although open to the sky in most places now, and there are a couple of mysteries posed by the coat hangers and the jaunty mascot.

UPDATE 1 November 2011: Added the full street address to post title.

UPDATE 21 January 2014: Commenter badger suggests the correct street address is 819 Leesburg Road. I don't have any better guess, so I have changed the post title to use 819 instead of 821. He also suggests the business was either Berne or Laberne Equipment, so I am adding those as well.

UPDATE 28 August 2017 -- This building has now been razed as shown in these not very good drive-by shots:

UPDATE 25 October 2017 -- Construction is starting here. Unfortunately, I did not get a good enough picture to read the sign saying what is forthcoming:

UPDATE 27 January 2018 -- The new structure is framed now, and, as you can see if you click through and look very closely at the sign, is to be a Dick Smith Body Shop:

On my way to the Fairgrounds Monday to pick up some artwork, I noticed that this Midlands Tech area dry-cleaner had closed. The building is one of Columbia's surprisingly many stone facade structures. From the outlines of a bay doors on the back, and the gull-wing lights at the corner of the lot, I suspect the building may first have been a gas station.

UPDATE 28 June 2017 -- This building has now been razed:

Here, next to Rudy's Upper Deck in The Shoppes At Meeting Place is another of Columbia's many defunct personal finance storefronts. Of course, in these times, it helps to be too big to fail..

I noticed the sale signs up on this Devine Street building a few weeks ago. Apparently Prudential Palmetto Realtors was not the only tenant (I'm getting a google hit for Internet Services Conterra and a lawyer's office as well), but as their name was on the building, I'd say they were the main one, and I'd guess this to be another casualty of the bottom dropping out of the real estate market.

The LoopNet listing suggests that the building has been on offer since at least late August 2011, and that it is a little bigger than it looks as it has a basement.

I noticed this old-school barber shop on Rosewood a few months ago as I was headed down towards Assembly. It looks like it has that kind of electrical, revolving, barber pole that you used to see quite a bit, but hardly at all nowdays.

I'm just guessing at a 2010 closing date, but I think it would have caught my eye before if it had been much longer than that.

UPDATE 11 July 2014 -- It's now Pelican's SnoBalls snow cone shop:

This building on Garners Ferry next to Day's Inn and just down from Fantasy Lingerie and Maurice's Gourmet Barbecue has been vacant for a while as even the driveway is getting a bit cracked and overgrown. The last occupant was General Sales, Inc. who have since moved to Huger Street. I'm guessing they weren't the first tenants though, or at least I don't see why a food service company would have underground tanks as seems to be the case from the DHEC notice.

There's an old joke that goes back as far, probably as the invention of the telephone, and it goes something like this:

1: "Hello, Burkett, Burkett & Burkett"
2: "Yes, I'd like to speak to Mr. Burkett."
1: "Sorry, he's out to lunch right now."
2: "Well, then, I'd like to speak to Mr. Burkett."
1: "I'm afraid he's in a meeting right now."
2: "Ok. Then please let me speak with Mr. Burkett."
1: "Speaking!"

And I'm sure all of the Burketts have heard that one many times by now..

All that aside, the firm has recently relocated from this building on the East side of Sunset Boulevard next to the gas station and Auto Spa. The LoopNet listing says it was built in 1980, and I can believe that. I'm not quite sure when the move was, though I posit 2010 as a guess, but it's been long enough for the shrubbery to grow a bit, and a few limbs to fall in the parking lot.

I was rather surprised when I drove back in there to find that there is no cut-through to Fairlane Drive and the stoplight there, which would make southbound access easier. Google maps suggests there is a stream paralleling Fairlane which separates this lot from that street. I'm guessing it would be behind the storage shed.

Burkett, Burkett & Burkett have moved to an impressive new building just a bit North and on the other side of the street at 3101 Sunset Boulevard: