Columbia Closings   What's not in Columbia anymore

Commenter Bart Laber reports that this whole company is gone as of February, and indeed their website is now just a "parked" page, though the old page can still be found on the Wayback Machine. Judging from that, it appears to have been an SC company as the initials would imply.

The address given on the door sign is the old Shoney's etc building in Dentsville.

(Hat tip to commenter Bart Laber)

A little googling reveals that this two building + house strip on US-1 in West Columbia was Boss Bull pawnshop.

You can see that there is a little pond out back and interestingly, the lot figures in the West Columbia debate about urban chicken farming:

Chairperson Unthank recognized Mr. Frank Barron
who has lived at 800 State Street for 10 years.
Mr. Barron stated that he has raised chickens
since he was nine years old. He wanted to inform
the public that chickens could be kept in a
sanitary manner. He has helped a young boy set up
a chicken house at 2910 Augusta Road, and invited
everyone to stop by and look at it. Half of the
chicken house is on a sled so that it may be
moved around to allow the droppings to fertilize
the grass. Mr. Barron believes that raising
chickens inside the city should not cause a
problem if the coops are properly kept.

My father always wondered if he had made the wrong choice between chicken farming and English teaching. Or so he said.

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I had driven past the Old Mill in Lexington a number of times since the great flood of 4 October 2015 which burst the dam, but I had never taken the time to stop and have a look. Since it was a nice sunny day and I had some time, I took the opportunity to check it out on 21 May 2016.

It appears to me that there were two channels out of the now dry mill pond to the creeks that cross under US-1. The south fork, which is now basically stagnant with no connection to the water flow out of the former pond and the north fork which comes through the dam washout, and is flowing quite vigorously. Since the channel clearly predates the dam breach, I guess there was a spillway in the dam for this channel to power the equipment of the original mill, and that this spillway gave way in the breach.

The dam itself is an earthen embankment and apart from the breach on the end nearest to the mill complex is still largely intact. I was able to get on top of it and walk almost to the breach. (I could have walked *to* the breach and gotten some better pictures, but I didn't see any reason to give another portion of the dam the temptation to give way with me on top..)

I'm not sure what the plans for the site are. There does not appear to have been any start at reconstructing the dam, and of course as the mill is no longer active, there is no necessity to do so, but the pond is a nice setting for the various restaurants and businesses in the old mill comples..

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I have to admit I was not even aware this little Two Notch spot existed until I saw MizTerry's comment that it had closed. I have to admire the slogan, as whatever else you might want to say about it, it is undisputably true. As it happened, it was easier to get in and out of this lot than I expected as there were breaks in the traffic due to the lights up and down from this spot and because of the fairly wide suicide lane. I gues that doesn't matter now though, unless I want a tattoo..

(Hat tip to commenter MizTerry)

This storefront, co-located with a convenience store, was orginally Kotas Sandwiches. After that closed, the place re-opened for a while as Kotas Your Way!.

It appears from the signage, and the food truck parked in the lot that the new owners have closed the storefront and now concentrate on catering chiken & pizza from two food trucks.

UPDATE 11 July 2016 -- Now PK-BBQ:

Commenter James reports the closing of Marpie's Antiques & Collectibles on Augusta Road.

This is an interesting location in a building which is shared with Avon and has nice little family plot outside. The peeling marquee sign reveals part of the name of a previous business underneath, but I am unable to make it out. It appears to be

EDS
ector

UPDATE 24 June 2014 -- Here's some pictures of the previous location at 910 Meeting Street:

Well, there was some chatter on Have Your Say the other day about Church's Chicken, so I thought I would bring out these Church's pictures from Aiken. They were taken on a fairly recent visit this March, but I believe the restaurant has been vacant since before I left Aiken around 2005 or so. The place is on the stretch of US-1 (York Street) between I-20 exit 22 and downtown proper. Or perhaps you can consider Hampton Avenue to be the start of downtown (and Aiken's weird double streets). LoopNet says the building is in the city limits proper. (They also seem to be saying it can be reused, but the current state is a good bit more decrepit than the picture they use, and I have my doubts).

This little Mexican hole-in-the-wall got mixed reviews on the online sites, but seemed to have something of a following as a more authentic cusine choice than the standard Columbia mini-chains.

The LoopNet listing and indeed the roadside sale sign mention the slot is still a "fully equipped restaurant", and you can still see elements of the prvious decor through the windows. To me this says that a) the equipment was owned, not leased and b) the end came unexpectedly.

UPDATE 15 February 2022: Adding map icon.

Here's another Pig closing from last year. This one is on the East side of US-1 not too far from the Barnyard flea market. Interestingly, the address is Lexington, though I did not think Lexington started that far South.

Though several recently closed Pigs have become Bi-Los, there is no sign of another tenant for this one yet.

(Hat tip to commenter Andrew)

UPDATE 1 March 2016 -- As mentioned in the comments, this is now KJ's IGA:

UPDATE 21 September 2022: Adding map icon. Updating tags.