Columbia Closings   What's not in Columbia anymore

When I would eat at Ruby Tuesday, I would occasionally stop at this S-Mart BP (which I'm pretty sure started as a Hess) on my way home, especially since they tore down the Forest Drive Circle K. It was nothing special, though I always thought it was a bit odd that they had the "under seige"/"cashier in a cage" setup inside as the area doesn't seem especially bad to me.

I'm pretty sure that the number of pumps decreased over the last year or so, something I wondered about. It may be that the writing has been on the wall for a while..

When the ax did fall, they wasted no time getting the remaining pumps out of there, a process that usually takes a little while.

The side road to this place, Crowson Road is an odd little street that connects Devine with Fort Jackson Boulevard and also has a semi "back way" into K-Mart with a bridge over Gills Creek. It has always had sort of an unfinished/1960s vibe to me. I guess this is probably due mostly to the odd cluster of buildings, from the original Egg Roll Station building to the old buildings at the intersection with Fort Jackson Boulevard..

(Hat tip to commenter Badger)

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Well, another day, another closed gas station on The Sumter Highway. This one is recent though, closing some time in March I think, though it can probably be figured accurately from the gas prices.. While I was taking these shots, the guy from the adjacent Subway came over and wanted to know if I was looking to buy the building. I'm not sure I ever did convey exactly what I was doing (which really doesn't make much sense to any rational person).

I like the canopy here, and the way it slightly "vees" rather than being completely flat as most new ones are. I think most modern construction has lost something. Notice too that the pumps have analog/mechanical displays. The one for 89 octane looks as though it was not happy to get up into the $3 range. Also note, one of the common features of a recently closed business: The new phonebook parked against the door.

As an added bonus, the drive home from here was very scenic:

(Hat tip to someone whose comment I can no longer find)

UPDATE 24 November 2014 -- The Hot Spot is open again (and apparently has been for some time):

UPDATE 22 January 2017 -- This place has now re-flagged as O M Mart:

UPDATE 31 January 2023: Adding map icon.

I noticed this abandoned gas station a few weeks ago coming back into town on the Sumter Highway. It sits where US-378 (The Sumter Highway) and SC-764 meet at a fork in the road.

I'm sure that the painting on the facade is sufficient to identify what brand of station it was, but I'm drawing a blank on it right now, and as often as I have driven (or ridden..) that road since the 1960s, I'm almost certain I never stopped there.

These pictures were taken about 5 minutes too late -- Just before I got to the area, the sun had broken through the storm clouds for that glorious late-afternoon-post-storm light you get sometimes, but by the time I started snapping, the clouds were already rolling back in. I wish I had the honey-suckle pumps in that light..

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There's been a lot of speculation in Have Your Say lately as to whether Branham's Exxon at the corner of Devine & Ott is open or not.

I think the answer is probably: It's open, but it's not Branham's. Commenter Nobody saw a sign there to the effect that it was closing 24 March 2012 after 35 years, but when I drove by, I saw the station open and with people actively filling their cars. A closer inspection on a later Sunday trip reveals that the streetside sign now says:

Gas Pumps Open
Thank You
Keenan Oil Co

while the other sign of the sign says that the "shop" (which could be the convenience portion, the auto bay portion, or both) is temporarily closed.

It appears that the station has been sold to Keenan which is, for the nonce at least, running it as a gas-only station. I certainly wish the owners a nice retirement, but it's sad to see another of the very few "mechanic on duty" stations left close. In fact, the only other one that comes to mind right now is Null's Exxon on Two Notch.

UPDATE 5 February 2013: It's now a Gaz-bah:

I think Walker's Service Center remains in business while they try to sell the building (which to my memory has been on the market for years), but obviously they were not the first tenant here in what was a service station of some sort.

The architecture is distinctive enough that I ought to be able to name it easily, but in the event it's slipping my mind, and I will update the post title when either someone identifies it, or I remember to look it up at the library. These full service gas stations use to be just about the only ones you saw, and with cars so much more fragile in those years, that made sense. Now they are a dying breed, and with the closure of Forest Lake Exxon I can only think of a few left in town.

UPDATE 23 February 2012: Updated post title from "Gas Station" to "Abbot's Texaco" based on the comments.

UPDATE 13 June 2017 -- Now Pete's Mobile Auto & Truck Repairs:

The middle route from Columbia to the Grand Strand takes you through Manning on SC-261. US-521 joins 261 there, and they run together until just east of Manning where 261 forks North to Kingstree and 521 continues on to Greeleyville.

Historically rest stops between Manning and Greeleyville have been pretty sparse, so perhaps that's why I especially noticed this rather lavish little gas plaza when it was constructed just a few years ago a little East of the 261/521 fork. That, and the fact that any sign with the word "pizza" on it tends to concentrate my attention.

While the right confluence of events hadn't ever happened, I figured it was a pretty sure thing that sooner or later I would be stopping at Tanners. Well, that was true, but not for the reasons I'd anticipated -- I noticed earlier this year that the place, which had started on such a large scale (this wasn't your typical no-name, one-guy, rural convenience store) so recently was well and truly gone.

I don't know if it turned out that US-521 wasn't as major a road as they had figured, but even with gas, pizza, bait and an attached liquor store as draws apparently the traffic wasn't there. LoopNet on the other hand, says they cleared $78,000 and 100,000 gallons monthly, so who knows?

At any rate, the road between Manning and Greeleyville is pretty empty again.

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This old-school Exxon on Two Notch near the I-20 interchange, and O'Neil Court is currentl Go Used Tires, but apparently that will only last until the sale of the building, which is currently on offer.

This is a classic look for an Esso/Exxon of that era. Here is a similiar one (which I believe stayed open longer) in Yulee Florida:

Hopefully the Two Notch building will not be razed, but given the age, I wouldn't bet on it.

UPDATE 5 December 2011: Added Esso to the post title based on the comments.

UPDATE 10 October 2016 -- The Two Notch building continues to deteriorate. I don't see how the next operation won't raze it. I also note the sheltered area looks to have been something of a homeless campout:

I have to admit that when commenter badger mentioned this place (at the corner of State & Frink Streets) was closed, I had never even heard of Frink Street. As it turns out, I have crossed over it on my way down the 12th Street extension to I-77, but I'm pretty sure I had never actually been on it before this last Sunday. In terms of this blog, it presents something of a "target rich environment". Does anyone know where the interesting (and fun-to-say) name comes from?

From the look at the layers on the roadside sign, I'm guessing this place was a Philips 66 before anything else in the list, with that name being painted over for the Bait & Tackle name. The Secretary of State's web site says that Cayce Bait & Tackle went under in 2004, in some sort of forfeiture, and was followed by the Frink Street Social Club which has never been officially dissolved. I'm not sure if B & B would be the connected with the club or not, but kudos to them for not using the trendy (and incorrect) Grille spelling in their name..

(As an aside, the "look" of this building would tend to validate this one as a Philips 66).

(Hat tip to commenter badger).

UPDATE 12 June 2011: Commenter badger sends in this picture of the "Lizard Woman" mural that once graced Cayce Bait & Tackle:

Thanks!

But of course, I must remind folks of the real story of South Carolina's lizard infestation, related by my sister (who changed names to protect the innocent) in her book, The Lizard Man of Crabtree County

UPDATE 6 February 2012: Added Cayce Lunch to the post title based on information from commenter Sid whose family used to own the place -- be sure to read the comments! Also, apparently the Philips 66 was a separate building (now gone?).

For most of my life, this building was a Gulf Station and was our default family choice for gas and light service.

After the place closed as a Gulf, it seemed to go through several phases that I am now hazy on. In particular, I think there was a period after it was a full service station and before Circle K when it was still a gas-only station, but without service. During this period, the service bays were closed, but the car-wash bay was still in operation, and you could get a code to with each fill-up to go through the wash.

Circle K took over the place in sort of a half-hearted way. They never really committed to making the place a "modern" convenience store, and the service and wash bays remained walled off, but unconverted, forcing the convenience operation into a really small cramped space. In particular, they never put in interior bathrooms as all stores now do, and the old Gulf restrooms on the Trenholm Road side of the station remained the only ones (though they were never ADA-ed).

Though the place remained my default gas station, there were some inconvenient touches to that aspect as well. First they gradually closed off the Trenholm Road door. At first sometimes you would go and it would be open and sometimes it would be locked, then finally it was always locked. Second, they took the pump locks off the pump handles. That meant you had to hold the pump handle throughout the whole fueling operation. I think some places feel this is a safety issue, but I say that's bunk. Thirdly, from time to time, they seemed to have the slowest pumps in SC. On those days, I think if I had not pre-paid, I would have just driven off rather than wait for the gentle trickle to creep up to $20. (Of course nothing *creeps* to $20 nowdays..)

Initially when the place was a Union 76, even though the store itself was technically a Circle K, they signage played up the 76 affiliation, and the Circle K branding was almost invisible. Sometime last fall, they completely, and messily, disaffiliated from Union 76, knocking out the logo panel on their street sign, and pasting Circle K branding on the pumps (take off the pumps now that the CK is closed).

(Hat tip to commenter Matt)

UPDATE 23 May 2011 -- various pictures as below:

On 17 May, it appeared that the underground tanks were being pumped dry:

On 18 May, they started digging up the underground tanks. Hopefully all those holes in the tanks were made during the excavation:

By 21 May, the tanks had been carted off:

By 22 May, the hole has been partly filled in, the pumps are off in the corner, and the next step is unclear. Knock the building down? Start an interior refit?

UPDATE 16 June 2011 -- Hmm. New sign, and it appears that the building is slated to be torn down. A ground lease is a type of lease where the tennant gets to build on the land during the lease period, and of course build-to-suit means a new building as well. Looking at the supports for the canopy on the Trenholm Road side, it appears that they have already decided that backing into things doesn't matter anymore..

UPDATE 18 July 2011 -- Well, demolition has started. Already the canopies have been knocked down. They haven't torn into the building itself as far as the walls go, but it sure doesn't look like it's long for the world:

UPDATE 19 July 2011 -- Well the end has come! Interestingly, the bathrooms were the last piece left standing. I shot some video of them knocking down part of the bathroom wall, but it didn't come out:

UPDATE 19 July 2011: The whole building is down now. Also added first pic of Circle K logo at top:

UPDATE 20 July 2011: Add 18 July 2011 photoset below.

UPDATE 21 July 2011: Today they knocked down the street sign and the trailer is gone. (No pix yet). Also I added the 19 July photoset below.

UPDATE 23 September 2011 -- Well, the place is apparently to be a Circle K again according to the new sign in the lot. And in the meantime, the old chargecard sign hangs on..

UPDATE 5 May 2012 -- It appears that new construction has finally started, or at least excavation:

UPDATE 21 May 2012 -- Landscaping and excavation continue and now they have boarded out the foundations for part of the new construction. Apparently they will be building in what was green space in the former Bell's Drive-In as well as the old Gulf/Circle K lot. At least my memory is that Gulf & Bell's sort of shared a parking lot, but that Bell's itself sat in this little strip between the gas station and the drugstore which never had a building after Bell's was torn down:

UPDATE 2 June 2012 -- The new underground tanks are going in:

UPDATE 6 June 2012 -- Looks like it's going to be a fairly small building:

UPDATE 17 August 2012 -- The new building is almost ready to open. In fact, I saw a car pull up to the "Redbox" and apparently rent a movie:

UPDATE 12 September 2012 -- The construction is finished, and the new store is open. I was conflicted as to whether I should mark the post as "open again" given that it is a completely new building, but in the end I did. If it ever closes again though, it will get a separate closing..

PHOTOSETS

Photoset 18 July 2011
Photoset 19 July 2011
Photoset 20 May 2012

UPDATE 29 March 2023: Adding map icon & updating tags.