Columbia Closings   What's not in Columbia anymore

I wonder if Barberitos is struggling? As I noted here and here, both Midlands locations of the chain closed some time ago. Personally I liked this Fernandina Beach location better than either of those as it had ground beef as a topping which for some odd reason the SC locations did not (ground turkey is *not* the same thing). My only issue here (as with all locations) is that the chips were so fragile you couldn't really dip with them.

There was also a location a bit further up A1A towards Yulee FL, which also seems to have vanished in the same time-frame as this one. My guess is they were the same franchaise, which according to some google reviews was new ownership after the initial pandemic closure.

I have put 1519 for the street address here as both google & yelp agree on it and it is on the front door. However the actual number painted on the glass on the west side is 1515 for some reason, as you can see.

I took the opportunity Saturday to make my annual trip to Brookgreen Gardens and the Nights Of A Thousand Candles Christmas display. This year was quite warm for a December night, unlike some years in the past, and it was very pleasant to be out and about under the trees with all the lights and candles.

As usual, the big picture stays the same: sculpture, trees & lights, but the details change yearly. This year, I think there was more going on in the Children's Garden for instance, and less in The Fountain of the Muses. I also think that they took some cues from last year's Bruce Munroe installation, which I liked quite a bit, especially in the riverbank area which rather combined the ideas from his frog display and his firefly display in a way.

One very noticable change was that the popular "Holiday Memories & Trains" exhibit has moved across the main concourse to the Rosen Galleries, leaving the old space as a members' lounge.

Though some of the remaining nights are sold out, if you can Read the rest of this entry »

Williston Road is the connector between I-95 and US-301/US-76. Over the years I had noticed this small convenience store from time to time as I was driving the north route to the beach, and recently noticed that it was gone. What I had *not* noticed before, is that it directly abuts a cemetary (Either "Mizpah Cemetary" if you look at the sign or "Hinds Cemetary" if you look at google maps). You could probably infer a pretty good closing date by looking at the gas prices, but all I see from google reviews is that it was already closed "six months ago" (I don't know why google won't put a real date on all their reviews..).

If you look at the google photos it appears that they had a pool table inside, and maybe a bar/food area, but honestly they are too blurry to really tell.

I don't normally grab a lot of pictures that aren't mine and put them up, but in this case they seem to have mainly come from a ".ru" site, so the cork is probably already out of that bottle, and I think it makes an interesting contrast:

I ran across this former Ramada Inn off I-95 exit 157 in Florence a few weeks ago, took a few drive through pictures, drove off, thought about it, and came back for a walk-through.

What I find interesting, apart from the general decrepitness is that the property seems to have operated well into 2020, judging by the COVID signs on the office (where the lights are still on). In fact, many of the rooms still look ready to go, though others, of course, do not. If it did run that late, I would put the closing date as well *after* the swimming pool fill-in date, as that looks to have been done a good time ago given the plants in the hot tub area, and the patchy grass on the pool itself.

Apparently at the end, the manager lived in-house, as there is a second story room with an irritated sign saying no knocking after 8PM as it is not an office.

To me the architecture with its fence around the top of the building and the corner towers looks a bit like a stalag, and I can't imagine what purpose the enclosed huts on top of those served. I would say AC, but the rooms appear to have had standard outside-wall AC units:

I'm not sure what Young's Plantation is, or why it merits a shout-out on the sign.

LoopNet says the property is six acres and at one time was on the market for $495,000, although it is apparently no longer for sale.

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The earliest Google Steetview I can find for this lot is from November of 2007, and shows the station still standing here, though apparently already closed. The next view from January of 2008 already shows the building the the process of being torn down.

LoopNet says it is a 1.1 acre site, and has been sold, so presumably a new convenience store/gas station will go up here as it is on an I-95 exit (Exit 157).

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This outlet mall is in Darien Georgia on the west side of I-95 Exit 49 (across the interchange from the old Cafe Risque). I used to stop there from time to time on my way to Fernandina as they had one of those overstock "Giant Book Sale" storefronts where I picked up an interesting title or two over the years.

Starting around 2015 however the place started going downhill fast. I'm not sure why, as at the time the decline started, the buildings were still well maintained and attractive, and I-95 was certainly as busy as ever. I suppose it was part of the general Internet-based retail hollowing out that we have seen in many places. Now the entire place is vacant, and even the antiques store, which I thouht might still be going, is just abandoned stock from the defunct operation, though it does host a large colony of feral cats.

Apparently there have been a number of things that have *almost* happened here, with one of them, International Decor Outlet getting as far as opening their doors before folding. I'm not sure exactly what went wrong, but the whole concept which seems to be something like connecting manufacturers in China with US storefronts seems odd and hard to understand, and the company also got into trouble in a Jacksonville mall and downtown Jacksonville as well.

In mid-2020 another developer passed on the mall due ostensibly to COVID-19. I suspect that is what led to Ruby Tuesday giving up the ghost. As I recall, it was still open when I drove to Fernandina in December of 2020, but the building is now a local sports bar. Along with the restaurant, several gas stations and convenience stores a victim to the mall's closure, and I may feature some here later.

You can see the mall in happier times in some nice pictures at this real estate site and note the demographics that make this place really dependant on Interstate custom: Less than 20,000 people live in a ten mile radius of the site.

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During my Fourth of July visit to Fernandina Beach, I noticed that the historic Crab Trap restaurant on
Second Street was closed and gutted. We never ate there growing up, as my parents knew it was a fight to get me into a seafood restaurant, but as an adult I always meant to go someday have have the key-lime pie, probably with a burger up front.

I'm not sure when they closed, but looking around google & yelp & co, it appears that the last specific reviews are towards the end of 2020. I believe I would have noticed if it had been closed during my December visit, so I'm going to guess early 2021 as the date.

Their facebook page has announced they will be re-opening, and the way it is phrased sounds like it wasn't a sure thing. I'm still not sure it's a sure thing, as the place looks somewhat gutted, and nowhere near ready. We will see. I hope they make it.

Some time ago, I did a closing for a vacant diner/gas-station on East Palmetto Street heading east out of Florence. Here's another one.

In fact Ms Annie's was closer to Florence than INS was. I think the reasons I hadn't noticed it before were twofold. First, if I'm going to go to the beach by this route, I usually take the cut-off from the I-95 exit that comes out by the Dunkin' Donuts which is past this stretch of US-76/East Palmetto. Second, more often than not, I would be driving by during the night even if I skipped the short-cut.

Anyway, I can't find out much about the place. The address comes from an online menu site, but the menu has been taken down, so I can't say what they served other than it was "Home Cooking", and the shattered window signage emphasizes breakfast. I'm just guessing about the closing date -- it certainly appears to have been several years ago.

I did find the historical marker quite interesting and a bit scary.

Be warned that the place has been heavily tagged by folks with foul mouths and strong political views as you can see if you continue to the rest of the pictures.

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When I was getting pictures for Books A Million I noticed that the J Peters building was vacant as well. I figured they had gone under during the great plague of 2020, but a little research established that, in fact, they have moved to a better waterfront location on the Marsh Walk in Murrells Inlet.

This building was originally an Applebee’s, and I ate there a number of times, though I was more likely to go to the adjacent T.G.I. Friday's. Applebee's have had their own trouble over the past few years and have closed a number of locations. This one apparently went under in August 2017. Here is a 2017 Sun News story about the closing of Applebee's and the opening of J Peters. I can't find a story on the move to the waterfront, but based on reviews, I would say it was about August of 2020.

In the meantime, this is one more vacancy in the Inlet Square vicinity.