Columbia Closings   What's not in Columbia anymore

Welcome Facebook users 11 July 2017: I see a lot of hits on this old page from Facebook today. Welcome to Columbia Closings. Normally this site focuses on Columbia South Carolina, but there are some other Fernandina pages you may be interested in:

A1A Gas Mart, 816 South 8th Street (Fernandina Beach FL)

Amelia Con 2014, Fernandina Beach Florida

Amelia Con 2016, Fernandina Beach Florida

Island Cinema 7, 1132 14th Street (Fernandina Beach FL)

Kmart, 1525 Sadler Road (Fernandina Beach)

O'Kane's Irish Pub And Eatery, 318 Centre Street (Fernandina Beach)

Sonny's Real Pit Bar-B-Q 2742 South 8th Street, Fernandina Beach FL

Topsy's Downtown Gulf, 710 Centre Street (Fernandina Beach)

A1A Gas Mart, 816 South 8th Street (Fernandina Beach FL)

Indian River Fruit Stand, A1A (Yulee Florida)

And check the Alphabetical Closings page for other Florida references.

And now back to the original post:

Well, I'm on the road, and didn't get all the pictures I wanted to take done beforehand, so I'm going to throw in a few ringers this week.

Read the rest of this entry »

OK, does anybody know if this is right? Google suggests that 3601 Two Notch Road, which is in the block starting at Cushman Drive and going towards Dick Dyer was Carolina Parts Company, and I have a vague memory of a junkyard type place (which the Beware of The Dog sign would support).

However, I had noticed the lot as vacant several times driving and walking by in the past year or so -- except for a battered sign. The lot is apparently being cleared, and the sign is now gone, before I could get a picture of it, but my memory is that it was not a junkyard type sign. The name of the establishment had been obliterated but I think the top part of the sign was for Coke as if it were one of those Coke-subsidised signs you used to see all the time for restaurant names. Does anyone remember a restaurant, or anything that would have a Coke-sponsored sign at this site? Possibly from before Carolina Parts?

I don't have a lot to say about R. M. Stork Brickyard -- if there weren't a plaque, I wouldn't even have the name. I do vaguely remember when it was in operation on Bethel Church Road however, and how the remnants fascinated me after it closed down.

Today the location, just down Bethel Church Road from Trenholm Park (heading towards Satchelford Road) seems a very unlikely one for an industrial operation, and I don't ever remember having seen the trucks going in and out that it would have taken to support the place. Certainly the traffic would be out of character with the neighboorhood now!

I assume this chimney was attached to a brick kiln. I think I remember some domed ones, though I may be conflating memories of Guignard Bricks just across the Blossom Street Bridge. After lying fallow for a number of years, the place was developed into condos, which look to be fairly nice. The chimney now stands in front of the condo's swimming pool and lodge.

Back in the 1970s, our Mercury Comets and Ford Maverick spent a lot of time in Bob Andrews Motors's garage. The 70s (for those of you fortunate enough not to remember) were the decade when nothing worked (and we had disco!), and were possibly the rock bottom era for American cars (until now).

My parents always bought cars with 3-on-the-tree manual transmissions as that was how they had learned to drive, and what they enjoyed driving. Unfortunately at some point in the 70s, Ford forgot how to build these (which didn't keep them from selling them..), and the local dealer forgot how to fix them. In fact although they didn't say much, at this remove I'm pretty sure my parents thought the dealership's service department was incompetent about a lot of stuff. Of course there's only so much you can do with a mid-70s Mercury Comet, but my folks always thought Andrews dealt fairly with them, and he generally got the cars back on the road.

Eventually, my parents decided that Detroit had failed the "fool me once, fool me twice.." test and we moved on to Toyotas which hardly ever broke down, and which had competent dealer service departments so we didn't get to Harden Street any more. Still, I'm kind of sad to see the old Andrews site empty (though glad that the business survives on Two Notch). Hopefully something will go into the interestingly shaped existing building rather than knocking it down.

UPDATE 20 March 2010 -- Here's some better pictures of the building:

UPDATE 29 July 2010 -- The old building at 1111 Harden Street has been demolished:

Well, the spot doesn't look like much now, but this Dutch Square storefront just outside of White's was once the home of The Barrel O' Fun video arcade, and was a pretty hoppin' place. The 80s were the heyday of the video arcade, and Barrel had all the standard ones like PacMan, Galaga, Defender, BattleZone, Tempest, Gorf, Space Invaders, Asteroids, Space Invaders, Joust, Missle Command, Dig-Dug, Galaxian and Phoenix. My memory is very hazy, but I think it had some of the less common ones that I really liked such as Qix, StarCastle and Pengo. That last was a very "cute" but nonetheless creative game where you (as a penguin) would kick ice blocks around the screen to crush the killer Sno-Bees. You could also keep them from hatching if you kicked their ice blocks before they emerged. I think probably a lot of guys were embarassed to play it because of the "cute" factor, otherwise it would have been huge.

Of course you could find the games, even the uncommon ones, elsewhere, so what really made Barrel O' Fun distinctive was it's polished wood entranceway. This was done up as a cross-section of a huge wood plank barrel, was very eye-catching and gave the place a bit of class. Even after the arcade closed, you could see the entrance for a number of years, draped with some sort of plastic. I'm not sure when they totally blanked out the storefront as they have now done, but it wasn't too many years ago. I'm not entirely sure when the place closed. The last time I can specifically remember going there was after I walked out of a movie at Dutch Square Theater in 1987 and killed some time there while my sister and her friend finished the show. Dutch Square itself was clearly in decline by then, as were video arcades, so the two factors together probably finished the place, and I don't think anything else has ever gone into that slot.

UPDATE 24 Aug 2010: I have posted two photos from commenter Trey above. One is of the Barrel Of Fun sign in his workshop, and the other, entitled "Inside Coin Booth", seems to be of the old round entrance to the arcade. Also, given this evidence, I have updated the post title from Barrel O' Fun to Barrel Of Fun

Thanks Trey!

At one time, the area that is now the CVS & Food Lion plaza on Two Notch Road hosted a drive-in theater. I can't remember the name of the place now, but as I recall, the entrance was more or less where the CVS now is with the screen behind that and a tilted a bit leftwards. Growing up, we only saw a movie at a drive-in once (I think it was Cat Ballou somewhere on the Grand Strand), so I never made it to the place while it was in operation. I think a number of area drive-ins went porno in the 70s -- I know the one near Spring Valley did, and the one off of Sunset/River Road did, but I don't think this was one of them (though the nearby Atlantic Twin Theater did).

Anyway, after the drive-in business went under, the lot was used as a flea-market for a number of years, with the speaker poles still strewn amongst the tables -- I did stop by several times while it was in that configuration though I can't remember actually buying anything. I think the lot was vacant for several years after that with the heavy development of the strip mall starting in the 90s (and as you can see still continuing to this day). Personally I'd rather still have a drive-in (and one day I really will make it out to Moneta, this time for sure..)

UPDATE 6 Feb 09: Found out that the place was originaly called the Twilite and later renamed the Starlite, so I've updated the post title. I found that out here, which also has pictures.

UPDATE 19 March 2013: At some point I have to do some research down at the library to definitely untangle the Twilite/Starlite story, but in the meantime, the new Whole Foods has a photo mural of the old Starlite which used to occupy their location on Fort Jackson Boulevard:

This abandoned plant nursery is on Two Notch Road between the new Food Lion plaza and Dick Dyer Toyota, and almost exactly across the street from The Thoroughbred Motel.

I can only vaguely remember it being in operation. I'm pretty sure my mother took us there a couple of times when we were kids, but I don't really recall anything definite about the layout or what she may have gotten. I think it closed in the 1970s, sometime after the nursery across from Trenholm Plaza.

It's interesting that the site has lain fallow so long. The owners must be paying the taxes -- perhaps they're waiting for development in this section of Two Notch to heat up before selling or building. And in fact, there is activity in the general area. A lot across the street has just been cleared (before I could get a picture of the sign left from an old business I wanted someone to identify..) and there's a new building going up behind the CVS.

UPDATE 6 Feb 09: Commenter Dennis says the place was called "Plants 'N Whatnots", so I have updated the post title to reflect that.

UPDATE 17 Feb 09: Commenter Justin says they were definitely open in the 90s, so I've updated the post title to say "1990s" rather than the original "1970s". It's sad when you can be 20 years off and not realize it..

Few Acres is on Two Notch Road near Pinestraw Road, abuting Mr. Muffler. In fact, Mr. Muffler has the same Trailer Park Is Closed signs that the park itself has leading me to speculate (as I did then) that someone has bought both properties and is going to develop this corner of Two Notch.

On the other hand, it's been a year since I wrote about the location, and still nothing has happened. The trailer park is still littered with decrepit trailer skeletons, and the Mr. Muffler building still stands untouched. Perhaps the tanking of the economy is delaying things. I must admit that I am in no hurry to see any further development in this stretch of Two Notch. The strip malls already there seem to be struggling, and it's always nice to see a wooded lot admidst all the concrete.

First of all, can someone give me a definitive name for the road that starts at Fort Jackson, goes under I-77, passes in front of K-Mart and ends where Devine Street meets Garners Ferry? I've called it "Jackson Boulevard" all my life, but the I-77 exit signs read "Fort Jackson Boulevard", and half of the street signs on the road itself have "Fort" and half don't. Likewise, when I googled the address of this storefront, I find both uses.

Anyway, I became aware of this building when I would drive down (Fort) Jackson Boulevard and cut through to Ruby Tuesday's. As far as I could tell, it was a mexican restaurant which seemed to have passed through a protracted coming soon stage directly to an out of business stage without ever actually opening. Google on the address gives an even more interesting story. Apparently at some point in the not too distant past, it was a Chinese place called Lulan Wang. I'm not surprised I don't remember that as I'm not overly fond of Chinese food so those places don't really attract my attention. On the Mexican front however, it was apparently two different places, and must have been both quite recently: El Korita and Los Portrillos, so I'm apparently conflating and re-arranging two coming-soon and out-of-business progressions in my mind.

I like that the main available sign leaves the palm tree -- that's nicer than just a blank white sign. Also, notice the plaintive writing on the fences to the side of the restaurant urging No Steal Plant. Is that a big problem in Columbia? The fact that they felt the need to write it argues it happened at least once..

UPDATE 28 Jan 09: Several people in the comments mention that the place was also (and first) Jesudi's, an Italian restaurant that was decorated as a cave inside and out. I had completely forgotten that! I knew I had eaten in a "cave" restaurant somewhere in Columbia growing up, but did not connect it with that building at all. I've updated the post title to add Jesudi's to the list of tenants.

UPDATE 31 March 2011 -- Added full street address to post title. Added 1973 Southern Bell ad for Capital Health Club an establishment with a rather different menu than the rest.

UPDATE 22 July 2011 -- The place is now being worked on as an "Upfit for proposed new restaurant":

UPDATE 25 October 2011 -- Well, it's to be The Diner:

UPDATE 15 January 2012 -- The Diner is open:

UPDATE 25 January 2012 -- Here's the mural on the side. Looks as though they are still working on it:

UPDATE 28 January 2012 -- Yep! Definitely still working on it:

UPDATE 28 October 2021 -- I have added the first picture, a shot of Jesudi's in full Italian Cave mode. Commenter Bill alerted to me of this shot at the Library of Congress of all places. The accompanying text says that it was taken by photographer John Margolies in 1988, and is part of his John Margolies Roadside America Photograph Archive collection, with no restrictions on use.

While I am here, I am also updating tags and adding the map icon.

Also note that several more businesses have come and gone in the building since I first made this post, and that the building was badly hit by the flood of 2015. You can click here for more details.

When I was growing up, going to get the Christmas tree was always a big event. We would all pile into the car and head for Trenholm Plaza and the Optimist Tree Lot.

The lot was set up yearly on the back side of the plaza (at the entrance which now has the traffic light) between the plaza proper and what I remember as then being woods, though I could be wrong about that. We would always get there after dark, and the place would be kind of a minature forest of Christmas trees standing in holes in the ground with white Christmas lights strung around the whole affair and there would always be a barrell with something burning inside around which the lot hands would warm themselves in between customers.

The trip would always play out as something of a contest between we kids, who wanted the biggest tree imaginable, and our parents who wanted a reasonably priced tree, and one, moreover, which would fit in or on the car for the trip back (we always had sedans or coupes growing up -- no station wagons). In the end, of course, our parents would get the tree they wanted while convincing us that it was the one we had picked out. The lot hands would always have plenty of twine on hand and would somehow get the tree secured for the 2 mile drive home. I believe we usually managed to get most of the tree in the trunk with the lid tied down rather than closed and several feet of tree hanging off the bumper -- I can't remember actually having the tree tied to the top of the car.

In the 80s, the lot beside Trenholm Plaza was developed, or further developed, and the space available to set up the tree lot was no longer sufficient. At that time, the Optimists moved the lot down Trenholm to its current location (pictured) by the Children's Home and the Methodist Church. In recent years, the garden center in the old First Citizen's Bank location in Forest Lake Shopping Center has added Christmas trees in season, so there is still a lot in the general area, but it's not the same.