Columbia Closings   What's not in Columbia anymore

Here's another closing in The Vista, this one right on the main Gervais corridor.

I find it a little curious that they are closing on the Wednesday right before Thanksgiving rather than staying open through Black Friday, but I suppose that if you've already planned to close, there's no point in ruining your Thanksgiving to be ready for one more day.

(Hat tip to commenter Larry. Looking at his comment again, it appears that the original plan was in fact to go through Black Friday and into December..)

Commenter O'Reilly first mentioned that the Bull Market( in the old Seaboard Station on Gervais street) was closed back on 10 July 2010.

I snapped the two pictures above on 11 July when I went to take a look. At the time, I took the note at face value and concluded that nothing was going on. In retrospect though, as is often the case, the note was rather optimistic.

By the time I got back to take the rest of these pictures on 4 Sept 2010, the place was long gone. You can see that even the lamps flanking the door were taken down.

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Here's an interesting article in The State from yesterday, Views on District 2, then and now. Be sure to expand the picture of the Vista from 1983. I feel as though I should remember a lot more of that picture than I do. I can't plead youth -- I was 22 years old then.

This place is tucked about a building's length off of Gervais Street, and I was completely unaware of it until commenter Mike D mentioned that it might be closed (and commenter Jeff suggested that the building was for sale).

I haven't verified that with 100% certainty as there was no sign on the door, or other indication of defunct-itude. However, when I took these pictures, the place was locked tight and it was a Saturday, and after their posted opening hours, so I'm pretty sure it's gone. (Also, the last events mentioned on the "upcoming" page seem to be Christmas themed).

The web site pitches it as sort of a networking hub for Columbia's upcoming movers & shakers, with a whiskey & cigars subtheme.

(Hat tip to commenter Mike D).

UPDATE 4 June 2010: Updated closing date in post title to "May" based on comments.

UPDATE 19 Nov 2010 -- Looks like the place is open again. They have events scheduled during Vista Lights:

UPDATE 28 March 2011: Apparently it's not actually open to the general public again yet.

UPDATE 19 October 2011: Ok, now they definitely are open again. The new web site is www.RustColumbia.com.

I noticed on my Vista stroll a few weeks ago that part of the Mais Oui building on the north side of Gervais was vacant. Apparently the last occupant, Paul D. Sloan Interiors relocated down the hill a little ways. The building is quite nice, and I found this information in a 1983 application to the National Park Service for entry in the National Register of Historic Places:

An interesting, if frustrating, story from The Columbia Star (apparently based on old reports from The Columbia Record) gives the candy store information, and this bit of excitement:

Who knew the candy business was so dangerous?

Here's another nice, but empty, brick building in the Vista. Judging from the poster in the foyer, Charlton Hall moved in 2007 (when 24 March last fell on a Saturday), and is now at 7 Lexington Drive in West Columbia.

I'm not wild about the floors, but the interior brick walls are very nice. Hopefully something will go in here soon. Loopnet says the building will be divided into three spaces for retail or restaurants.

UPDATE 9 June 2012-- This space is still empty!

UPDATE 31 March 2014 -- This is now (and has been for a while) Urban Outfitters:

This Dunkin' Donuts storefront, to go into the old Capitol Cafe site, was announced with more than a bit of fanfare in The State on 24 June 2008.

Since that's about a year and a half ago, and since there has been no apparent work done at the site since the sign went up, I think it's fair to conclude that this is not going to happen..

UPDATE 26 Jan 2011 -- Well, all the Dunkin' branding is gone, and work has progressed. It's got some fancy looking hanging lights in there, but whenever I tried to get a closer look at what was going on inside, I got dripped all over from some sort of overhead leak:

The last time I was in Doc's Gumbo Grille would have been 11 May 2007. In fact, that was only the second time I had been there, the first being for another Qs show. I can't say I was as enthusiastic about the food as some folks. It may have just been that I was ordering the "we have to have this or some guy in a group will always veto us" menu items instead of the gumbo, but I thought the food was average. That said, I wasn't there for the food, and the place was a pretty good venue. In particular, the acoustics were much improved over the last place I had seen the Qs, the New Brookland Tavern, and the staff was friendly. It's definitely a shame to see another local music venue close. (Not that I see shows these days, or really regularly any days..)

Eva has the story of the closing in The Free Times, and it appears the biggest blow to the place was the SCE&G lunch crowd's recent departure from downtown. I hope that doesn't have any other knock-on effects in the Vista.

As usual with anything on the west side of a street, these pictures are not great as I never get out early enough to have the sun behind me. Unfortunately, I also missed the neon sign being lit. The last time I saw it on, I was driving somewhere and couldn't stop to take the picture.

UPDATE 3 November 2009: Added "Kinch's" to the post title based on the comments.

UPDATE 4 November 2009: Added "Shealy's Sandwiches" based on Badger's comment and looking in the 1970 Yellow Pages

UPDATE 9 April 2010: For whatever reason, someone turned on the sign the night of the 6th, so I got some pictures of it lit up and have added them at the front of the pictures.

UPDATE 14 April 2010 -- Here's the new Doc's location at 3830 Rosewood Drive:

UPDATE 15 May 2011 -- The follow-on operation on Assembly, is now open (and has been since at least mid 2010):

Also, the Doc's on Rosewood went under after the move.

The Wade Hampton Hotel was a fixture across from The Capitol when I was growing up, although I don't believe I ever set foot inside. The place had a "I was built in the 1940s" look which is enhanced by the marquee shown in one picture identifying the place rather antiquely as Hotel Wade Hampton rather than The Wade Hampton Hotel.

There was a restaurant inside the hotel called Maxim's which I have an ad for somewhere that I have not got around to scanning. It was to the effect that 5 Million Frenchmen are going to the wrong Maxim's!.

By the 70s, the hotel was on a downward slide as national chains built newer properties in more convienient locations as downtown lost its pull and the Interstates came through. By the time I started college at USC in 1980, the hotel had gone under and was being leased by the University as dormitory space much in much the same fashion as Benedict's ill-fated leasing of the old Quality Inn. I don't know if similar safety considerations in the aging building brought that situation to an end or if USC just built sufficient new space (I think Bates came online about that time), but at any rate the arrangement was terminated, and nothing took its place, so the building was finally demolished in the early 80s. I think it was an early morning implosion, which I missed since I am not a morning person, but I could be wrong.

The hotel's place on the block was taken by the AT&T building (or whatever it is called now) and a new building just going up. (Was there something else there in between WH and the crooked looking glass building?)

The views from the Capitol steps are interesting. I had totally forgotten that there was parking in front of the Capitol. Also, the Colonial Life / American Sentinel / WOLO building is really hanging in there isn't it?

Finally google turns up this. This is largely a nostalgia site but lest the retro-spectacle lenses get too rosy, there's a lot to be said for the present as well.

UPDATE 8 Sept 2010: Added Wade Hampton matchbook scan.

UPDATE 25 October 2021: Add full street address to post title. Update tags. Change expired link to wayback machine link. Add map icon.

I should remember this place, but for some reason I don't. From the 1970 Southern Bell Yellow Pages ad, it looks much too fancy for anything that our parents might have taken us to, and when I was picking restaurants on my own, the lobster and fish would have scared me off.

As you can see from these shots, the building is long gone, and the area is now an annoying parking lot (always half empty, but zealously patrolled) at the corner of Gervais and Assembly streets bordered on the bottom by The Mellow Mushroom and on the right by the former John Paul’s Armadillo Oil Company.

Notice also on the ad another common feature from restaurants of this era: Late hours. I really wish this had continued and that there were decent places open until "11:15" on week-nights nowdays.

Anyone know what happened to this place?

UPDATE 13 October 2009: Added a postcard of The Market and the text from the back of it.

UPDATE 4 January 2012: Updated the closing date in the post title from "1970s" to "11 January 1985" based on the comments. I was only off by 10 years or so..