Columbia Closings   What's not in Columbia anymore

I believe this Hallmark store in Dutch Square occupied the same space as Browz-A-Bit.

I used to go into Browz-A-Bit all the time, but I can only specifically recall going into Kitty's once. As you may have gathered if you have read a lot of these posting, I'm a big fan of The Beach Boys, and for reasons which probably only make sense to them, they released a CD of live recordings and member solo tracks, Songs From Here and Back exclusively through Hallmark stores a few years back, and I picked up my copy (it's reallly pretty good) at Kitty's.

This story from The State says that sales at the Dutch Square location had declined from a million dollars a year to two hundred and fifty thousand, a decrease of 75%! Given that, I can see how closing the store made sense. Obviously this is bad for the struggling mall though. It's recently lost two national brands with this and Chick-Fil-A closing. On the plus side, it has gotten two new local restaurants, though the re-opening of the D'Avino's space as another pizzeria probably really only counts as restoring the status-quo from a mall point of view.

24 August 2022: Updating tags and adding map icon.

Box & Bow was what I take to have been a wrapping and shipping store in the Piggly Wiggly plaza (Forest Park, I believe) on Forest Drive just west of Trenholm Plaza. I know my holiday experience vastly improved when I vowed to never wrap another package, but in this economy, perhaps fewer people are doing the same. The closing note is a classy touch during a hard time.

While the plaza and area are fairly upscale, there has been a fair bit of churn there in recent times, with LA Weight Loss, Tiny Treasures, Ten Thousand Villages and a photo-finishing outfit all closing. The plaza Pig itself is a new one and quite nice with noticably more space and better parking than the nearby Publix.

(Hat tip to commeter MPB.)

I'm not really sure this Raco station closed in 2008, but it looks decrepit enough to have been gone longer than a few months, and the listed gas price is too high to have been any earlier than that.

I'm not sure what the deal with "Raco" is. Googling turns up a few other Raco stations, but there doesn't seem to be any Raco company or company web site. There are certainly not common at any rate, and had you asked me "what's that station on Gervais called?" I would have drawn a total blank.

I was a bit surprised walking up and down The Vista Sunday that there are a number of properties for sale. I wonder if when they closed this station down, they figured they would be able to unload the lot quickly and at a good profit..

I really don't know anything about this building on Leesburg Road near James Browder Road. It does have that classic "country general store" look though. From the construction, I would guess that it was built pre-war. Even the electrical connection with the obvious insulators has kind of a 1930s look. The closing date I assigned, 1960s, is a total guess. The place has obviously not seen any maintenance in quite a while, but it could have easily lasted into the 1970s or even longer. Even today, the area is very rural, and some odd retail establishements (like Mr. Bunky's on the Sumter Highway) still survive.

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Except for the last one, which I took today, these pictures come from commenter Thomas who writes:

Was going through my photos and I had a few more I wanted to send you.

The Great Train Store: open 11/1996-7/2000.

I worked there from the opening to the closing of the store. It was a great place to work. Ten years later many of the employees still keep in regular touch with each other.

As a store the Columbia store (Store 30) was very successful. The store closed as a result of the failure of the company as a whole. At its largest the Great Train Store had more than 56 stores including SC stores in Columbia, Myrtle Beach, and Greenville. The store was located in Columbania Center where Build a Bear is now.

The Columbia store was the second to last store in the chain to close. The Myrtle Beach store (at Broadway at the Beach) closed a week later.

OK, I'm not entirely sure what to make of this one. The Lorick & Lowrance Mercantile Building is another of those great old Main Street buildings, with all the fancy work on top, and is on the City of Columbia landmark list.

I don't know what Lorick & Lowrance Mercantile originally sold, but the name suggests general retail merchandise. Anyway, it seems prosaic enough.

Where it gets a little odd is with the introduction of the Columbia Atheneum and Argyle Social Club. If you go to the "history" tab on this site, you'll find the story of a 150 year old Columbia high-rollers club "[whose] location has been kept hidden from the general public" -- It almost sounds like a put-on, your 2nd grade secret-clubhouse on steroids..

At any rate, the plan apparently was to come out of hiding, sell shares and buy the Lorick building. (There's a litle more information here). Since this was all supposed to happen in 2007 and the building is for lease today, I would say that something went wrong.

Interestingly, the building now has its own web site..

I was checking out Cantina 76 in the old Birds On A Wire location on Devine Street (it turned out to be closed on Sundays) when I noticed the building next door was vacant. It's a rather striking one -- a nice two story brick structure with multiple chimneys.

Since I'm not really an "interior design" person, it had never really struck my eye when it housed Pulliam-Morris (now located at 906 Harden Street), but it seems as though it would be a really classy location for a small law firm or accountancy.

I first wrote about this building in a closing for The Big T (Taylor Street Pharmacy).

After The Big T sold out, CVS ran the old pharmacy as one of its stores for a number of years though it was no longer a 24-hour store, and in fact was not even open on Sundays. I guess the rise of 24 hour Wal-Marts pretty much obviated the need for an all-night store, and the downtown location was just not a draw anymore for residential shoppers.

As of today (10 Feb 2010) it appears that they are still moving things out of the building. There was a rental truck in the lot, and I saw a couple of people go in and out.

UPDATE 9 March 2011: Added the store number (5766) based on the comments.

UPDATE 10 March 2011 -- Remodeling work is ongoing, and some of the original Taylor Street Pharmacy signage is visible now:

UPDATE 5 July 2022: Updating tags, adding map icon.

In my childhood, this little strip in front of Richland Mall was the first (or first I knew of) location for Ambassador Animal Hospital, which later moved down Forest Drive east of Trenholm. Our dog always seemed to know when the car was headed in that direction. She would always act a bit off there, and I vividly recall the one and only time that she snatched a fly from the air and ate it was in the Ambassador lobby.

Since then the strip has been through a major overhaul, possibly at the same time the old Richland Mall went to the enclosed "Fashion" incarnation though I could be wrong about that.

I know that Wild Birds Unlimited was there for quite a while, but I never had the need to go in. I noticed the other day that the building was vacant, and a google search reveals that WBU has moved to the Piggly Wiggly plaza by Cardinal Newman.

UPDATE 6 March 2010 -- Here's the new location in Forest Park:

UPDATE 8 June 2010 -- Looks like some work is being done on the old location:

UPDATE 22 June 2022: Adding map icon and updating tags. Also note that they have moved from Forest Park as well.

Here's another victim of the decline of downtown retail, a store that with the front sign, awnings and recessed entrance almost perfectly typifies those bygone days..

I'm not much of a clothes shopper as I've noted quite a number of times here, and I'm even less of a shoe shopper. Growing up, we used to do most of our shoe shopping at Jack's on Sunnyside or Poll Parrot at Trenholm Plaza (I think I still have some premiums from that store..). Once I grew up and noticed that my feet were no longer changing size, I discovered that if I picked a shoe that was made year after year, I could just order a pair sight unseen and never have to "shop" for shoes, and that's pretty much what I've done with size 10M Sebago Docksides.

I'm not sure exactly when this store closed, but given the "2007" support sticker on the door, I'm guessing 2008.

UPDATE 9 Feb 2010: Added a picture I missed the first time.