Columbia Closings   What's not in Columbia anymore

(Very fuzzy for some reason)

Well, the South Carolina State Fair has come and gone again. There was good weather this year, along with a couple of new features, lots of returning ones, and a few unwelcome omissions.

The new features that come to mind were a glassblowing exhibition in the side-court where the Steel Building used to be, a hall of counties in the building adjacent to that court and a new ticketing system.

For the first several years after tearing down the Steel Building, they didn't seem quite sure what to do with the space: One or two years it was dinosaurs, and after that I believe something else that is slipping my mind, but for the last few years it has settled into a sort of antique/frontier craft and artifact mode. The glassblower was from Augusta, I believe and made a decorative pumpkin while we watched. Glassblowing is always a bit like magic, and obviously takes a lot of skill and practice. There was also a working Tinsmith in the area, but I missed that showtime.

The Hall Of Counties I like in concept, but in execution it wasn't particularly compelling. It was nice to see a placard and pictures for every one of the South Carolina counties, but it was a bit dry. Maybe some videos would have spiced it up a bit. I was surprised at how few people some counties have (Only 8000 in Allendale!).

The midway ticketing system is now a card which the ride operators can read with a phone app, and which you can buy and refill at kiosks near the gates. Personally I don't like it, as you have to keep a mental count of how many "tickets" you have left rather than just being able to look. There seems to be a bit of ticket inflation going on as well with the new system as, for instance, the Sky Ride, which I believe in the past has been something like four tickets is now fifteen of the virtual tickets!

The returning features are all Fair staples, to include The Art Exhibition, The Cooking Contest winners, The Baby Duck Slide, Student Art, Prize Flowers, Fruits & Vegetables, and of course greasy food and rides...

The omissions include the sand sculpture and water fountains. I did not see the sculpture in any of the usual places, so I asked at the information booth, and the lady there said they did not have it this year, that everyone was asking, and everyone was sad about it. She offered the hope it would be back next year, so we'll see. I don't know what was going on with the water fountains, but almost every one in the grounds was turned off and flagged. A paranoid person might think it a plot to get us to buy overpriced bottles of water, but the ones at the bathroom in the new building at the south gate *were* active, so I don't know what was going on.

Anyway, as usual a fun experience. Hope you all were able to visit and had a good time!

The pictures are a bit of a mess as I started gathering them two different times, and am fairly sure there are a good number of duplicates, but you can just scroll right on by those...

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It appears that missionary organization Operation Go International has moved to Saginaw and has put their Bush River Road building up for sale.

Looking at their area of operations, I think coming back home to Michigan is going to be a bigger shock than coming back home to Columbia!

(Hat tip to commenter Gypsie)

It wasn't clear to me that I could turn down the street the Google map car did, so I did not get very good pictures of this at all, but JT's Jeep on Greystone is doing a total remodel on their showroom. I believe they are open in the interim, but the place is pretty well gutted at this point.

UPDATE 18 October 2024 -- A few more shots coming the other way:

(Hat top to commenter Larry)

This restaurant closed as simply 1801 Grille in late 2022, and then reopened in early 2023 under the new branding of Angell Brothers 1801 Grille (which meant they didn't have to take the sign down for one thing!), closing again as of late last month. I believe USC has ownership of the building, and is involved in the operations as well, which doesn't currently look like a good thing.

Some, unspecified, new concept is in the offing, and The State has the story.

As I mentioned the first time, I believe, it's a nice looking space, with an attractive canopied patio. I would expect it to do a decent business with all the students about though it does seem to have been a bit on the high end, with $14.50 lunch chicken tenders...

(Hat tip to commenter JamesR)

It's unclear to me whether this is a new operation or just a reflagging, but Chicki's Wings on Broad River in the old Taco Bell/Atlantic Seafood building is now Wings House.

Curiously, though the Grand Opening flags are out, the place was not open during their posted Saturday hours.

Commenter Gypsie speculates that Craft Auto Mart might be gone.

By the time I got there, it was pretty much a done deal, as the office trailer itself has vacated the premises.

(Hat tip to commenter Gypsie)

New York Pizza & Pasta was the follow-on in this little US-1 building to another pizzeria, Palmono's, which was a follow-on to Reds On Augusta.

According to their Facebook they appear to have closed on 31 August. The menu looks decent, but I was never in the area at the right time to try it out.

(Hat tip to commenter JamesR)

Red Carpet was the follow-on in this space to used car dealership Capital City Rides, and opened in June of 2023. I noticed recently that the place was up for sale, and it appears the event center closed around August of 2024. You can see their grand-opening video, and their services here.

There are a number of vacant buildings in this stretch of Broad River, so we will have to see what happens here. The building does seem to be in better shape than some of the other nearby vacancies.

Well, that didn't last long. This hotel off of Berkshire & Oakcrest Drives, was deflagged as an Oyo in March of 2023, ran independantly for a bit I think and then ran up the Rodeway Inn flag. Recently it has closed off the entrance on the Oakcrest Drive side and now brands as a Wingate by Wyndham. Since I had to drive around the building to get back out with the rear entrance closed, and had my windows down, I can report it should probably be branded Weedgate...

Wells Fargo has been de-branching for a while now, a trend which has finally reached their iconic Main Street mirror building, which I always thought of as their local headquarters, though apparently their admin offices were on Greystone. Part of this is the trend of more online access to accounts and less need to interact with a teller, and probably part is Wells specific as they haven't exactly covered themselves in glory over the past ten years or so.

The State says that the firm will maintain an office in the building, so perhaps the sign on the west side will not be coming down. They also say there are no plans for the branch space other than to put it up for lease and see what happens (which they strike an optomistic tone about).

In the meantime, enjoy the mirror building:

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