Columbia Closings   What's not in Columbia anymore

Back to Frink Street! Google only turns up one hit for Thayer Prop Shop on Frink, but from the name, presumably it specialized in theatrical props. It doesn't seem to me that would be a large market in the Columbia area, so perhaps they did a wider business both geographically and in the definition of what a "prop" is. On the other hand, I could be completely off base, and they might have sold bass-boat or airplane propellors..

At any rate, they apparently came before P & R On Frink as that operation's sign is what is still on the building. I can say with a little more certainty that this was a used car operation, though setting the closing date as 2010 is a total guess. I did not find any hit which told what the 'P' & the 'R' stood for either.

I have to admit that when commenter badger mentioned this place (at the corner of State & Frink Streets) was closed, I had never even heard of Frink Street. As it turns out, I have crossed over it on my way down the 12th Street extension to I-77, but I'm pretty sure I had never actually been on it before this last Sunday. In terms of this blog, it presents something of a "target rich environment". Does anyone know where the interesting (and fun-to-say) name comes from?

From the look at the layers on the roadside sign, I'm guessing this place was a Philips 66 before anything else in the list, with that name being painted over for the Bait & Tackle name. The Secretary of State's web site says that Cayce Bait & Tackle went under in 2004, in some sort of forfeiture, and was followed by the Frink Street Social Club which has never been officially dissolved. I'm not sure if B & B would be the connected with the club or not, but kudos to them for not using the trendy (and incorrect) Grille spelling in their name..

(As an aside, the "look" of this building would tend to validate this one as a Philips 66).

(Hat tip to commenter badger).

UPDATE 12 June 2011: Commenter badger sends in this picture of the "Lizard Woman" mural that once graced Cayce Bait & Tackle:

Thanks!

But of course, I must remind folks of the real story of South Carolina's lizard infestation, related by my sister (who changed names to protect the innocent) in her book, The Lizard Man of Crabtree County

UPDATE 6 February 2012: Added Cayce Lunch to the post title based on information from commenter Sid whose family used to own the place -- be sure to read the comments! Also, apparently the Philips 66 was a separate building (now gone?).

This small nursery was on The Charleston Highway before it joins up with Knox Abbott Drive. These pictures are from mid September, and the going out of business sign is already up, but it seems to me that activity continued there for several more months -- I had some later pictures, but I can't put my hands on them right now.

The few times I've wanted to buy some plants, the first thing that always occurs to me is the garden department at Lowe's or Home Depot, and I suspect those big-box operations have really hurt these independent operations.

UPDATE 13 July 2012 -- Here's a few more pictures of the place I just found hiding on my drive:

Here's another defunct cash advance place, this one on Knox Abbott Drive just down from Tony's Pizza. As is a fixture on (fairly) newly closed businesses this time of year, you can see the new, uncollected, phonebook in a bag by the door. (The same is true for Master Tire if you look closely.)

When I was in high school, a new radio station came to town, with a new concept: "Album Rock".

The station was WZLD (or "Z-96") and operated out of Cayce, first from a little storefront (apparently now vacant) to the left of a barber shop on State Street, and later from an odd looking building out on Airport Boulevard (at least I think that's where I remember seeing the sign).

I'll admit that the concept of "album rock" confused me a bit. I had only discovered rock music in 1976, and I was still a little iffy about all the definitions. For instance, I thought "acid rock" was the same thing as "heavy metal" since the only acid I had heard about was sulphuric, and I could imagine heavy metal dissolving stuff in the same way.

So, to make a full confession, I kind of took the promos about how "we play album cuts, not just singles" to heart and was deeply disappointed that they were not playing tracks from my then current favorite album, Billy Joel's "The Stranger". In fact, I went so far as to write them a deeply embarassing post card (in retrospect..) complaining that they were playing Van Morrison's "Wavelength" which was a Top-40 hit, and not "Scenes From An Italian Restaurant". I'm sure the DJs had a good laugh at it, and I've come to the point where I'm a huge Van Morrison fan nowdays (he can be very inconsistent in shows, but tore up the place in Atlanta last May..)

From what I've been able to gather from looking at old phonebooks down at the library, WZLD first showed up in the December 1974 Southern Bell phonebook. I don't think they were "album rock" at that time, or at least I didn't hear of them as such until later, but they were already at 1303 State Street, and already had their long-running phone numbers of 796-8896 business and 796-9996 for the contest line.

In the Janurary 1983 phonebook, their address changed to 2334 Airport Boulevard, and in the Jan 1984 phonebook, they took out their first yellow pages ad which rebranded them as "Number 1 Hit -- Kicker". Now, that phrase, "hit-kicker" is very similar to a non-radio-friendly phrase sometimes used to describe Country music, so I'm wondering if they underwent a change to a Country format at that time. I was still living in town at the time, but I don't think I was listening to them very much, and have no memory of it one way or another.

At any rate that catch phrase didn't last very long, and the yellow pages ad in the Feb 1985 phonebook described them as "Red Hot Radio 1". That also didn't last too long, and while the Feb 1988 phone book did not have a full ad, the tagline in their listing for that year was "All Hit".

They were not listed in the Jan 1989 phonebook and seem to have left the airwaves at that time.

Along the way, they did some memorable promos, with the most famous probably being the annual "Ramblin' Raft Race" on the Congaree. At this remove, sponsoring something like that seems as though it would be an insurance nightmare, but in those olden days, apparently encouraging tipsy people to navigate was OK..

Here's a few WZLD comments we've had here from time to time:

UPDATE 2 July 2012 -- As mentioned in the comments, the A-frame looking building I have pictured above is not the Airport Boulevard location for WZLD. The correct building is next door, and I have finally gotten a picture of it:

UPDATE 27 September 2017 -- The Airport Boulevard building has now been razed and is a vacant lot:

UPDATE 17 November 2017 -- Commenter Rick sends in this picture of a picture showing a WZLD remote (circa 1981) at Roger's Car Stereo:

Rick identifies the fellow on the left, enthusiastic about being in a picture, as radio personality "Mountain Man", the young lady as another WZLD DJ, name unknown, the guy in the checked shirt a WZLD program manager or salesman and the third man unknown. Be warned, the click-through picture is not blurred.

For Sale By Bank the sign reads at this colorful strip mall on Knox Abbott Drive.

It appears that Sandy's Famous Hot Dogs is pretty much the only business left here, and I'm sure they will probably continue under the new owners when and if.

I'm not exactly sure why this place didn't prosper. I find it rather attractive, with all the bright colors, and it's not particularly hard to get to, or to get in and out of.

I don't believe the Taco Bell building on the west side of the plaza is officially part of it, but its re-incarnation seems to have gone wrong, leaving it empty as well.

UPDATE 27 August 2011: The plaza has been sold and Sandy's is gone.

UPDATE 5 April 2012 -- The Chinese immersion charter school is up and running:

I've written about this building before in the closing for Black Bull Restaurant. Hard Knox Grill was the immediate follow-on operation in that building, and was, I believe a rock-and-roll nightclub as well as a restaurant. I say "I believe" because it's another of the many places in and around town that I had a vague intention to get to sometime, but never did until it was too late.

At any rate, looking at the posted operating hours, it's probably just as well I never drove over there for lunch. That sign also appears to tell a story in that apparently at some point full-week operations were cut back to weekend-only mode.

The stack of Free Times newspapers sitting by the door is the "October 13-19 2010" issue. Those would have been dropped off on the morning of Wednesday 13 October. Since they were never taken inside to the rack in the foyer, but there is no pile from the previous week, I think it's safe to say the place operated Friday & Saturday 8 & 9 October, but not since.

(Hat tip to commenter "Nobody")

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1108 Knox Abbott Drive does not seem to exist anymore. I believe that this SCB&T at the corner of Knox Abbott and 11th Street is the successor location, but I could be a bit off on exactly where the demolished Putt-Putt center was.

The last listing for Putt-Putt Golf & Games was in the Feb 1985 phonebook, so apparently they closed down sometime in 1985, just about the time I was leaving town for my 20 or so years of sojourning elsewhere. I can vaguely recall seeing the place, but I never got around to visiting it -- In my mind, minature golf was something you did at Bell Camp or the beach, and I had enough, or more than enough, video games closer to the University or closer to home to keep me busy.

Putt-Putt had a number of locations in Columbia for years, including Percival Road, Devine Street and Saint Andews Road. Those all closed and then, some years later, one on Sparkleberry opened, but didn't last long at all.

UPDATE 7 Nov 2010 -- OK, there seems to be a general consensus that the picture above is the wrong location for the former Putt-Putt. Some say it was about where Kenny's is:

Others say as far up as Preciscion Tune:

Apparently this building, on the South side of Knox Abbott Drive, just below the Crazy Buffett, has a history in financial services.

As is often the case in vacant buildings with custom signs, the existing sign is turned around in the display. I guess this is done to keep the elements out of the display box, at any rate I've seen these reversed signs many times since I started this blog. Anyway, this sign indicates that financial services company Amerifirst Direct once operated here. That would have been before 2008 when Citifancinal is listed in the phonebook for that slot.

Citifinancial either closed or moved during 2008 as it is gone from the 2009 phonebook (There is still a Citi office on Knox Abbott, but I don't know if it is the same operation or a separate one).

UPDATE 28 June 2016 -- Now a State Farm office:

This Dollar Discount store in Parkland Plaza has been "for sale" for a good while, in fact I almost did a post on it before, but they seemed to be in full operation while looking for a buyer, so never did. Driving by tonight, I saw from the banner that they are explicitly closing now. I've never been in this store, but apparently Dollar Discount is a franchaise concept with 140 stores over all and three other stores in South Carolina (Pageland, Effingham and Sumter). I've always liked this kind of store as it gives you a feeling of power to walk in with $5.00 in your pocket and walk out with actual stuff. It seems I can always find something or other that I need or want, and I'll bet the prices are even better right now. This particular store appears to also run a shipping operation called The Mail Room, possibly taking up the slack when the contract post office in Parkland Pharmacy closed.

Once when my cousin noticed an old sign for the company her father used to work for still up on an old barn out in the country, she went to see the owner to try and buy it for her father's birthday. I was with her, and the old gentleman owning the place was a talkative fellow with lots of interesting stories (he claimed that Jimmy Doolittle wanted his help in setting up the Army Air Corps during WWII, but the letter got lost coming from Washington DC to rural SC..). When we asked what the population of the little community was, he said something like "One hundred ninety, same as when I was born. We always figured it stayed the same since every time a baby was born, a man had to leave town". Something of the sort seems to be holding for Parkland Plaza since Ace Hardware is re-opening, just as this store is closing..

UPDATE 29 Oct 2010 -- well the store is definitely gone now:

though it is still listed on the Parkland Plaza marquee:

UPDATE 10 January 2012 -- As mentioned by commenter Andrew, this is now a Radio Shack:

UPDATE 4 March 2013 -- Finally got around to taking a picture of the new (well, not so new at this point!) location of The Mail Room in Granby Villiage on the Charleston Highway: