Columbia Closings   What's not in Columbia anymore

1101 Harden Street was the address for PT's Cabaret, The Punch Line and Greenstreets as well as a gaggle of other businesses over the years including tax preparers, nightclubs, eateries, and military recruiters.

The building sat on the corner of Harden and Senate Streets (a corner I believe many people would be surprised exists..) across from Time Warner Cable and next to Food Lion. The ongoing demolition is supposed to result in a Cook Out restaurant being built, and although it was a separate address, the old Bob Andrews Motors building was also knocked down as part of the project.

Lots of pictures from three different days follow..

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I finally got around to taking some pictures of The Village Tavern. This place was on Berryhill road, which is a frontage road on the north side of I-20, starting at Bush River Road and going east. I did not take it all the way to the other end, but it seems a fairly quiet road with very little traffic (though there is, of course a constant rumble from I-20 itself).

The area where the tavern building sits is quite pleasant. Visibility of I-20 is mostly screened by vegetation, and the tavern plot is very lush and grassy with Stoop Creek running behind the building, under a Berryhill Road bridge, I-20 and eventually into the Saluda River.

The tall neon sign at the edge of the property was the only part visible from I-20, and I would see it for years as I drove past either on errands in town, or on my way back to Aiken. Somehow I never got around to checking the place out while it was still open though.

Commenter Walt wrote this back in February:

I hope they found another place!

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These photos are courtesy of Becky Bailey, who writes of the El Roco Club:

Around the corner [from the Fountain Bleu Club] (sort of) on about the same latitude on North Main Street was a place called the El Roco Club, which was the white counterpart. That’s where the country bands like Ira Dimmery and the Hired Hands played.

and

It was actually closed at the time I took the pictures, but glad I did. Has since been taken over by a church and the signage is all gone. Took these in July 2002.

There is apparently an active El Roco Club in Columbia right now on Koon Road, but from what I can tell it has no connection to the old club. The only other information I have found online about the old club is a general word picture of the times in an online appreciation of local entertainer Nicola Domenico Pizzuti:

Music entertainment was lively in Columbia during the late 40s and 50s. These were happier times and local musicians were hungry for the opportunity to play live. There never seemed to be a lack of bookings for small combos, and there was always need at the last minute to "grab a musician and go". Public and private clubs about town were rocking and reeling in those post-war days. Nicola was right in the thick of it and, you may have been in the audience when he played! Throughout the years, he played at various popular public and private clubs, where big band dance music was the "music of the day." He teamed up with other local musicians, all of whom either played to fill in where called upon or were members of a combo. Nicola played with local musicians Jay Pace, Greg Bissell, Don Davis, Tom Isbull, Neal Alltee and Sam Cantrell. Occasionally, he filled in and played with combos where the late Paul LaRosa crooned. He also filled in a time or two with the late Jimmy Farr’s small group. In those days, most musicians in Columbia booked gigs anytime and anywhere and many times actually did "grab a musician" en route to a booking. He played many times at the El Roco Club, and Ft. Jackson Officers’ and NCO clubs, Retired Officers’ Club, Columbia Country Club, and Forest Lake Country Club.

(Big thanks to Becky Bailey!)

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.

Well, this much re-purposed building on Firelane Road, behind Lowe's, the old Spring Valley Theater, and old Byte Shop locations is vacant again. That's probably a good thing in the last few months, as I think Firelane Road has been pretty well shut down for bridge work, or at least there was a detour sign up at Two Notch to that effect for a while. Somehow I never made it to any of these businesses. Granted the bars or daycare would have been a stretch, but an Italian restaurant should have been right up my alley. I guess I was living out of town for its whole lifespan, because I don't recall it at all.

It's a little hard to put all these businesses in chronological order. I have links for two ABC permit rulings that establish that Dazzler's, Inc. was granted a permit on 13 Oct 1994 and L. A. Nights was granted a permit on 17 Aug 1998.

The ruling for L. A. Nights establishes Fatties, Bogie's and Callaros as having preceded Dazzler's, but doesn't give a timeline. It does suggest that all the previous occupants caused parking problems for the local community. Commenter Allie in Have Your Say suggests a 1988/1989 timeframe for Callaros, so I have put it first.

I'm not sure where the Arong Cafe fits into the timeline. I know I always somehow had the impression that this building started as a Korean nightclub, but that would have been a long time ago, and apparently Arong was recent enough to be in some online sources.

The timeline for One to One Daycare and Aunty's Daycare is a bit unclear as well. Apparently both business ran afoul of some regulations you have to follow if you have a private well, One to One in 2004 and Aunty's in 2007.

That would imply that Aunty's was the last business there, except that the surviving signage is for One to One...

At any rate, the last operation was certainly a daycare as the playground equipment is all still in place.

(Hat tip to commenter Allie).

Well, moving a bit further into Five Points than yesterday, today's posting is "ripped from the headlines", which is to say I was reading The Free Times at lunch today and ran across a breaking story by Patrick Wall to the effect that Elbow Room was closed as of Tuesday night. He has an update on his blog that the new operation in that building will honor the existing Elbow Room bookings, which is nice if a bit odd seeming.

I've written about this building before when it was Dodd's / Von Henman's / Monterrey Jack's / Agave / Nacho Mamma's / 5 Points Pub. To be honest, I wasn't really aware that 5 Points Pub was gone and Elbow Room had moved in. In fact I'm not sure what the last show I saw in a nightclub was. Perhaps The Swimming Pool Qs at Doc's Gumbo Grille if you want to call that a nightclub. Anyway, I wish the new operation luck -- it's starting to look like anything going into that storefront is going to need it.

"What Good Is Sitting Alone In Your Room?"

Actually until the last year or so, I didn't even know there was a drag cabaret in Columbia. I think I had kind of a vague idea that a nightclub was in Punch Line location, but I figured in Five Points it was probably a college hangout.

The building is PT's was in never seemed to really thrive. It's at the way outside edge of Five Points, and aside from The Punch LIne, I can't recall ever stopping there. The address for PT's is Harden Street, but the building also fronts on an odd little section of Senate Street which is totally unconnected with the rest of Senate Street. (Come to think of it, the State House also cuts off Senate Street, so it actually has three discontiguous segments.)

The Free Times says the next tenant in the PT's space will be a burgers and milkshake operation, soooo..

"Right This Way, Your Table's Waiting.."

UPDATE 25 July 2010: OK, the PT's building at 1101 Harden Street has now been demolished. See the link for details.

As far as I can tell, Moolah's Hide-Away was a fairly short lived operation, as it appears only in the 1977 Bellsouth phonebook. The restaurant was in the space once occupied by Biddie Banquet and occupied for a good number of years now by Sakura. From the ad, it appears that they were pitching it as a base-gate type operation to draw off of Fort Jackson. Wikipedia claims that the restaurant was actually operated by Moolah's daughter.

Judjing by Wikipedia, The Fabulous Moolah (real name Mary Lillian Ellison) had quite an interesting life, becoming the first woman to wrestle in Madison Square Garden. The Columbia High School graduate went on to become the most famous female wrestler of the the thirty years from the 50s into the 80s and appeared in videos with Cyndi Lauper during her wrestling era. She passed away in Columbia in November 2007.

UPDATE 10 Feb 2011: Added a better picture of the current location

B & B Sports Lounge or simply B & B's if you go by the roof sign, is on Percival Road just east of the triangular intersection of Percival with Old Percival, and looks to have been out of business for a good while. At any rate, it's not listed in the 1998 phonebook.

Curiously, the only google hits I get for 2417 Percival Road are for a place called Mary J's which is also not in the current or 1998 phonebook..

UPDATE 4 May 2019 -- This lot appears to be in the process of being cleared. The building which sat behind B & B (and which I did not include in the original picture) is now gone:

The LoopNet listing for the property (which partially shows the razed building) says the lot is off the market, so presumably someone bought it and will be doing something new there.

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..