Columbia Closings   What's not in Columbia anymore

I noticed this building a few weeks ago when I saw the realty sign, and really couldn't ever remember seeing it before though it has obviously been there for years.

There doesn't seem to be a street number anywhere on the front of it, and looking for the realtor info seems to lead to it being part of the adjacent Grice's property, which I'm pretty sure is wrong as my mother took me to Grice's a number of times and I don't remember any larger building being involved.

It has a large antenna attached, so it may have possibly been a dispatch location at one time. Any ideas?

UPDATE 20 June 2011: Commenter JB turned up the address for this lot, so I have changed the post title to give it as 1943 Huger Street rather than just "SW Corner of Huger & Senate". Also, with that address I have been able to turn up a bit more info and have added two businesses to the post title instead of just "Building".

First, here is the LoopNet sale listing indicating that the property is being sold as a warehouse.

Next, here is a link from the Secretary of State indicating that this property goes way back and that Barnett Tire & Battery company opened on the site in 1920(!) and was only "dissolved" in 2005. Now just because nobody bothered to formally dissolve the company before then does not mean that it was necessarily a going business to that point, but the fact that there seems to have been a good bit of activity in 2005 makes me think it may have lasted until then.

Also in 2005, Congaree Delivery Service filed for a certificate to be an in-state mover (at least that's what I get out of that PDF).

And finally in 2005 City Council declined to rezone the property so that a religious organization could set up there. I'm not sure if I understand the timeline here though, as the council meeting was in mid-Sept 2005 and Congaree was awarded its certificate in mid-Jan 2006. Unless they planned to share the building with the religious organization it doesn't seem to make sense. (Also the reasons given for denying the rezoning look pretty tenuous).

Mr. Muffler was a very low-key, "We only do one thing" auto shop on Two Notch. As far as I could tell walking or driving past the place, they were never overwhelmed with work, but never wholly idle either.

"Mr. Muffler" himself was a cheerry 1950s looking cartoon guy who had a big smile as he carried a muffler. In the picture, you can see where he used to be, but the cut-out itself is gone. That makes me think that Mr. Muffler must be a chain with some other locations. Chains like to take all of their branding down from defunct locations while one-off stores don't really care.

This shop was located next to a sketchy trailer park, and all around the park are now signs warning that the park is closed and there is no tresspassing. One of those signs has been affixed to the Mr. Muffler store, making me wonder if a developer bought out the park & Mr. Muffler to mark this whole corner of Two Notch & Pinestraw for development.

UPDATE 30 Jan 09:

Here's the "Mr. Muffler" cartoon character from the Earl's Mr. Muffler on Sunset Boulevard in West Columbia. (Note that he is facing in the opposite direction from the one which was taken down from the Two Notch store building).

UPDATE 17 March 2010 -- I've added the full street address to the post title. Also, the building has been boarded up now:

UPDATE 11 January 2012 -- More pictures (27 August 2011) of the place boarded up:

UPDATE 30 September 2011 -- at some point someone has torn down the plywood window sheets. I'm thinking this was a break-in, or just random vandalism as they have now been put back up:

UPDATE 10 January 2012 -- As this picture from a few days later (1 October 2011) shows, the property owner has put up stakes around the parking lot to keep people from driving in there. I noticed 18-Wheelers in particular using the lot as an inpromptu pull-off:

UPDATE 28 August 2017 -- Looks like as of 15 August 2017, this place is destined for a tax sale:

UPDATE 13 November 2024 -- Lots going on here, though I'm not sure what or why. Perhaps it's related to the ongoing road work in the area, but but the building has been broken open. I would say partially razed as well, but it's not clear how much was there from the initial cleanout of the building plus the years of neglect. Also taking this time to add a map icon and update the tags.