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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Well the State Fair has come and gone. No big surprises this year. The retro swing ride at the intersection of the central way and the North Midway corridor is still gone. I guess it won't be coming back. Somehow the baby duck slide survived another year, and we had some new greasy goodness with doughnut-burgers and Wisconsin fried cheese curds. Aprt from the sky ride, the Bumper Cars were the only place I spent my tickets this year, and there's (somewhat badly focused) video of that below. Those issues (really time for a new camera) are apparent in the skyway video above as well, but I think it gets the spirit of things.

As for the rest, if you've followed these posts, you know what I like, and I liked the same things this year. It's always nice to be out and about on the grounds after sundown!

Next year is coming..

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I worked in this area for a while, and used to wonder exactly what this Borden facility did. LoopNet says it was a

Former cold storage distribution hub and vehicle maintenance facility.

You can also tell by looking at the pictures on the LoopNet listing, that the place used to be owned by Coburg Dairy. That was one of our main milk brands growing up (after Edisto) and I hadn't really realized they were gone, but apparently Borden bought them out in 2011. Borden is also cutting back in Charleston, but the Coburg Cow remains safe for now.

(Hat tips to commenters Sidney & Jason)

Rick's was a fishing and ABC store right across Bluff Road from the Columbia Industrial Park. I never went in, but I would see it often driving to and from work a few years ago. This is right next door to the old Cricket Club/Diamonds and the old Grasshopper Club/Vet's Hall. I'm not sure when they closed, but it's been long enough to board the place up and take down the road sign, so I'm going to guess 2020.

From what I can gather, Bluff Road warehouse was a SCANA property that then went to Dominion Energy.

According to this realty flyer it is a 9000 square foot building on a on a 1.6 acre site. Obviously Dominion is still in business, but I guess they just decided they didn't need this facility for whatever SCANA needed it for.

I had not noticed that All South Federal Credit Union on Bluff Road had closed, but apparently it has been for some time. As of yet, the lot is not re-leased, so the ATM continues in service.

Crouch Distilling is the second alcholic beverage producer in this light industrial park off of Bluff Road that I have done a closing for. The first was for brewery Conquest Brewing Company.

Crouch was cooking up tipples of higher proof than beer, and The Free Times took time to praise their Jimmy Red Corn Whiskey while announcing the closing.

I'm afraid I didn't get all the pictures I wanted at this year's State Fair. I usually get a bunch of neon shots at night back in the midway area, and a night video shot from the skyway. This year, it started to rain just as it was getting dark, and that put an end to the outdoor part of my visit.

I didn't notice any particular changes this year, other than that the dinosaur exhibit in the old Steel Building site was not back this year, and that the Rocket was done up in candy stripes for its 50th anniversary. This year was also the 150th anniversary of the fair as a whole, an occasion noted in the annual sand sculpture.

Anyway, it was fun, as usual, and I had my "fair food". Hopefully next year, I will get my normal assortment of pictures and video.

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Well, this is the 9th South Carolina State Fair post here, so you probably know the drill by now. I like what I like, and I take pictures of it. I moved some pictures around to provide an entrance sequence, but as you can tell, I actually ended up up at the fair on two different days this year. I still miss the Steel Building, which was a bit more down-market than the new commercial exhibits in the new art building annex. In particular, no grey market videos, and no handwriting computer. This year, the flowers were moved in with the art, and the agricultural exhibits moved across the way where the flowers used to be. I didn't get into the animal area, so I don't know if the baby duck slide was still running.

I think I was running the camera at ISO-800 this year, higher than previously, and I'm not entirely happy with the results as the frequent bright lights interspersed with the booths tended to drown out everything else.

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I got back to town a bit late this year, and missed out on some of my State Fair usuals because the buildings closed early the final day, so no art, flowers, sand sculpture or baby ducks this year. I was able to have my annual Italian sausage sandwich, Fiske fries and ride the skyway, swings and bumper cars. Most of the regular rides were there, along with a couple of new, or at least re-painted wacky-house type walk-throughs. Apparently the rocket is no longer the "Time-Warner Rocket" and is just back to "The Rocket", though it does have a few new sponsorship plaques at the base. I still miss the Steel Building: That corner just does not feel right without it.

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