Columbia Closings   What's not in Columbia anymore

I mentioned a while back that this place was a convenience store while I was growing up. Since then, it has been a number of things but most recently a garage of some sort. It's kind of amusing that the building at the top of the hill went exactly the opposite way: from garage to convenience store.

Well, after mailing out the flyers in May, the Richland Mall Bank Of America is finally closed. As you'll recall, they closed the drive-through in March 2015 at which point the writing was probably on the wall.

I don't know why, but I had it in my mind that the ATM would remain, though in the event that turns out not to be the case. At any rate, I believe that Trenholm Plaza is now the only Forest Acres BOA location.

I remember at one time having to figure out whether this little Latin Dance club behind the D's on Beltline was in fact a Mexican Restaurant or a nightclub. In the event, it proved to be the later, which was a little disappointing to me. As far as I know they were not affected by the 2011 fire at D's or the October 2015 flood, but I could be wrong.

(Hat tip to commenter Sidney)

This small urban clothing botique is in the storefront that was the final location for Forest Lake TV. It's listed in the February 2015-2016 phonebook(*), and I think I would have noticed it being vacant for many months as I drive by there several times a week, so I'm going to peg the closing as "late 2015".

(*) For some reason I still have not received a February 2016-2017 phonebook..

Not too long after noting the move of the Boozer location, I had occasion to mail something and dropped by the forest drive location of Nutrition Warehouse. Unfortunately, I found it closed and vacant. This is a shame, since while I never perused the vitamins and supplements the store offered, the contract Post Office was more convenient than the Trenholm Plaza USPS and generally had much faster service.

The Picture Place was for many years in the old Forest Lake TV storefront in Forest Lake Shopping Center. I know I had at least one photo framed there, and I think my mother had some art framed there as well.

As with everything else in that shopping center, the 4 October 2015 flood which roared through Nine Mile Branch and Gills Creek devastated their building as you can see in the first pictures above.

Fortunately, since since 19 November 2015 the store has been operating from their new home in Forest Park in the former Oreck / All Vacuums suite.

Well, this has been talked about, and dreaded, for ages, but Cardinal Newman High School has finally left Forest Acres for Alpine Road. The kids went home from this campus for Christmas vacation, and "returned" to the new one. I know that Brueggers, Groucho's and other area restaurants will miss the afternoon influx of the diverse, chatty but very polite mass of students, as will I, and evenings will be somewhat less interesting without the muted roar from the football field. And then, of course, there's the question of "What Next?" The property is apparently already under contract, and to be re-zoned, and it's hard to imagine that whatever replaces the school will be an improvement in the eyes of local residents.

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Was apparently going on by Doctor's Care on Forest Drive about 2:30pm on the 24th. There were K-9 units and a Sheriff's Department chopper overhead. I checked The State, WIS and WLTX, but didn't see anything about it..

I was out driving on yesterday and noticed a For Lease sign in the window of Corma's, which shared a building with Ed Robinson (just re-opened) near Gills Creek on Forest Drive.

A look at their website confirms that unfortunately they will not be coming back after being caught in the Great Flood. They had moved to this building in 2008 after leaving nearby Trenholm Plaza. Interestingly, their old location, though actually nearer to the creek is somewhat higher and did not flood.

I had not noticed until recently that Sato on Beltline took major flood damage and is closed for repair. In retrospect it makes sense as the restaurant is located at the low point of Beltline as it comes down from Forest Drive and before it starts back up towards Trenholm Road. Looking at google maps, it appears that the nearby creek which presumably did the damage is called Orphanage Branch, a name I can't ever recall hearing.