Columbia Closings   What's not in Columbia anymore

Many of these pictures were originally part of my Great Flood of 2015 entry Devine / Crowson / Fort Jackson Boulevard. I have decided to break the Auto Money Title Loans building (and later the Subway) out as separate posts to make them easier to find in the future as these two building, along, and even moreso, with the TitleMax building have become somewhat iconic images of the flood. The old posts will remain, and some photos are duplicated.

Anyway, both of these buildings sat on the bank of Gills Creek and in the 1000 Year Flood were filled with water up to the roofs. In addition the creek bank under the backs of the buildings was undermined to the point that with everything, the buildings were total losses.

21 October 2015:

Here we see the buildings a couple of weeks after the flood, when I got back to town from the beach and the roads were open enough for me to go picture taking.

19 June 2018:

Here both buildings have been fenced off, but have not yet been torn down as the FEMA process was still ongoing.

13 March 2019:

Here the Subway has been taken down, and the Title Loans building is next up.

18 March 2019:

Here are some driveby photos of the Title Loans building coming down.

28 March 2019:

Here is the current vacant state of the lot. The Free Times says:

"After extensive information gathering and a lengthy application process to FEMA, the city received Hazard Mitigation Grant Program assistance from FEMA to purchase afflicted homes and the former Title Loan property," a police department release said. "In purchasing the properties with federal grant funds, the city is required to demolish the structures in accordance with FEMA’s conditions, and return the land to green space in perpetuity."

That link also has a good picture of the pre-demolition state of the back side of both buildings.

UPDATE 21 June 2019 -- Here's a picture I took for some reason in 2013 showing the place in operation:

Then here is where your money is going:

A pair of old sewer lines are being replaced by a single, larger sewer line. It will run between Forest Drive and the Quail Lane sewage pump station, near Little Lake Katherine.

Not a closing, and not a complaint, I just wondered what was going on behind Trenholm Plaza, and that's the answer. I had thought perhaps it was the start of a greenway or something.

Chocolate Nirvana had the misfortune to choose the exact wrong time to move from their old Richland Street location to Fort Jackson Boulevard beside Gills Creek. In the event, they were devastated by the Great Flood Of 2015, and it now appears that they have given up on the building, which is currently for lease.

Their website leaves room to hope they may be back in another location, but I suspect the flood marks the end of this much repurposed building and would not be surprised to see it knocked down, though I'm not sure anything else could now be built on the lot.

UPDATE 18 March 2019 -- Not sure what is happening here, but some operation with a bull statue is setting up:

I took a few minutes to walk Crowson Road between Devine and Fort Jackson Boulevard today. I did not attempt to go onto the old Kmart which was rather cordoned off, but work is definitely underway back there. I heard from a waitress at Ruby Tuesday that the pet store unfortunately lost some animals during the flood. Currently none of those stores are open.

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One of the most iconic images from the flood was the inundation of the TitleMax building on Devine Street. Some other pictures were actually just as incredible, but the bold color scheme of this storefront really made it stand out. One such image is here, and one shot from the other direction is here.

I finally got a chance to take a look at the damage last Saturday (17 October 2015), and it is even more severe than I expected in that while I thought the building would be a total loss, I was somewhat surprised to see the lot a total loss as well. I'm not sure it comes across well in these pictures (shot against the sun for the most part unfortunately), but the whole lot on the Liberty side of the building has dropped at least three feet.

The Free Times suggests that the site will not be rebuilt:

"That was built in the floodway; it would never be allowed to be built today," says Erich Miarka, program director of the Gills Creek Watershed Association. "Since that building was completely destroyed, I don't think they'll be allowed to build there again."

As an aside, I'm not sure how you get two street numbers offset by six in the same building, but that's what seems to have been the case.

UPDATE 19 January 2016 -- TitleMax now has a sign up for their new location:

UPDATE 18 February 2016 -- It appears something is about to happen here, as the property is now fenced off. My guess would be a demolition:

UPDATE 28 March 2019 -- Well, today was the last day for this iconic building. It was still partly standing when I took the first couple of shots, but when I got done eating and drove across the street, it was pretty well flattened. I expect it will be on WLTX tonight, as they had a camera crew there:

Hopefully I can add some commentary tomorrow, but for now I just want to get these pictures out there.

UPDATE 16 October 2015: Ok, I was under the weather for a few days, but let me add a little text here now.

First, I am happy to say that even as these pictures were taken, on Sunday 11 October 2015, recovery work was in full stride. All the flooded and gutted buildings on Forest Drive had evidence that of ongoing work and cleanup, and I noticed today (15 October 2015) that the Garden Center in Forest Lake Shopping Center was once again stocked and open for business.

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Taboo is the follow-on operation to Taco Bell in this little store that sits beside Gills Creek on the tail end of Devine Street.

Like the taco cart downtown, the place is something of a victim to the City of Columbia's zoning zig-zags. Regardless of what you think of the place, they followed the rules in place at the time to open, and ever since then the city has been trying to undo that -- which they finally have done. The place has been in court fighting, but lost their last battle at the end of September.

With the upscaling of the area, I don't see a future for this building, and would not be surprised if the next tenant took it down.

This delapidated bar is on Bluff Road just south of I-77 on the banks of Gills Creek next to the old Diamonds strip club. The whole area has had a lot of recent land clearing, and since I took these pictures, a real-estate sign has been put up on the property.

I didn't see any street number on the building and so wasn't able to google it to see exactly what it had been. I suspect that if I had gone in, some of the notices on the door or something else inside might have given me a clue, but from the state of the place I figured I would need a hard hat and steel toed shoes to be comfortable doing that.

Some of the bar fixtures and chairs are still in there, but the stuffed animals are something of a puzzle.

UPDATE 29 April 2014 -- I've updated the post title from "Bar" to "Grasshopper Club / Legion Hut / Vet's Hall".

Also, commenter BJ sends in this Vet's Hall playbill:

Now, there is not a year listed, but we know that 30 March fell on Friday in 2007, and that "Burns Out Bright" apparently debuted in 2004 and "Skull Baby" debuted in 2003, so I'm saying this has to be 30 March 2007 and not 30 March 2001 or 30 March 1990. Therefore, I'm updating the closing date to "circa 2007".

UPDATE 21 August 2014 -- This place is not long for the world, as a demolition order has been posted. Interestingly, given that we never came to a firm conclusion about the address of this place, the order gives it as 3001 Bluff Road, so that is what I am updating the post title to:

Photosets:

26 January 2014

Forest Lake Spirits & Fine Wines was one of the follow on operation in the old Dobbs House / Steak 'n Egg Kitchen building (next to Gills Creek and Forest Lake Park).

It appears that the building is now broken into three storefronts, and Forest Lake Spirits & Fine Wines was the leftmost one. You can see the attached picnic/patio area which I believe was the deck from the last time the place was a restaurant (which was well after the Steak 'n Egg era). I stopped there several times to pick up some cooking spirits for tiramisu, cheesecake and eggnog. The staff was quite friendly, but I believe that each time, I was the only customer in the store.

I'm not exactly sure when the place closed, but they are listed in the February 2012 phonebook, so I'm saying early 2012. Or, I suppose it's possible they will be back at 1:35.

UPDATE 25 September 2012 -- Something is happening here. There are dumpsters both in front and behind the building and people in and out:

UPDATE 18 December 2012: It appears a new restaurant will be going in here. See the pictures here.

The Steak 'n Egg Kitchen was in this building on the bank of Gills Creek across the street from Trenholm Plaza and in front of Forest Lake Park. Commenter Lisa B's parents ran the restaurant (and another in Cayce), and she has an interesting rememberance here.

What I remember about the place is that it had a counter fitted with round, floor-mounted, stools on which a kid could twirl for as long as a parent could stand it and unpadded booths, like at the Waffle House or Huddle House lining the outside walls. I don't remember much about the menu, though I think it inclined towards hearty breakfast and lunch fare, but I do remember one item in particular. We didn't get to go there often (and in fact generally ate only one meal a week 'out'), but when we did, I had to have "Black Bottom Pie". I don't remember what was inside the chocolate cracker crust, but whatever it was, it was good! I think it's rather interesting that with the Steak 'n Egg Kitchen, there were at least three lunch counter operations in this block of Forest Drive. The other two were Liggett's Drugstore (later Ligget Rexall) at Trenholm Plaza and Campbell's Drug Store at the other end of Forest Lake Shopping Center. All three are gone now..

I'm not sure how long the Steak 'n Egg Kitchen lasted, but I'm pretty sure it was gone by the time I started college in 1980, and think it was in fact several years before that. This article from 1987 says that the chain still had 130 units then, but that it was troubled and that the new owners were attempting a turnaround. I don't find a corporate web site, so I'm guessing it didn't work. Anyway, after Steak 'n Egg Kitchen closed, another restaurant set up shop briefly in the building (which was remodelled). I can't recall the name of the place, but I got the impression that it was family run, and it had home-made raw fries. I think there was a non-retail business after that, perhaps an insurance office or some such and then the current tenants arrived and split the building. I've bought brandy & rum for cooking from the liquor store, but I don't know anything about the other two outfits. At any rate, none of them have Black Bottom Pie..

UPDATE 30 Jan 09:

Here's the old Harden Street location (mentioned in the comments). It's now El Burrito.

UPDATE 14 July 2012: Added the full street address for the Forest Drive location, and added the "Dobbs House" name to the post title. Also added some tags.

UPDATE 11 October 2013: Here is a great picture of one of the incarnations of this location. Thanks to commenter Dennis for ferreting this out!