Columbia Closings   What's not in Columbia anymore

The closing date here is just a guess, although I'm pretty sure I have driven this stretch of road early this year and did not notice anything odd here.

I actually spent a fair bit of time at these apartments back in the 1970s as my piano teacher lived on the ground floor. We had started out with her in a "modern" class at Havens on Devine before they went all-in on picture framing and still sold pianos. It was a group class where everyone wore headphones and played an electric piano which was (supposedly) audible only to you and the teacher as she switched between feeds. It's not an idea that every really caught on, possibly because it wasn't a great one. After that, we followed her to apartments out on Leesburg Road, and Forest Drive, and finally these. I was an awful and passive-agressive student since I *really* didn't want to be taking piano lessons, and I regret the hard time I must have given her.

Anyway, at the time the place was fine, though it appears to have gone downhill in more recent years. I didn't see any homeless activity, but it really didn't look like a place I wanted to get out of the car and poke around in, so these are all drive-by, drive-through, pictures. With the state of the area now, I don't rally see anyone putting a lot of money into these to refurbish and re-open, but we'll see what happens.

Here's a State story involving the place that ended better than it well could have.

(Hat tip to commenter Arthur P.)

The Marion Street Highrise was part of the Columbia Housing Authority's portfolio, and was built in 1975. Recently the Authority has been evaluating its properties (one imagines due to the deadly problems with some of its units), and has decided that the cost to refit this building is so close to the cost to do new construction that keeping it doesn't make sense.

I was mainly aware of the place because I would often park on Marion Street during the Greek Festival, and always had the feeling that it didn't really fit in with the area. (Though it is not a bad looking building, really).

Given that the building is not to be rehabilitated, I assume it will be taken down, but I have not seen at date for that, or a plan for what is to follow (I assume the land will stay with the Authority).

This WLTX story has more details, and says that the residents started being moved out in May of 2021. It appears that they are now all gone.

As an aside, I had assumed that Marion Street Highrise was just a description of the building, but according to the street sign, that is the actual name.

(Hat tip to commenter Justin)

Driving on Laurel Street recently, I noticed that something is going on at the public housing development of Allen Benedict Court. I recalled that there had been a fatal gas leak there in 2019, but had missed the follow-up that all the residents had been moved out and the place scheduled for demolition this month.

The development, in the square bounded by Harden Street, Read Street, Oak Street & Laurel Street, was built in 1940 and in those Jim Crow days was the Black counterpart to the Whites only Gonzales Gardens, which was itself recently demolished.

This State article has some reflections on the history of the complex, which went from a safe place to raise kids in the beginning to problematic in recent years. According to WLTX final enviromental testing before demolition has begun.

UPDATE 15 November 2021 -- As of the time of these pictures, (23 October 2021), it looks like demolition is complete, though the rubble has not been cleared. There does appear to be one building which has been left. For historical purposes perhaps?

Gonzales Gardens was a public housing project comprising the tract bordered by Lyon Street on the West, Forest Drive on the North, McDuffie Avenue on the East and Washington Street on the South.

According to The State, demolition of Gonzales Gardens started on 4 October 2017. I took these pictures on 1 October when the place was fenced off, but still standing. I have not driven by lately, but imagine it is all down by now.

I never knew much about the place, except that it had something of a shady reputation by the time I became aware of it in the late 1960s. Apparently it was not always that way, and in fact another State story recounts some happy memories of the place from the early years.

The Columbia Housing Authority has the most extensive writeup with a lot of interesting facts. For instance, the place was originally built largely for Fort Jackson NCOs, and was, in those Jim Crow times, initially restricted to white families only. Another thing I did not know was where the name came from: The project was named for the three Gonzales brothers long associated with The State newspaper, one of whom was murdered in 1903 by the nephew of then Governor Tillman.