Archive for the ‘landmark’ tag
Richland County Industrial Park, Clemson Road: never opened 4 comments
The George Rogers Mural Experience / Booker T. Washington School, Blossom Street: 1990s 30 comments
Today's pictures come from commenter Alaska Jill, who says:
Booker T. Washington School/George Rogers Mural: I knew I'd best get
pictures of those while I could, too. These were taken on a chilly
Sunday afternoon in February 1999. The mural of George Rogers was a
Blossom Street landmark and could not be missed.
George Rogers and I were at Carolina together, though to the best of my knowledge, we never crossed paths. What I remember though, is that his winning the Heisman Trophy in 1980 was a big deal. A *really* big deal. Quite possibly a deal that was visible from earth orbit, and influenced local gravitational fields..
It was also somewhat of a surprise. I clearly recall that in the run-up to the award announcement, the Daily Gamecock ran an editorial under the head By George, He hasn't got a chance! enumerating all the reasons why it wasn't going to happen. Not being a sports fan myself, I recall the campus events around John Lennon's death that same year more clearly, but I was certainly aware big events were afoot!
I'm not sure when the murals went up, but they were, as Jill says, landmarks for many years. (The road near the stadium and fairgrounds was renamed for Rogers in the same period). I have the vague memory that the Booker T. Washington building itself was at one time a public high school before the property was taken over by USC. I think both the mural and the building came down while I was living out of town, or at least I have no memory of what happened. Today I can't exactly match where it was on Blossom with what's there now...
George Rogers played pro ball until 1987, and is now retired. Wikipedia doesn't really say anything about him after that. It would not surprise me if he had a car dealership or a real estate business somewhere.
(Thanks to Alaska Jill).
UPDATE 18 July 2018 -- Here are some more pictures from commenter JHT who says
You can see this was taken before he was even drafted into the NFL as it is blank.
Green Hole, Greystone Boulevard: 1980s (access closed) 42 comments
I didn't know much about Green Hole back in the day. In fact I didn't even know where it was. I just knew that it was a place where the cool kids hung out and did cool things. Listening to some stories at various class reunions, I'm a little surprised that all the cool kids managed to live to grow up.. :-)
Since I started Columbia Closings, the topic of Green Hole has come up a number of times in the comments, and finally someone mentioned where it was and I was able to locate it on google maps. Apparently the hole itself is an old abandoned quarry pit, and is located between Greystone Boulevard and Stoneridge drive, bounded by Clear Channel Radio, Greystone Boulevard, Jim Hudson Hyundai, the old Stivers Lincoln-Mercury, and a condo complex.
Back in the 70s I think that the place was regarded as rather remote, and was just off in the woods, undeveloped. Nowdays, the condo complex has surrounded it and put boardwalks over parts of it -- I probably could have brazened my way onto those, but I decided to leave that for another day, and stuck pretty much to taking pictures around the edges.
OK, cool kids! Now is your chance to tell your stories in the comments. I gather that they mainly involve minimal adult supervision, maximal beer and deep, deep water..
UPDATE 8 March 2012 -- OK, I wasn't really happy with the way the pictures above came out. Actually looking down at the place, I could get the details, but in a picture it just looks like a bunch of clutter. To fix that, I went into the condo complex and got the much better shots below:
UPDATE 10 March 2012: Here is one woman's memory of Green Hole.
And here is a short video of some kids taking the plunge around 2010 (some nsfw language).
UPDATE 16 June 2020 -- Please check this comment for some of the very interesting history of this quary from commenter Paul Armstrong.
Historic House, 1531 Blanding Street: 2011 9 comments
OK, I'm not going to change the text below which was what I wrote for the first version of this post, but be aware that it is incorrect:
Not exactly a closing, though if it sells, I guess any businesses there (which seem to be law offices) will have to move, but a change in status at least for this historic house on the corner of Laurel & Pickens Streets. For some reason, LoopNet has three slightly different listings for this building (here, here and here). One of them notes that the house has nine office spaces available. Of course in a setup like this, probably a lot of common space and bathrooms are shared, which can be a drawback.
UPDATE 22 February 2012: Now for the actual correction! As pointed out by commenter Terry, the pictures in the links above don't match, and I find I have somehow confused Laurel Stret and Blanding Street. The house above is on BLANDING street. It is still an historic house converted to offices, but it is not the Ratchford House! This and this are the correct listing links. And apparently the house is
[A]djacent to Robert Mills House and Hampton Preston Mansion.
I have changed the post title to eliminate the reference to "The Ratchford House" and fix the street address. Sorry for the operator headspace error!
Happy 100th Birthday Miss Hampton! 2 comments
I saw a little appreciation ad inside the front page of today's State to the effect that Mrs. Ann Hampton, the first princial of Satchel Ford Elementary School turned 100 years old today.
Mrs. (Or "Miss" as we called all our teachers then) Hampton was principal when I started first grade in 1967 and I think all the students there had an enormous amount of respect and affection for her. We never doubted that if we strayed, she would set us straight, but also never doubted that she had our best interests at heart. As I started second grade, she guided the school through the potentially difficult task of integrating both the student body and faculty, and as I recall it, things went very smoothly. We all looked forward to her daily morning messages over the intercom, and the programs she led in the cafetorium.
Today, the school is led by one of her onetime charges, and the ballfield behind the school bears her name.
Happy Birthday Miss Hampton!
The Crab Pot Restaurant, 10024 Highway 17 South (McClellanville): late 2000s no comments
The South Carolina State Farmers' Market, Bluff Road: Summer 2010 7 comments
(Eat) Boogie's Grill, 509 Childs Street / 2124 Gervais Street / 1717 Zion Avenue: 1982 5 comments
Eat Boogie's Grill
That was the memorable exhortation that adorned the west wall of this vanished Gervais Street "soul food" restaurant when I was in middle and high school.
In fact, the place was so well known from that slogan, that I thought I would be able to find out more about it than I did. Here is the meager information I was able to come up with from old phonebooks:
Boogie's Grill apparently started in 1966, first showing up in the January 1967 Southern Bell phonebook at 509 Childs Street, a place I had never heard of, but which is in a neighboorhood west of Bluff Road.
Sometime in 1972 they moved to the iconic 2124 Gervais Street location, listing there in the December 1972 phonebook.
By 1977, they were back in the same Bluff Road area, listing at 1717 Zion Avenue in the January 1978 book.
As far as I can tell, they never bought a yellow pages ad, and in fact, dropped out of the yellow pages entirely after leaving Gervais Street.
2124 is on the block of Gervais betwen Harden and Pine Streets. There is currently no building at that address -- I think it must have been at one of the curb cuts between Holman's Barber Shop and the next building up (which looks as though I should probably do a closing on it). This surprised me a little bit, as I had been sure, before looking it up, that it was further down Gervais towards Millwood.
Surely someone out there has a picture of Boogie's and the west wall sign?
And to drift the subject a bit, how about that mural of the USS Enterprise blasting phasers down at a planet that adorned the west wall of a nearby building on the other side of Gervais Street?
Brookgreen Gardens Nights Of A Thousand Candles: 3 December 2011 1 comment
Well, it seems to me I got better pictures last year, but I had a good time as usual at Brookgreen Gardens Nights Of 1000 Candles last Saturday. The weather was nice -- I didn't have to zip my jacket or put on gloves, and the lights were as spectacular as usual.
If you will be in the vicinity of Murrells Inlet on 9, 10, 16, 17 or 18 December this year, you should definitely stop by and check it out!
Kimbrell's Furniture, 1626 Main Street: 1 October 2011 14 comments
The end of Kimbrell's on Main Street was hardly a surprise. Their sign says they had been there 49 years (or almost my entire lifetime), but the character of Main Street has changed so much over the years that even blocks where there are signs of life (Kimbrell's was on the same block as the new Mast General Store) don't make sense for heavy retail like furniture. A modern furniture store needs lots of display space, as well as an easy way to get trucks in and out, and Main Street doesn't really have either.
There are a number of other Kimbrell's locations around town, and the signs indicate that operations from the Main Street store have been consolidated in Piggly Wiggly location on Marshall Street.
I hope that whatever happens to the old Main Street store, someone saves the old and classic Kimbrell's sign, though I realize that would be confusing in some cases, it seems to have worked well for the Kress building.