Columbia Closings   What’s not in Columbia anymore

I've noticed this little Korean place, on Percival not too far from Forest Drive, over a fairly long period of years, though I never knew the name.

Interestingly, while the sign says Cho Won, google doesn't find that incarnation at all. Apparently it is now a bar C & J Lounge.

I was quite surprised to see this Hardee's, more or less at the corner of Percival Road and Forest Drive, closed.

As far as I could tell driving by daily, it seemed to do a reasonable amount of business. What's more, this section of Forest Drive is now an Interstate exit zone, so it should have been drawing from more than just the local area.

My first thought was that the opening of Cookout just a few slots down the road was the cause. The problem with that theory is that Hardee's does a brisk breakfast business, and Cookout, as far as I know, doesn't have a breakfast menu.

The more daylight shots above are from commenter kholler: Thanks!

(Hat tip to commenters Mr. Hat and Kholler)

I noticed this vacancy on Percival Road (between Alpine & Smallwood Roads) the other day when I was running out to Sandhill and decided against taking I-20. According to this year's phonebook (February 2012), the new location for Jacob's Heating & Air is 2213 Screaming Eagle Road, several miles towards US-601 from here. Assuming they are after the Columbia market, that seems like it would be a lot more truck miles per year, but perhaps they are after Lugoff & Camden.

This building on the north side of Percival Road, has kind of a "church" look to me, but there's no steeple, and no signage of any kind. I would expect more windows in a church as well..

Well, here's another property of indeterminate address. I know that it's at the north-west corner of Percival Road and Jamaica Street, but I didn't see an address on the property, and google is not helpful here. It's certainly in-between John Boy's Auto Repair & Service at 2921 and Stone's Wholesale at 3001.

Just looking at the place, I suspect this was a failed retail strip-mall, but it could also have been a service plaza. Either way, I have no memory of having seen it in operation, though I must have. It appears that all the windows were broken out at some point, or perhaps there was a fire inside. At any rate the place is in poor shape at this point.

United Car Sales was a small used car lot on Forest Drive just east of Four J's Plaza, next to Ambassador Animal Hospital. As reported by commenters Andrew & Matt, the place was torn down last month, and has since been confirmed as the second location for Cookout hamburger restaurant in Columbia. At first it seemed sort of an odd location choice to me, but then I remembered that Forest Drive is an Interstate exit now. Cookout advertises their Orangeburg location with I-26 billboards, and will presumably advertise this spot with billboards on I-77.

I'm not sure what The Toy Box was, but it's the other google hit for 5311 Forest Drive. I don't think it was an actual "toy" store however as I probably would have heard of that.

(Hat tips to commenters Matt & Andrew)

UPDATE 4 April 2012 -- Changed post title to add "moved" as the status for United based on commenter R H Lancaster's info. Cook Out construction continues:

UPDATE 16 April 2012 -- Here is United's new home on Garners Ferry Road at I-77 (as far as I can tell, they have been listed in the past as both "United Auto" and "United Car"):

UPDATE 30 June 2012 -- As these pictures from 20 May and 21 June 2012 show, they are progressing and scheduled to be open on 1 July 2012:

UPDATE 3 July 2012 -- Cookout is open!

I think Walker's Service Center remains in business while they try to sell the building (which to my memory has been on the market for years), but obviously they were not the first tenant here in what was a service station of some sort.

The architecture is distinctive enough that I ought to be able to name it easily, but in the event it's slipping my mind, and I will update the post title when either someone identifies it, or I remember to look it up at the library. These full service gas stations use to be just about the only ones you saw, and with cars so much more fragile in those years, that made sense. Now they are a dying breed, and with the closure of Forest Lake Exxon I can only think of a few left in town.

UPDATE 23 February 2012: Updated post title from "Gas Station" to "Abbot's Texaco" based on the comments.

Interestingly, I cannot find this barber shop, on Percival Road between Decker Boulevard and Forest Drive, in any of my phonebooks. It does show up in google, but it's neither in the BellSouth white pages nor the BellSouth yellow pages. Commenter Sidney says it was there for 8 years until it ran into financial difficulties in January.

At any rate, judging by the current tenant, you can still get a severe haircut there!

(Hat tip to commenter Sidney)

These are the kind of businesses I notice off and on over the years, and if I think about them at all, wonder how they are making a living, until one day I notice that they are not anymore. These adjoining lots are on Percival Road, just east of Decker Boulevard.

The story, at least for the Upholstery shop seems to be a sad one, of the parents passing away, and the children not being able to carry on the business. I'm not clear on what the story of the little drive-in was as it was not detailed in the County Zoning hearing minutes which are online here. Apparently nobody even knew the name of the place.

The hearing seems to have focused on keeping the property commercial. The businesses had been operating on residential property as grandfathered operations, and when the business licenses lapsed, the ability to locate a business there did also. In this case it seems to me pretty much a no-brainer, and apparently it was approved. Both properties are now for sale, and time will tell what locates there.

Also, an interesting tid-bit came up in google when I was searching for the street addresses and "Duanne Warr", who was associated with the action somehow. As it turns out, in the minutes, he spoke for the proposed buyer of the property apparently as a realtor, but it appears he was once a Columbia heavy metal rocker cutting

One of the most insane records ever made!

UPDATE 13 June 2009: The above picture is apparently the wrong spot for the adult book store, with the right spot being the corner lot (one to the left). I'll leave the first picture since people have commented on it (and its former incarnations), and add the correct one below.

I've tried a couple of times to get a decent picture of this place, but it seems that every time I go by, it's the afternoon, and the sun is against me. Anyway, this little building is on Percival Road between Decker Boulevard and Dupont Drive and has been a number of things over the years. Currently it is an El Cheapo gas station / convienience store. You can also tell from the painted-over letters on the gas island canopy that it was fairly recently a Texaco. What I recall from the 1970s and 80s is that it was an adult book store for a good many years, and the reason I recall this is one very indignant lady during the Great Ice Storm of 1979.

That storm was the biggest local event of 1979. We certainly had snow from time to time growing up, but had never seen anything like the cover of ice that descended on Columbia that day. As I recall, I went outside afterwards, and saw a bucket in our back yard. I pried it out of the ice to find that it left a neat hole with clear turf underneath, surrounded by a two-inch coat of ice. Needless to say, trees and branches were down all over the city. Our house was without power for two weeks. Nowdays, I suppose they would declare a Federal Disaster Area for anything like that, but in those days, we just coped. We had a fireplace and candles, and when things got too bad, could take a hot shower at a relative's house. We also had a transistor radio, and I remember listening to WIS's extensive coverage of the situation. The lady in question phoned in to the call-in show and expressed great ire at the fact that this adult book store had its power back, and she did not have hers. The host tried to explain that the line crews were working through the area in triage mode, and usually tried to fix the lines that would bring the most houses back at once before moving on to breaks that would bring fewer houses online. She wasn't having any of it though, and I think the host finally had to "thank" her for her opinion and hang up. Perhaps she was onto something though -- we haven't had a storm like that since the adult bookstore closed!

UPDATE 13 June 2009 See in post above about new "correct" picture. Also added the street address, 1001, to the post title.