Columbia Closings   What's not in Columbia anymore

This former Philips 66 has featured here before, when it was Buck Cooper Motors. Since then, Finish Line Auto Sales (at least) has moved in and out. Their sign says they have moved to 10609 Two Notch Road, which is just a bit beyond Pontiac House Of Pizza, though it seems to be officially an Elgin address.

I noticed on Shakespeare Road the other week that two SCE&G properties are up for sale. First there is the Gas Measurement Operations Center at 5921, and second the Operations Center at 6011.

If you look closely at the real-estate signs, you can see something I was unaware of: Apparently SCE&G is its own real estate company. I'm not sure which way the incentives from that cut..

I noticed this vacant storefront in the Shamrock Corner section of Shakespeare Road the other day. This is not far from the former Shakespeare Fish Market.

There seems to be some confusion about the actual street number of this spot on Shakespeare Road. When it was Joyner Sales Co, it was listed as 6112 Shakespeare, but most sources seem to list Dealer Auto Salvage as 6110 Shakespeare, and Loopnet lists the lot as 6108 Shakespeare.

At any rate, I noticied the other day that the property is once more vacant. I was on the way somewhere and couldn't stop to get any better pix, but things don't appear to have changed greatly since the first set I took almost five years ago, aside from untrimmed vegetation.

I'm not sure of the actual closing date as I can't find the place in any of my phonebooks under the name on the sign, but I drive by often enough that I'm assuming I would have noticed it if it closed years ago (though doing this site has proved that is not always an accurate assumption..)

I've written about this building before here and here, though sometimes the address is given as 6303 Shakespeare instead of 6301 Shakespeare.

Driving by the other week, I noticed it was vacant again. I'm not sure when Shakespeare Fish Market closed, but there are reviews posted up through October 2014, so I'm erring on the side of caution and saying early 2015.

According to those reviews and this WLTX Golden Spoon video profile, the place was a takeout seafood operation, sourcing fresh seafood from Georgetown.

This address on the North side of Shakespeare Road near Columbia Mall and almost across from Wood's Wonderland was once, according to the Secretary Of State's office Howard & Riley Real Estate & Insurance. That would have been back in the late 1960s and 1970s.

However, LoopNet says the current building wasn't built until 2005, so there must have been an older structure there at one time. (This would have been the Pink House era on Shakespeare). I don't know what the property was used for in the interim, but the last tenant was Heritage Elictrical, which has apprently moved to Elgin.

This is the follow-on operation to Carolina Famous Hotdogs & Wings (though curiously, Ihave that one at 6303 Shakeespeare), and was one of a number of Chicken & Waffle restaurants opening in Columbia last year. That's certainly a trend that seemed to come out of nowhere for me. I'd gone my whole life without hearing about that particular food combination, and suddenly I seemed to hear about it a couple of times a week. It almost sounds like a punchline. "Why did the chicken cross the road? To get a waffle.."

This building on the South side of Shakespeare Road near Columbia Mall has been a number of things over the years, none of which really made an impression on me.

Judging from google, the last two seem to have been a hair salon, which closed sometime before 2009, and a church, which seems to have moved last year.

As far as I can tell, at least going by the lack of signage, the building is currently vacant, but also as far as I can tell, it does not seem to be for sale.

Whoa! What the heck happened here? I've certainly seen abandoned and decrepit trailers before, but these look to have been attacked by those piranhas that can "skeletonize a cow in thirty seconds"!

This hard luck trailer park is on Shakespeare Road, just past the former Carolina Famous Hotdogs & Wings (which may be a former something else now..) on the way to Columbia Mall, as the name indicates. Googling turns up a number of crime reports, and this LoopNet listing. The property is now off the market, but the writeup

ZONED AS A 37 SPACE MOBILE HOME PARK.INCLUDES 24 MOBILE HOMES.Most in disrepair.PUBLIC WATER AND SEWER AND NATURAL GAS.PARK NEEDS A NEW OWNER.PRICED TO SELL QUICKLY.NO OWNER FINANCING.

somewhat drily understates the situation with "Most in disrepair".

Buck Cooper Motors is a right at the intersection where Two Notch and Shakespeare flat-iron into each other and is actually a tiny little lot for a used car place. I've noticed for a while now that there were no cars on the premises. I stopped by a couple of weeks ago, and there was a sign on the door to the effect that all cars had been moved to another Buck Cooper location. That sign seemed to be gone when I went back by today.

UPDATE 17 Feb 2011: Added Phillips 66 to the post title based on the comments.

UPDATE 9 April 2011 -- It's now Classic Auto, tinting and carwash: