Columbia Closings   What’s not in Columbia anymore

Well, if you've been reading Have Your Say, then you know commenter joelc scooped The State by a week on the news that Books-A-Million in Trenholm Plaza is closing.

I've spent many an hour in the Trenholm Plaza store. When I was younger, and the store was open until 11pm, I would often grab a late-night latte there as I browsed the shelves and magazine racks. In more recent years, I've found a good night's sleep more and more important, and the store has stopped opening so late anyway.

Of course in recent years, I've also done most of my reading on a Kindle and have had less and less need for an actual, physical, bookstore. I still look for comic strip collections, which work better printed, and technical books, but it often seems that given my technical needs, and humor tastes, I'm more likely to find those online as well. I'm definitely not alone in this, as evidenced by the closings of the Harbison Books-A-Million, the Harbison Barnes & Noble, The Happy Bookseller and the list goes on..

The State article suggests that rather than the chain keeping the space and re-working it as they did on Harbison, new clothing retailers will be moving in.

For all us Millionaire's Club members,

there's still Sandhill, and Lexington.

For now.

(Hat tip to commenter joelc)

UPDATE 4 March 2014 -- Here are some pix from back during the snow of the place with the Store Closing sign deployed:

14 March 2014:

16 March 2014:

29 March 2014:

UPDATE 31 March 2014: Added 14 March 2014 pix, 16 March 2014 & 29 March 2014 pix.

This Burger King, between Roper Pond and the defunct bank on Trenholm Road, is the latest Columbia BK to close down for remodeling. They seem to be cranking through these upfits pretty expeditiously, so I wouldn't expect it to be closed for more than a month or so.

(Hat tip to commenter Matt)

UPDATE 11 June 2013 -- Open again!

I noticed yesterday that Five Guys on Forest Drive in the old Forest Lake Exxon building was closed. I figured maybe they were buffing the floor or fixing some sort of plumbing issue, but they remained closed on Monday and from what I can see (which isn't too much as I couldn't get a close look) there is major work going on in there. The website doesn't offer any additional information other than "closed today", but the fact that it's still listed leaves me to believe they will be back.

It will be interesting to see what they are doing, as the building was completely refitted just a few years ago.

UPDATE 23 January 2013: Added some daylight pictures, though still not very good ones.

UPDATE 31 Jan 2013; Work is complete and the place is open again.

I've never actually been really sure what Pilates is. I know it's hard to spell and seems like it would be hard to do as well. At any rate, this small studio in Trenholm Plaza, next to 32 Degrees Yogurt is now gone, probably as of the end of the year.

(Hat tip to commenter Matt)

UPDATE 9 January 2013: Commenter Dave reports they have actually moved to 2864 Devine Street, so I have changed the status to "moved".

UPDATE 5 Feb 2013: Here's some pix of their new digs at 2864 Devine Street in the old AJ's / Strobler building:

A distant view of the whole shopping center plot:

The First Citizens stands more or less exactly where Campbell's Drugstore was:

The new Forest Acres Town Clock:

The Talbot's building is where the far end of the first building was:

This is the second building of Forest Lake Shopping Center which is still standing today:

Sakura was Christo's Roast Beef House as well as Moolan's Hide-Away, Biddie Banquet and serveral other restaurants:

Coplon's was originally Colonial grocery:

This was originally Dobbs House and several other restaurants:

The Forest Lake Shopping Center Park was originally owned by Colonial and fell into disrepair after that store closed:

This was the original location of Forest Lake TV:

The current garden center (not to be confused with the one sometimes listed below) and Webb Rawls gallery/framing center share the old First Citizens location, with the gallery being in the old main building (the vault is still in there) and the garden center being in the drive-through buildings and parking lot. I suspect the listings below give several different bank tenants for this slot, but I'm not sure which are here and which are elsewhere in the shopping center:

Forest Lake Shopping Center was the name of the shopping center at the North-East corner of Trenholm Road & Forest Drive, across Forest Drive from Trenholm Plaza and across Trenholm Road from Five Guys and Forest Acres Town Hall.

As I remember Forest Lake Shopping Center it never quite thrived the way Trenholm Plaza did, and over the years it gradually got a bit dowdy. In the end, instead of giving the place some TLC and a facelift, the main building was torn down to be replaced by a two new ones, a First Citizens bank and Talbot's. (Just recently the Forest Acres town clock was put up at the corner of the old Shopping Center Space).

The second original building of Forest Lake Shopping Center still stands and now houses Coplon's, Sakura and several other shops.

As you can see from the listings below, the city directory went back and forth on whether Dobb's House (in the corner of the parking lot) and the Garden Center (across Gills Creek) were offical parts of the shopping center or not. You can also see that they also incorrectly listed Trenholm Plaza fixtures Piggly Wiggly and the Post Office as being in Forest Lake Shopping Center

Rather than reproducing images from the city directories, I have opted to type them in, so search engines can find them here. That means I have probably made some typos that I will fix as they are pointed out. Also note that the early listings for the shopping center did not have suite numbers. When they started being given, I have reproduced them. Even then, not every shop was always given a number.

I have given 1982 as the closing date for Forest Lake Shopping Center because that was the last year it was a separate listing in the City Directory. Apparently at that point, they gave up running it as a going shopping center, and thereafter every shop got its own street address. However, the building was not torn down until sometime after 1984. I should have continued looking in directories after that, but for some reason I did not.

1957

No separate listing for Forest Lake Shopping Center as such was given in the 1957 city directory, but a number of the shops are listed as standalones.

Forest Lake Laundromat
Forest Lake Radio & Television Service
Mayfield's Barber Shop
Cooper Agency Inc
Perpetual Building & Loan Association
Mutual Properties Inc.
Mutual Savings & Loan Co
Cooper-Shawview Hts Inc
Forest Lake Water Wks district office
Southern States Construction
Mrs. Eliz B. Bailey (liquor)
Forest Lake Hardware
Ardis Texaco Service Station
Campbell's Forest Lake Pharmacy
Piggly Wiggly
Forest Lake Beauty Salon

1958

Dodd's 5-10-25¢ Stores Inc
Mel's Kiddie Land (toys)
Lad 'N Lassie Shops Inc (children's clothes)
Brooks Brown Forest Acres Florist
Bagnal's Appliances & Paint
Your Shop (clothing)
Eau Claire Bakery
Calhoun Life Insurance
Colonial Stores Inc
The Commercial Bank & Trust Co of SC
Forest Lake Shopping Center
Carol Glass School of Dance
Gillespie's Forest Lake Laundromat
Forest Lake Radio & Television Service
Mayfield's Barber Shop
Cooper Agency Inc (real estate)
Perpetual Building & Loan Association
Mutual Properties Inc
Mutual Savings & Loan Co
Cooper-Shawview Hts Inc (real estate)
Forest Lake Water Works (district Office No 1)
Southern States Construction Co
Mrs. Eliz B. Bailey (liquor)
Forest Lake Hardware
US PO
Ardis Texaco Service Station
Campbell's Drug Stores Inc
Piggly Wiggly
Forest Lake Beauty Salon

1959

Dodd's 5-10-25¢ Stores Inc
Mel's Kiddie Land (toys)
Lad 'N Lassie Shops Inc (children's clothes)
Brooks Brown Florist
Forest Lake Mens Shop Inc
Garber's Shoes
Your Shop (clothing)
Eau Claire Bakery
Colonial Stores Inc
Lampland
Perry mortage & Realty Co
The Commercial Bank & Trust Co of SC
Forest Lake Garden Center
Carol Glass School of Dance
Gillespie's Forest Lake Laundromat
Forest Lake Radio & Television Service
Mayfield's Barber Shop
Cooper Agency Inc (real estate)
Perpetual Building & Loan Association
Mutual Properties Inc
Mutual Savings & Loan Co
Forest Lake Water Works (district Office No 1)
Southern States Construction Co
Mrs. Eliz B. Bailey (liquor)
Forest Lake Hardware
US PO
Campbell's Drug Stores Inc
Andrew A. Manning Jr (physician)
Elmo J. Schmidt (dentist)
Piggly Wiggly
Forest Lake Beauty Salon

1960

Dodd's 5-10-25¢ Stores Inc
Mel's Kiddie Land (toys)
Lad 'N Lassie Shops Inc (children's clothes)
Brooks Brown Florist
Forest Lake Mens Shop Inc
Garber's Shoes
Your Shop (clothing)
Forest Acres Realty Co
Eau Claire Bakery
Colonial Stores Inc
Lampland
Perry Realty & Mortgage Co
The Commercial Bank & Trust Co of SC
Forest Lake Garden Center
Carol Glass School of Dance
Gillespie's Forest Lake Laundromat
Forest Lake Radio & Television Service
Mayfield's Barber Shop
Cooper Agency Inc (real estate)
Perpetual Building & Loan Association
Mutual Properties Inc
Mutual Savings & Loan Co
Forest Lake Water Works (district Office No 1)
Southern States Construction Co
Mrs. Eliz B. Bailey (liquor)
Forest Lake Hardware
US PO
Campbell's Drug Stores Inc
Andrew A. Manning Jr (physician)
Elmo J. Schmidt (dentist)
Piggly Wiggly
Forest Lake Beauty Salon

1961

Dodd's 5-10-25¢ Stores Inc
Mel's Kiddie Land (toys)
Lan (sic) 'N Lassie Shops Inc (children's clothes)
Brooks Brown Florist
Forest Lake Mens Shop Inc
Garber's Shoes
Your Shop (clothing)
Forest Acres Realty Co Inc
Eau Claire Bakery
Colonial Store's Inc
Lampland
Perry Realty & Mortgage Co
The Commercial Bank & Trust Co of SC
Forest Lake Garden Center
Carol Glass School of Dance
Gillespie's Forest Lake Laundromat
Forest Lake Radio & Television Service
Mayfield's Barber Shop
Cooper Agency Inc
Perpetual Building & Loan Association
Mutual Properties Inc
Mutual Savings & Loan Co
Forest Lake Water Works (District Office No 1)
Southern States Construction Co
Mrs. Eliz B. Bailey (liquor)
Forest Lake Hardware
USPO
Campbell's Drug Stores Inc
Mrs. Theodosia G. Orr (physician)
Mrs. Serena R. Clark (physician)
Elmo J. Schmidt (dentist)
Piggley Wigly
Forest Lake Beauty Salon

1962

Forest Acres Town Clerk
Dodd's 5-10-25¢ Stores Inc
Lan (sic) 'N Lassie Shops Inc (childrens' clothing)
Forest Lake Men's Shop Inc
Garber's Shoes
Your Shop (clothing)
Forest Acres Realty Co Inc
Eau Claire Bakery
Colonial Stores Inc
Lampland
Perry Realty & Mortage Co
The Commercial Bank & Trust Co of SC
Forest Lake Garden Center
Bankers Securities Inc
Carol Glass School of Dance
Forest Lake Laundromat
Forest Lake Radio & Television Service
Mayfield's Barber Shop
Cooper Agency Inc
Prepetual Building & Loan Co
Southern States Construction Co
Mrs Eliz B Bailey (liquor)
Forest Lake Hardware
Campbell's Drug Stores Inc
Mrs. Theodosia G. Orr (physician)
Mrs. Serena R. Clark (physician)
Dobb's House (restaurant)
Elmo J Schmidt (dentist)
Piggly Wiggly
Forest Lake Beauty Salon

1970

1 Forest Lake Pharmacy Inc
1a Phillips Petroleum Co
10 Forest Lake Beauty Salon
11 Dodd's 5-10-25 Cent Store
12 Flowers By Brooks
13 Norman's Lampland
14 Forest Lake Knitting Shop
16 Union Oil Co of California
16 Forest Lake Fabric Center
17 Calvert-Brodie School of Dance
18 Perry White Realty Co
19 Jack Owen Photography
20 Elmo J. Schmidt (dentist)
21 Forest Acres Realty Co
22 Colonial Stores Inc
23 Town of Forest Acres City Hall
24 Christos Roast Beef House
25 Forest Lake Radio & Television Serivce

1975

1 Forest Lake Pharmacy
1a Lob's Volley Tennis
10 Forest Lake Beauty
11 Fabrific Fabric Center
11a The Jade Clock
12 Flowers By Brooks
13 Carolina Lamp & Shade
14 Forest Lake Knitting
15 Union Oil Co of California
16 Forest Lake Drapery & Upholstery Fabric Center
17 Jack Owen Photography
18 White Realty Co
19 Ladder Escape Co
20 Elmo J. Schmidt (dentist)
Christos Roast Beef House
21 Forest Acreas Realty
22 Colonial Stores Inc
Forest Lake Radio & Television Service
23 Registered Nurses & L P N Registry
Dial-A-Sitter
Vogue Stylons
24 Calvert-Brodie School of Dance
Fabrific Fabric Center
26 The Dance Store

1980

1 Forest Lake Pharmacy Inc
10 Forest Lake Beauty Salon
11 The Lily Gilder (women's clothing)
12 Flowers By Brooks
13 The Golf Bag
14 Forest Lake Knitting Shop
15 Case Brothers House of Music
Brides of Carolina
16 Forest Lake Drapery & Upholstry Fabric Center Inc
17 Vacant
18 Capital Independent Adjuster
20 Skandia Restaurant
22 Forest Lake TV Repair
23 The Nurse Registry
Palmetto Nurses Registry Rev Richard C. Acker Director
Peachtree Nurses Registry Rev Richard C. Acker Director
Poste Bidders (printing)
Dial-A-Sitter
24 Calvert-Brodie School of Dance
26 Howard S. Denny, Jr (dentist)

1982

Last separate listing for Forest Lake Shopping Center

1 Forest Lake Pharmacy
7 The Lily Gilder (clothing)
8 Brides of Carolina
10 Forest Lake Beauty Salon
12 Flowers By Brooks
13 Heritage Printing Co
14 Forest Lake Knitting Shop
15 Case Brothers House of Music
15 Forest Lake Drapery & Upholstery Fabric Center Inc
17 The Cache Pot
18 Mitchell Music Co
20 Skandia Restaurant
21 Erik Florander
22 Forest Lake TV Repair
23 Ralph E. Walden & Associates (architects)
24 Calvert-Brodie School of Dance
26 Howard S. Denny, Jr. (dentist)

1983

Shops now listed as individual street addresses

4803 M. L. Sweets (confectionery)
4805 Majik Market Food Store No. 39
4807 The Picture Place (framer)
4809 Silver Fox Tennis Shop
4811 Forest Lake Barber Service
4813 Cooper Insurance Agency
Perpetual Trust Co
4815 Southern States Construction
4819 Schmidt Liquors
4825 Good Wood Unfinished Furniture

1984

4803 M. L. Sweets (confectionery)
4805 Majik Market Food Store No. 39
4807 The Picture Place (framer)
4809 Silver Fox Tennis Shop
4811 Forest Lake Barber Service
4813 Cooper Insurance Agency
Perpetual Trust Co
4815 Southern States Construction
4819 Schmidt Liquors
4825 Ashby's (clothing)

UPDATE 19 October 2012: I have been reminded in the comments that this shopping center pre-dates Trenholm Plaza and that the Piggly Wiggly and Post Office did in fact start here before moving across the street. (Piggly Wiggly is, of course now long gone, but the Post Office remains in Trenholm Plaza).

I noticed while at Starbucks the other night that the one of Trenholm Plaza's three banks, Capital Bank, while remainging open, is doing major remodeling.

I believe that Capital Bank is a fairly new name for this building, which has been a number of different banks over the years.

But I swear I never let him off the leash!

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.

Well, here's another Fred's closing, this one on the other side of town from the Sunset Boulevard store. Notice how both stores have a big roadside sandwich board saying "This Location Only!". I did not see any "X Days Left" sign, so I'm not sure how much longer this store will be open.

The Fred's strip mall, Fashion Place, at the corner of Decker Boulevard and Trenholm Road Extension is no stranger to closings, having shown up here for Cici's Pizza, Gabby's Pizza, Phar-Mor, Superpetz, and The Italian Oven.

UPDATE 12 July 2012 -- Gone! Don't know what the duct-work issue is..

I was never entirely sure whether this store in a corner of Trenholm Plaza next to the old Radio Shack location was LA Bag Lady as in Los Angeles or La Bag Lady as in kind of French. Their site uses the "La" capitalization, but goes on to namecheck L.A., so I'm still not entirely sure. At any rate, it was never a matter of prime importance to me as handbags are way down on the list of things I pay attention to.

Interestingly, all the phonebooks I have access to at home list only the Sandhill location for the shop, but this one definitely existed until very recently, as you can see in the picture at the top of Eden's Trenholm Plaza site page.

(Hat tip to commenter mamarose)

UPDATE 9 May 2012 -- Here are some pictures I dug up from Trenholm Plaza's redevelopment back in 2008. They are from 2 July and 5 September of that year: