The Ballistic Center / TJ's / Videos & Beyond, 3001 Broad River Road: September 2011 8 comments
This porn emporium on Broad River Road next to the old Data Resources site and across the street from Ole Town Antiques recently gave up the ghost and is already boarded up. I like the odd fact that the advertising silhouettes are about as tame as anything involving a man and a woman together can be. There are racier beer billboards. Of course maybe that did them in!
More likely are two other factors. First, they were just down the street from This is It! at 2831 Broad River Road, and that seems to be a chain of sorts. And second, I heard somewhere that Al Gore invented something that lets you see people in their birthday suits for free...
(Hat tip to a commenter I can not locate now..)
UPDATE 8 October 2011: Added "TJ's" to the post title after finding it in google. It was a strip club.
UPDATE 11 November 2011: Added "The Ballistic Center to the post title. It was a shooting range. I've got a nice ad to scan in at some point.
UPDATE 23 November 2011 -- Here's the ad I mentiond above:
The Ballistic Center first listed in the January 1984 phonebook at "1022 Columbia College Drive". I forgot to make a note of when they first listed at this address, but the last listing was in the February 1991 phonebook.
UPDATE 17 April 2019 -- Now Michael's Cafe & Bistro:
8 Responses to 'The Ballistic Center / TJ's / Videos & Beyond, 3001 Broad River Road: September 2011'
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Larry
7 Oct 11 at 12:47 pm
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It was Shooter's Choice I think I shot there a few times
Gary Lemons
7 Oct 11 at 9:28 pm
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I found "TJ's" as the name of the strip club, but I'm not pulling up "Shooters' Choice" at that address in google...
ted
8 Oct 11 at 1:01 am
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Actually I believe the name was The Ballistics Center, and I think Larry's estimate of the closing date is pretty close.
59 Ford Wheelman
8 Oct 11 at 5:09 am
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Definitely Ballistics Center. I remember the closing because I showed up one day to shoot and it was just closed. Shooter's Choice is on 378 in West Columbia and still open.
Larry
8 Oct 11 at 5:29 pm
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Google Maps shows that Shooter's Choice is at 944 Sunset Blvd. in West Columbia just beyond Craft Street (which is one of the property lines of Brookland Baptist Church) but before 9th Street (and it doesn't make sense to me why US 378 & 9th isn't signalized when both streets are 4 lanes...)
Andrew
8 Oct 11 at 9:58 pm
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I believe it was owned by "New Banner Institute, Inc." a Columbia cult that gained notoriety in the '70s and '80 for a series of criminal accusations, one of which worked it way into the US Supreme Court in 1983:
http://caselaw.lp.findlaw.com/scripts/getcase.pl?court=US&vol=460&invol=103
Walt Hampton
9 Oct 14 at 10:43 pm
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The Ballistic Center opened in '83 and closed on August 15 1995. I worked there from '86 until the end. I tear up when I ride by the building today... The Columbia College address was just the owner's home address around the time they were gearing up to open.
Mark Cloer
4 Sep 18 at 11:31 pm
Prior to being a night club (at the height of the Video Poker craze), and then a strip club, this was a gun shop and indoor shooting range, the name of which escapes me, but in high school was the first place I fired a revolver and then a pistol. It has been sad to watch the decline of Broad River Road over the years. I would say the gun shop closed sometime around 1993 or 1994. Anyone remember the name?