Columbia Closings   What's not in Columbia anymore

As I mentioned last year, 2025 broke a long string of State Fair attendance for me, so I was glad to get back this year. For various reasons Saturday the 17th worked out best and I drove down about 6pm. There was quite a crowd and I found that every time I got up to a Fairgrounds parking lot entrance, the attendants would put out the traffic cones and close it down. I ended up circling the grounds clockwise entirely, coming in on Assembly, and finally ending up in the ROTC lot on Olympia. I had a Circle K ticket, so I got in fairly quickly at the Rocket gate.

The theme in the first building this year was Revolutionary South Carolina and they had a decent set of displays for that, with the rustic arts & crafts on the old Steel Building site meshing with it pretty well.

In general the layout was the same as in prior years, though I did notice a few familiar food stalls had moved. For instance, the purple-ish stand with the ice cream cone lights used to be to the south of the skyway, and now it is to the north. I didn't notice any big changes in the Midway. I still miss the smaller swing-ride, but that's been gone a number of years now. Aside from the skyway, the only rides I partook were the Bumper Cars, which is essential. I had to check out the baby ducks as well, of course. Despite the number of hours I had allocated, I still was running out of time for the art building, so I kind of had to zip through that and the produce building. I did notice that I couldn't find the corn displays I usually like to look at. Potatoes just aren't quite the same. I'm sure it was there somewhere.

One odd thing I noticed, which I also saw in 2024 is that almost all of the water fountains were turned off and in many cases locked down so no enterprising visitor could turn them on. The only working ones were in the commercial exhibit building on the South edge. I don't understand this, as given the prices of drinks there I would much rather visit a fountain. In the event I did get some tea at the Cinnamon Roll booth, along with some Fiske fries and Aunt Martha's Italian Sausage.

I was having camera issues all evening, even before the battery started to go, having to fuss with the lens deployment, and it's pretty clear I am not going to get another year out of this camera. Sic transit gloria mundi. We'll see.

Anyway, as usual I enjoyed myself, and look forward to 2027. Hope you all had the opportunity to visit as well.

Read the rest of this entry »

I think we are back? Initial indications look pretty good anyway. Server rebuilds coupled with fiddling SSL stuff *and* WordPress updates are not a fun weekend.

Notice that you can now use "https://columbiaclosings.com" and not have your browser complain about security anymore. I believe the PHP of death is gone as well. The "recently updated posts" widget in the right sidebar did blow up on me in the new WordPress version. I will see if there's something similar out there at some point.

Folks,

I've been putting off a lot of site maintenance for a while now, mainly because I'm on a dead-end OS branch, and will need to do a total reload before I can even start to patch things. However the Internet events of the last few days have their own urgency, so I really need to go ahead and do it. Hopefully this weekend.

At any rate, I will try to take a backup this evening, but you can expect that any comments you make between now and when things are updated will probably be lost.

Math tutoring service Mathnasium has left the Publix plaza in Lexington and moved a few blocks to the Food Lion plaza.

I guess it just added up.

(Hat tip to commenter JamesR)

I'm trying to remember if I was ever in Immaculate Consumption, and I really can't. I kind of doubt it, because if I were in the area, I would probably have ended up at Cool Beans, but who knows? Sometime in the last 25 years? Perhaps.

At any rate, that 25 year run is coming to an end this year due to the building being bought by the usual suspects. I still think the higher-ed crash is coming: Why send chat-gpt to school teach the classes and write the student papers..., but in the meantime the USC Development Foundation has another building.

You can read about it in The State or The Post & Courier.

(Hat tip to commenter Andrew)

This spot, in the Publix plaza on Broad River Road used to be The Fuji Cafe, and probably a number of other things I can't recall. Que! Bueno (sometimes spelled without the exclamation point) had been there at least since 2022 as the Irmo outpost of a local Mexican chain.

My sister was to meet a friend here last Saturday, and they arrived to find the place closed. Judging by Google reviews, apparently this happened within the last week or so, and all the furnishings are still inside. I never ate here myself, but am told it was pretty good. As far as I know, the other locations are still open.

(Hat tip to my sister)

This building on the corner of Rosewood & Kilbourne was for many years an independent pharmacy. I just noticed the other day that it is now a CDL training facility and it appears that Medicine Mart closed around 2025.

Still going through old pictures...

I stopped here the night of 13 January 2014 to get some pictures of the neon window signs for Carolina Jewelry & Pawn, but never came back for any daytime shots because at the time, it hadn't closed. It did that sometime in 2015, with Tri City Pawn being the follow-on operation which itself closed around 2021 and the slot is now Notre Luxury Skin.

I can't find a name for the gas station that was on this spot prior to the Gas Way, but I did come across these pictures of the Gas Way being built back in February 2013.

Based on the comments, I have changed the post title from "Gas Station to "Moore's Exxon / Moore's Philips 66". Mr. Moore passed in 2020 and commenter Thomas supplies a link to his obituary. He served his country in World War II, and was a longtime Gamecock Fan, retiring from this business in 2012.

I was going to go back and get some better shots of this, but apparently that's not going to happen, so anyway...

This car wash on the corner of Bush River & Arrowood Roads, was, I believe, built as a Frank's, though I could be wrong and it might pre-date that. At any rate, it was a Frank's for many years, becoming a Take 5 when that firm bought out Frank's. Earlier this year, Take 5 began closing a number of their locations as mentioned here, and it apparently became a Whistle Express after that, which I believe it still is.

Curiously Google Maps thinks that Arrowood Road starts north of Bush River, but once it crosses, it gains a 'w' and becomes Arrowwood Road. They might even be right.