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.

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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.

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.

Koru Group Fitness moved into this old Steak Mart location at the corner of Rosewood & Maple in 2020. Now it appears that the owner has decided it is time to retire and spend some time with the grandchildren, winding down the operation on 30 June. You can read the closing announcement on their Facebook.

(Hat tip to commenter Travis, who was a happy client of the place)

This post is mainly for the mural, which vanished sometime between September 2023 & September 2025. As I reported before, The Cigar Box moved to State Street in West Columbia in September of 2019, and closed around 12 April of 2020, which was a bad time to be running any kind of business. The Free Times story touches tangentially on this location, but says nothing about the mural.

Commenter Dustin reminded me this morning that I had not done a South Carolina State Fair post this year. I certainly meant to, as I enjoy the Fair Food, neon, taking a video on the chair-lift, the art and just the experience in general. Unfortunately this year, my primary car was out of service, and I thought it would be a bad idea to put a 45 year old car with no door locks in the fair parking lot. Hopefully next year!

In the meantime, for those of you who *did* go, you can use this post to leave your comments.

Unlike the Dollar Tree fire(s) on Beltline, this one was pretty scary as it happened at 5:30 in the afternoon while the store was still open, and all the staff as well as customers were inside. In the event everyone made it out safely, thank goodness!

The fire sounds odd as it started in an asile and moved into the attic, but at least in the stories I have seen, the fire department has not found an actual cause for it.

You can read about it at The State or on WLTX.

As you can see, work has started on remediating the store.

(Hat tip to commenter Sidney)

I'll confess that I never picked up on the fact this was an Asian restaurant until I looked at the menu this evening. From the name, I expected burgers, or maybe barbecue.

This building has been a number of different eateries including Moe's Grapevine, Rooftop Pizza Pub & Eric's San Jose.

ALley Street opened here after Eric's around August of 2024, so they didn't make it a full year. I think the building itself is a bit of a challenge. Apart from not knowing what kind of place it was, you might look at it and wonder how you were going to get grandma up the steps and inside. I'm pretty sure there is an accessible back door, but that's not readily apparent from Rosewood.

The building is currently for rent, so we'll have to see if another restaurant is in its future.

The State has the story, such as it is, here

(Hat tip to commenter MB)

UPDATE 23 February 2026 -- Setting up to be Indian restaurant Silver Spoon Tavern:

(Very fuzzy for some reason)

Well, the South Carolina State Fair has come and gone again. There was good weather this year, along with a couple of new features, lots of returning ones, and a few unwelcome omissions.

The new features that come to mind were a glassblowing exhibition in the side-court where the Steel Building used to be, a hall of counties in the building adjacent to that court and a new ticketing system.

For the first several years after tearing down the Steel Building, they didn't seem quite sure what to do with the space: One or two years it was dinosaurs, and after that I believe something else that is slipping my mind, but for the last few years it has settled into a sort of antique/frontier craft and artifact mode. The glassblower was from Augusta, I believe and made a decorative pumpkin while we watched. Glassblowing is always a bit like magic, and obviously takes a lot of skill and practice. There was also a working Tinsmith in the area, but I missed that showtime.

The Hall Of Counties I like in concept, but in execution it wasn't particularly compelling. It was nice to see a placard and pictures for every one of the South Carolina counties, but it was a bit dry. Maybe some videos would have spiced it up a bit. I was surprised at how few people some counties have (Only 8000 in Allendale!).

The midway ticketing system is now a card which the ride operators can read with a phone app, and which you can buy and refill at kiosks near the gates. Personally I don't like it, as you have to keep a mental count of how many "tickets" you have left rather than just being able to look. There seems to be a bit of ticket inflation going on as well with the new system as, for instance, the Sky Ride, which I believe in the past has been something like four tickets is now fifteen of the virtual tickets!

The returning features are all Fair staples, to include The Art Exhibition, The Cooking Contest winners, The Baby Duck Slide, Student Art, Prize Flowers, Fruits & Vegetables, and of course greasy food and rides...

The omissions include the sand sculpture and water fountains. I did not see the sculpture in any of the usual places, so I asked at the information booth, and the lady there said they did not have it this year, that everyone was asking, and everyone was sad about it. She offered the hope it would be back next year, so we'll see. I don't know what was going on with the water fountains, but almost every one in the grounds was turned off and flagged. A paranoid person might think it a plot to get us to buy overpriced bottles of water, but the ones at the bathroom in the new building at the south gate *were* active, so I don't know what was going on.

Anyway, as usual a fun experience. Hope you all were able to visit and had a good time!

The pictures are a bit of a mess as I started gathering them two different times, and am fairly sure there are a good number of duplicates, but you can just scroll right on by those...

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Well, that was quick, dang it!

I had some inchoate plans to finally get to Rockaway either for supper last Friday, or lunch last Saturday, but in the event the news of the closing spread so quickly, and the crowds were so thick that the club ran out of supplies several days in advance of their announced 21 January closing date.

Rockaway Athletic Club was one of those places I would think about two or three times a year and decide: Oh yeah, I've finally got to try that place out, but in the event I managed to go decades without ever stopping by and having the famous Pimento Burger, and now it's too late.

The State has the story, as does The Free Times.

Sic transit gloria mundi.

(Hat tip to commenter Heath)