Columbia Closings   What's not in Columbia anymore

I was going down to the Greek Festival last weekend, and noticed this Dollar General (in a former Eckerd) on the corner of Taylor & Barnwell streets. was closed.

The sign doesn't give any reason, but assures us that it is temporary. If I had to guess, I would say staffing issues, but of course I don't know.

Asian Express started to set up in this old Church's Chicken location in late 2018. Like the one on Broad River Road, which also took quite a while, the crews appeared to be working on it as a side project. For a while, things appeared to be going OK, if slowly, though there were some setbacks as when somebody broke the windows, but it has been months since I've seen any activity there, and as it is more than four years since they started, I am moving the place into the "never opened" category. I'd like to be proved wrong shortly, but it's not looking that way.

Ironically, the work crew around Busted Plug when I took the first set of pictures on 22 February actually added a bit of verisimilitude to the setting, as it's exactly what you would expect to see working at that faux barricade, but not normally something that was there. From what I could tell, at this point they were sort of figuring out what exactly they were going to do to unearth the Blue Sky installation, which had been in this spot (with beloved sister installation Tunnel Vision) for over twenty years, having been set up in 2001 as an "anniversary gift for the Federal Land Bank".

By the time of the second set of pictures, they had figured it out, and the hydrant was long gone.

I encourage you to follow this link to The State which has a really incredible video of the plug on the move.

The city plans to reinstall Busted Plug *somewhere*, but apparently no actual plan yet exists.

(Hat tip to commenter Larry)

Read the rest of this entry »

I first used The Key Shop some years ago when I was having an issue with getting a key cut for one of my cars that actually worked without having to jiggle it all around. I think that by that point all I had was a copy of a copy of a copy and the standard hardware store copy process was just barely working. Anyway, they fixed me up in a few minutes with a perfectly working key.

I was a bit alarmed when I saw the building empty a while ago, but it turns out they moved to a better location at 1815 Barnwell Street and when I recently bought a used car which came with only a valet key, they were able to look at it and cut a full master with no problem so I can now actually unlock the trunk.

Here is a State story on the move.

I am not sure what's next for this little building, it's got good visibility, but the Park Street side parking is a bear.

I had not heard of this Taylor Street wine bar and gallery / artist work space until commenter Justin mentioned that it was gone.

As it turns out, it closed in late 2019, well before the COVID-19 pandemic, which had been my first assumption for the reason. The Free Times had the story here.

(Hat tip to commenter Justin)

When I go traveling on my own dime, I usually like to stay in Holiday Inn Express locations. There are some exceptions, such as Fernandina where another chain is just much better located, but in general they have reasonable prices, safety & comfort.

As such, I had noticed this hotel at Taylor & Huger from time to time as someplace I might have stayed if I were visiting Columbia for some reason rather than living here, but I had not noticed until commenter Alan mentioned it that they had reflagged as Fairfield Inn & Suites.

(Hat tip to commenter Alan)

This old-school barber shop on Taylor Street is yet another casualty of COVID-19.

It appears they tried to stick it out, but in the end could not make it through the lockdown period.

(Hat tip to commenter Frank Mancuso)

UPDATE 3 September 2020: Commenter John R mentions that this storefront used to be a Krispy Kreme, so I have added that to the post title. I knew there was one somewhere around here. It used to be that when my aunt would come up from Jacksonville on the Silver Star, we would stop here to pick up warm doughnuts to eat while we waited and then continue down to the Seaboard station to meet her train (which would arrive fairly late at night).

Commenter Thomas mentioned that the Taylor Street location of Pope Davis had closed, so I went to take a look, to find that true, and the building empty. It's definitely an interesting, older, location, as you can see from the doors and fixtures in the service area. The company remains in town, and it looks like the next closest location is probably on Assembly Street.

(Hat tip to commenter Thomas)

UPDATE 20 August 2020: Added the first shot, taken from across the street.

UPDATE 19 August 2023: The State says SC may make this a landmark:

Now, state Rep. Seth Rose, D-Richland, is hoping to cement the building as a Columbia landmark and redevelop it. Columbia’s Design, Development Review Commission gave the move initial approval Thursday.

As you can see from the sign, this Church's Chicken at the foot of Gonzales Gardens and in the location of the old Drake's is now closed, or colsed, if you prefer.

I would guess this means a little more business for the KFC on the next block up, but *this* bird has flown the coop.

(Hat tip to commenter Andrew)

UPDATE 19 December 2018 -- As mentioned in the comments, some sort of construction is going on here, though there is no signage indicating what might be coming next:

UPDATE 21 February 2021 -- As mentioned in the comments, to be an Asian Express: