Columbia Closings   What's not in Columbia anymore

I've probably seen this place one time or another, but since I get down this part of Whaley approximately never, I could not have told you it was there. It looks to have been a pretty generic place for college kids to get snacks, beer & gas or pick up an Amazon order. Unfortunately now, it is overrun with feral cats which someone is feeding.

I'm going with August for a date here since that's when I heard about it, but looking inside the place, it could have been closed earlier based on the state of cables in the roof etc. It also appears to me that the power is totally off here, including to the Amazon Lockboxes.

(Hat tip to commenter Midnight Rambler)

UPDATE 29 August 2026: Commenter Badger says this was originally Caper House, so I have added that to the post title. Not sure if that was a chain or a one-off.

UPDATE 23 September 2026 -- As mentioned in the comments, this building is now gone:

This Olympia spot, sharing a building with liquor & convenience stores, announced late last year that they would have to close if they could not sell the operation. In the event, that did not happen, and The State has the story on the actual closing.

This is one of many spots around town I was never really aware of, but they apparently had quite a wide-ranging menu.

(Hat tip to commenter Mr. Hat)

I was only vaguely aware of The Cliff Apartments when I was at USC, though apparently they had been open for several years at that point. They, along with the Bates-es were just on a side of campus I never had any reason to go to. Now USC has razed the building as part of a plan for a new "Campus Village".

The State has the story here and here. Apparently students were forced out of these dorms in the middle of the year to save construction costs by not holding off on the work. In the event, they seem to be several months behind schedule tearing this place down, and I expect the pandemic played into it. Bates & Bates West are also on the block for the next phase of the project.

I don't know. To me it seems like the campus area has been vastly overbuilt in the last several years. I just don't see enrolement continuing to grow as it has, especially with the total game-changer of remote classes during this last year. We'll see.

(Hat tip to commenter Sidney)

Here's a little 1940s building by the tracks at the start of Huger Street (that's you-gee street for you out-of-towners..), that has been, I'm sure, many more things than this list over the years since it was built.

To be honest, I have to say I can't personally remember any of them. It's a section of street I drive very seldom, and some of the tenants, for instance, a roofer, are pretty invisible until you actually need one. The most recent operation seems to have been The Dog Shack hotdog restaurant, which apparently set up shop in April of 2010, and was definitely open as late as 18 June 2010, when a group of Columbia hotdog aficionadoes visited and gave it a mediocre grade.

While I was taking pictures a train rolled through, backing up traffic on Huger. I imagine working all day in that location would get old pretty quick.