Or rather, the hotel formerly known as the Townhouse. It’s called the Clarion these days.
Once, it was the home of the notorious card games that starred Sen. Jack Lindsey and lobbyist Ron Cobb. The old Townhouse became a familiar part of the tales that made up the Lost Trust epic. There were other local houses of accommodation where inappropriate relationships between lawmakers and lobbyists thrived, but the Townhouse seemed to pick up most of that dubious cachet in the imaginations of those of us who followed such things.
But those days are long gone, and it’s been a generation since the establishment was said to be associated with such goings-on. Or even since it was called the Townhouse.
Now, current management is remaking the place yet again, and much of the old structure is being razed to be replaced. They’re making rapid progress. A few yards more, and I’ll have to move my car (the Clarion is right behind ADCO, and I park against one of its walls).
Interesting that this is happening just as the Bobby Harrell era ends, and we have a good chance of the first meaningful ethics reform since that that followed Lost Trust…
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They are just tearing down the motel part that was added much later. Unfortunately there is no design protection in that area, and the drawings of the proposed addition printed in The State look like a mashup of two distinct “McDesigns” from the two proposed new uses. Ugh
That was one skanky lodging. Design protection? Almost anything will be better.
Too bad that wreck at Main and Lady doesn’t collapse into the basement as well.
Apropos of nothing…
A moment ago, there were six readers on my blog. They were in Seattle; Aberdeen, SD; Columbia; Boston; Myrtle Beach; and Almada, Portugal.
That’s fairly typical of what I see when glance at a Real Time screen in Google Analytics — although usually, there are more readers than that in a given moment.
Yet over time, Google tells me that most of my readers are in SC, and most of those in Columbia.
This puzzles me…
The locals wuz eatin’ supper…
Maybe Cola only shows once no matter the number of local readers?
We are now one year and a week since the Columbia City Council announced the sale of the Palmetto Compress Warehouse. When exactly is the transfer of that eyesore supposed to be completed?
According to an email response from Fred Delk he said the closing date has not been set but expects it will close before the end of the year.
Today, they’re about to tear down the last wall, the one we park up against behind ADCO. So we’re all parked across the street, behind the old Dunbar Funeral Home.
Sounds of steady, deliberate destruction persist, just outside my window…
That right there is an excellent excuse for a work from home day.