A decades-old Columbia car wash — once the showplace of a live tiger — has closed

A Columbia car wash and oil change shop that has been in business for more than 70 years — and where a live tiger was once exhibited — has closed.

Constan Car Wash and Mobil 1 Lube Express at 1950 Gervais St. in Columbia is closed, according to a listing for the business on Google. As of Wednesday morning, Constan’s website — constancarwash.com — was bare except for a single message: “It has been our pleasure to serve you for 73 years. We will miss you!”

A reporter from The State stopped by Constan earlier this week and found it closed during normal business hours. There was a sign on the property that read, “It has been our pleasure to serve you for 73 years. Thank you.”

The State has left messages for Constan owner Chip Smith.

The car wash and oil change spot has for decades been a fixture along Gervais Street, just down the hill from the intersection of Gervais and Harden near Five Points. The business was started back in 1949 by O. Stanley Smith Jr. and wife Connie. A 2015 story in The State noted that the name of the business was a combination of the owners’ names — “Con” for Connie and “Stan” for Stanley. Both Stanley and Connie Smith died in 2015.

Constan is thought to have been the first automated car wash in Columbia.

One of the more colorful pieces of the business’ history is that a live tiger named “Happy” was once exhibited there and helped pave the way for Riverbanks Zoo.

According to a 2015 story in The State from reporter Jeff Wilkinson, in 1964 Stanley Smith, with the help of famous zoologist and television personality Marlin Perkins, purchased a tiger cub for $1,000 from Chicago’s Brookfield Zoo. The cub was named Happy and was exhibited at the car wash on Gervais Street and at other events in town, where school children would visit and donate nickels and dimes to help build the zoo.

It took nearly a decade, but the children’s interest in Happy helped convince politicians that the zoo would be a success and should be funded. The zoo opened in 1974, and Happy died at the zoo in 1979.

Constan has long been a full-service automated car wash, one where the customers wait in the lobby as the car passes through the wash tunnel. Once the wash was completed, employees would wipe down the car and vacuum it out, putting the finishing touches on the shine.

This reporter often got oil changes from the onsite Mobil 1, which came with a free car wash. Freshly popped popcorn in the lobby was a perk many customers enjoyed, and there was often a shoe shine stand open in the lobby, as well.

New car washes have continued to pop up in the Columbia and Lexington area in recent years.

Time to Shine Car Wash has purchased nearly 2 acres of property at 2006 Gervais St., just a few hundred yards from Constan. Time to Shine also has plans for a wash at the corner of Columbiana Drive and Harbison Boulevard, in the bustling Harbison shopping district near Columbiana Centre mall.

Tommy’s Express Car Wash opened this year at 4700 Devine St. in a spot that was previously a landmark for the historic 2015 flood. There’s a new ModWash is coming to Highway 378 in Lexington, near the Publix-anchored Hendrix Crossing shopping center.

And there’s a Take 5 Car Wash currently under construction on Augusta Road in West Columbia, as well as a Big Dan’s Car Wash being built on Elmwood Avenue.