Miss our giant fire hydrant? Here are other oddities and curiosities you can find around Columbia

The Busted Plug has moved. The towering, 40-foot steel fire hydrant built by local artist Blue Sky became the talk of the town last week as it was slowly driven away from its Taylor Street home and into storage as new owners took over its property.

City leaders say the sculpture will be relocated, but for now it will sit in storage.

In light of the passion The State’s readers shared about Busted Plug, we asked for your other favorite Columbia art pieces, monuments and oddities. It turns out, Columbia is brimming with unique monuments, creative sculptures and sweeping murals that give the Soda City a flair all its own.

We’ve compiled a list of murals, statues and curios across the Columbia area. It’s not an exhaustive list, so share more of your favorite pieces in the comments.

‘Tunnelvision’ mural and ‘Neverbust’ chain

The Busted Plug was just one of the notable downtown art pieces by the artist Blue Sky.

The large Tunnelvision mural on the former AgFirst Farm Credit Bank building debuted in 1975, inspired by a dream the artist had. The next year, the artwork was featured in People Magazine.

It depicts a realistic highway tunnel entry with a sunset and low-slung mountains in the distance.

In 2000, Blue Sky constructed the Neverbust chain — a giant steel chain connecting the Sylvan Bros. and Kress buildings in the 1500 block of Main Street. Explaining the meaning behind the artwork, Blue Sky said, “One building looked like it was leaning a little bit,” according to the SC Picture Project.

Hootie & the Blowfish monument

A 10-foot-wide, 17-foot-tall monument to the band Hootie & the Blowfish sits at a prominent intersection in Columbia’s Five Points, a longtime favorite spot for area college students and one-time stomping grounds for the band itself. The monument also includes a large plaque shaped like a guitar pick listing the band’s accomplishments.

Erected in 2010, the monument is meant to celebrate the famous group’s Columbia roots. The quartet met while attending the University of South Carolina.

“Five Points will always regard Mark, Darius, Dean and Jim as native sons. After all, when Hootie toured the world, they always remembered their roots, announcing from every stage, ‘We’re Hootie and the Blowfish from Columbia, South Carolina,’” the plaque reads.

In addition to the monument, a portion of road was also given the honorary name Hootie & The Blowfish Boulevard.

Ija Charles murals

Local artist Ija Charles has left her mark all over the Columbia area, including in prominent places downtown.

In 2021, she completed a sweeping illustration of a 1950s-era Black business district in the city, painted across a building in the 1400 block of Main Street. Charles, a self-taught artist in her mid-20s, has painted murals for the Richland Library, the Columbia Metropolitan Airport and more.

Another of her notable works depicts a young Black girl looking out in awe, with Cayce icons floating around her.

Though newer additions to Columbia’s public art collection, Charles’ paintings have already become local favorites.

Obama gas station

The Obama gas station, named in 2011 for then-sitting President Barack Obama, has become a north Columbia landmark in the years since its owners renamed the store in honor of the president.

The convenience store at the corner of North Main Street and Prescott Road boasts bright blue signage, large painted American flags and a portrait of Obama, as well as advertisements for cigarettes, lottery tickets and diesel gasoline.

The store’s owners have previously said they decided to rename the store after seeing a gas station in Michigan do the same.

The gas station also gained notoriety on the popular reality TV show “Live PD,” which followed law enforcement officers on patrol across the country, including in Richland County.

Zesto’s of West Columbia ice cream cone

A 25-foot-tall chocolate-dipped ice cream cone has been a beacon atop Zesto of West Columbia for decades, tempting passersby to stop by the drive-in style restaurant at 504 12th St. for a quick treat.

The towering dessert was built in 1982 by artist Stavros Chrysostomides, a friend of original restaurant co-owner Angelo Tsiantis, according to the Lexington Chronicle. Chrysostomides is also the artist behind the giant Megalodon that swims overhead at the South Carolina State Museum.

Ra Obelisk

In the late 1980s, crews attempted to demolish an old railroad trestle in Columbia’s Olympia neighborhood, but the demolition was too difficult and a large concrete pillar was left standing.

Columbia artist Richard Lane saw the pillar and felt it looked like an Egyptian obelisk, so he painted a towering image of Ra, the Egyptian sun god, along with hieroglyphs and a scarab beetle.

Several of the hieroglyphs translate into titles of Beatles songs, including “Here Comes the Sun” and “All you Need is Love.” Lane didn’t identify all the hieroglyphs, instead challenging fans to try to decipher the glyphs themselves.

North Main robots

Two robot siblings have become sort of mascots for Columbia’s North Main Street district.

The salvaged propane tanks turned public art sit outside the office of architecture firm Studio 2LR at 2428 Main St. They were made in 2018 by local artist Clark Ellefson, who has a number of robot statues scattered around Columbia. Though not as old as some other pieces on this list, the statues have become a beloved feature of the North Main corridor.

But the robots function as more than pieces of art — they’re functional cisterns designed to catch rainwater and then slowly release it to help prevent flooding at the Studio 2LR offices, according to the business.

Five Points Centennial Plaza, Jack Van Loan Prisoner of War monument

In November 2016, leaders from across South Carolina gathered on a corner in Five Points to unveil a monument dedicated to Columbia’s Jack Van Loan, a U.S. Air Force fighter pilot who spent six years as a prisoner of war in Vietnam from 1967 to 1973.

The monument includes a water fountain with a large rotating sphere, as well as a statue of Van Loan based on a photo taken after he was released from the infamous Hanoi Hilton prisoner of war camp in Hanoi, Vietnam — the same prison where Sen. John McCain was held.

Van Loan also oversaw Five Points’ local association for 20 years.