History · Columbia

10 landmarks tell Columbia’s story

The public archives hold just one old photo of Columbia. The rest are in attics, shoeboxes and the historical society. Help start the collection.

1old photo or paper

10historic places

1need a date

Add an old photo Share a memory

From Columbia’s archive · credits on each photo

What stands out about Columbia’s past

Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.

A historic districtColumbia North Residential Historic District protects 345 historic buildings.A history waiting to be writtenOnly 1 old photo is in the public archives. The rest are in attics and albums.Landmarks on the Register10 places on the National Register.

★ What stands out · On the National Register

10 listings protect 687 historic buildings

The country’s official list of buildings and places worth saving.

places listed

National Historic Landmarks

none yet

historic buildings protected

687

each building in a district counts

first listed

1981

U.S. Post Office

in Mississippi

#27

by listings

BuildingsDistricts

Architectural styles listings

Colonial Revival6

Bungalow/Craftsman3

Spanish Colonial Revival3

Ranch3

Art Moderne3

Queen Anne3

U.S. Post OfficeBeaux Arts

Marion County Courthouse and JailClassical Revival

Superintendent's Home at Columbia Training SchoolBungalow/Craftsman

All 10 listings

Keys Hill Historic DistrictDistrict · listed 1982 Downtown Columbia Historic DistrictDistrict · listed 1997 Downtown Columbia Historic District (Boundary Increase)District · listed 1998 Lampton-Thompson-Bourne HouseBuilding · listed 1998 Broad Street-Church Street Historic DistrictDistrict · listed 2008 Columbia North Residential Historic DistrictDistrict · listed 2009 Columbia Country ClubDistrict · listed 2015

National Park Service, National Register of Historic Places. Photos from Wikimedia Commons, credited on each place’s page.

Help out

Start Columbia’s collection

The first neighbors to add old photos shape how Columbia’s history is told.

Decades since 1900 with photos

00s10s20s30s40s50s60s70s80s90s

0 of 10 decades. The empty ones are waiting for someone’s album.

Date a photo1 archive item has no date. Guess the decade.+2 Retake an old viewFord House: stand where they stood+15 Share a family photoSign in to add one+10

The story

How Columbia came to be

From Wikipedia’s history of Columbia.

Read it all →

Columbia is the county seat of Marion County, which was created out of Amite County in 1811, encompassing the southwest quarter of the current state of Mississippi. Before statehood in 1816, there were three territorial census/poll tax records taken of what was deemed Marion County at the time. These records reveal that during 1813, several Lott men arrived and settled on the Pearl River in what is now Columbia. In 1813, William Lott was the largest slave holder near present-day Columbia, owning 28 people. Five mensettled south of present-day Columbia on 2,789 acres (1,129 ha) of land with 65 enslaved people. North of present-day Columbia, on what was the earliest attempt at a town, Timothy Terrell enslaved 32 people on 3,151 acres (1,275 ha).

Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.

By decade

Columbia, decade by decade

Date unknown1 to date

Date?Ford House

Today1 recent

ANP train with US at Camp Hero and JRAC 110608-F-AU128-076

2010ANP train with US at Camp Hero and JRAC 110608-F-AU12…

Then & now

Stand where they stood

No then-and-now pairs yet. Take a photo from the same spot as an old one and they appear here side by side.

Retake this viewFord House

Find the spot, match the angle, and add your photo. It becomes the first then-and-now pair on Columbia’s page.

Retake this view · +15

Memory lane

What the archives can’t tell you, neighbors can.

Town Square →

Weigh in

Has Columbia changed for the better?

Your answer becomes a post in Town Square.

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From Wikimedia Commons (1), the Library of Congress (1), Wikidata (5), the National Register of Historic Places (10) and Wikipedia. Archive images are copied here with their credits and licenses, shown on each photo’s page. Refreshed monthly.