|
Columbia College (1854), Benedict College (1870), Allen University (1870),
Columbia Bible College and Seminary (1923), and a technical college. Near
the city are Francis Marion and Thomas Sumter national forests.
Columbia has many historical sites, including the State House, built
between 1851 and 1907; the boyhood home of President Woodrow Wilson, constructed
in 1872; numerous antebellum houses, many designed by Robert Mills, who
was also responsible for the U.S. Treasury Building and the Washington
Monument in Washington, D.C. Other points of interest are the South Carolina
State Museum, housed in a former textile mill; the Chapelle Administration
Building (1922), designed by John Anderson Lankford, a noted black architect;
and the Columbia Museum of Art. The Mann-Simons Cottage in Columbia was
built around 1850 by freed slave Celia Mann, who later established one
of the earliest post-Civil War black churches in South Carolina. The cottage
was also the home of black musician and teacher Bill Simons, and currently
houses a museum of African American culture.
The area that is now Columbia was inhabited by the Congaree people until
the 1700s. Situated in the center of the state, the site of Columbia was
selected in 1786 by the South Carolina legislature for a new state capital.
The central site was chosen in an attempt to reduce tensions between South
Carolinians living along the seaboard and those in the interior; the previous
capital had been situated on the coast, at Charleston. The legislature
named the new capital after Christopher Columbus, and it incorporated
in 1854. In the first half of the 19th century, the city thrived with
the cotton milling industry.
During the American Civil War, Columbia was a Confederate stronghold
until February 1865, when it was shelled and set ablaze by Union troops
under General William Tecumseh Sherman. The fires were in part caused
by evacuating Confederate soldiers, who set fire to cotton bales to keep
them from the Union soldiers. During the Reconstruction after the Civil
War, the city was rebuilt, and it grew as one of the state's chief industrial
and farm-trade centers.
Columbia covers a land area of 303.0 sq km (117.0 sq mi), with a mean
elevation of 58 m (190 ft). According to the 1990 census, whites are 53.8
percent of the population, blacks 43.6 percent, Asians and Pacific Islanders
1.4 percent, and Native Americans 0.3 percent. The remainder are of mixed
heritage or did not report ethnicity. Hispanics, who may be of any race,
are 2.1 percent of the people. Population 101,208 (1980); 98,052 (1990);
110,840 (1998 estimate).
Columbia combines all the graces of the rich past with the vibrance of
the emerging Sun Belt. It's the state capital and home to a major university.
One of America's outstanding zoos, Riverbanks Zoo and Botanical Gardens,
is just minutes from the state capitol. The State Museum also tells the
colorful history of South Carolina. If you like water sports, Lake Murray
is a 50,000-acre playground less than 15 minutes from the heart of the
city.
Columbia combines all the graces of the rich past with the vibrance of
the emerging Sun Belt. It's the state capital and home to a major university.
One of America's outstanding zoos, Riverbanks Zoo and Botanical Gardens,
is just minutes from the state capitol. The State Museum also tells the
colorful history of South Carolina. If you like water sports, Lake Murray
is a 50,000-acre playground less than 15 minutes from the heart of the
city.
|
