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State Senator John Lewis Gervais of Ninety Six introduced
a bill which was approved by the legislature on March 22, 1786 to create
a new state capitol. Five commissioners were appointed to lay out the
city near Friday's Ferry on the lands of John and Thomas Taylor, whose
plantations then occupied the site.
There was considerable argument over the name for the new city. One legislator
insisted on the name Washington, but Columbia won out by a vote of 11-7
in the state Senate.
The commissioners designed a town of 400 blocks in a two-mile square
along the river. The blocks were divided into half-acre lots and sold
to speculators and prospective residents. Buyers had to build a house
at least 30 feet long and 18 feet wide within three years or face an annual
5 per cent penalty.
The perimeter streets and two through streets were 150 feet wide. The
remaining squares were divided by thoroughfares 100 feet wide. The width
was determined by the belief that the dangerous and pesky mosquito couldn't
fly more than 60 feet without dying of starvation along the way.
Columbians still enjoy most of that magnificent network of wide streets.
The commissioners comprised the local government until 1797 when a Commission
of Streets and Markets was created by the General Assembly. Three main
issues occupied most of their time: public drunkenness, gambling and poor
sanitation.
As the second planned city in the United States, Columbia began to grow
rapidly. Its population was nearing 1,000 shortly after the turn of the
century.
The 1800's
Columbia received its first charter as a town in 1805. An intendent and
six wardens would govern the town.
John Taylor was the first elected intendent. He later served in both houses
of the Genersal Assembly, both houses of Congress and eventually as governor
of the state.
By 1816 there were 250 homes in the town and a population over 1,000.
The town's governing body was empowered to tax these citizens up to 12~
cents per $100 of property. An extra 5 cent levy could be charged to those
who wished to be exempt from patrol duty. Additional taxes could be levied
for ownership of a carriage, $5; a wagon, $3; and $4 for a mechanic's
license.
For another $2 per year, a citizen could become exempt from working on
the streets. When the Legislature was in session, the town council constantly
heard complaints about weeds and bushes growing in the street.
One of the first municipal employees was the "Warner", someone
who went through town warning citizens when it was their time to work
on the public streets and roads.
Policing the new town was also a hit and miss proposition in the early
1800's. The legislature had appointed a marshall who walked through the
town twice a day. An official town guard was created in 1824. Citizens
could buy an exemption for serving in the guard for $5.
Columbia became a chartered city in 1854, with an elected mayor and six
aldermen. Two years later, they had a police force consisting of a full-time
chief and nine patrolmen. The starting salary for the patrolmen was $16
per month.
Abram Blanding, the town's first school teacher and attorney, built Columbia's
first waterworks. Pumping water with a steam engine to a wooden tank,
water was carried by cast iron and lead pipes to the homes and businesses
of the city.
The city purchased the system from Blanding at a third of his investment
in 1835. As a tribute to Blanding, the town council later renamed Walnut
Street to Blanding Street.
In the early days of the town, every citizen was required to keep one
fire bucket for each chimney in his house. Five small fire brigades were
organized in 1816 with each male citizen expected to service. Volunteer
departments later replaced these brigades.
Growth continued with the first annexations of the suburbs coming in
1870.
The 1900's
Columbia had no paved streets until 1908, when 17 blocks of Main Street
were surfaced. There were, however, 115 publicly maintained street crossings
at intersections to keep pedestrians from having to wade through a sea
of mud between wooden sidewalks.
As an experiment, Washington Street was once paved with wooden blocks.
This proved to be the source of much local amusement when they buckled
and floated away during heavy rains. The blocks were replaced with asphalt
paving in 1925.
The first paid firemen were hired in 1903. A car was purchased for the
chief that same year, evidently the first vehicle owned by the city.
In 1934, the federal courthouse at Main and Laurel was purchased by the
City for use as a City Hall. Built of granite from nearby Winnsboro, Columbia
City Hall is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
Designed by President U.S. Grant's federal architect, Alfred Bult Mullet,
the building was completed in 1876. Mullet, best known for his design
for the Executive Office Building in Washington, had originally designed
the building with a clock tower. Large cost overruns probably caused it
to be left out.
Copies of Mullet's original drawings can be seen on the walls of City
Hall alongside historic photos of Columbia's beginnings.
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