The past six weeks I have been teaching a MUW Life Enrichment course on the architectural history of Columbus. People do not realize just what a collection of architectural gems Columbus has. While Natchez has over 500 structures listed on the National Register of Historic places, Columbus has over 600 structures listed.
My course ended this past Thursday with a walking tour down Second and Third Streets South. Those two streets encompass a delightful sampling of Columbus architecture and history. Within what was a 10 block walk were over 40 houses that were listed on the National Register of Historic Places, six houses included in the Library of Congress Historic American Building Survey and a National Historic Landmark.
The tour started at the corner of College Street and Third Street South, because that’s where my house is, which was convenient for me. On the northwest corner of the intersection is a ca. 1880 house in the Italianate style. The house presents elements one would find in an Italian villa.
The new brick office building and condos which are on the northeast corner of the intersection sit about where in the fall of 1817 the first house in Columbus, a small log cabin, was built. By 1820 Spirus Roach was keeping a store and tavern there. It was because of his long pointed nose that the Choctaw Indians who traded with him called him Possum and referred to going to Possum’s town when going to Columbus.
On the southwest corner is a modern brick home, and on the southeast corner is the ca. 1825 Ole Homestead which is the oldest building known to have survived within the original Columbus town limits. It is a vernacular raised cottage and looks like a miniature version of Madam John’s Legacy, a 1789 French Colonial style house in New Orleans.
Though Third Street (once Franklin Street) is lined with historic and interesting houses, space constraints will allow me to only discuss a few of them. A block south of College Street (formerly Washington Street) at the corner of Third Street and Third Avenue (Lafayette Street) two historic houses face each other. On the northeast corner is the 1852 Greek Revival style Swoope home. Its original porch was totally different and the present porch with square two story columns may have been added as recently as 1940.
Facing the Swoope home from the other side of Third Street is Twelve Gables. It is a Greek Revival style used on a traditional house plan. It was built ca. 1837 and is the house in which the Columbus Decoration Day ceremony was organized. That was the event which inspired the creation of Memorial Day.
A block south Third Street meets Fourth Avenue (Bridge Street) and we leave the original town limits of Columbus. The street was known as Bridge Street because in 1842 black engineer Horace King constructed the first bridge over the Tombigbee at Columbus, off of the bluff at the street’s west end. It was a wooden covered bridge.
At Third and Fifth Avenue (Eliza Street) three classic houses grace the corners. On the northeast corner is a ca. 1914 brick house in the Prairie style. This was a style created by architects of what is called Chicago’s Prairie School and was made famous by Frank Lloyd Wright. Across the street on the northwest corner is a ca. 1869 Italianate style home. On the southwest corner is a turreted Queen Ann style house. This is the classic style that most people think of as a Victorian house.
A block down on the corner of Third and Sixth Avenue (Margaret Street) stands Whitehall, a large 1843 Greek Revival house in the style of architect James Lull. In 1939 Eudora Welty wrote: “In the fine old City of Columbus, in the northeastern part of the state, hospitality for many years is said to have reached its height in ‘Whitehall.'” In addition to Eudora Welty, guests entertained at Whitehall parties ranged from Confederate generals to Upton Sinclair.
We walk down the block and turned right on Seventh Avenue (Frances Street), going uphill to Second Street (Monroe Street). At Second Street we are greeted by White Arches on the Southwest corner and The Colonnade on the northwest corner. White Arches was constructed about 1858 as a unique mixture of Gothic Revival, Greek Revival and Italianate. This mixture of styles seems to occur more in Columbus than elsewhere and Ken P’Pool, with the Mississippi Department of Archives and History, has called it Columbus Eclectic. The Colonnade is a Carolina side hall plan house with a Greek Revival facade. It was constructed about 1860.
Walking north up Second Street, Lehmquen, a ca. 1838 Greek Revival raised cottage is on the east side of the street. The house, though Greek Revival, has the flavor of a Louisiana Creole cottage. Crossing Sixth Avenue, two of the most impressive homes in Columbus face each other. On the east is the Pratt Thomas home and on the west is Riverview.
The Pratt Thomas home is a raised cottage in the Greek Revival style. It was completed in 1847 and is considered by P’Pool to be “the largest, most elegant, and most unusual of Columbus’ raised-cottage dwellings”.
Riverview was completed by 1853 and is now a National Historic Landmark. The house was probably designed by James Lull as it is a larger more ornate version of his personal residence, Camellia Place. Next to the house the original servants quarters and kitchen have survived.
The north end of the block on which Riverview sits is a perfect stopping place as it was probably the site the town’s first graveyard. It was there about 1820 and was known as the Tombigbee Graveyard. Half a block off Second Street on Fifth Avenue and across from the site of the graveyard is Buttersworth, an 1820s dogtrot log house converted into a Greek Revival house in the 1840s.
The range, number and architectural variety of houses in Columbus is truly amazing. Few places can boast of over 600 structures on the National Register of Historic Places. Within a 10 block walking tour on Second and Third Streets South is a wonderful cross section of historic architecture and local lore. But then there are also very significant historic neighborhoods on Northside and in other parts of Southside. Columbus is simply enmeshed in history and loaded with architectural gems that unfortunately are often overlooked.
Rufus Ward is a Columbus native a local historian. E-mail your questions about local history to Rufus at [email protected].
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