When former residents of Burns Bottom gathered for a reunion Saturday along Third Street North, the tents butted up against five blocks’ worth of cleared lots being prepared for redevelopment.
But what is the history of this storied neighborhood? How did it become a target for redevelopment? And what happens next?
The history
Burns Bottom-Frog Bottom-Factory Hill were originally three distinct, yet contiguous neighborhoods between Second and Fourth Street North, and between Second and Seventh Avenue North, that made up some of the earliest settlements in Columbus in the early-to-mid 1800s.
By the 1870s and 1880s, factories started popping up along the western end of Second Avenue North. Among them were the Columbus Woolen Mill, Union Cotton and Lumber Mill, Tombigbee Cotton Mill, Columbus Ice Company, the city gas works, blacksmith and wheelwright shops, and a grist mill, according to the application for the neighborhood to be added to the National Register of Historic Places.
The “Hitch Lot” – where the farmers’ market is now located – was later established to remove horse and wagon traffic from Main Street, as motor vehicles were becoming more prevalent.
By the mid-20th century, the industrial community relocated from Burns Bottom, leaving it as a residential neighborhood occupied primarily by African Americans.
The neighborhood was added to the national register in 1980.
Why is it called Burns Bottom?
The namesake of the Burns Bottom neighborhood is widely believed to be John Burns, a butcher shop owner who lived in the home at 406 Third St. N. in the late 19th century. That home was built some time before 1850 and was previously occupied at different times by Columbus mayor Isaac M. Knapp and Union soldier B.B. “Buzzard” Eggleston, who served as a revenue officer in Columbus during Reconstruction.
Urban renewal efforts
As the neighborhood fell into blight, efforts to redevelop Burns Bottom gained traction.
What is now the Roger Short Soccer Complex was completed in 2012 on 70 acres on the west side of Burns Bottom. Some of that was city-owned property donated to the project, while the Golden Triangle Development LINK negotiated with more than a dozen private property owners to acquire the rest.
The city established the Columbus Redevelopment Authority in 2015 to revitalize blighted areas in the city’s Urban Renewal District, which included what was left of Burns Bottom.
Upon forming, the CRA targeted more than 70 lots in a five-block area between Third and Fourth Street and Second and Seventh Avenue. The goal was to acquire those lots, demolish any existing structures and market the area for higher-value residential and commercial development.
CRA’s progress
In 2017, the city council approved an ad valorem tax levy to provide $3.2 million to the CRA for property acquisition, demolition and site prep. CRA acquired nearly all of its targeted lots over the next five years, helping relocate residents of owner-occupied homes.
A hiccup that delayed demolition was the neighborhood’s National Register listing. That listing triggered a survey from the Mississippi Department of Archives and History to determine if any structures in the neighborhood merited landmark status, which would have protected them from being torn down. MDAH in 2019 decided none of the neighborhood’s structures would receive that status, and demolition resumed.
In 2021, the CRA purchased lots on the corner of Fifth Street and Fifth Avenue North as a “gateway” to Burns Bottom from Highway 45, demolishing the old Chevron station and an old tattoo parlor that sat there.
The legislature gave $3 million to the CRA to build infrastructure at Burns Bottom that would support future development, and the CRA is looking to add $3 million in federal money to that effort. The group is also continuing to recruit developers to the neighborhood, but no deals have been finalized.
Zack Plair is the managing editor for The Dispatch.
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