The site where Columbus now sits has for hundreds of years been a cultural crossroads. That diversity of people led to Columbus having an almost unique mix of architectural styles found in its early buildings.
Columbus grew up on the east bank of the Tombigbee River on land ceded by the Choctaw Nation in the Choctaw Treaty of 1816. For almost 15 years after that treaty the west side of the river remained the Choctaw Nation and Columbus merchants attracted a large Indian trade. Anglo-American settlers began arriving in 1817 and with its founding Columbus became a melting pot of cultures.
Among Native Americans, Columbus’ site was the intersection of the Chickasaw, Choctaw and Creek nations. The Spanish expedition of Hernando de Soto passed through the area and established its 1540-1541 winter base camp in the Starkville – West Point area.
French explorer Henri de Tonti traveled the area in 1702. A French army camped at Plymouth Bluff for three days in 1736 and British surveyor of West Florida Bernard Romans was here in 1771. The first Anglo-American settlement was by U.S. Choctaw interpreter John Pitchlynn at Plymouth Bluff in 1810.
In the early days of the Town of Columbus there was a cultural mix of people with French and Spanish roots coming up the Tombigbee from Mobile meeting settlers with English and Scottish roots coming overland from Tennessee and Georgia.
Many early Columbus business contracts even specified that payment must be made with Spanish or Mexican money. Spanish coins are sometimes found in the area and I even found a 1790 Spanish coin at an 1820s house site in downtown Columbus. Into that mix were found the Choctaws and Chickasaws who were already here and had begun trading with Columbus merchants.
Many Columbus merchants were opposed to Indian removal in the 1830s as the Choctaws and Chickasaws had been good customers. The legacy of that mixing of cultures is found in the architecture of Columbus.
The Town of Columbus grew up where the southwest end of a series of hills known as Pleasant Ridge met the Tombigbee River. The origins of the town are tied to John Pitchlynn’s 1810 residence across the river, which was also the location of Fort Smith. Fort Smith was a small, but important blockhouse built in 1813 during the Creek Indian War.
In 1817, the survey of Andrew Jackson’s Military Road from Nashville to New Orleans placed its Tombigbee ferry crossing (at Pitchlynn’s suggestion) where Pleasant Ridge met the river.
A man said to have been named Thomas Thomas built the first house overlooking the ferry crossing in the fall of 1817. By the summer of 1819, a community, named Columbus by Silas McBee, had been established at the site.
McBee, who moved to the future site of Columbus in 1817, represented Marion County, Alabama, in the Alabama legislature. The state line was not surveyed until late 1820 and it was believed that Columbus was in Alabama.
In those early formative days of settlement, most of the building construction was of log. Among the Indians the town was known as Opossum Town after the facial resemblance of local store owner, Spirus Roach, to a possum.
The earliest local structure for which a description has survived is the 1813 blockhouse at Fort Smith. It was dismantled in 1860 and in 1910 H.S. Halbert described it as a “two-story building, some twenty feet square, made of large cedar logs…there was a door to the lower story, but no windows. On each side of the door were some holes, evidently made for gun men. The upper story had eight windows, two on each side, and two holes under each window.”
This described a typical War of 1812 period blockhouse.
The first building actually on the site of Columbus was Thomas Thomas’ 1817 log house where Spirus Roach later had his store. In 1848 Oscar Keeler described the building simply as a “small split log hut.” It was located about where the office of Visit Columbus is now located on 3rd Street South.
Most pre-1821 structures were log, though there were a few frame structures. The first frame house in Columbus was built by Gideon Lincecum in 1819. The first brick house in Columbus was probably built by Silas McBee in the early 1820s. It was torn down to make the parking lot on Third Avenue North just east of Franklin Academy.
By the mid-1820s the cultural diversity of Columbus was becoming evident in the architecture of the town. The architectural legacy of Columbus is unusual in that not only are there the traditional architectural styles but local builders often mixed styles.
Architectural historian, Ken P’Pool, has described a unique local mix of Greek, Gothic, Italianate and sometimes octagon styles as an “original design” which he calls “Columbus Eclectic.”
With more than 650 buildings listed on the National Register of Historic Places, Columbus is an architectural treasure trove. The oldest surviving homes of the various 19th Century styles present an excellent record of early Mississippi architecture. Several frontier log houses survive, though buried in later houses.
The earliest surviving house is the Cedars, a log home constructed about 1818 on the Military Road two miles north of the original town limits. Around 1835, the Cedars was enlarged and reconfigured in the Greek Revival style.
Other early Columbus structures reflect a wide range of 19th Century architectural styles. There are the Creole-influenced raised cottages with the Ole Homestead (c. 1825) being the oldest surviving example and the oldest known surviving house in the original city limits. It is reminiscent of Madam John’s Legacy, a 1789 French colonial house in New Orleans.
The brick Federal style Cartney-Hunt house on Seventh Street South was constructed about 1828 and has the appearance of a Federal Style row house such as one would encounter on the East Coast as in Old Town Alexandria, Va. Corner Cottage (c. 1830) reflects a transition from Federal style to Greek Revival. Temple Heights (c. 1839) is a Federal style Carolina Side-Hall house converted into Greek Revival.
Twelve Gables was built around 1837, and is an early Greek Revival home. An early example of an Italianate cottage is the 1848 Amzi Love house. St Paul’s Episcopal Church, which was completed in March 1859, provides an example of an English type Gothic style. Church was consecrated in 1860 but use of the building had begun in March of 1859.
Annunciation Catholic Church is a French Gothic style rarely found in the south. Whitehall is a severe masculine Greek Revival style house more common in the North. The Octagon style is represented by Snowdoun which was built in 1854.
The unique Columbus Eclectic style homes, which mix Gothic, Italianate and Greek Revival, include the Fort House, Shadowlawn, Errolton, Sunnyside and White Arches. That unique style may have been the creation of Columbus architects William O’Neal who’s surviving work is represented by Sunnyside or James Lull who built Camilla Place in 1847 and several other surviving high style Greek Revival homes including Whitehall and Riverview.
Columbus has a culturally diverse architectural legacy which is reflected in hundreds of surviving 19th and early 20th Century homes. It is a heritage of the rich history of an early mixing of cultures in the town’s early days.
Thanks to Ken P’Pool and Carolyn Kaye for suggestions on this column.
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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