RE/MAX Metro Associates ,  Columbia, SC

   Dondi Phelps, Realtor®

       Direct: (803) 600-6000    Toll Free 1-800-968-6978   Fax: (803) 749-5810

                       Representing YOUR Best Interests In Real Estate

First Home, New Construction, Luxury Home, Investment Home, Lake Living, Golf Communities or Retirement Homes are all here!

     Columbia, SC Real Estate - Irmo, Chapin, Ballentine, Lake Murray, Northeast, Blythewood, Downtown, Lexington, West Columbia-Cayce, Gaston, Ft. Jackson,  and Hopkins.

 

History of Columbia Columbia is located in the center of South Carolina surrounded by the junctions of Interstates 20, 26 and 77. It is South Carolina's most populated city, the state capital, the home to Federal Government, the county seat of Richland County, the home of the University of South Carolina's main campus, and the site of the South Carolina State Fair every October. Part of Columbia also extends into Lexington County. Columbia was settled by Europeans in the early 1700s and chosen to be the site of South Carolina's new state capital in 1786. It was chartered as a town in 1805 and as a city in 1854. Columbia was named for Christopher Columbus, and it was South Carolina's first planned city (wide streets arranged in a grid pattern) and only the second planned city in the United States (Savannah was the first). FYI...Columbia did not have a single paved street until Main Street was surfaced in 1908. THE 1700's  The Congarees was the head of navigation on the Santee River system. A ferry was established by the colonial government in 1754 to connect the fort with the growing settlements on the east bank. State Senator John Lewis Gervais 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 on the lands of John and Thomas Taylor, whose plantations occupied the propsed site. There was 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 oddly enough was determined by the belief that dangerous mosquito's couldn't fly more than 60 feet without dying of starvation along the way. 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. Columbia began to grow rapidly and the 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. Governing the town was an intendent and six wardens. John Taylor was the first elected intendent. He later served in both houses of the General 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 taxed 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. 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 serve. Volunteer departments later replaced these brigades. Growth continued with the first annexations of the suburbs coming in 1870. During the Civil War the State House along with the city of Columbia, was destroyed   by Sherman's army. 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. Copies of  the original drawings of Mullet's can be seen on the walls of City Hall alongside historic photos of Columbia's beginnings. To learn more about Columbia, Lexington, Irmo, or other surrounding cities click on my links page and visit each city or town's website. I look forward to helping you with your Real Estate Needs!