The site where Columbus now sits hundreds of years ago was a cultural crossroads. This diversity of people led Columbus to have an almost unique blend of architectural styles found in its early buildings.
Columbus grew up on the east bank of the Tompegby River on land ceded to the Choctaw Nation in the Choctaw Treaty of 1816. For about 15 years after that treaty, the western side of the river remained the Choctaw nation, and Columbus’ merchants attracted significant Indian trade. Anglo-American settlers began arriving in 1817 and with its founding, Columbus became a melting pot of cultures.
Among the Native Americans, the site of Columbus was the intersection of the states of Chickasaw, Choctaw, and Creek. The Spanish expedition of Hernando de Soto passed through the area and established its winter base camp 1540-1541 in the Starkville – West Point area.
French explorer Henri de Twente traveled in the area in 1702. A French army camped at Plymouth Bluff for three days in 1736 and was here in 1771. First Anglo-American settlement by Choctaw American translator John Pechlin at Plymouth Bluff in 1810.
In the early days of Columbus, there was a cultural mix of people with French and Spanish roots coming from Tombigbee from mobile-gathering settlers of English and Scottish roots coming overland from Tennessee and Georgia.
Even many of Columbus’ early business contracts specified that payment should be made with Spanish or Mexican money. Spanish coins are sometimes found in the area, and I even found a Spanish coin from 1790 at the site of a house from the 1820s in downtown Columbus. In this mixture were found the Choctaw and Chickasaw who were already here and began to trade with the merchants of Columbus.
Many Columbus merchants opposed the removal of India in the 1830s because Choctaw and Chickasaw were good customers. The legacy of this intermingling of cultures is found in the architecture of Columbus.
The town of Columbus arose where the southwestern end of the ridge known as the Pleasant Ridge met the Tombegby River. The town’s origins are linked to John Bechlin’s 1810 residence across the river, which was also the site of Fort Smith. Fort Smith was a small but important fortress building built in 1813 during the Indian Creek War.
In 1817, a survey of Andrew Jackson’s Military Route from Nashville to New Orleans placed the Tombigby ferry crossing (at Beechlin’s suggestion) where the Pleasant Ridge met the river.
A man 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 on the site.
McBee, who moved to the future location 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’s construction was of timber. Among the Indians the town was known as Opossum Town after the facial resemblance of the local store owner, Spirus Roach, to Possum.
The oldest surviving domestic structure described is the 1813 Building in Fort Smith. It was dismantled in 1860 and in 1910 H.S. Halbert described it as “a two-story building, about twenty square feet, made of large cedar logs… There was a door to the lower floor, but no windows. On either side of the door there were some holes, from Apparently they were made for gunmen. The upper floor has eight windows, two on each side, and two holes under each window.”
This was a description of a typical war from the 1812 period.
The first building actually on the Columbus site was the 1817 Thomas Thomas log house where Spirus Roach later had his shop. In 1848, Oscar Keeler described the building simply as a “little split log cabin”. It was located about where the Visit Columbus office is now located on 3rd Street South.
Most of the pre-1821 structures were log logs, although a few frame structures exist. The first brick 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 demolished to create a parking lot on Third Avenue northeast of Franklin Academy.
By the mid-1820s, the cultural diversity of Columbus became evident in the city’s architecture. The architectural legacy of Columbus is unusual in that there are not only traditional architectural styles but often mixed local builders.
Architectural historian, Ken Pebble, has described a uniquely local mix of Greek, Gothic, Italianate, and sometimes octagonal styles as an “original design” he calls “Columbus eclectic.”
With more than 650 buildings listed on the National Register of Historic Places, Columbus is a treasure trove of architecture. The oldest surviving homes of various 19th century styles provide an excellent record of early Mississippi architecture. Many frontier log houses have survived, although they were buried in later homes.
The oldest surviving house is Cedars, a log house built circa 1818 on Military Road two miles north of the original city limits. Around 1835, Cedar was enlarged and remodeled in the Greek Revival style.
Other early Columbus structures reflect a wide variety of 19th-century architectural styles. Creole-influenced raised cottages exist with the Ole Homestead (circa 1825) being the oldest surviving example and the oldest known surviving house within the original city limits. It reminds us of the legacy of Mrs. John, a 1789 French colonial home in New Orleans.
The brick Federal-style Cartney-Hunt house on Seventh Street South was built around 1828 and has the appearance of a Federal-style home like a home on the East Coast as it does in Old Town Alexandria, Va. Corner Cottage (circa 1830) reflects the transition from the Federalist style to the Greek style. Temple Heights (circa 1839) is a Federal-style house in Carolina that has been converted into a Greek Revival.
Built around 1837, Twelve Gables is a house that dates back to the ancient Greek era. An early example of an Italian country house is the Amzi Love House of 1848. St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, completed in March 1859, provides an example of the English Gothic style. The church was consecrated in 1860 but the building came into use in March 1859.
The Catholic Church of the Annunciation is a French Gothic style rarely found in the South. Whitehall is a masculine Greek Revival style home more common in the North. Snowdoun is an octagon style built in 1854.
Uniquely eclectic Columbus-style homes, which blend Gothic, Italianate, and Greek Revival styles, include Fort House, Shadowlawn, Errolton, Sunnyside, and White Arches. This unique style may have been the innovation of Columbus architects William O’Neill represented by Sunnyside or James Lull who built Camilla Place in 1847 and many other remaining Greek Revival homes including Whitehall and Riverview.
Columbus has a culturally diverse architectural legacy that is reflected in the hundreds of surviving homes from the 19th and early 20th centuries. It is a legacy of the rich history of the early mixing of cultures in the city’s early days.
Thanks to Ken Bebul and Carolyn Kay for suggestions on this column.
Rufus Ward is a Columbus native and local historian. Email your questions about local history to Rufus at [email protected]