20th century Columbia, South Carolina

palmetto building (1913)



troops returning ww march through columbia, april 1919

the first few years of 20th century saw columbia emerge regional textile manufacturing center. in 1907, columbia had 6 mills in operation: richland, granby, olympia, capital city, columbia, , palmetto. combined, employed on 3,400 workers annual payroll of $819,000, giving midlands economic boost of on $4.8 million. columbia had no paved streets until 1908, when 17 blocks of main street surfaced. there were, however, 115 publicly maintained street crossings @ intersections keep pedestrians having wade through sea of mud between wooden sidewalks. experiment, washington street once paved wooden blocks. proved source of local amusement when buckled , floated away during heavy rains. blocks replaced asphalt paving in 1925.

the years 1911 , 1912 of construction boom columbia, $2.5 million worth of construction occurring in city. these projects included union bank building @ main , gervais, palmetto national bank, shopping arcade, , large hotels @ main , laurel (the jefferson) , @ main , wheat (the gresham). in 1917, city selected site of camp jackson, u.s. military installation officially classified field artillery replacement depot . first recruits arrived @ camp on september 1, 1917.

in 1930, columbia hub of trading area approximately 500,000 potential customers. had 803 retail establishments, 280 of them being food stores. there 58 clothing , apparel outlets, 57 restaurants , lunch rooms, 55 filling stations, 38 pharmacies, 20 furniture stores, 19 auto dealers, 11 shoe stores, 9 cigar stands, 5 department stores , 1 book store. wholesale distributors located within city numbered 119, one-third of them dealing in food.

in 1934, federal courthouse @ corner of main , laurel streets purchased city use city hall. built of granite nearby winnsboro, columbia city hall listed on national register of historic places. designed alfred built millet, president ulysses s. grant s federal architect, building completed in 1876. millet, best known design of executive office building in washington, d.c., had designed building clock tower. large cost overruns caused left out. copies of mullet s original drawings can seen on walls of city hall alongside historic photos of columbia s beginnings. federal offices moved j. bratton davis united states bankruptcy courthouse.

reactivated camp jackson became fort jackson in 1940, giving military installation permanence desired city leaders @ time. fort annexed city in fall of 1968, approval pentagon. in 1940s, shortly after attacks on pearl harbor began america s involvement in world war ii, lt. colonel jimmy doolittle , group of now-famous pilots began training doolittle raid on tokyo @ columbia metropolitan airport. trained in b-25 mitchell bombers, same model plane rests @ columbia s owens field in curtiss-wright hangar. area s population continued grow during 1950s, having experienced 40 percent increase 186,844 260,828, 97,433 people residing within city limits of columbia.

the 1940s saw beginning of efforts reverse jim crow laws , racial discrimination in columbia. in 1945, federal judge ruled city s black teachers entitled equal pay of white counterparts. however, in years following, state attempted strip many blacks of teaching credentials. other issues in blacks of city sought equality concerned voting rights , segregation (particularly regarding public schools). on august 21, 1962, 8 downtown chain stores served blacks @ lunch counters first time. university of south carolina admitted first black students in 1963; around same time, many vestiges of segregation began disappear city, blacks attained membership on various municipal boards , commissions, , non-discriminatory hiring policy adopted city. these , other such signs of racial progress helped earn city 1964 all-america city award second time (the first being in 1951), , 1965 article in newsweek magazine lauded columbia city had liberated plague of doctrinal apartheid.

historic preservation has played significant part in shaping columbia city today. historic robert mills house restored in 1967, inspired renovation , restoration of other historic structures such hampton-preston house , homes associated president woodrow wilson, maxcy gregg, mary boykin chesnut, , noted free black celia mann. in 1970s, university of south carolina initiated refurbishment of horseshoe . several area museums benefited increased historical interest of time, among them fort jackson museum, mckissick museum on campus of university of south carolina, , notably south carolina state museum, opened in 1988.

mayor kirkman finlay, jr., driving force behind refurbishment of seaboard park, known finlay park, in historic congaree vista district, compilation of $60 million palmetto center package, gave columbia office tower, parking garage, , columbia marriott, opened in 1983. year 1980 saw columbia metropolitan population reach 410,088, , in 1990 figure had hit approximately 470,000.