City Of Columbia

For nearly a century before the creation of Columbia by the General Assembly in 1786, the site of Columbia was important to the overall development of the state.The Congarees, a frontier fort on the west bank of the Congaree River, was the head of navigation in the Santee River system. A ferry was established by the colonial government in 1754 to connect the fort with the growing settlements on the higher ground on the east bank. State Senator John Lewis Gervais of Ninety Six introduced a bill that was approved by the legislature on March 22, 1786 to create a new state capital. Columbia received its first charter as a town in 1805. An intendent and six wardens would govern the town. 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.

In 1934, the federal courthouse at Main and Laurel was purchased by the city, and in 1937, it officially became Columbia City Hall. Built of granite from nearby Winnsboro, Columbia City Hall is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Designed by Alfred Bult Mullett, President Ulysses S. Grant's federal architect, the building was completed in 1875. Mullet, best known for his design of the Executive Office Building in Washington, D.C., had originally designed the building with a clock tower. Large cost overruns probably caused it to be left out. Copies of Mullet's original drawings can be seen on the walls of City Hall alongside historic photos of Columbia's beginnings.