Columbia, South Carolina

• Open map evidence
• Research guide
• Richland County

Buildings and businesses the archive holds for this place. Each opens its own page, with the source record it came from.

On the National Register 12 of 157 shown

• Chapelle Administration BuildingNational Historic Landmark · listed 1976
• First Baptist ChurchNational Historic Landmark · listed 1971
• Hall, Ainsley, HouseNational Historic Landmark · listed 1970
• South Carolina State Hospital, Mills BuildingNational Historic Landmark · listed 1970
• South Carolina StatehouseNational Historic Landmark · listed 1970
• Allen Universitylisted 1975
• Alston Houselisted 1979
• Antisdel Chapellisted 1987
• Arcade Buildinglisted 1982
• Arsenal Hilllisted 1971
• Babcock Building, South Carolina State Hospitallisted 1981
• Bellevue Historic Districtlisted 2025

Every listing in Richland County

Surveyed buildings and structures 12 of 28 shown

• Ainsley Hall Mansion, Blanding Street, Columbiafederal building survey, 25 photographs
• Allen University, Chapelle Administration Building, 1530 Harden Street, Columbiafederal building survey, 1 photograph
• Central National Bank, Hampton & Main Streets, Columbiafederal building survey, 3 photographs
• Columbia Canal & Power Plant, Waterfront of Broad River, Columbiafederal building survey, 73 photographs
• Columbia Street Clock, On Hampton Street, near the intersection of Main and Hampton streets, Columbiafederal building survey, 4 photographs
• Consolidated Building, 1328 North Main Street, Columbiafederal building survey, 5 photographs
• Crawford-Clarkson House, Bull & Blanding Streets, Columbiafederal building survey, 15 photographs
• DeBruhl-Marshall House, 1401 Laurel Street, Columbiafederal building survey, 14 photographs
• Ensor-Keenan Barn & Carriage House, 80l Wildwood Avenue, Columbiafederal building survey, 4 photographs
• First Baptist Church, Hampton Street, Columbiafederal building survey, 6 photographs
• First Presbyterian Church, Marion & Lady Streets, Columbiafederal building survey, 7 photographs
• Fisher-Bachman House, 1615 Hampton Street, Columbiafederal building survey, 5 photographs

Every surveyed structure in Richland County

Columbia grew from 129,272 to 136,632 between 2010 and 2020. These are the recorded population figures Wikidata holds for this place, reached through the Geographic Names Information System number this page is keyed on rather than by name, so they belong to this place and not to another of the same name. Most are census counts, but not all are: an early figure may be a founding or settlement estimate, and an estimate published within five years of a census is left out. The change column is computed, and is left blank where more than 20 years separate a figure from the one before it, because a gap that long is not a change between two counts.

Matched by testing this settlement's coordinate against the published boundary of every sheet in the United States Geological Survey's historical collection. Each opens the scanned sheet at the Survey.

• 1904 USGS Columbia quadrangle1:125000, 2 printings
• 1941 USGS Spartanburg quadrangle1:250000
• 1947 USGS Columbia North quadrangle1:24000
• 1948 USGS Columbia North quadrangle1:24000, 2 printings
• 1953 USGS Spartanburg quadrangle1:250000, 4 printings
• 1960 USGS Spartanburg quadrangle1:250000, 2 printings
• 1963 USGS Spartanburg quadrangle1:250000
• 1964 USGS Spartanburg quadrangle1:250000
• 1972 USGS Columbia North quadrangle1:24000, 4 printings
• 1986 USGS Newberry quadrangle1:100000, 2 printings
• 1997 USGS Columbia North quadrangle1:24000

Taken for the Office of War Information and the Farm Security Administration, who photographed the country between 1935 and 1944. Works of United States government photographers, with no known restriction on use. Each opens its catalogue record.

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 113 fires within 5 miles of Columbia between 1992 and 2019, burning about 423 acres in total. None started naturally. 13 were recorded as arson. Distance is straight-line from the map coordinates, so a fire counted here may appear on a neighbouring settlement's page as well.

The most recent of them, most recent first, with the day each was reported and the service that recorded it.

Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:

• New Dublin (historical)
• Allen Benedict Court
• Riverbanks
• Wales Garden
• Barhamville Estates
• Barony

Every fire recorded in Richland County

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 18 workings within 5 miles of Columbia: 9 past producers, 6 producers, 3 unknowns. 6 still produce. What was taken out: Clay, Granite, Stone, Crushed/Broken, Zirconium, Thorium, Titanium, Iron, Stone, Crushed/Broken. Distance is straight-line from the map coordinates, so a quarry counted here may appear on a neighbouring settlement's page as well.

Every working recorded in Richland County

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Columbia in 293 storm reports between 1994 and 2025: 146 thunderstorm wind, 72 flash flood, 44 hail, 14 heavy rain. The reports record 10 injuries. Each account below is quoted exactly as the forecast office filed it, from the NOAA Storm Events Database, and each date opens the federal record of that event.

Every storm recorded in Richland County

10 papers published in this town, digitised by the Library of Congress and free to read: 10,596 issues, 82,333 pages. Every page is searchable, so a name or a street can be looked for directly in what the town printed about itself at the time.

Front pages of the local paper, read from the Library of Congress scans: 30 issues spread across its run from 1839 to 1923, 82,521 words in total. Each is reproduced on its own page, exactly as the recogniser returned it.

These pages read less well than anything else here, and the number is worth stating: about three words in four come through cleanly, against nine in ten for the building records. An 1896 broadsheet sets eight-point type in seven columns on microfilm, which is the hardest thing in this archive to read by machine. We tested our own recognisers against the Library's and they were not better, so the Library's text is what appears, with the wholly unreadable columns removed. Read it as a guide to what the paper covered, and follow the link to the scan before quoting anything.

The eight closest, with where each one stands in the county. Distances are straight-line, computed from the Geographic Names Information System coordinates.

Matched on this settlement's Geographic Names Information System number rather than its name, so it cannot be a different place of the same name in another state.

This settlement is recorded in the Geographic Names Information System as feature 1245051. The sheet list is computed by point-in-boundary test against the United States Geological Survey's historical topographic inventory. Both are works of the United States government and carry no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105.

Wildfire. Short, Karen C. 2022. Spatial wildfire occurrence data for the United States, 1992-2020 [FPA_FOD_20221014]. 6th Edition. Fort Collins, CO: Forest Service Research Data Archive. https://doi.org/10.2737/RDS-2013-0009.6 Collected with United States Government funding and usable without additional permissions or fees.

Mines and quarries. USGS Mineral Resources Data System (MRDS) https://mrdata.usgs.gov/mrds/ A work of the United States government, no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105.

Storms. NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information, Storm Events Database https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/stormevents/ A work of the United States government, no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105. Narratives are quoted verbatim from the National Weather Service report and are not edited or summarised.