In this video, we will photograph abandoned buildings, old cars, and historic architecture in Columbia, Tennessee
Columbia, Tennessee was home of the 11th President of the United States, James K. Polk.
Columbia is situated along the Duck River — the longest river contained completely within the state’s borders — and famous as the most biologically diverse river in North America.
Read more history of Columbia in excerpts copied from the National Register’s application form for the historic district below the video.
Watch the video of our walk around the small city of Columbia, Tennessee with a camera
National Register of Historic Places: Columbia Commercial Historic District
The Columbia Commercial Historic District was entered into the National Register of Historic Places in 1984. It says, “The majority of structures date from the Victorian era,” and includes mentions of the historically Black commercial district known as the “Mink Slide,” or the “Bottoms,” which also contributes to the historic district.
Below is an excerpt pulled verbatim from the 1984 National Register of Historic Places Application:
“Columbia is located on the south bank of Duck River, the second largest river in Middle Tennessee and a major tributary of the Tennessee. The site was chosen on account of a good ford, later the location of the first ferry and the first bridge. The Public Square and surrounding blocks are located one and one-half blocks south of the river on an eastward spur of a shoulder of Mt. Parnassus, the principle summit in the area. The downtown is drained on the south and east sides by Helm’s Branch and on the north by Duck River.
The heart of the district is the Public Square, where an excellent collection of Victorian and early-twentieth-century commercial buildings surround the 1904 Maury County Courthouse, a monumental building of classical design topped with a Beaux-Arts lantern. Major buildings on the square include the eleven-bay Brown-Walker Block and the three-story, nine-bay 1858 Vaught Block currently being rehabilitated for Maury County office space. Earliest structures are from the Federal period; these include the Nelson Tavern on North-Main, 19 Public Square, and 806 South Garden, as well as a number of smaller buildings. The majority of structures date from the Victorian era; elements of the various formalized styles of the period are incorporated into the upper stories, cornices, and window trim of the buildings. The district extends from the square on Main and Seventh Streets to include the main surviving commercial blocks of the downtown area. The “Mink Slide” or “Bottoms”, the black commercial district along East Eighth Street, has also been included within the historic district; this
area includes two historic churches, Holy Comforter Episcopal and the First Baptist Church, a Victorian cross-gable cottage, and a row of small businesses dating from the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.”
More history of the community quoted from the National Register application:
“During the nineteenth century, Columbia grew to be one of the largest and most influential cities in Tennessee. By 1850 its population had passed that of Knoxville and was surpassed only by Nashville and Memphis. At the outbreak of the Civil War, Columbia was the county seat of the wealthiest county in the state; large farms or plantations flourished here as they would no place else in Tennessee, and Maury citizens played pivotal roles in state and national affairs. A railway junction and regional center of South Central Tennessee, Columbia might have become one of the great cities of the state had slack water navigation of the Duck River not proved impossible.”
The Bottoms: a Black-owned business district
On 8th Street is an area called historically by the names “Mink Slide” or “The Bottoms.” This was a Black commercial district that contained several significant churches and the old A.J. Morton Funeral Home, which played an important role as a gathering place for civil rights activists in town. It was behind a tall construction fence on the day that I was in Columbia, but there’s a historical marker there.
Like many of these Southern towns, Columbia has experienced a lot of racial injustice in over the decades.
The Wolf Building
The Wolf Building is listed as item number 37 on page 4 of the inventory form of the application for the National Register of Historic Places (page 5 of the PDF). Below is what the inventory sheet says:
“901-903 South Main St., Wolf Building, (Transportation Salvage), ca. 1870s, two story brick, six-bay, segmental-arched windows, corbelling and recessed panels, three fairly unaltered storefronts. (C).”
The Wolf Building: Listed as a grocer in historic Sanborn fire maps
Many historic Sanborn fire maps show a grocery store on the location of the Wolf Building at the corner of South Main and East 8th Streets in Columbia, Tennessee. Shown below is the 1905 map, but it’s indicated as a grocery store in other years, including 1887, 1891, and 1899.
The Wolf Building location was marked with a black dot labeled “D.H.”, which indicated the location of a double fire hydrant. There’s still a modern fire hydrant on that same spot today.
I wasn’t able to locate any ads or other mentions of the Wolf Building as a grocer, but another large grocer stood across the street from Wolf. The historic building no longer survives, but I did find an 1893 ad for that establishment, shown below.
The advertisement for Gamble’s says:
E.W Gamble Grocery Co.,
Wholesale and Retail Dealers in —
Staple and Fancy Groceries.
SPECIALTIES. — Sugar, Coffee, Molasses, Rice, Flour, Provisions, A full line of Cigars, Tobacco, Canned Goods, Teas, Spices, Grocers Sundries.
Merchants will find a complete Stock at Low Prices
Black and white photographs of Columbia, Tennessee made on this visit
