Hampton-Preston Mansion & Gardens
Built in 1818, this restored antebellum mansion is furnished with Hampton and Preston family pieces.

Mann-Simons Cottage
Celia Mann, an enslaved Charleston midwife who acquired her freedom and walked to Columbia, lived here from the 1840s until 1867.

Robert Mills House & Park
This restored mansion was built in 1823 and designed by South Carolina's most famous architect, Robert Mills.

Woodrow Wilson Family Home
(This site is currently closed due to restoration.)
Woodrow Wilson, the nation's 28th president, spent four years of his youth in Columbia. He and his family lived in this home built by his parents in 1872.

Foundation Collections
Historic Columbia Foundation maintains a permanent museum collection of 5000+ artifacts representing the Federal (1790-1820), neoclassical (1820-1840), antebellum (1840-1860), Civil War (1861-1865), late Victorian (1860-1900), and Depression era (1930s) periods.

Columbia's History
Columbia was chosen the site of South Carolina's new state capital in 1786. It was chartered as a town in 1805 and as a city in 1854. Columbia was named for Christopher Columbus, and it was South Carolina's first planned city and the second planned city in the United States (Savannah was the first).