House Tours for Students
Students and youth can experience history at Columbia’s standout historic sites while touring the museums. Tour the Robert Mills House, Hampton-Preston Mansion, Museum of the Reconstruction Era, or the Mann-Simons Site and Modjeska Monteith Simkins House on the Journey to Freedom combined tour, to learn more about Columbia's history and relevance to our community. All school tours align with South Carolina academic standards.
Robert Mills House
Tour Themes: Architecture, Antebellum, Religion
Relating the story of nationally prominent architect and South Carolina native Robert Mills and the history of the building, this tour teaches students about life in 19th-century South Carolina, the story of the preservation of the structure in the 1960s, and this National Historic Landmark's important architectural features. When discussing architecture with students, guides teach them about key concepts in the house’s design including symmetry, balance, perspective, and reasoning behind the interior layout.
SOCIAL STUDIES STANDARDS
K.H.1-3 | 1.H.1-3 | 1.E.2 | 2.H.4 | 4.3.CO | 4.3.CX | 4.4.CC | 4.4.E | USHC.2.CO
Hampton-Preston Mansion
Tour Themes: Civil War Era, Antebellum, African American History, Gardens
The Hampton-Preston Mansion once was home to one of South Carolina's most powerful and prestigious planter class families. This tour introduces students to the site's Black and white inhabitants, providing insight into their experiences here. Students will learn how enslaved African Americans and planter-class white residents interacted in the spaces of the house. Sensory-based activities allow students to explore the diverse plant species in the gardens and consider how the outdoor spaces tie into the site’s history.
SOCIAL STUDIES STANDARDS
K.H.1-3 | 1.H.1-3 | 1.E.2 | 2.H.4 | 4.3.CX | 4.3.CO | 4.4.CX | 4.4.CC | 4.4.E | 4.5.P | 4.5.E | 5.4.CE | 5.4.P | 5.4.CC | 8.3.CO | 8.3.P | 8.3.CX | 8.3.CC | 8.3.E | 8.4.CO | 8.4.CX | 8.4.CC | USHC.2.CO | USHC.2.E
The Museum of the Reconstruction Era at the Woodrow Wilson Family Home
Tour Themes: Reconstruction, Citizenship, African American History
Former President Woodrow Wilson's family once called this site his home while living in Columbia during the midst of the Reconstruction era. This tour introduces students to the political, economic and social aspects of Reconstruction in Columbia, the changing definition of citizenship and the experiences of young Woodrow Wilson in Columbia during the 1870s.
SOCIAL STUDIES STANDARDS
4.5 | 8.3 | 8.4 | USHC.2
Mann-Simons Site
Tour Themes: African American History, Reconstruction, Antebellum
The Mann-Simons Site was the home of Celia Mann, a free-black midwife who lived in Columbia before the Civil War. Mann’s descendants occupied the house until 1970 when preservationists saved the home from demolition. This tour can be used to introduce students to the history of Columbia’s African American community by examining the lives of the different generations of the Mann and Simons families who inhabited it during the antebellum, Reconstruction, Jim Crow and Civil Rights eras.
SOCIAL STUDIES STANDARDS
2.H.1-4 | 3.4.1 PR | 3.4.2.HS | 4.3-4.5 | 5.1.CX | 5.1.CC | 5.2.CO | 8.3.CC | 8.3.E | 8.4 | USHC.2 | USHC.3
Modjeska Monteith Simkins House
Tour Themes: Civil Rights
This one-story Columbia Cottage was Simkins’ home for 60 years and used not only as a residence, but for lodging and as a meeting space for local and national civil rights leaders and NAACP lawyers.
SOCIAL STUDIES STANDARDS
5.2.CO | 5.2.E | 5.4.CE | 5.4.P | 5.4.CC | 5.4.E | 8.4-8.5 | USHC.4.CX | USHC.5.CC | USHC5.E
Teacher Membership
Teachers who are members of Historic Columbia receive additional benefits! Email education@historiccolumbia.org or call (803) 252-1770 ext. 26 for more information.