Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
More historic than 41% of U.S. towns. What drives it
Most of Columbus was built recently: 7% of its homes predate 1940 and the median home dates from 1976. Its Register listings are the Polk County Courthouse and the J. G. Hughes House. Below: 3 old photos and papers, maps from 1959 on, and the census since 1880.
The Columbus post office opened in 1856, the earliest record of the town by name.
More historic than 41% of U.S. towns, on its age, its old homes and the National Register.
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Columbus is more historic than 41% of U.S. towns. Its National Register listings hold the grade up; its share of homes from before 1940 pulls it down.
North Carolina towns list more on the Register than most of the country (a typical North Carolina town has 12.5 per 10,000 residents, the U.S. 2.4), so Columbus’ 18.7 sits near the middle of its state (60% of North Carolina towns have fewer) while its 2 listings outnumber those of 60% of U.S. towns.
Founding year: the first post office (other dates in Quick answers). Homes: Census ACS 2020–24. National Register: National Park Service, May 2026 list; each listing counted once (boundary changes and added documentation belong to their listing), and a historic district counts its contributing buildings. How TownRatings grades history →
Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.
The first neighbors to add old photos shape how Columbus’s history is told.
Lost two-thirds of its people between 1900 and 1910, then grew 8-fold.
14 censuses, 1880–2020.
U.S. Census Bureau decennial counts, from the census table on Columbus’ Wikipedia page.
From Wikipedia’s history of Columbus.
The Green River Plantation, J. G. Hughes House, and Polk County Courthouse are listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
Passages that mention Columbus, cut from the printed page as they were published.
Association. That in 1865-66 she was not a resident of Columbus, Georgia, but a frequent visitor here to her mother's family, and one of her especial friends in this city was Miss Lizzie Rutherford, afterwards Mrs. Roswell Ellis; that sometime in January, 1866, to the best of her recollection, she was on a visit to Columbus; that she had been raised in Columbus and had spent her girlhood and young ladyhood in Columbus, and ' was well acquainted with the ladies of the Soldiers' Aid Society,
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
Columbus, Ga. , April 25, 1898. Inasmuch as the Columbus Chapter of the Daughters of the Confederacy have chosen this day for the naming of their chapter "Lizzie Rutherford," we, the Memorial Association of Columbus, wish not only to keep alive the memory of one of our purest, most unselfish, devoted Confederate women, but to make this Memorial Day for all time among us a double memorial day. We pause in tearful tenderness to read the simple inscrip-
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
Note. A great part of these speculations appear to have been founded on the treatises of the cardinal Pierre de Alliaco, in which Columbus found a compendium of the opinions of various eminent authors on the subject; though it is probable he consulted many of their works likewise. In the volume of Pierre de Alliaco, exist¬ ing in the library of the cathedral of Seville, I have traced the germs of these ideas, in various passages of the text, opposite to which marginal notes have been made in the handwriting of Columbus.
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
might leave behind him a name and family worthy of his deeds and merits.* Barros, on the other hand, attributes the seeming acquiescence of the king, merely to the importunities of Columbus. He considered him, says the historian, a vainglorious man, fond of displaying his abilities, and given to fantastic fancies, such as that respecting the island of Cipango. f But in fact, this idea of Columbus being vain, was taken up by the Portuguese writers in after years; and as to the
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.Scans and text from the Internet Archive. Books published in 1930 or earlier, which are in the public domain.
Woven from the archive, old maps, post office records, the National Register and the people born here.
On the mapFirst mapped by the U.S. Geological SurveyEvery edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Columbus. Tap a year, or press play to watch the town change.
U.S. Geological Survey historical topographic maps (public domain), via Esri’s collection of the scans. The red ring marks the center of Columbus.
No then-and-now pairs yet. Take a photo from the same spot as an old one and they appear here side by side.
Find the spot, match the angle, and add your photo. It becomes the first then-and-now pair on Columbus’ page.
Retake this view · +15The country’s official list of buildings and places worth saving.
National Park Service, National Register of Historic Places. Photos from Wikimedia Commons, credited on each place’s page.
Writers, athletes, leaders and more, ranked by how widely they’re known.
Columbus’s post office has been open since 1856.
US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock, CC0). Places and cemeteries from the USGS Geographic Names Information System (2021).
The Columbus post office opened in 1856, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).
Columbus is more historic than 41% of U.S. towns. The History grade combines the town’s founding era, the share of homes built before 1940 and its National Register listings. It’s a character grade, so it isn’t part of the overall grade. How it works.
Two places: the Polk County Courthouse (listed 1974) and the J. G. Hughes House (1989).
7% of Columbus’ homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±5.3 points), against a typical 4.1% for a North Carolina town; the median home was built in 1976.
What the archives can’t tell you, neighbors can.
Founding dates: Wikidata, Wikipedia, the U.S. post office records of Blevins & Helbock (CC0) and the Census. Homes by year built: Census ACS 2020–24. National Register of Historic Places: National Park Service (list of May 22, 2026). Old photos, postcards and papers: Wikimedia Commons, the Library of Congress and other public archives, credited on each item’s page. Maps: U.S. Geological Survey historical topographic maps (via Esri) and Sanborn fire-insurance maps (Library of Congress). History text and census tables: Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0). Places that used to be: USGS Geographic Names Information System (2021).
From Wikimedia Commons (6), the Library of Congress (3), Wikidata (1), the National Register of Historic Places (2), Wikipedia, Wikidata and Wikipedia for famous people, U.S. Geological Survey historical maps, U.S. Census counts (via Wikipedia), the US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock), the USGS Geographic Names Information System and old county and town histories (Internet Archive). Archive images are copied here with their credits and licenses, shown on each photo’s page. Refreshed monthly.
Date?
Date?
Date?
2019
2019
2019
2018
2017
2004
