Columbus, population 185,000, is Georgia’s second city, 110 miles south of the state’s capital, Atlanta.
Founded in 1828, it has long been prosperous and influential. The chemist John Stith Pemberton first mixed the recipe for the soda drink that would become Coca-Cola in his Columbus drugstore in the 1870s. “Mother of the Blues” Ma Rainey was born and raised in Columbus, as was the writer Carson McCullers, whose childhood home can be found in the Peacock Woods – Dimon Circle Historical District of Wynnton . Most of her novels, including her masterpiece,
The Heart is a Lonely Hunter, were set here.
Radiating from Wynnton Road into six contiguous historic neighborhoods, midtown, Columbus incorporates - in addition to residential neighborhoods - schools, parks, the Columbus Museum and the magnificent Columbus Public Library. It is approximately twelve miles from Fort Benning and is the international headquarters of AFLAC.
1454 Cherokee Avenue resides in The Peacock Woods-Dimon Circle historic district which began in 1922. The nationally acclaimed landscape architect Earle S. Draper was hired to design Peacock Woods as a "picturesque neighborhood with curving streets and park-like settings". The western tip of the district resides on the historical Lake Bottom Park, which was developed in 1888.
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| The dotted line shows midtown Columbus. The highlighted sections are the historical districts that reside in midtown |
Lakebottom Park began around 1888. Originally known as Wildwood Park and later named Weracoba Park. It got its name from the man-made Weracoba Creek which feeds the park. Once there was a lake with islands and arched bridges connecting them. Boating was a popular past time at the park. In 1925 the lake was drained and Columbus High was built near the site of the ball fields. In addition to ball fields that park offers a 1.5 miles jogging trail, a football field, basketball courts, a track, tennis courts, a playground, fitness stations, picnic areas, a creek and a bandstand.
Included in the district is Columbus High School, College Preparatory Magnet and Wynnton Arts Academy, which is Muscogee County’s Fine Arts Magnet. (Muscogee County is home of the top-ranked elementary school in the state) and is the zoned elementary school for Peacock Woods-Dimon Circle District. These schools, like the majority of the district, are rich in history:
Wynnton Arts Academy is the oldest and most continuously used school in the state of Georgia. Established in 1837 and built in 1843, the original Wynnton Academy now serves the school as a museum of local art and historical artifacts dating back to the early 20th Century.
Columbus High School is a college preparatory magnet school which ranks amoung the best high schools in the state of Georgia and in the country (see U.S. News and World Report, December, 2010) It was established in 1890 and dedicated in 1926. It sits on Cherokee Avenue and is directly adjacent to Lake Bottom Park.
The district includes a broad range of architectural styles including Colonial Revival, Craftsman, English Vernacular Revival and Spanish Colonial Revival.
Most of the remains of antebellum Columbus are to be found in Wynnton. Once known as the “millionaires’ colony,” its placid exclusivity dates back to the period before the Civil War, when its mansions were at the heart of a social whirl that is said to have rivaled more famous centers of the old South, such as Charleston, Savannah and New Orleans. There were picnics, barbecues, marching bands and orchestras, full-dress hunts and balls.
Wynnton has remained a kind of Arcadia, writes the Columbus journalist and author William Winn: “Nearly every house, however modest, has a lawn, and every spring Wynnton is ablaze with pink and white azaleas, the neighbourhood’s particular glory.”
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| Lake Bottom Park |
