Established as a trading post on the banks of the Pearl River, Columbia became the seat of Marion County in 1819 and served briefly as the seat of state government before Jackson became the capital in 1822. Lumbermen began to exploit the surrounding pine forests after 1912 when the Columbia Commercial Club lured the J. J. White Lumber Company from McComb to Columbia; the town’s population rose from 500 in 1900 to 5,000 by 1930. When the J. J. White mill closed in 1929, owner and then-mayor Hugh White sought new industries. The Reliance Manufacturing Company, a clothing factory, opened in 1933, and White translated this rare Great Depression-era achievement into a winning campaign for governor in 1935, with the slogan “Balance Agriculture with Industry.” The plant was demolished in 2007.
The Pearl River bounded Columbia’s development on the west. Residential neighborhoods extend mostly north and east of downtown, with only a few remnants of the former lumber mill section south of the courthouse. An early commercial strip lines old Highway 13, including a Coca-Cola Bottling Company building (c. 1940) at 518 High School Avenue and, next door, a vacant A & P grocery store (c. 1960) in the firm’s “Centennial” design of red brick veneer, hipped roof, and wooden cupola.
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