Discover 15 hidden attractions, cool sights, and unusual things to do in Columbus (United States). Don't miss out on these must-see attractions: National Infantry Museum, Columbus Civic Center, and Columbus Museum. Also, be sure to include First Presbyterian Church in your itinerary.
Below, you can find the list of the most amazing places you should visit in Columbus (Georgia).
Table of Contents
National Infantry Museum
Museum in Columbus, Georgia. The National Infantry Museum and Soldier Center is a museum located in Columbus, Georgia, just outside the Maneuver Center of Excellence at Fort Benning. The 190,000-square-foot museum opened in June 2009.
The museum chronicles the history of the United States Army infantryman from the American Revolution to Afghanistan. It exhibits artifacts from all eras of American history and contains interactive multimedia exhibits. The National Infantry Museum emphasizes the values that are meant to define the infantryman, as well as the nation: loyalty, duty, respect, selfless service, honor, integrity, and personal courage.
In addition to galleries, the National Infantry Museum and Soldier Center also consists of:
- Officer Candidate School (OCS) Hall of Honor
- OCS Hall of Fame
- Ranger Hall of Honor
- Ranger Hall of Fame
- DownRange Combat Simulators
- The Fife and Drum Restaurant
- Giant Screen Theater
- Heritage Walk
- Inouye Parade Field
- Memorial Walk of Honor
- Vietnam Memorial Plaza
- Global War on Terrorism Memorial
- The Soldier Store Gift Shop
- World War II Company Street.
Until April 2008, the museum was housed in an old Army hospital on Fort Benning. Space and conditions for the museum’s collection was inadequate. In 1998, the 501(c)(3) National Infantry Foundation was formed to plan, raise funds for and to operate a new museum. The National Infantry Museum Foundation has since formed a formal partnership with the Army to manage the facility and its contents. The National Infantry Museum does not receive federal, state or city funding. Through its lease agreement with the National Infantry Museum Foundation, the Army reimburses the foundation for approximately 30 percent of the museum’s annual operating expenses. There is no admission fee. The museum relies on donations, memberships and revenue-generating attractions such as the Giant Screen Theater, combat simulators, Fife and Drum Restaurant, Soldier Store and event rentals to cover operating expenses.
The museum is located on a 155-acre campus adjacent to Fort Benning. The campus includes Inouye Field, sprinkled with soil from the battlegrounds of Yorktown, Antietam, Soissons, Normandy, Corregidor, Korea, Vietnam, Iraq, and Afghanistan, and a 2,100-seat stadium which hosts graduations of Army trainees. The graduations are open to the public.
World War II Company Street is a collection of seven buildings constructed at Fort Benning during the ramp-up to World War II. They have been furnished as they were in the 1940s and are open for tours most days. The buildings include a chapel, barracks, mess hall, orderly room, supply room, and the sleeping quarters and headquarters building used by Gen. George Patton prior to his deployment to North Africa in 1942.
The Vietnam Memorial Plaza contains a ¾-scale replica of the Vietnam Wall on the Mall in Washington, D.C.
The Global War on Terrorism Memorial(under construction Summer 2017) includes the names of 6,800 Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen and Marines killed in service since 9/11. A 13-foot steel beam pulled from the wreckage of the World Trade Center and donated to the museum by New York City firefighters is featured in the design of the memorial.
The museum received a Thea Award for excellence from the Themed Entertainment Association in 2011, USA Today’s 2016, 2020 and 2021 Readers’ Choice Award for Best Free Museum, and TripAdvisor’s Hall of Fame recognition for continued excellence.[1]
Address: 1775 Legacy Way, 31903 Columbus
Columbus Civic Center
Arena in Columbus, Georgia. Columbus Civic Center is a 10,000-seat multi-purpose arena in Columbus, Georgia, built in 1996.[2]
Address: 400 4th St, 31901 Columbus
Columbus Museum
Museum in Columbus, Georgia. The Columbus Museum in Columbus, Georgia was founded in 1953. It contains many artifacts on both American art and regional history, displayed in both its permanent collection as well as temporary exhibitions. It is accredited by the American Alliance of Museums. Former curator and director, Joseph B. Mahan, Jr. was instrumental in the creation of the Institute for the Study of American Cultures in 1983.[3]
Address: 1251 Wynnton Rd, 31906-2899 Columbus (Midtown)
First Presbyterian Church
Religious organization in Columbus, Georgia. First Presbyterian Church is a historic church at 1100 1st Avenue in Columbus, Georgia. The church is affiliated with the PCUSA. Its building was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1980.
The congregation had worshipped in two previous church buildings before having its current building built, at cost of more than $30,000. It was dedicated in 1862. The building was damaged by fire in November 1891 but was fully restored by February 1893.
It was listed on the National Register along with other historic properties identified in a large survey.[4]
Address: 1100 1st Ave, 31901-2404 Columbus
Springer Opera House
Theater in Columbus, Georgia. The Springer Opera House is a historic theater at 103 Tenth Street in Downtown Columbus, Georgia. First opened February 21, 1871, the theater was named the State Theatre of Georgia by Governor Jimmy Carter for its 100th anniversary season, a designation made permanent by the 1992 state legislature. The Springer has hosted legendary performers such as Edwin Booth, Oscar Wilde, Ethel Barrymore, Agnes de Mille, and bandleader John Philip Sousa. The building was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1970 and named a National Historic Landmark in 1978 for its architecture and state of preservation.[5]
Address: 103 10th St, 31901-2741 Columbus
Columbus Public Library
The Chattahoochee Valley Libraries are a consortium of public libraries serving the Greater Columbus Area of Georgia. The library system consists of seven branches over four counties, Muscogee, Chattahoochee, Marion, and Stewart, Georgia. The headquarters of the library system is the Columbus Public Library located in the county seat Columbus, Georgia.
The Chattahoochee Valley Libraries run their own interlibrary loan system throughout the four counties. Residents of any county covered in the system may apply for a card granting them access to the circulation's 412,000 book collection.[6]
Address: 3000 Macon Rd, 31906 Columbus (Midtown)
Trinity Episcopal Church
Episcopal church in Columbus, Georgia. Trinity Episcopal Church is an Episcopal church located in Columbus, Georgia.[7]
Address: 1130 1st Ave, 31901 Columbus
Church of the Holy Family
Catholic church in Columbus, Georgia. The Church of the Holy Family is a Catholic Church located in Downtown Columbus, Georgia that was built in 1880. The Catholic church in Columbus had outgrown its original church built in 1829.
The church's architect/builder, Daniel Matthew Foley, had designed 16 other churches before coming to Columbus to design this church. It is the only Gothic Revival church in Columbus and "is an architectural as well as religious anchor point in the community."
It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1980.
It was listed on the National Register along with other historic properties identified in a large survey.[8]
Address: 320 12th St, 31901-2521 Columbus
Old City Cemetery
Cemetery. The Old City Cemetery, also known as Linwood Cemetery, is a 28.7-acre cemetery on what is now Linwood Boulevard, in Columbus, Georgia. It dates from 1828, when the town of Columbus was founded, or before. It appears in surveyor Edward Lloyd Thomas's original plan for the city. The cemetery consists mostly of rectangular family plots bordered by iron fences or walls made of brick or granite, accessed by a main east-west corridor and perpendicular lanes. It includes both simple and elaborate tombstones, some displaying Egyptian Revival or Gothic styles.
The cemetery was given the name "Linwood" in 1894 by city council resolution, probably to honor Columbus author Caroline Lee Hentz whose works include Ernest Linwood, an 1856 book.
It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1980.
According to its 1978 nomination, the majority of prominent Columbus persons are buried there. Its burials include more than 200 Confederate Army soldiers representing every state in the Confederacy.
Thomas's own son was an early burial, as he died and was buried in the cemetery in 1828 while Thomas was amidst his work surveying, but apparently the grounds include earlier marked and unmarked graves of "'early traders, river people, and Indians.'"[9]
First African Baptist Church
Baptist church in Columbus, Georgia. First African Baptist Church is a historic church at 901 5th Avenue in Columbus, Georgia.
It was built in 1915 and added to the National Register in 1980. The First Baptist Church of Columbus was key in the construction.
It is featured on the Black Heritage Trail.[10]
Eagle & Phenix Dam
The Eagle and Phenix Dam was a stone dam on the Chattahoochee River, in downtown Columbus, Georgia. The dam was built in 1882 to power the Eagle and Phenix Textile Mill. It was located just south of the 13th Street Bridge which connects Columbus to Phenix City, Alabama. The dam produced a 45-acre run of the river reservoir that eextened approximately 1-mile upstream.
The Eagle and Phenix Dam site is now owned by the City of Columbus. The dam was breached during March 2012 in order to restore natural flowing conditions. This was to create an urban whitewater park along the river.[11]
Pemberton House
Local history museum in Columbus, Georgia. The Pemberton House is an historic house in Columbus, Georgia.[12]
Mead Observatory
Astronomical observatory. The WestRock Observatory is operated by Columbus State University's Coca-Cola Space Science Center at 701 Front Avenue, Columbus, Georgia. Established in 1996, the observatory has active night sky and solar study programs for students and the general public. The equipment can be controlled and monitored remotely by faculty and astronomers. The observatory also offers mobile astronomy programs such as "Astronomy Nights" at Callaway Gardens, F. D. Roosevelt State Park, and Providence Canyon State Park as well as education outreach to the surrounding Georgia/Alabama area.[13]
North Highlands Dam
Dam in Georgia. North Highlands Dam is a structure on the Chattahoochee River at the northern edge of the Columbus, Georgia, United States. It is approximately 4.2 miles north of 9th Avenue in downtown Columbus. The dam was built in 1899 to provide power for the former Bibb City Mill. It was one of the first large dams constructed in the South. The North Highlands Dam was owned by the Columbus Electric and Power Company, until that utility was purchased by Georgia Power in 1930.[14]
Synovus
Synovus Centre is an office building in Downtown Columbus, Georgia that serves as the headquarters of regional banking and financial services company Synovus. It was built at a cost of 18 million dollars in 2003 and has views of the Chattahoochee River. The building is a condominium and contains 120,000 square feet, and 5 floors. Synovus occupies the 5th floor, half of the 4th floor and the 2nd floor and parts of the 1st floor. The 3rd floor of the building is owned by Page, Scrantom, Sprouse, Tucker & Ford, P.C. the largest law firm in Columbus. A portion of the 4th floor of the building is leased to another local law firm, Pope, McGlamry, Kilpatrick & Morrison, LLP.[15]
Address: 1111 Bay Ave, Columbus