East Columbia Historic District

Along South Main Street in East Columbia, a row of mostly two-story frame houses marks what remains of an old Brazos River port. Oak trees line the street, and the houses share center-passage plans, side-gabled roofs, brick chimneys and two-tiered porches with Greek Revival detailing. The district holds 13 contributing resources, including a historic archeological site tied to a 19th-century gun and machine shop. East Columbia began as Bell's Landing in 1824 and grew into a major inland port serving plantations and settlers. Steamboats brought milled lumber, and local merchants built houses as signs of success. Travis Logan Smith Sr., for example, built his 1878 house with profits from trade and later helped found the Columbia Transportation Company. Rail service, river flooding and the 1918 oil boom at West Columbia drew merchants away, and the river washed away the commercial area. The surviving homes are the main physical record of the town's plantation and steamboat era and of regional 19th-century domestic architecture.