ExploreSouthernHistory.com - Heritage Corner in Columbus, Georgia
ExploreSouthernHistory.com - Heritage Corner in Columbus, Georgia
700 Broadway at Heritage Corner
This beautifully preserved home dates from around
1870 and is a landmark of downtown Columbus,
Georgia.
Copyright 2010 by Dale Cox
All rights reserved.
Pemberton House
Once the home of Dr. John
Pemberton, the inventor of
Coca-Cola, the house can be
seen at Heritage Corner.
7th Street & Broadway
The beautiful intersection in
the Columbus Historic District
is known as Heritage Corner
because of its unique historic
structures.
A Collection of History
The homes at Heritage
Corner represent the history
of the Columbus area and
date from as early as the
1820s.
Heritage Corner at 7th Street & Broadway - Columbus, Georgia
One Hundred Years of History
Woodruff Farm House
Dating from the 1840s, this
frame structure is a unique
surviving representative of
many real Southern farm
homes of the antebellum era.
It has taken years of hard work, but the
Historic Columbus Foundation has turned
the corner of 7th Street and Broadway into the
major Heritage Corner of historic Columbus,
Georgia.

Established in 1988 as a stunning addition
to the Columbus Historic District, the corner
features five preserved homes representing
different eras of Georgia history. Among them
is the Pemberton House, once the home of
local pharmacist Dr. John Pemberton. He is
renowned today as the inventor of that truly
Southern concoction, Coca-Cola.

Other structures include a log cabin thought
to date from the early 1800s, the Walker-
Peters-Langdon house (1828), the Woodruff
farm house (ca. 1840) and 700 Broadway
(ca. 1870). Combined, they represent the
transition of the Columbus from a frontier
settlement deep in the traditional territory of
the Creek Nation to a cosmopolitan city.

The historic log cabin was originally located
about ten miles from its current location and
was brought to Heritage Corner to represent
the types of homes built by the first settlers
as Columbus began to develop at the falls of
the Chattahoochee River. Such homes soon
gave way to more elaborate frame structures
as the little settlement prospered and quickly
grew into a town.

Columbus is unique in that the settlers who
participated in the original 1828 land lot sale
could also purchase prefabricated frame
homes ready to be assembled. The historic
Walker-Peters-Langdon home at 716
Broadway is a surviving example. Generally
thought to be the oldest home in Columbus,
it survived not only the Creek War of 1836, but
the Battle of Columbus during the closing
days of the Civil War.

The Woodruff Farm House at 708 Broadway
was built in the 1840s and is representative
of many similar Southern farm houses of the
antebellum era. While it is the popular view
that Southern plantations were centered
around gleaming mansions, most middle-
class farm homes were actually more similar
to the Woodruff place than to the mansions of
legend. It originally stood eight miles east on
the Macon road.

Nearby stands another 1840s era home that
holds a special place in Southern and
American history. The Pemberton House,
located at 11 7th, was the home of Dr. John
S. Pemberton. A Columbus (and later
Atlanta) pharmacist, Dr. Pemberton invented
a beverage that came to symbolize America
round the world - Coca-Cola. The home was
restored through the generosity of The
Coca-Cola Company and was Dr.
Pemberton's home from 1855-1860.
Just around the corner at 712 Broadway is
Dr. Pemberton's Country Home. He moved to
this home in 1860 and lived here until 1869.
The structure originally stood four miles north
of downtown Columbus, but was moved to
its current location at Heritage Corner to save
it from destruction.

Finally there is 700 Broadway. This stunning
brick home was built in 1870 and is the only
two-story brick house in the Columbus
Historic District. It was once the home of
Hon. Stirling Price Gilbert, a justice on the
Georgia Supreme Court. It was placed on the
National Register of Historic Places in 1969
and is located on the corner of Broadway and
7th.

Heritage Corner is the strategic center of the
Columbus Historic District. The fascinating
Heritage Park is located just across the
street and the district with its beautiful old
homes spreads out for blocks. Tours of the
historic homes are available Wednesday
through Saturday at 2 p.m. daily. The price is
$5 for adults and $1 for students and the
tours begin at 708 Broadway.

Please click here to learn more about the
Historic Columbus Foundation.
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