Seniors Enjoy ‘Great American Main Street’ City

Columbus, population 26,000, lies primarily east, but also north and northeast of the Tombigbee River, which is also referred to as the Tennessee-Tombigbee Waterway. Senior visitors will find over 650 grand historic homes in three National Register Historic Districts.

Birthplace of America’s greatest playwright, Tennessee Williams, Columbus is the ultimate Southern destination in Mississippi, and that includes super southern cuisine. Columbus was the winner of a “Great American Main Street Award” in 2010.

Columbus was founded in 1821. Before its incorporation, the town site was referred to informally as Possum Town, a name given by the local Native Americans. The name Possum Town remains the town’s nickname among locals.  Downtown Columbus offers gorgeous historic homes, treasure-filled antique and specialty shops; and divine dining.

The Columbus Air Force Base, home of the 14th Flying Training Wing, is located approximately 9 miles north of Columbus and is a major employer.

Seniors Delight In Columbus’ Varied History

This East of the Mississippi Blues Trail’s Delta region, Columbus tells a great story: Howlin’ Wolf amid a cast of traveling musicians, Blues Trail markers and preserved architecture, African-American heritage sites, historic home tours and historic places.

Properties range from the first home of Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Tennessee Williams and an 1843 cottage built by two free black men to pillared Whitehall Mansion, the winter home of Henry Flagler, Standard Oil baron from the Gilded Age. This beautiful pillared mansion includes gardens, stables and servants quarters. During the Civil War, it served as a hospital for Confederate soldiers.

Senior travellers, time your visit for a Columbus’ annual Spring Pilgrimage for house and church tours with carriage rides and Catfish in the Alley, a Sensational Saturday Fish Fry with accompanying Live Blues. This day of live blues and fried fish nods to Columbus’ erstwhile Catfish Alley, an African-American district where fishermen came in and bluesmen played through.

Catfish Alley, Riverwalk Draw Senior Visitors

In its heyday, Catfish Alley was a vibrant, one-block-long row of businesses just off Main Street in downtown Columbus. A world within a world, the Alley was a gathering place for the area’s fishermen and farmers, merchants and residents, people from every walk of life.

TripAdvisor suggests  seniors not miss The Chattahoochee RiverWalk, a 22-mile walking and biking area along the Chattahoochee River.

Wherever you go in Columbus, senior visitors will be sure to catch an earful of local tunes or regional artists giving their all to put a chill through your bones and get those feet to movin’. So set your GPS for Mississippi and Experience Columbus, one of the outstanding small communities in the nation.  -jeb