I came to Columbus only to see Tennessee Williams' boyhood home. Okay, and some road signs, although I wasn't expecting what I did see of those. But I pulled into town rather early thanks to the fabulously empty back roads of Alabama and Mississippi. Having well over an hour to kill until sundown and finding a hotel, I stopped into the Williams museum and got into a pleasant chat with the caretaker. As I left, she suggested that I look around at some other old mansions, because Columbus has one of the largest collections of antebellum houses anywhere in the South. Sure, I had the daylight, so I went ahead with it. You get this page, which I've broken into two parts so that you're not inundated with architecture. In order to provide the proper narrative, I am reprinting large amounts of the Historic Driving Tour pamphlet produced by the Columbus Convention and Visitors Bureau, so you can follow along and even plan your own trip. My appreciation goes out to them, and hopefully they approve if they find this page! When I give dates, they refer to the date of building construction. The pamphlet makes extensive use of the word "circa," but I'll go ahead and treat the dates as fact.


My tour begins at the corner Main and 3rd Street South at the Tennessee Williams Home, 1875. He was born in Columbus on March 26, 1911, while his grandfather was the rector at St. Paul's Episcopal Church. In danger of being razed, the home was moved from the church property to its current site, where it now serves as the official Welcome Center for the city.

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