Columbia is a town in Houston County, Alabama, United States. It is part of the Dothan, Alabama Metropolitan Statistical Area. At the 2000 census the population was 804.

Geography

Columbia is located at (31.292283, -85.112123).

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the town has a total area of 4.0 square miles (10.3 km²), of which, 3.9 square miles (10.2 km²) of it is land and 0.1 square miles (0.2 km²) of it (1.75%) is water.

Demographics

As of the census of 2000, there were 804 people, 344 households, and 226 families residing in the town. The population density was 204.8 people per square mile (79.0/km²). There were 462 housing units at an average density of 117.7/sq mi (45.4/km²). The racial makeup of the town was 74.38% White, 24.50% Black or African American, 0.62% Native American, 0.12% from other races, and 0.37% from two or more races. 0.50% of the population were Hispanic or Latino of any race.

There were 344 households out of which 27.9% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 49.4% were married couples living together, 12.2% had a female householder with no husband present, and 34.3% were non-families. 33.7% of all households were made up of individuals and 18.9% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.34 and the average family size was 2.98.

In the town the population was spread out with 25.7% under the age of 18, 6.5% from 18 to 24, 24.0% from 25 to 44, 22.1% from 45 to 64, and 21.6% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 41 years. For every 100 females there were 87.9 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 84.3 males.

The median income for a household in the town was $27,500, and the median income for a family was $36,339. Males had a median income of $29,821 versus $18,393 for females. The per capita income for the town was $15,248. About 12.3% of families and 18.0% of the population were below the poverty line, including 24.0% of those under age 18 and 18.6% of those age 65 or over.

Notes of Interest

Despite its relative small size, Columbia was once the county seat of Henry County (before the county was divided to form Houston county.)

Brothers John Anglin and Clarence Anglin, who were made famous for escaping from Alcatraz Island, robbed the Columbia bank of $19,000 in January, 1959

Notable residents

• Monte Irvin, born in Columbia, member of the Baseball Hall of Fame

The Honorable James Green is Mayor and a notable land speculator.

Curt Smith, owner of 3/4 of the land surrounding the town's lone traffic light.

Columbia will celebrate it's 10th River City Fest and Annual Gospel Sing in 2008. The first year 1998, the RCF & AGS was not supposed to have got off the ground. But Herietta Brown editor of the Gospel News magazine and Singing News Gospel Magazine denoted Columbia first to have the most gospel groups in a 14 hour span of time. The Record may be topped by others but we had 28 group appearances that day; The ease of it was having two stages one on one end of town, the other stage on the other end. Scott Gamble President has group times and proof of that 1998 event, all you have to do is contact him at Classicalgamble@excite.com

References

External links

• WiregrassLive.com - Citizen-driven news and messages
• WiregrassNews.com - Local Internet News Site