Getting to Know Your Neighbors

Getting to Know Your Neighbors. . , Like most communities, this area has changed over time. While the Mann-Simons family lived on Richland and Marion streets [ca. 1843 - 1970], people of different backgrounds, occupations and ethnicities called this block home., Historically, this neighborhood was a mixture of black and white people living in wood frame houses of different sizes and shapes. Some would have been considered socially and economically middle-class, others more working-class., [Captions:] , Left , Federal Census records offer large amounts of information about a community. According to the 1900 Census, people living on this block of Marion Street were almost evenly men and women, black and white. They made their livings as washerwoman, cooks, porters, carpenters, merchants and unskilled laborers., Left , This detail from the 1872 bird's eye map of Columbia depicts this block during the Reconstruction era [1866 - 1876]. Image courtesy of the Library of Congress, Above , The Sanborn Fire Insurance Company's 1919 map shows how much the neighborhood had developed by the early 20th century. Image courtesy of South Caroliniana Library, University of South Carolina, Columbia