Built in 1874-1875, Columbia School stood on the north side of Columbia Street near First Avenue for over a century.
It was one of the early neighborhood schools that had begun to crop up in Evansville in the decade after the Civil War. Jacobsville, just north of downtown, was one of the sections that experienced rapid growth, and Columbia was the second school to be erected in that area within three years.
The neighborhood continued to grow steadily, and this image of Columbia School shows three additions to the main building dating from 1895 to the early 1920s.
After the city adopted a plan to racially integrate schools, Columbia closed in 1978, five years after nearby Baker School closed; it was razed in the following year.
