Mann-Simons Site — Attraction in Columbia

They're doing tours again inside the Historic Columbia houses, including the Mann-Simons house. The story of this amazing, INDUSTRIOUS family is told well through signs, artifacts, and videos, as well as my chatty volunteer guide, who was a hoot. I was really taken by the family tree, and the massive rag rug in the front room, it's really nice. There were lots more buildings on this piece of land that are now marked out by "ghost buildings" where you can see where they were and sort of imagine what it would have looked like. This family did not let the grass grow under their feet, they hustled hard. It makes you want to go home and get some work done. There's parking on the street and in a lot behind the house, but all tours start at the Robert Mills gift shop. It's several blocks away, so I followed my tour...

We visited this exhibit on jubilee day 2025. They did a decent job with the curation having multiple boards up explaining who people were that lived in the house or one of the homes around the house. Although there is a family tree inside, a timeline would be more beneficial considering the different hands that the home were passed a long through in the past.

Additionally, on the website it states they discovered 60,000 different pieces of archeology from the site but inside there's no more than 20 to 25 pieces. The staff said the basement and upstairs are off limits which seems like a inconsiderate use of space considering there are more artifacts that could have been stored for people to see. Stayers in a home that old are delicate but traffic could be kept to a few...

The docent was very knowledgeable. My second grade students came here for a field trip. Everything was explained so that they could understand it and they had interactive activities as well. The students learned what artifacts were by decorating and breaking small terra cotta pots and learned how to piece them together like archaeologists. They also learned how to look for artifacts in dig boxes. The history of Celia Mann’s family and her contribution to African American history in Columbia, SC was enlightening as well as...