Columbia

Formed March 22, 1813 (48^th county)

Columbia County (64,725), Bloomsburg (12,708)

An 1890 dark red brick Romanesque Revival courthouse serves Columbia County.  The courthouse is on Main Street at Whitman Street.  United States Highway 11 is Main Street in this part of town.  A. S. Wagner provided the designs.  The building was enlarged in 1939.  The county was created March 22, 1813 from Northumberland County as the 48^th county.  Danville was the first county seat until 1845 when Bloomsburg took over.  Columbia County is named for Christopher Columbus.  The county seat is named for county politician Samuel Bloom. 

Columbia County government consists of a sheriff and 3 Commissioners.  Two Common Pleas Court Judges and Four Magistrate Court Judges serve Columbia and Montour counties.  The county is in the north central part of the state.  Harrisburg, Pennsylvania is south and Philadelphia, Pennsylvania is southeast of the county.  The Susquehanna River flows through the county.  The county center is 5.6 miles East-Northeast of Bloomsburg nearer Almedia.  The county is surrounded clockwise by Sullivan, Luzerne, Schuylkill, Northumberland, Montour, and Lycoming counties. 

The area of the county is 490 square miles.  It is 46 out of 67 in the state.  It ranks 40 out of 67 in population in the state.  It has a density of 132.1 persons per square mile making it 36 out of 67 in the state.  Columbia County has 42.7% of its population in its incorporated areas.  Interstate Highway 80 crosses the county from east to west from Luzerne County to Montour County.  United States Highway 11 enters from Luzerne County, east, and exits to Montour County, west.  The county looks like a space shuttle pointing south.  Bloomsburg is in the southwest quarter of the county.  Bloomsburg is the county seat and the largest city.  It is 19.6% of the county population.  This county is in the Bloomsburg-Berwick Micropolitan Statistical Area.

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