Editing Columbia, Maine (section)

===Historic structures and land use activities===
The oldest house still standing in Columbia was built in 1790 at 515 Station Road. It is still used as a residence. Schools and churches followed, and the first town "Hall" was built at Lower Epping. It was built as a store, but the second floor was used for public gatherings. It was later known as Leighton's Hall, then Redmen's Hall. By 1876 Columbia got its own post office (at the Branch). The location changed several times until 1906, when rural delivery started. In 1910, the Columbia Grange was built, later to become the Town Hall. This structure burned in 2001.

The first survey of Columbia (Township 12) was conducted in 1785. In 1857, the Base Line was completed. The Base Line is depicted on Map 2 and refers to a {{convert|5.4|mi|km|adj=on}} perfectly straight surveyed line, which was one of seven used by the [[United States Coast and Geodetic Survey]] for triangulation to establish positions for mapping the North Atlantic. The Eastern Monument was heavily vandalized and is now stored at the Cherryfield Historical Society.

In 1940, the dike bridge was built that crosses the West Branch of the Pleasant River in Addison. Clappers were installed to prevent tides from coming up river so that the West Branch would become fresh water only.

In 1963, Pine Island was subdivided. Elio Carerj purchased the Columbia portion of Pine Island (which is in the middle of the Great Heath) from Maurice Worcester for $1,000 on August 17, 1963. Doing business as Atlantic Real Estate, he subdivided his land into 673 individual {{frac|1|2}}-acre lots on 40 blocks. He sold about half of them for between $40 and $160 per lot, mostly to citizens of Germany, Switzerland and Italy. At that time, there was a bridge across the Pleasant River from El Meadow.