Editing Columbia, Pennsylvania (section)

=== Becoming Columbia ===
Samuel Wright, son of James and Rhoda Wright, was born on May 12, 1754. He eventually became the town proprietor and created a public grounds company to administer the land. Through his trusteeship, the town's first [[water distribution system]] (later the Columbia Water Company) was established, as well as the Washington Institute (the town's first school of higher learning) and Locust Street Park, located at what is now Locust Street and Route 462.

In the spring of 1788, Samuel Wright had the area [[surveying|surveyed]] and formally laid out the town into 160 [[land lot|building lots]], which were distributed by [[lottery]] at 15 shillings per ticket. "Adventurers", as purchasers were known, included speculators from many areas of the country. Wright and town citizens renamed the town "Columbia" in honor of [[Christopher Columbus]] in the hope of influencing the new [[United States Congress]] to select it as the nation's capital, a plan [[George Washington]] favored;<ref>Sheldon, 2006, p. 38.</ref> a formal proposal to do so was made in 1789. Unfortunately for the town, when Congress voted in 1790, the final tally was one vote short. Later, Columbia narrowly missed becoming the capital of [[Pennsylvania]]; [[Harrisburg, Pennsylvania|Harrisburg]] was chosen instead, since it was closer to the state's [[Geographic centers of the United States|geographic center]].