Columbus offers family and military groups a variety of gathering places, plus a bounty of cultural attractions and exciting recreational activities.
Situated on the Georgia-Alabama border, 100 miles southwest of Atlanta, Columbus abounds with group-friendly venues, including rustic meeting spaces in repurposed industrial buildings. Theatrical fare, whitewater rafting adventures and a new minor league baseball team provide entertainment for all ages. Home to the U.S. Army’s Fort Benning, the city of 210,000 boasts one of the nation’s top military museums.
New Uses for Old Buildings in Columbus, Georgia
Founded in 1828, Columbus developed into a manufacturing hub with textile mills and other plants powered by the rushing waters of the Chattahoochee River. Though these riverside factories closed long ago, many have been preserved and now serve other purposes. Their industrial-chic charm adds flair to meetings, banquets and other events.
A prime example of this adaptive re-use is Columbus Georgia Convention & Trade Center, also known as Iron Works. Established in 1853 and rebuilt a year after the Civil War ended, the old Columbus Iron Works foundry, a National Historic Landmark, is a 182,000-square-foot meeting and event space. Fronting the Chattahoochee River, it offers 17 rooms ranging from intimate to grand.
Columbus Georgia Convention & Trade Center. (Randy Mink Photo)
Hosting 500-600 events a year, the trade center’s high-ceilinged spaces can handle groups of anywhere from 20 to 6,000. Inspiring backdrops feature red brick walls, massive pine beams and posts, and plenty of natural light, plus original gears, pulleys and gantry cranes still in place. There is in-house catering for meals.
Visitors to Iron Works can view an exhibit of products by the furnace that poured out molten iron used in such things as Civil War-era cannons and ships, steam engine parts, tractor-drawn implements, commercial ice-making machines, kettles, cast-iron stoves and cemetery gates. Charbroil grills were produced there from 1953 to the 1970s. Transformed, the mighty fortress on the river opened as an event center in 1979.
Across from Iron Works is the Columbus Marriott, which incorporates the remains of an 1860s gristmill. Original brickwork lends character to both the meeting rooms and guest rooms. The hotel, built in the 1980s and renovated during COVID, also has a modern tower.
For more than a century, Columbus reigned as a leading textile manufacturing center. Bibb Mill, with more than one million square feet and 100 houses for workers, was one of the largest textile mills in the South by 1920. It closed in 1998, and for a while the site was a tile factory and flea market before being converted into Bibb Mill Event Center, today an attractive riverfront setting for reunion groups and weddings. Though the smokestack and water tower are still visible, a large part of the mill was burnt to the ground in 2008.
Millhouse Kitchen + Bar in the City Mills Hotel. (Randy Mink Photo)
Nearby, another relic of the past has been revived. The riverside’s 64-room City Mills Hotel occupies an old flour granary that closed in the 1980s. Built in 1828, the same year the city was founded, it is the world’s only commercial gristmill still intact. Cavernous ceilings, exposed bricks and beams, machinery and original hardwood floors enhance the historical ambience of the hotel’s upscale restaurant, Millhouse Kitchen + Bar, a perfect spot for celebratory group dinners.
Columbus Museum: Treasure House of Art and History
The free-admission Columbus Museum, fresh from an 18-month, $30 million renovation, has a dual focus: American art and regional history. A children’s museum offers hands-on activities.
Meeting spaces for groups at the Columbus Museum include the Galleria, which seats 150 for dinner, and Wright Room (capacity of 65-80). Groups can also use the Garden Terrace, which overlooks the Bradley Olmsted Garden, a creation of the Olmsted design firm.
Exhibits in the newly renovated Columbus Museum chronicle the city’s industrial past. (Randy Mink Photo)
Visitors to the Columbus Museum learn about the city’s role in the soft drink industry’s early days. Royal Crown Cola and Nehi got their start here, and a Columbus pharmacist is credited with developing the formula for Coca-Cola. Also recognized is Tom’s Foods, a Columbus company that pioneered the idea of selling roasted peanuts in single-serve, cellophane bags. The Tom’s plant, which once offered a popular factory tour, closed in 2022.
Another food associated with Columbus is the scrambled dog, a local specialty that Dinglewood Pharmacy has been dishing up for more than 70 years. A museum video shows how to make a scrambled dog. It starts with an open bun topped with homemade “Almost World Famous Chili.” Added next are chopped hot dog pieces, cheese, onions, pickles and oyster crackers.
An exhibit on Columbus’ textile factories features a 1910 cotton gin manufactured by the Lummis Cotton Gin Company of Columbus and a 500-pound cotton bale. Among U.S. states, Georgia ranks third in cotton production.
Art treasures at the Columbus Museum include the signature Dale Chihuly Boat Installation, a large-scale glass masterpiece, and portraits of George and Martha Washington by Rembrandt Peale. Other famous American artists, like Andy Warhol, Mary Cassatt and Thomas Moran, are also represented.
Through January 4, 2026, the exhibition Daily Special: The Art of John Miller features oversized glass sculptures of hamburgers, French fries, donuts and soft drinks, a visual feast of American food favorites set within an environment that evokes classic diners and other eateries of the 1950s and ’60s.
The Springer Opera House’s Victorian-flavored saloon can host reunion events. (Randy Mink Photo)
Other Columbus Cultural Venues With Space to Rent
Reunion groups also can take advantage of private space within the historic brick confines of the Springer Opera House, a theater dating back to 1871. Parties and meals can be arranged in the Victorian-style saloon, an event venue built in 1998.
Named the State Theatre of Georgia in 1971 by Governor Jimmy Carter, the Springer is one of the oldest producing theaters in the country. Upcoming Main Stage shows include The Wiz, the Musical, September 19-28, 2025; Disney’s Frozen, the Musical, November 29-December 21, 2025; The Da Vinci Code, January 23-February 1, 2026; and Hairspray, the Musical, March 20-29, 2026.
At RiverCenter for the Performing Arts, groups can have a dinner or reception on the stage of the 2,000-seat Bill Heard Theatre, with entertainment provided by a string ensemble, jazz quartet or The Wave digital theater organ. The state-of-the-art, three-theater complex, the centerpiece of Columbus’ Arts and Entertainment District, presents touring Broadway shows, dance performances, pop and symphonic concerts, and silent films with organ accompaniment. The Bill Heard Theatre hosts the Columbus Symphony Orchestra, while the 150-seat Studio Theatre is the performance space for students from Columbus State University Schwob School of Music.
Another unique location for receptions and gatherings is the spacious riverside terrace of the Bo Bartlett Center at Corn Center for the Visual Arts. Part gallery/museum, part experimental arts incubator and part community hub, the center is housed in a former textile warehouse on the downtown riverside campus of Columbus State University. Works on display include the monumental paintings of Columbus native James W. “Bo” Bartlett, a renowned artist in the American realist tradition. The center rotates six to eight regional, national and international exhibitions annually.
A Korean War diorama in the Last 100 Yards exhibit at the National Infantry Museum in Columbus, Georgia. (Randy Mink Photo)
Columbus, Georgia is a Natural for Military Reunions
The free-admission National Infantry Museum sits on a 133-acre campus next to Fort Benning, one of the country’s largest military bases. Dioramas and other exhibits salute the sacrifices and heroic feats of American soldiers in conflicts from the Revolutionary War to the Global War on Terrorism. Documentaries shown in the 286-seat Giant Screen Theater include one about the D-Day landings in France during World War II. Paradrop, a virtual reality parachute ride that charges a fee, simulates an airborne assault.
For after-hours events, the museum’s Cavezza Hall can seat up to 400 comfortably. Smaller spaces, like Patriot Hall and Heritage Hall, are available for meetings and events. The museum works with six or seven caterers.
Grounds of the National Infantry Museum contain numerous outdoor monuments and memorials, including a three-fourth-scale replica of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Wall in Washington, D.C.
Through windows at the rear of the museum, you can see Inouye Field, a five-acre parade field and stadium where thousands of newly trained infantrymen graduate every year. The field is seeded with sacred soil taken from each of the eight battles depicted on the museum’s Last 100 Yards exhibit, allowing every new soldier to literally walk on the ground fought and died for by their forefathers in the profession of arms.
Fort Benning is home to the U.S. Army Infantry School, U.S. Army Armor School and other Army organizations.
A reunion group at Synovus Park gets friendly with Fuzzy, peachy mascot of the Columbus Clingstones minor league baseball team. (Randy Mink Photo)
Fun Things to Do in Columbus, Georgia
Professional baseball just returned to Columbus with a new minor league team playing its first season at Synovus Park, a $50 million transformation of century-old Golden Park. Now home to the Southern League’s Columbus Clingstones, Double-A affiliate of the Atlanta Braves, the ballpark hosted various minor league and college-level summer teams over the years. The Legends Wall recognizes famous major leaguers who played there—stars like Babe Ruth, Ty Cobb, Jackie Robinson, Hank Aaron, Willie Mays, Mickey Mantle, Stan Musial, Ernie Banks and Randy Johnson.
The Clingstones are named after a type of peach, and the team mascot is a peach named Fuzzy. Food and drink items at concession stands include peach IPA beer, peach margaritas, nachos with peach salsa, and peach funnel cakes topped with peach compote and caramel sauce. For groups of 20 or more, a 90-minute, all-you-can-eat buffet can be arranged in luxury suites, picnic areas and venues like The Peach Pit and Coors Light Chill Zone, with prices from $20 a person, game ticket included.
Synovus Park offers a number of group experiences. For example, your group can make a high-five tunnel to welcome the home team onto the field and stand with the coaches and reserves for the singing of the National Anthem. Before the game, the group can parade around the field’s warning track. Each game features between-innings giveaways, contests and other audience participation activities.
Whitewater Express offers rollicking raft rides on the Chattahoochee River. (Photo credit: Columbus, Georgia Convention & Visitors Bureau)
For heart-pumping thrills on the Chattahoochee River, active groups will want to ride the rapids with outfitter Whitewater Express. Everyone is guaranteed to get soaked on guided two-hour raft trips on the world’s longest natural urban whitewater course. You’ll see turtles resting on rocks and abundant bird life, including geese, ducks and great blue heron. Paddlers can expect gentler rapids early in the day, but things get wilder mid-afternoon when the power company releases more water from the dam.
The same outfitter operates Blue Heron Adventure Zip Line, which sends harnessed riders gliding over the rapids at speeds up to 40 mph on their way to Phenix City, Alabama—and back to Columbus. It’s the only zip line between two states.
Next door to Whitewater Express and across from the 22-mile-long Chattahoochee RiverWalk is Banks Food Hall, where stalls dish up tacos, hot dogs, Asian fare and Italian ice, among other things.
Nostalgic buffs have a field day perusing the vintage cars, toys and lunch boxes at Columbus Collective Museums. Housed in a former tile and marble showroom/warehouse, the repository of pop culture antiques is described as eight museums in one, though most people would call it just one big museum. Of prime interest is the collection of some 2,000 lunch boxes, thermoses, trays and related toys. Those who grew up in the 1950s will remember the lunch carriers bearing the images of TV Western stars like Roy Rogers, Hopalong Cassidy, Gene Autry, Annie Oakley and the Lone Ranger. Cartoon-character lunch boxes portray Peanuts, Popeye, Superman, Batman, and Mickey and Minnie Mouse. Some of the duplicates are for sale.
Reviving childhood memories at Columbus Collective Museums. (Randy Mink Photo)
The lunch box museum was started in 1990 by Allen Woodall, a lifelong collector and local radio personality who went on to set up the other galleries six years ago. Displays also pay homage to Columbus’ roots in the soft drink industry, featuring rare Royal Crown, Nehi and Chero-Cola advertising signs and other memorabilia.
The automobile gallery showcases a 1898 carriage made by the Pontiac Buggy Company of Pontiac, Michigan, and a rare Chief Pontiac showroom statue used to promote Pontiac vehicles. Museumgoers also will find stashes of old radios, Elvis Presley lore and Tom’s Peanuts memorabilia.
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By Randy Mink
Lead photo – Blue Heron Adventure Zip Line. (Photo credit: Columbus, Georgia Convention & Visitors Bureau)
