Through the Years
The Gramercy, built in 1998, was one of the first apartment buildings in Town Center.
(By James M. Thresher -- The Washington Post)
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1963 Developer James W. Rouse announces he intends to build Columbia.
1964 Plan formally introduced to Howard officials, who are shown a three-dimensional model of Town Center, man-made lakes and the adjacent villages.
1966 Construction begins.
1967 The first residents of Columbia move into the Village of Wilde Lake, and Lake Kittamaqundi and Wilde Lake are dug and filled.
1967 Exhibit Center, Teachers Building and Merriweather Post Pavilion open.
1968 Phone book lists Columbia's first 1,000 residents.
1969 The Odyssey Restaurant opens in the Teachers Building in Town Center. It would ultimately be occupied by Clyde's restaurant.
1969 American City Building, or Two Wincopin, opens.
1970s
1970 Swatch of land cleared to make way for the mall. Symphony Woods, a 40-acre park in the middle of Town Center, is designated as permanent open space.
1971 The Mall in Columbia opens, with Woodward & Lothrop, Hochschild-Kohn and 80 of the anticipated 102 stores. A sneak preview draws thousands of residents for an old-fashioned bull roast in the parking deck.
1972 The Poinsettia Tree, conceived by a landscape manager for Rouse, was first assembled for the holidays at the mall.
1972 Town Center cinema and Cross Keys Inn, Columbia's first hotel, open.
