According to the United States Census Bureau, the town has a total area of 0.5 square miles (1.3 km2), all land.

Tyrrell County's boundaries originally stretched westward from Roanoke Island to near present-day Tarboro.

Elizabethtown, later renamed Columbia, was established on the banks of the Scuppernong River in 1793, and became the Tyrrell County seat in 1799.

[1] Somerset Place State Historic Site, a representative antebellum plantation dating from 1785, is located near Columbia.

It was also home to more than 300 enslaved men, women, and children of African descent whose lives and work are interpreted here as well.

Somerset Place offers an insightful view of plantation life during the antebellum period.

Due to Columbia's proximity to the Outer Banks, land and property value have increased dramatically since 2000 and with that the local demographics have also changed.