Railroad lines crisscrossed the area now known as the Vista throughout most of the 19th and 20th centuries. This awning was part of the freight loading platform of the Seaboard Railroad line. This thriving shipping business sent goods such as grain, lumber and mostly cotton from across the state to the coast to be exported. Many rail workers would have been African American, living in the Ward One neighborhood, which stretched between Gervais and Blossom Streets. This vibrant, working-class neighborhood was full of small wooden houses, shops, and churches and was home to a large percent of the cities’ Black population until it was largely demolished in the 1960s and 70s to clear the way for large buildings for The University of South Carolina and the City of Columbia.