Vista District

The Vista is Columbia's main restaurant and arts district, running along Gervais and Congaree Streets between the State House and the Congaree River. The neighbourhood occupies converted warehouses and 19th-century commercial buildings, with a mix of galleries, theatres, restaurants, and bars that makes it the most walkable part of the city for visitors.

The Columbia Museum of Art is at the Gervais Street end of the Vista. The Nickelodeon Theatre screens independent films, and the South Carolina State Museum is at the river end. Several of the better restaurants in Columbia are concentrated here — the area is most lively Thursday through Saturday evenings when the university crowd fills the bars.

things to do neighbourhood
A story
The Vista occupies what was once the main commercial district serving the railroad depot and a cluster of grain and cotton warehouses along Gervais Street. After the railroads declined and the warehouses emptied, the area sat mostly derelict through the 1970s and 1980s before artists and restaurants moved in during the 1990s. It is now one of the better examples in the South of a former industrial zone successfully converted into a cultural and dining district.