The ties between Columbia and New York City predate even the College's founding as King's College in 1754.  Fifty years before King George, II of England granted the royal charter which designated "The College of the Province of New York, in the City of New York...known by the name of King's College", one early proponent wrote to the Anglican church "New York is the center of English America and a fit place for a Colledge". 

The College welcomed its first class in the summer of 1754.  Located in a vestry room in a school house at Trinity Church, in what is now part of Lower Manhattan, the first entering class consisted of eight students and one faculty member, colonial scholar and Anglican minister Samuel Johnson-who was also the first President of the College.  He presented to his students a curriculum of 13 subjects designed to fulfill the tenets outlined in the royal charter of providing "for the Instruction and Education of Youth in the Learned Languages and the Liberal Arts and Sciences".  By the fall of that same year, Samuel Johnson's son William, who would eventually become a member of the Constitutional Convention and future president of the College, joined his father as a temporary instructor.

Over the next six years King's College would hire its first regular faculty member, graduate its first class of five bachelor degree candidates in a commencement ceremony held at St. George's Chapel, and establish a campus at Park Place on a three-acre site presented to the College by Trinity Church.  This campus continued to welcome students up to the start of the American Revolution.

By 1763 Samuel Johnson had retired and was succeeded as president by Myles Cooper, an Oxford trained minister and staunch royalist.  As the Revolutionary War began 1775, President Cooper was chased from New York by patriots and boarded a British frigate back to England.  Commencement was cancelled.  Alumnus and recently ordained minister Benjamin Moore became the acting president but by 1776 classes were suspended due to the war.  The campus was seized and put to use as a military hospital, first by the Continental army and then by the British during their occupation of Manhattan. 

While most trustees, students, and faculty sided with the crown, a number of them, including Alexander Hamilton, John Jay, Gouverneur Morris, and Robert R. Livingston became important figures in the founding of America. 

John Jay and Alexander Hamilton were instrumental in the reopening of the College in 1784.  Chartered by the New York State Legislature as Columbia College, the new charter declared it the "mother college" of the University of the State of New York.  Three years later a new charter was issued which established Columbia College in the City of New York, reverting the College to its previous status as a privately governed college serving New York City, with a board of trustees as its governing body.  The charter was amended slightly in 1810 and remains in force today.

In 1857 the College moved once again, this time to a site on Madison Avenue which had previously housed the Deaf and Dumb Asylum.  It was at this location in 1860 that intercollegiate sports began at Columbia with a baseball game against NYU.  By 1870 football had been added to the roster of intercollegiate sports as was crew in 1873.

By 1892 the School of Mines, the College of Physicians and Surgeons, the School of Nursing, The School of Library Service, the School of Architecture, and the Law School had been established, as had the precursor to the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences.  Affiliated institutions Barnard College and Teachers College also opened their doors during this time period. 

It was at this time Columbia acquired land in Morningside Heights which had previously housed the Bloomingdale Insane Asylum, one building of which still stands and currently houses Maison Francais. In 1893 the architectural firm of McKim, Mead, and White begin the designs of the Morningside Heights campus.  In 1896 Columbia College in the City of New York is renamed Columbia University in the City of New York with the undergraduate school retaining the name Columbia College and in 1897 the Morningside campus opened its doors. 

Changes in the world were reflected at Columbia throughout the 20^th century. The modern science of anthropology and the foundation of modern genetics were established at Columbia and in 1919 the first course of what would eventually become the Core Curriculum was offered.  This course, at the time titled War and Peace Studies, was created as a direct response to the events of World War, I.  By the late 1930 and 40s Columbia had become the birthplace of FM radio and the first North American site where the atom was split.  During this time students studied with faculty such as Jacques Barzun, Mark Van Doren, Lionel Trilling, and I. I. Rabi, to name only a few.  The 1950s saw a number of leaders of what would become the Beat Generation pass through the gates of Columbia including Allen Ginsburg and Jack Kerouac. Columbia established the Student Homophile League, the countries oldest gay rights advocacy group, in 1966 and the Black Student Organization in 1973.  In 1983 Columbia College became the last Ivy League school to admit women.

In many ways the histories of Columbia and New York City are intertwined.  Columbia students have the benefit of the small collegiate town feel of Morningside Heights as well as access to one of the most vibrant and diverse cities in the world.  New York City continues to serve as an extended classroom for Columbia students proving that New York is indeed "...a fit place for a Colledge".