Trivia night: Columbia Public Library is turning 100!

Columbia Public Library is turning 100 and as part of the celebration is holding a trivia night at 7-8:30 p.m. on April 7. Get your teams of two or four together and enjoy a fun night with book nerds and fans of history & the library. Here’s a link to a Facebook notice about the…

Hidden Black History: Calvary Cemetery

One of the reasons I founded this website is I thought history was being forgotten or overlooked. After nearly a decade, I still find myself being surprised — like when I found this information about Calvary Cemetery, an African American Cemetery established in 1929. It’s another example of how recent institutional racism has existed. A…

4713 Brown Station Road – Home and Education

Can a building changes its stripes — or it’s purpose? Keene School is currently a home, but it started out life as a one-room schoolhouse. Take a peek inside via this Zillow link. What buildings do you know that once functioned as something else and are now used for another purpose? Keene School was auctioned…

Podcast: Black history and the Battles

Did your doctor tell you to get more exercise like mine did? Here’s a 30-minute podcast that will give you time to walk and insight into Missouri’s Black history and even some insider information on two educators well known in Columbia, Eliot Battle and Muriel Battle. Full disclosure: Trevor Harris, who created this podcast, is…

Got bricks? Columbia’s past quarries

Did you know that Columbia used to be home to several brickworks and quarries? Not just the one that still operates on Creasy Springs Road, but several others. The Boone County History & Culture Center is looking for old bricks. In 2014, I was privileged to interview the now late Liz Kennedy whose family owned…

Vote – map or list?

History friends, would you rather see a list of historic properties in Columbia or see them on a map? Vote below. Take a peek at a map created by the City of Columbia’s Historic Preservation Commission via this link: https://gocolumbiamo.maps.arcgis.com/apps/webappviewer/index.html?id=94cb16f1ef6b48adbb89c642d023619e&fbclid=IwAR1aEM0EWHzueD0bSq9WK2ASq5x9_4Is0HEKMke8BFHBH49IW9bHB1SpNyg You can find an in-progress list of places on the Places page of CoMoHistoricPlaces.com.

Columbia’s Notable Properties

Take a walk through history with this database created by architectural historian Deb Sheals for the city’s Historic Preservation Commission. It is part of the city’s Most Notable Historic Properties program, which began around 1998 and has named properties to the list every year except for 2016, 2018, 2019, 2020. The presentation notes the program…