COLUMBIA PUBLIC SCHOOLS

Thomas Hart Benton Elementary School, 1410 Hinkson Avenue, 1927. It was named to the Notable Properties List in 2004.

Frederick Douglass School, 310 N. Providence Road, 1917. The school was placed on the National Register of Historic Places on Sept. 4, 1980. In 2011, it was named to Columbia’s Most Notable Properties List, according to this Feb. 15, 2011, Columbia Missourian article. In 2016, the school was slated for $6.10 million in renovations according to this June 17, 2016, Columbia Daily Tribune article headlined, “Renovations begin at Douglass High.” The work was to be completed by August 2017.

Field Elementary School, 1010 N. Rangeline. Named to the list in 2007, it closed its doors as a public elementary school on Dec. 18, 2009. The school was named for Missouri native Eugene Field, an author known for the children’s poem “Wynken, Blynken, and Nod.”

Ulysses S. Grant Elementary School, 10 E. Broadway, 1911.

Keene School — 4713 Brown Station Road, built ca. 1915. Style: Vernacular.  Now used as a home, this began as a two-story brick schoolhouse, with living quarters for the teacher on the second floor. It was added to Columbia’s Notable Property list in 2004.

Locust Street Expressive Arts Elementary School, 1208 Locust St. The school was formerly named for Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee. The Columbia Public School District Board of Education renamed it May 2018, according to this July 5, 2020 Columbia Daily Tribune article. The 1934 school was built using federal New Deal funds. Such projects were funded in an effort during the Great Depression to put the unemployed to work building public projects, according to a Columbia Daily Tribune article published Feb. 3, 2014. The school was named to the Notable Properties List in 2014, according to this Columbia Missourian article dated Jan. 31, 2014 and headlined, ” Lost history: Fairview Cemetery reflects buried history “

Jefferson Junior High School, 713 Rogers, 1910. It was the high school prior to the construction of Hickman High School. It was named to the Columbia Notable Properties list in 2003, according to this June 18, 2003 article, headlined List honors historic sites in Columbia.

COLUMBIA COLLEGE (FORMERLY CHRISTIAN COLLEGE)

Columbia College has four buildings on Columbia’s Notable Properties list. Here is a 2001 document, The Gates of Change 1851-2001, a Friends Special Sesquicentennial Issue, with some interesting history. Note: The information about J.W. “Blind” Boone’s mother is incorrect. The information instead refers to the mother of John Lange, his manager.

The four buildings on Columbia’s Notable Properties List are Williams Hall, St. Clair Hall, Launer Auditorium and Missouri Hall.

Williams Hall was originally started in 1848 as a home for Dr. James H. Bennett, a leading Columbia physician, according to information provided by Columbia College as a part of the nomination process. “Williams Hall is the oldest college building in continuous use for educational purposes west of the Mississippi River,” according to the Columbia College Web site. Once used as a music building, the building has housed administration and faculty offices and classrooms. According to this August 2017 article in the Columbia Business Times, the building houses faculty offices and classrooms.

STEPHENS COLLEGE

1100 E. Broadway, South Campus Historic District. 1841-1941. While not on Columbia’s Most Notable Properties list, it is on the National Register of Historic Places. A 2017 Historic Preservation report by Deb Sheals notes, “The Stephens College South Campus, which was the former estate of Oliver Parker, is the oldest part of campus; the Parker house and acreage were purchased for school use in 1857.  The district was listed in the National Register of Historic Places in 2005, for significance in the areas of Education and Architecture… Stephens College is one of the oldest women’s colleges in the state.” It grew out of the 1833 Columbia Female Academy, became the Baptist Female College in 1857 and was renamed Stephens College in 1870, in honor of early patron James Leacham Stephens, Sr.

1200 E. Broadway, Lela Raney Wood Hall, 1938. Gothic Collegiate. Named to the Columbia Most Notable Properties list in 2000, the building is described in a 2017 report by Deb Sheals as the second building built “on the Middle Campus of Stephens College, which was developed in the late 1930s and early 1940s.  Like the school’s South Campus, the Middle Campus was designed by the architectural firm of Jamieson and Spearl…  Almost all of the Middle Campus buildings have red brick walls with accents that include limestone trim along shaped and crenellated parapets, as well as prominent stone quoins… The interior features the Kimball Ballroom, a two-story space described in one school history as “large enough to accommodate 400 couples.”  A recent major rehabilitation included extensive work on the ballroom, which has been heavily used throughout its history,”

Stephens Stables were named in 2010 to the Most Notable Properties List by the City of Columbia Historic Preservation Commission. The main stable was built in 1936 and another stable was built in 1952, according to this video, Columbia’s New Historical Properties – Feb 15th, 2010.

Stephens College has five buildings on the Columbia Historic Preservation Commission’s Notable Properties Lists.

• Firestone-Baar Chapel at 1209 E. Walnut St.
• Senior Hall, 100 Waugh St., built prior to 1841.
• Lela Raney Wood Ballroom, 6 N. College, built 1938.
• Firestone-Baar Chapel, 1209 E. Walnut St.
• Stephens Stables, 203 Old 63, added to the Most Notable Properties List in 2010.
• Gordon Manor, built in 1823, burned to the ground shortly after being named to the list

A building that is not on the Notable Properties list recently made the news: the President’s House. Built in 1926 by then-Stephens President James Madison Wood, the house was home to a long line of college presidents until the previous president, Wendy B. Libby took over in 2003. The house has been vacant since then, but current Stephens College President Dianne Lynch has announced plans to renovate the house funded through a $400,000, “Home Again” campaign. According to reports, as of Feb. 5, $220,000 has already been raised for the project.

The home, located on Locust Street, between Waugh Street and College Avenue, is an opportunity to ponder history. When it was first built, it had a “sleeping porch,” a place where people would sleep during the heat of the summer. The sleeping porch has since been enclosed, but it gives us an opportunity to appreciate the boon of Missouri summers – air conditioning.

Here are links to media coverage of the plans for the home and virtual tours of the house:

First, see inside the house via this virtual tour.

UNIVERSITY OF MISSOURI

The University of Missouri-Columbia was established in 1839. It was the first state university established west of the Mississippi River.

18 University buildings were placed in 1973 on the National Register of Historic Places as the Francis Quadrangle Historic District. Known as the Red Campus due to the red brick used throughout. Also known as the Quad, it is bound by Conley Avenue and Elm, Ninth and Sixth streets. This NRHP nomination form notes, “is significant as the oldest, most monumental expression of the quadrangle type of campus planning in the state.”

Starting in 1998, Columbia’s Historic Preservation Commission began recognizing historic buildings and endorsed the historic significance of 11 university or university-affiliated buildings by adding them to its Notable Properties list.

Francis Quadrangle

• Jesse Hall, 1895, named to the National Register in 1973 and to the Notable Properties list in 1998
• Parker Memorial Hospital, 1901, now known as Parker Hall, was named to the National Register in 1973 and the Notable Properties list in 2000.
• Pickard Hall, 1892, named to the National Register in 1973 and the Notable Properties list in 2001.
• Swallow Hall,  1901, named to the National Register in 1973 and the Notable Properties list in 2002.
• Switzler Hall, 1892-93, named to the National Register in 1973 and the Notable Properties list in 2003.
• The Memorial Gateway, 1890-1915, named to the National Register in 1973 and the Notable Properties list in 2005.

Other MU Historic Buildings

• Sanford Conley House, 1868 circa, named to Columbia’s Notable Properties list on 2002
• Kappa Kappa Gamma Society, 1928-1968, 512 Rollins Road, Columbia’s Notable Properties list in 2012.
• Ellis Fischell Cancer Center, 1940, named to Columbia’s Notable Properties list in 2004.
• Sigma Alpha Epsilon Fraternity, 1902, 24 E. Stewart Road, 2004, named to Notable Properties List.
• Phi Kappa Psi Fraternity, 2010, named as a Columbia Notable Property.
• Schlundt Building and Annex, named to Columbia’s Notable Property list.
• Pi Beta Phi Missouri Alpha Chapter House, 1930, 511 E. Rollins St. Named to Columbia’s Notable Properties list in 2013.

Other MU buildings mentioned in the news

MU Student Center

• August 2014 — Flashback: Brady Commons, Columbia Business Times. Summary: Brady Commons was the former student center. Opened in 1963, it was named for MU dean and history professor Thomas Allan Brady. According to this article in the Columbia Business Times, which quotes a Missouri Alumnus newsletter, it featured “innovations including color televisions, downstairs bowling alleys and a listening room in which students could play records.” The previous building that served the purpose of student center was the Memorial Student Union, which was built in 1921. But when MU’s student body increased to 15,000, MU “conferred with architectural firm Jamieson, Spearl, Hammond and Grolock and son had blueprints for the future Brady Commons,” the article states. Brady Commons was renovated in 1981 and a bookstore expansion took place in 1997, the article states.  The current student center opened in 2010 is simply known as the MU Student Center. The article notes the name Brady “attracted controversy in 2006 when a student group called Not My Brady called for it to be removed. According to this group, the building’s original namesake had been instrumental in enforcing segregationist and anti-gay policies over the course of his 37-year career at the university.”
• April 2, 2009 — New student center name debate dredges up Brady’s past, The Maneater. Summary: This article provides context to statements that Thomas Allan Brady was homophobic and racist. It reports that statements attributed to him were him quoting another person and another statement referenced the fact that in 1947 MU was legally segregated and in 1949 and during Brady’s entire lifetime, homosexuality was illegal by law in Missouri.