10 historic places highlighted

It’s time for nominations for the city’s Most Notable Properties list and this article in the July 5, 2022 Columbia Missourian. The article highlights 10 properties already on the list. So what is the Most Notable Property list? Any property 50 years or older, with in the city’s corporate limits with architectural or historic features…

Sept. 14 Zoom webinar on Negro Leagues

This 7 p.m. Sept. event is free but registration is required. Here’s where you can register. https://shsmo.org/events/2021/african-american-experience-kendrick President of the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum Bob Kendrick will discuss the Negro Leagues, where Black baseball players were restricted to playing until 1947 when Jackie Robinson was signed to play the major leagues. Learn more here: https://www.loc.gov/collections/jackie-robinson-baseball/articles-and-essays/baseball-the-color-line-and-jackie-robinson/1940-to-1946/…

Coronavirus: Lessons from the 1918 Influenza Pandemic

If you’re like me, you’re concerned about ongoing coronavirus pandemic. I stay hopeful by looking at history and how we’re all pulling together by not getting together. Thanks CoMo businesses for curbside pick up! So what can we learn from the 1918 influenza pandemic, which killed about 150 people in Columbia, which had a population…

October launch of Bicentennial campaign

Put on your thinking cap and get ready to do your part toward making art to celebrate Columbia’s bicentennial. In October, the city’s bicentennial task force is going to launch a “One Word Project.” It will involve asking city residents to describe the Columbia in one word and those words will be put together to…

Three reasons lynching matters today

Lynching hit the news again in the Sunday, July 2, 2017 Columbia Missourian. The article relates that Missouri has the highest number of lynchings, 60, from 1877 to 1950 outside of the deep south. The headline calls lynching an old disgrace. I believe it is not a disgrace, it is a tragedy for three reasons….

Got ideas? Hall Theatre hits 100, faces uncertain future

History, like aging, isn’t for sissies. As this Aug. 28-29, 2016 article outlines, the Hall Theatre is facing an uncertain future as it hits 100. One man, Don Mueller, wants to do something about it. Now, the 1916 theatre is vacant. Owned by a Stan Kroenke firm, TKG Hall Theatre LLC, it has been vacant…

True losses from demolitions

Once again, historic houses look like they are slated for the wrecking ball, and the public has little recourse. Both Victorian houses at 1312 Bass Ave., and 1316 Bass Ave., have had demolition permits applied for, according to this May 6, 2016 article in the Columbia Missourian. So what can the public in Columbia, Missouri…