This website is owned, operated and written by local historian and journalist Dianna Borsi O’Brien.

Using published resources, this site provides information about Columbia’s people, places and events. This website has been providing information on Columbia’s history since 2010.

I am the author of the 2021 Arcadia Press book, Historic Movie Theaters of Columbia. Find it in Columbia at Skylark Bookshop, Yellow Dog Bookshop, Bluestem, Boone County History & Culture Center, the State Historic Society of Missouri’s book store and Schnucks.

I’m also a volunteer with CoMo Preservation, a nonprofit helped found in 2022. CoMo Preservation‘s mission is to preserve the historic architecture of Columbia, Missouri.

I fell in love with writing about Columbia’s history in 2010 when I wrote my first preservation piece about the city’s Notable Properties List — and realized that history, economics and business intersect.

This site offers information from news reports, government sources such as those of the Columbia Historic Preservation Commission and the National Register of Historic Places and other valid, verifiable sources.

WHAT’S ON THIS SITE?

• Blog posts about events, people, places, things I think will be interesting or important to my readers.
• Links to published articles.
• Links to reports and documents such as information from the Columbia Historic Preservation Commission and the National Register of Historic Places documents.
• It covers buildings, organizations and specific history topics such as Black History, with a link to all the information about the 1923 James Scott public lynching.

WHY SHOULD I TRUST THIS SITE? As a journalist, I include citations about the source of the information. If you spot a mistake, let me know and I will correct it.

WHERE DOES THE INFORMATION ON HERE COME FROM? The information on this website is from a variety of sources, including the city of Columbia’s Historic Preservation Commission. Please note: This is an independently run website. It is not affiliated, associated or endorsed by the Historic Preservation Commission. For more information the Columbia’s HPC, go to the HPC’s official site here.

Notable Properties: This website began with a list of the  Columbia Most Notable Properties designation by Columbia’s Historic Preservation Commission.

The Most Notable Properties listing began in 1998 when the Historic Preservation Commission (HPC) began naming properties to the list each year except for 1999. Properties named to the list must meet three criteria:

• Within the city limits;
• 50 years old or older;
• Feature architectural or historical importance either through historic features, who lived there or how it was used.

National Register of Historic Places: The website includes places in Boone County on the federal National Register of Historic Places. To learn more about the properties on the National Register of Historic Places, go to this website.

I’m glad you’re here and I’d love to hear from you about Columbia’s history!