Guitar Mansion, dubbed Confederate Hill in the 1940s, at 2815 Oakland Gravel Road is going up for Absolute Real Estate Auction on October 18, 2010. A viewing day is slated for Sept. 18, 2010. An absolute auction means whatever the price is when the gavel goes down, that what the house will be sold for. Some…
Category: Historical Homes
See Historic Home Online – Guitar Mansion/Confederate Hill
I love technology, especially when it helps us see beyond our usual small corner of the world. Technology can even help us appreciate historic sites, such as this antebellum home at 2815 Oakland Gravel Road in Columbia, Missouri. Here’s a link to a video tour the David Guitar Home at 2815 Oakland Gravel Road, built between 1859…
College buildings, museums, bed and breakfasts
Look around your home. Could you imagine it as a museum, a bed and breakfast — or a college building? Probably neither could Oliver Parker, but that’s exactly what happened to his house. Today, it’s part of Stephens College’s Senior Hall. Here is a mini-tour of the historic homes in Columbia that are no longer…
Houses of Missouri
A beautiful book, Houses of Missouri, 1870-1940, was published in 2008. While I love this book — it is, after all, about historic homes — I wish it had included even a single home in Columbia, Missouri. Of course, a writer always has to leave something out; there really never is enough room for everything,…
Keiser Avenue? Today it is Wilson Avenue
Historic homes can tell us more than just about buildings and architecture. Sometimes they can tell us about our culture and our past fears. Today, anti-immigration sentiment against Mexicans is making the news, but in the past, Germans bore the brunt of such negative feelings. The Walter and Helen Guthrie Miller home is at 1516 Wilson Avenue, built circa…
Built by a cabinet maker’s apprentice – Taylor House – 716 W. Broadway
If you’ve driven past the Taylor House Inn at 716 W. Broadway, you’ve driven by a piece of history nearly forgotten today. No, it’s not contained in the 1909 Colonial Revival home itself, although that is impressive, especially after its $1.3 million renovation in 1999 by Deborah and Robert Tucker. It is the fact that…
John William “Blind” Boone – 10 N. Fourth Street
The home of John William “Blind” Boone at 10 N. Fourth Street is a perfect example of history that could have been lost, but for the efforts of dedicated volunteers and public funding. The residence of an African-American pianist who played and composed ragtime and classical music and resided in Columbia until his death in…
Black History – Annie Fisher, 2911 Old Highway 63 South
Nearly hidden between apartment buildings is a piece of Black history — the home of Annie Fisher, an early African-American entrepreneur. Located at 2911 Old Highway 63 South, this home is threatened with demolition, but that would erase a piece of history few know about. The house was named to the Columbia Notable Properties list in…
Spanish Influence – Vessell Home – 2 East Stewart Road
It can be easy to forget history, but historic homes serve as wonderful reminders. That’s the theme of the article, “Historic Home: A Slice of Spain,” published in the April/May 2006 Columbia Home & Lifestyle magazine written by Jim Muench. The home at 2 E. Stewart Road looks like something that could be found in Spain…
Greenwood Heights – built by slaves
Historic homes can be our touchstones to history, some of which we like to recall and some we’d like to forget. Greenwood Manor or Greenwood Heights at 3005 Mexico Gravel Road was built by slaves owned by Walter Raleigh Lenoir of Lenoir, North Carolina. That city was named for Lenoir’s father, who fought in the…
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