The house at 121 West Blvd., North, often called the Fairy Tale house or the Gingerbread house, is once again for sale. This recent article, “Famed Columbia gingerbread house on the market again,” gives a brief outline of the house and its recent history. Best of all, it does not repeat some of the urban…
Tag: Dianna Borsi O’Brien
Hidden high-rise highlighted twice
Here in 2015, there’s lots of talk about whether downtown Columbia should sport so many high-rise apartment buildings, but in 1910, another high-rise faced a different kind of problem — a shortage of steel. The Guitar Building — which has nothing to do with guitars — at 28 N. Eighth St. was spotlighted in the…
Bungalows and local couple celebrated for historic preservation
The bungalow-studded neighborhood on Hubbell Drive and Lucy and Hugo Vianello will be celebrated at a free event set for 6:30 p.m. May 11, 2015, to highlight historic preservation in Columbia, Missouri. The event, sponsored by Columbia’s Historic Preservation Commission, will be held in the historic Missouri Theatre — the building that Hugo and Vianello…
The history behind The Blue Note building
Yes, you’ve heard right: Richard King is selling The Blue Note at 17 N. Ninth St. But this former “movie palace,” won’t be going the way of other movie venues in downtown Columbia, Missouri. These two articles, “Richard King sells The Blue Note, Mojo’s,” and “Richard King passes torch, sells The Blue Note, Mojo’s.” The…
It’s a park, it’s an airport, it’s a Stephens training location
All history can become hidden, but it is sometimes it seems especially true for women’s history. This Stephens College blog post article spotlights a sign that was discovered during a demolition of an old building at Cosmo Park that revealed a bit of women’s history that probably has been nearly forgotten. The post outlines the…
Historic homes + facts = amazing stories
I love historic homes because inside of them — inside every home — is a story. No need to add color, make anything up, each house offers a tale worth telling. The aptly named “Fairy-tale” house at 121 West Blvd., North is no exception. But until last year, the story got one big fact wrong….
Tips on making the past present
It is so easy for the past to slip away, a building gets a new tenant, a new use or a new name and bingo! The past is gone. But in Cape Girardeau, Lindsey Lotz, a Southeast Missouri State University, has created posters to bring history into the present for four downtown buildings. The buildings…
Gawkers: Opportunity knocks
‘Tis the season — for home and garden tours. Each day, my inbox is flooded with releases about historic homes, via my Goggle alerts. Now, it’s filled with announcements for tours and it gives me an opportunity to bemoan Columbia’s lack of annual historic home tours. Sure, we have the Kitchens in Bloom, a tour…
What’s an LP and why should we clean it?
When I was in high school in the 1970s, the newest music technology was an LP, short for long-playing record. It was a big improvement on the 45 rpm (revolutions per minute) record that only played for a few minutes and then had to be replaced with another record if you wanted to listen to…
The big business of bricks
Bricks once meant big bucks in Columbia, Missouri. In 1908, The Edwards Brick Co., invested $50,000 — $1.3 million in 2012 purchasing power according to MeasuringWorth.com — and employed 40 men, producing 25,000 paving bricks a day. The big buck investment was cited in Brick, Vol. 29, published in October 1908. By the time the…
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