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Labadie
Labadie, not far from the county line in Franklin County, is worth a visit. Still largely intact as a small town that dot Missouri, there are a few shops on the main street fronting the railroad...
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Adair, Revisited
I made it back out to the small hamlet of Adair, in eastern Adair County. It looks like there has been some work on the church, which is on the National Register. The cemetery is also mowed, and kept...
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Out in the Country in Adair County, Northeast of Kirksville
Driving the backroads of Adair County, one encounters signs of habitation in small clusters. More often, one is met with desolation. Abandoned barns, signs of the former agricultural legacy of the...
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Abandoned Farmhouse, Route J, Adair County
I couldn’t believe it; I came over the hill, almost to Route A, and there I saw it, sitting in splendid isolation. Still standing, period. Abandoned for decades, and last seen by me in the spring of...
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Pickler Memorial Library, Truman State University, Kirksville
I was always impressed how the 1993 major expansion of Pickler Library embraced the older structure, leaving it largely intact and viewable along its front from the long bridge spanned atrium of the...
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Old Kirksville High School, Rotting
One of my favorite memories of senior year of college in the spring of 2000 was when a large group of art students gained permission to stage a giant art show within the abandoned walls of the old...
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Post-Modernist Explosion, Kirksville
Wow, they didn’t build them like this back when I was at Truman.
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John R. Kirk House, Kirksville, Missouri
I found some old photos I took back in 1998 of the John R. Kirk House, the home of a former president of Truman State University. I lived across the street from it for two years, and even back then,...
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New Clark County Courthouse, Kahoka
Gotta love Post-Modernism, huh? Why, the new courthouse looks just as good as the old one! OK, I’m being sarcastic. I wonder how long this new one will last? By the way, for all of us sentimental...
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Kirksville, Revisited
Over thirteen years have passed since I graduated Truman State and left Kirksville and Northeast Missouri. It’s been almost exactly a year since I last visited, when I gave a series of lectures about...
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Containment Dome, Weldon Springs
A group of friends and I were in the neighborhood, so we headed out to the old Weldon Springs Munitions Plant, in southwestern St. Charles County. The history of the production of armaments, both...
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Fisher Cave, Meramec State Park
I’ve always been fascinated by the industry that occurred out in the countryside back in the day. The harvesting of guano, for the manufacturing of gunpowder, logically took place in caverns, and...
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Missouri State Capitol Dome
Based off of the dome of St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome, the Missouri Capitol is an amazing structure. The interior continues the same Beaux-Arts theme. The dome is similar to many Italian domes, such...
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Hill Above Downtown, De Soto
We explored the far southern Jefferson County town of De Soto recently, and found these stately homes sitting high up on the bluff above the main street in town. It’s nice to get out and see more wood...
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North De Soto
Heading down the hill, there are more houses, but the lavishness of the houses decreases. Still, there is this magnificent church above and this house below. Down in the valley between two hills are...
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Main Street, De Soto
The Arlington Hotel anchors the wide expanse of railroad tracks that cuts through the heart of De Soto. Depending on who you ask on the streets of De Soto, the hotel was built in the 1850s or 1860s in...
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Immaculate Conception, Dardenne Prairie
Founded in 1880, Immaculate Conception was a quiet, rural parish for over a century. But that changed as St. Charles County exploded in population, and while the old church is too small and has been...
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