Tag: Northeast Missouri
Post-Modernist Explosion, Kirksville
Wow, they didn’t build them like this back when I was at Truman.
Old Kirksville High School, Rotting
Update: The high school was finally demolished in the summer of 2019. 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 Kirksville High School. There was…
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 addition. The sign saying Pickler Memorial Library was removed when the new bridge cut across and into the original structure. I also…
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 2000, I was shocked and pleasantly surprised to discover that the house has weathered the elements for the…
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 area, sit in weed-choked fields. Farming continues out here, along with ranching, but due to the greater efficiency of modern agriculture, less people are…
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 in general good condition. The town is not doing so well, as the abandoned country store…
Clark County Courthouse Demolition Embroiled in Controversy, State Lawsuit
Update: The courthouse was torn down and replaced with a new building by 2012; the cupola was saved and now sits in the backyard of the courthouse. The Clark County Commissioners consented to a judgment on April 10, 2014, agreeing to repay $20,000 of the $57,500 grant they had received from the State of Missouri…
Kahoka Courthouse Threatened with Demolition
Update: The courthouse was demolished and replaced with this building. In January of 2011, then-Missouri State Attorney General Chris Koster sued the Clark County Commissioners for demolishing the courthouse after having been giving a historic rehabilitation grant to renovate the old building. The Clark County Commissioners consented to a judgment on April 10, 2011, agreeing to…
Diminished Victorian, Kirksville, Missouri
The cruel irony of this house surviving demolition is that it has been relegated to a shadow of its former self. Stripped of its Victorian Period details, it exists as a stump, a fragment of its original sumptuousness.