A Few Sites in Central Missouri

Here are just a few items while we passed through the center of the state. The columns in the cover photo are at Westminster College in Fulton. They are all that remains of Old Westminster Hall, built in 1853 and destroyed by fire in 1909.

Shelter Gardens in Columbia

Is she being impish, or getting ready to pick her nose? Or both?

University of Missouri in Columbia

Thomas Jefferson, naturally, near his original grave marker.

After a fire destroyed Academic Hall in 1892, all that remained were these columns. Though the school originally intended to tear them down, a public outcry has left them standing since, and now they are an entrenched part of the campus. That’s right, *two* different sets of “only the columns remained after the fire” in this post!

Thomas Jefferson’s original tombstone. The obelisk was meant to mark his grave at Monticello, but after so many tourists chipped pieces off, his family donated it to U of M nearly 60 years after his death, for reasons not entirely clear.

Missouri State Capitol in Jefferson City

We knocked another state capitol off our list, our 6th — except we didn’t. The main thing we wanted to see in the building was the famous Benton mural, but it was behind locked doors on the day of our visit (some stupid excuse about state business being done in the room), so now we’ll have to go back someday. Grrrr.

Anyway, the capitol was “fine”, but nothing to knock your socks off. They had approximately a gazillion murals in public spaces, some of which shifted perspective as you walked past, so that was neat (the first few times).