University Missourian. [volume] (Columbia, Mo.) 1908-1916, 1908-10-26
Y yHERE the North meets the South
VI i'm Architecture" is the title OF
a tMo-na illustrated article bY

VI in Architecture" is the title o
w two-page illustrated article b!
irs. F. H. Seares, of Columbia, il
Beautiful Homes" for October. Th'
magazine, Beautiful Homes" is publish
ed by the Lewis Publishing Company
st. Louis, and edited by Mrs. Thomas
Lafon. Some extracts from Mrs. Seares
article follow:
Across the center of the quadrangle
at the University of Missouri there
stands in simple, classic dignity row
of old colonial columns. This remnant
of an academic temple presents strik-
ing object of interest to the casual visi-
tor and may be taken by the more ser
ious inquirer as representative OF the
very spirit of the place.
Upon a pedestal of green terraces, the
exclusive meeting place for upPper-class-
men, these six, tall columns rear their
solid shafts to figure in Missouri song
and story as the exponents of all the
collegian's affection for his Alma Mater.
Not one among the seniors found
lettering near them upon warm even
ing but has his fantastic tale about
The Columns He will, however, re-
serve for the trustful freshman the
story that they are the tombstones OF
past university presidents, and court
eously tell the stranger the history OF
"old academic hail."
Sentiment Saved Columns.
Erected in ls4l, occupied during the
civil war as federal barracks and prison.
this stately building was destroyed in
1891 by fire which left safely standing
nothing but the columns of it's colonial
porch.
A practical administration, unmind-
full of the need which college students
have of objects around which to twine
ordered the columns razed
With the remainder of the ruins. But
sentiment prevailed. And though the
'loping campus was cut down, around
hem to make level quadrangle, though
heir brother stones were used in the
oundations of new buildings, the old
remained, with only the broken
olutes upon their capitals to connect
hem with the fire.
The grading and filling which was
one to make room for a group of new
uildings in 1891, left terraced upon
svel with the peristyle, the presidents
ouse on one side, and on the slOping
round to the west, the old agricultural
uilding. The new quadrangle was
lade to include these two members of
ne old university and to surround on
lree sides the now cherished columns. ;
ut here the architects thought for the
den times seems to have ended. To
axe so large level space upon the
oping site, the university must, of !
,cessity, ignore the street grades of the G
tile town which had so generously t
elcomed it. The original relation which c
e university, as expressed in its form t
main building, bore to the town is a
It, however, entirely lost. Through the p
zen north end of the quadrangle vista il
the quiet, stately past may still be {
EN-. Here a double row of elms, reach o
g from the main entrance toward the Il
lumns, forms the continuation of a g
y street at whose opposite end stands
handsome colonial courthouse. This
ilding, with it's Doric porch, balances =,
e ruins of old academic hall in -,
leme which once broadly united town =,
d gown. l.,
It is, perhaps, in these well-propor- +
ned, old county cOurthOuses that the -
'st appropriate use of the southern i,
onial architecture is to be found. "a
e design of the classic temple or pub ~,
building, worked out so carefully by .,
lerations of Greeks, lends itself well .,
the plan of a meeting place for the -,
al population, where farmers ex- -;
nged their goods, sold slaves or trad 80
horses, and listened to the stump
eches of their orators" ,
Ior was the classical style less ap- q,
priately used as the chief feature ho
the surroundings of the old univer Oh
:, whose intellectual ideal was that !.
the forum rather than of the fireside H.
We may, perhaps, question its use in 10,
nestle building; and yet this Mis- 60,
ri town, which once marked the most -;
,hern point reached by the influence ,.r
The old south, still shows residences
ch suggest the public nature of those h,
les of 'the southern planters who -,
er the Virginia dynasty once ruled ,ro
nation"
hese beautiful old houses with their
e two-story galleries are contem- 90,
lneOus with the courthouse and the
INNS. But older still, and more un- -.
II as examples of early nineteenth orn
ury architecture, are two interest -,