Academic Hall

Academic Hall was built between 1840 and 1843 from plans drawn by Stephen Hills, designer of the first Missouri State Capitol in Jefferson City (which only lasted from 1837 until burning in 1840).

Missouri was a border state, and Columbia was a town that had many citizens of southern ancestry, so the university area fell under the eye of the federal government.

The Union troops caused other destruction on campus as well, and the board of curators, with Congressman James S. Rollins as their representative, sued for damages.

On Saturday evening January 9, 1892, Academic Hall fell victim to a disastrous fire, rumored to have been caused by the first electric light bulb west of the Mississippi River.

[2] The Athenaeum Society was to give an exhibition in the chapel of Academic Hall, and as the audience began to assemble, a small blaze appeared around the base of the central chandelier.

A hole was immediately cut in the floor of the main library above, and water was turned on from the pressure system installed when the elevator was put in.

A leading Columbia citizen by the name of Jerry S. Dorsey led a protest their removal, and stated "the Columns could not be pulled down by a herd of elephants."