The Herald Building
1020 E. Broadway
E.W. Stephens, Walter Williams, and the Missouri School of Journalism are all famous in Columbia. They have in common this fantastic Victorian-style commercial building, built for E.W. Stephens’ Columbia Herald newspaper and the associated E.W. Stephens Publishing Company. Many thousands of books were printed here, along with local newspapers, school yearbooks, and law records for several states. In 1900 this was the largest private employer in the City of Columbia. The ornate clock tower once held a steam whistle that not only told the time, but communicated the weather forecast. Walter Williams was first hired by Stephens to be the editor of the Columbia Herald and it is likely here that plans were made to create the world’s first school of journalism. Later the building was home to the first location of Slackers Games and is now mixed use, with business on the first floor and apartments on the second.
The building was designed by Morris Frederick Bell (1849-1929). One of Missouri’s most prolific architects, Bell has been called “Missouri’s Institutional Architect” because of the large number of structures related to organizations or institutions such as hospitals, school buildings, correctional facilities, and monuments. He designed Jesse Hall and most of the buildings on Francis Quadrangle. The Herald Building was constructed in 1892, the same year of the Great Fire of Academic Hall that so famously resulted in The Columns on MU’s campus.
This is the largest Victorian-style commercial building in Downtown Columbia. The bell tower was removed in the 1970s, but the clock survived and someday may be restored to its former glory.
