WARRENSBURG — The University of Central Missouri will host a second Historic Campus Tour and Ghost Buildings of the Great Fire on Sept.24-25, as part of the sequential celebration.
The tour will begin at 6:30 p.m. at the McClure Archives and University Museum in James C. Kirkpatrick Library, Room 1470, on the main campus in Warrensburg.
The event is free and no ticket is required. There will be one tour per night.
Participants will embark on a campus tour viewing and learning more about the history of the institution and its many buildings.
The tours will conclude at the quadrangle, where there will be a presentation and “footprint” installation of UCM’s campus before the fire in 1915.
This includes an outline on the ground of where buildings of the past once stood and projections of archival photos on the exterior walls of quadrangle buildings to provide a glimpse of how the institution appeared more than a century ago.
Sesquicentennial Committee Chair Amber Clifford-Napoleone, professor of anthropology and director of the McClure Archives and University Museum, will lead the tour and discuss the installation from the steps of the Administration Building.
“We’re going to be taking a slightly different route across campus and we now have a sound system on the quad so Dr. Luehrman can talk about his installation when the tour gets there,” Clifford-Napoleone said.
Mick Luehrman, chair and professor emeritus of art, will conduct the installation with assistance from Jeff Yelton, associate professor and coordinator of anthropology at UCM, and his students.
Founded in 1871 as the State Normal School for the Second Normal District, in the early morning hours of Saturday, March 6, 1915, a massive fire destroyed the institution’s four-story “Old Main” along with the Science Annex, auditorium and Training School.
Dockery Gymnasium and Normal’s Powerhouse were the only two campus buildings spared from the flames.
Despite this setback, classes were back in session by Monday morning, March 8, in borrowed rooms across town.
Refreshments will be provided at the event by the UCM Alumni Foundation, Warrensburg Convention and Visitors Bureau, Warrensburg Main Street and the Warrensburg Chamber of Commerce.
For more information about upcoming university events, visit facebook.com/mccluremuseum/events/?ref=page_internal or call (660) 543-4649.
For more information about the Historic Campus Tour and Ghost Buildings of the Great Fire, contact Clifford-Napoleone at clifford@ucmo.edu or call (660) 543-4649.
