On January 10, 1910, the University Missourian reported Columbia citizens had experienced a lack of electricity for parts of the previous three nights due to a broken value and demand for electricity outstripping the power plant’s capacity. The city’s first power plant was built less than twenty years earlier in 1892 by the private company Columbia Water and Light. The company was founded after a massive fire (see yesterday’s post)

On January 9th, 1892, the greatest catastrophe to ever transpire in Columbia occurred when an extraordinary fire at the University of Missouri consumed Academic Hall. Far more than a building was lost, but through heroic effort, a few artifacts were saved. The disaster nearly resulted in the university moving from Columbia. Instead, a renaissance occurred through the leadership of a few men, and an act of profound historic preservation gifted the school and city their most iconic symbol.

On January 8, 2000, legendary local historian Alan R. Havig died at age 79, after contributing a massive body of work about American History. His over 50 year long association with Stephens College, first as a professor, then college archivist, made him not only a primary source of information about that institution, but a beloved teacher and Columbian. He joined the Stephens College faculty in 1967 after receiving is M.A. and Ph.D. in American history from the University of Missouri. He taught American history, American studies and popular culture until his retirement in 2005. Upon which he became College Archivist for over 10 years. The Stephens College Archives, were located in the basement of Tower Hall on the North Residential Quad. One of the most prominent buildings on campus, Tower Hall, opened in 1938, and continues to be a dormitory in 2023.

On January 7, 1949 the Associated Press reported that four Columbia men had been sentenced by the Boone County Circuit Court for “homosexual activities.” A fifth man, Emery Kennedy Johnston, had already been sentenced. E.K. Johnston, a professor, who had been acting dean of the Missouri School of Journalism, was charged with being the leader of a “homosexual ring” based out of his home in the Frederick Apartments on University Avenue.

On January 6, 1916, a new library building at the University of Missouri was dedicated. Known as Ellis Library since 1972, it was the first building on campus built specifically as a library. The main entrance fronted Lowery Street (now Lowery Mall). The library and Lowery Mall are the central, connecting link between the older Red Campus surrounding Francis Quadrangle, and the younger White campus marked by Memorial Union.

On January 5, 1926, the internationally renowned pianist J.W. “Blind” Boone announced his retirement in an interview with the Columbia Missourian saying, “I am going to retire and live in the happiness I have wrought from others and in a final pursuit of those stray tones which I have not yet found in life.” Boone spoke publicly about retirement as early as 1921, but the Missourian interview was published after special New Years Eve performances on both KFRU, a radio station only a year old, and Stephens College Radio. Boone, who was rarely in his hometown for New Years, would keep a busy January schedule.

On January 4th, 1971, the Columbia Public Library opened at a new location on the corner of Broadway and Garth. Six days earlier library patrons moved the book collection by hand, forming a “book brigade” that stretched over half a mile from the previous location at Broadway and 7th Street in the Gentry Building. The effort to establish a library for the citizens of Columbia has a long history.

On Jan. 3, 1905, the Pratt Family (George, Georgina, J.K., and Charles) registered the addition of eighteen large lots to the City of Columbia in what is now known as the East Campus Neighborhood. The Pratt Addition is a small, but early, part of the East Campus Neighborhood, notable for it’s early twentieth century suburban architecture.

On January 2nd, 1862, the 2nd Missouri Cavalry Regiment, commonly known as “Merrill's Horse” arrived in Columbia and pitched their tents on the University of Missouri campus. Merrill established a permanent Union headquarters in Academic Hall, whose six columns famously survive in the middle of Francis Quadrangle, a National Historic District.

On January 1st, 1871, the Columbia, Missouri Herald newspaper was first published by Edwin William Stephens. In 1892 the Herald Building would be erected on the southwest corner of Hitt and Broadway. In 1904 it was Columbia’s largest business and employed 100 people.