From Hannibal, the road lead west to Monroe City with 2 early new deal schools, both interesting and designed by Bonsack & Pearce out of St. Louis.  The elementary school burned in 1936 and both this and the segregated black Washington School were submitted as WPA projects.  Both were designed by Bonsack & Pearce and constructed by Epple Const. of Columbia in 1937.  Despite overcrowding, the black Washington school would not have been constructed with the WPA assistance.  Washington School operated until 1963 with the integration of the schools.

 

        From Monroe City, I travelled south to Mark Twain State Park, which was constructed to a large degree by the CCC company 1743, an all-black company in the late 30's.  There are rock walls, shelters, and the road system in the park.  The rock work is still excellent and has been maintained. 

        Back north, I went to Palmyra with its post office and the mural by James Penney depicting "Memories of Marion County", including a flood with a for sale sign to the right, Tom Sawyer, Huck Finn, and Joe dominating the center on a raft going down the Mississippi River, and a newspaper advertising for 2 run-away slaves. 

 

         Up Hwy 61, Canton, MO has possibly the last of the Missouri post office murals that I will photograph, a work by Jessie Hull Meyer, "Winter Landscape" showing the town of Canton and the Mississippi in the background and horse-drawn sleds in the foreground.  The colors enhance the feeling that it must have been bone-chilling cold.

 

        Cross country to the west, Edina and the Knox County courthouse was next up constructed in 1935, with art deco elements as well as simple classic columns.  Far to the west was the Sullivan County courthouse in Milan constructed in 1939 and then back to Shelbina.  Shelbina had 3 sites that were closely related, but different.  A Lake was constructed by WPA in 1941 along with a park on the east side of the lake with some shelters and other recreation sites.  On the west side of the lake, a 9-hole golf course was built, a nice surprise.  Originally, it had sand greens to economize on the cost.  Few if any WPA golf courses were constructed in Missouri.

 

       It was then back to Columbia.

The latest trip went to the northeast of Missouri and briefly into Illinois.  Due to the mileage and number of sites I planned to see, the day started early at about 6:00.  Going into the sun isn't always a great idea, but I was able to get a good pic of the early morning on I 70.

Its really a pleasure driving into a scene like this in the early morning.  It was on to Mexico for the airport east of town (a possible site), and then to Vandalia Lake, a peaceful spot and some of the most concentrated mosquitoes I have run into.

        The Vandalia post office was next with a mural by Joseph Vorst depicting the corn harvest.  It seems nostalgic today, and is, but shows how the harvest was done at that time.  This can still be seen in the Amish country north of Columbia, east of Clark.

 

        From Vandalia,  the road lead to Louisiana, MO, home of Stark Brothers nursery as well as former governor Stark from the 30's.  The town has seen better days, but there are some beautiful old homes Victorian and earlier.  I was in search of the RR Rowley Annex to the old high school and received the necessary help from 2 walkers.  It was at the top of the hill on 5th street and is no longer a school, run-down at least on the inside, though the exterior seems intact with bas reliefs at the entry and a cornerstone.  It is attached physically to the main old high school building.  Although I'm sure there are many issues with this particular building, it is a shame to allow a building such as this to get to this point. 



 

          There was a quick trip to Clarksville to the Lock and Dam 24, retracing my steps back to Louisiana with a pic of the old treatment plant(?new deal), then on to Pittsfield across the Champ Bailey Bridge into Illinois.  The Pittsfield post office has a view of the Champ Bailey bridge by William Schwartz.  He was a Chicago who did several PO murals and was on that cusp between representational and abstract (particularly cubist) art.  The color palette he used is typical of this time in his life.  Another pic of the bridge in the present shows how little has changed.

 

           Although I try to stay on blue highways on these trips, time necessitated that I take 36 west to Hannibal for the largest number of concentrated new deal sites.  The Mark Twain museum next to his boyhood Hannibal home is a brick structure and has a wall to the north between the home and the previously surrounding homes for fire prevention.  On to the most interesting stop on the road to Lover's Leap south of town off of 79.  There is an abandoned park with rock work remaining and a dedication to the "People of Hannibal for clean and wholesome recreation.  It was wildly overgrown, but retained at least some charm.

 

           The old Hannibal Armory was constructed of rock quarried locally and also used to construct the walls of the adjacent baseball field that is presently used for minor league teams and the high school "Cavemen".  During WWII, the baseball field was used to house German prisoners of war and the townspeople would watch them from a viaduct just to the east.   A Mark Twain memorial lighthouse was constructed on Cardiff Hill and is still there, but was rebuilt after a tornado destroyed it in the 60's.  The design is exactly the same as the original WPA design. 

 

 



         Levering Hospital was originally constructed with at least 3 additions, the 2nd being a PWA construction.  Currently it is a long term facility.  Hannibal High School was constructed in 1933, possibly with some new deal funds, but that requires confirmation.

         I'm off for the rest of the trip in another blog.