West Broadway district placed on national register

COLUMBIA — The West Broadway Historic District is the most recent local addition to the National Register of Historic Places, gaining official recognition on April 27.

Local historian Debbie Sheals wrote the nomination for the listing. Sheals said the application took a lot of work, including research on the original builders and owners of every house in the district. She called it a “labor of love.”

The historic area includes 50 homes, all built between 1902 and 1953, according to a previous Missourian article on March 15. 

“I think it’s fabulous,” Sheals said. “They’ve been working for a long time to get it on the national listing.” Sheals has lived in a house on West Broadway for about 20 years.

She said some of the houses are on their second or third owners since being built in the early 1900s.

Other historic districts in Columbia that have been nationally recognized are Downtown, North Ninth Street, Francis Quadrangle and the East Campus neighborhood.