We are 30 miles from Jefferson City, the Capital and 20 miles from Fulton, Missouri so we decided that our first tour will be in Fulton where we want to visit The National Churchill Museum.
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| It looks like Sir Winston is blessing Tony but from the plaque below we learned that - with a downward thrust of his arm, he was warning the world that "An Iron Curtain Has Descended". |
It was in 1946 when Winston Churchill and President Harry Truman visited Westminster College in Fulton for Churchill to deliver his famous "Iron Curtain" speech. Churchill was awarded an honorary degree from Westminster College the following day.
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| This is part of the Letter of Invitation sent to Winston Churchill by the President of Westminster College with a footnote of encouragement from President Truman. Just in case you cannot read the footnote, he wrote "This is a wonderful school in my home State. Hope you can do it. I'll introduce you. Best regards" |
The Museum is under the church and is quite remarkable because the exhibits are in bunker-like rooms. The sights and sounds of the war, especially the Battle of Britain in the skies over London and Liverpool, were quite frightening and very well done in the Museum. We watched and felt moved by the film "Churchill's Finest Hour" about Churchill leading Britain through WWII - it was narrated by world-renowned newsman Walter Cronkite.
The church was serene and peaceful - it is used by the students and faculty of the college but also for weddings and meetings by the people of Fulton.
Even the original prayer cushions were shipped over from London.
Another highlight is the sculpture created from a section of the Berlin Wall by Churchill's granddaughter, Edwina Sandys in 1990 to symbolize free passage from East to West.
Other great Leaders have given lectures at Westminster College, such as Margaret Thatcher in 1996 on the 50th anniversary of Churchill's Iron Curtain Speech and Ronald Reagan who dedicated the Berlin Wall sculpture in 1990.
We spent just over three hours in and around the Museum and were chuffed that we had learned of its existence as we thoroughly enjoyed ourselves.
Our tour of Jefferson City, named after the third President of the United States, Thomas Jefferson, started early the next day.
In the Capital City of Missouri, we hope to visit the Capitol Building, The Governor's Mansion, Arries Pizza Palace (recommended to us for lunch), the Lewis and Clark Monument and Jefferson Landing. As we drove into Jefferson City we saw the Capitol Building high on a bluff from the highway but as we got closer to the building we saw nothing but children, loads of them!!
It's a beautiful building that was constructed between 1913 - 1918 and is the fourth State Capitol for Missouri. The first was in St. Charles (1821-1826); the second moved to Jefferson City but was destroyed by fire in 1837; the third was erected on the grounds of this fourth Capitol but it got struck by lightning and burned down in 1911. The present building is constructed of limestone and is ten times the size of the previous one. The dome towers only 262 feet above ground level but 400 feet above the Missouri River. On top of the dome is a statue of Ceres, the Roman goddess of grain and agriculture - Missouri is a strong agricultural state.
Fortunately for us, all the children we saw were now leaving the building but when we asked about the next tour, the guide told us she was waiting for a group of 40 children but we could join them! We decided to do the self-guided tour and she suggested we visit the House Lounge on the 4th floor as there is a mural we should not miss. We thanked her and started our tour.
The first floor has the Missouri State Museum so we wandered through exhibits and read about:
Slavery in Missouri and The Changing Roles of Women during the Civil War. Just like Kentucky, Missouri was divided on the abolishment of slavery.
As we always look up, we saw the gorgeous ceiling in the rotunda and the outstanding stained glass in the House Chamber. The House and Senate are in session so the place is crowded.
Here is the House Chamber, legislators are sitting or standing around all talking it seems at once and when a vote is to be taken they rush back to their seats to press the appropriate button so their names light up on the board. While we watched and listened, we saw people wander out to get some lunch then bring it back to their desk - they didn't listen to the speeches on what they were voting for, weird!!
All around the second floor there are numerous busts of famous Missourians. We photographed only four: here is Betty Grable from St. Louis, Missouri; Ginger Rogers from Independence, Missouri; Bob Barker of The Price Is Right game show on TV, although he was born in Washington State he came to live in Springfield, Missouri when he was a young boy so is deemed a Missourian; and, Walter Cronkite (who narrated that film in Churchill's Museum) from St. Joseph, Missouri. The bust for Walter does not show that he died in 2009.
We made our way to the fourth floor to check out the House Lounge and were pleasantly surprised that the tour guide was there without the group of 40, aarrh! She was waiting for us to give us the 20 min presentation she does on the Mural. How nice is that?
The three of us sat in comfy chairs while the tour guide with her pointy light, pointed out numerous things about the mural. Firstly, the House Lounge was used by the legislators before they got their own offices and when the artist, Thomas Hart Benson, was commissioned in 1935 for $16,000 to paint this mural, that covers three walls, the legislators expected him to paint pictures of the politicians. Instead he painted "A Social History of Missouri" and when 18 months later in December 1936 the mural was unveiled, it was deemed controversial. If you look closely at the second photo of the mural you can see a women cleaning a baby's bottom and in the background to the left there is a slave- auction going on. The artist also included faces of people he knew, for example, there is a lawyer trying a case and the face of the lawyer is that of his father who was a lawyer.
We were very impressed with this piece of art that took eighteen months to complete.
As we left the Capitol building we noticed the many fountains which were interesting: the Fountain of Arts has four figures around the centre pillar - Architecture, a male, is the father of all arts; Sculptor, a male, has his chisel and hammer to free his idea from the encumbering rock; Painting, a female, has her palette and brush poised; and, Music, a female, holds her instrument as she catches the strains of harps in the distance. Wonderful!
The Fountain of Sciences has four figures around its central pillar - Geometry, a male, is the oldest and noblest of the sciences as he holds his compass and sphere; Geology, a male, is studying the crystals that he has broken; Chemistry, a female, holds her lamp of investigation as she studies her test tube; Astrology, a female, holds her astrolabe while gazing into the distant stars to read the horoscope of man.
This is the fountain of arts. The fountain of sciences can be seen in the first photo above of the Capitol building.
When we left the Capitol building we headed over to the Arries Pizza Palace that was recommended to us for lunch. It was crowded with twelve or fourteen people standing in line ahead of us. Fortunately, they were a large group or two so when we said there was just two of us, we were ushered to a table immediately. We enjoyed a buffet of Greek foods that included pizza and we were stuffed!!
After lunch we needed to get to the 1:00pm tour of the Governor's Mansion so we almost ran there only to find we were joined with a group of school children from a private school in St. Charles about 100 miles east of Jefferson City. Apparently, they started their day at 7:30 am this morning.
The four storey mostly brick Governor's Mansion was built in 1871 for a cost of $74,950. The top floor has dormer windows, decorative cornices and filigree iron with its geometric pattern. The Second Empire architecture is characterized by the slate tile mansard roof popular in the 1860s to 1890s. Thirty-five Governors have lived in residence here. The current Governor is Jay Nixon and his wife Georganne Wheeler Nixon.
We were welcomed by a volunteer guide dressed in period costume.
Here is the guide in a burgundy dress and here is Tony among the children.
The Mansion has portraits of all the Missouri First Ladies and here is an example of some portraits in the Hall.
This free-standing staircase (only attached to the wall) exemplifies the beautiful hand-carved, black walnut banister and balusters.
Some lovely sterling silver - here is a silver punch-bowl from the USS Missouri.
As ever, Lin is interested in the chandeliers and this one caught her eye. It is in the Library and can be pulled down to the table underneath it so you can have light while reading a book.
At the back of the Mansion is the Carnahan Memorial Garden that was named after Governor Carnahan when he died in 1930. This photo gives a wonderful view of the Capitol.
Here is the Lewis and Clark Monument in the grounds of the Capitol Building. The Monument pays tribute to the Group that scouted the Missouri River and found a viable route to the Pacific Ocean in June 1804. That Group includes Meriwether Lewis and William Clark, the expedition leaders; York, Clark's man-servant, George Drouillard, a French-Canadian Shawnee guide and translator, and, Seaman, Lewis' Newfoundland dog. Lin is patting the dog!
Our last tour was to the Jefferson Landing State Historic Site where two buildings still stand and are believed to be the oldest buildings in Jefferson City. Built in the late 1830s the Lohman Building is a three-storey limestone structure that was a combination Inn, Store and Warehouse, serving steamboat passengers. It now houses exhibits on transportation in the nineteenth century. We watched the film "Welcome to the State Capitol" again with hordes of children.
Here's Tony in the Lohman Building Museum
The other building in the Landing is the Union Hotel where the Amtrak station is located on the first floor. Upstairs is the Elizabeth Rozier Art Gallery but we didn't visit it because it was full of children screaming and shouting. No thanks!!So we went back to the Governor's Mansion where we had parked the truck and saw another load of children piling into the Mansion for the 3:00pm tour. We gratefully drove "home".
The next morning we left Columbia, Missouri heading to Texas but stayed overnight in Fort Smith, Arkansas. It unbelievably rained all day while we travelled to Fort Smith then it rained much of the day as we drove to Texas but once we crossed the Texan border, the sun miraculously came out and the temps went up from 50s F to the low 80s F. Now that's the way it should be.
We are now settled in the Shallow Creek RV Resort to get Harvey organized for his rest in his covered-storage place.
Just today we noticed the wonderful wild flowers of Texas on the side of the highway. Lin couldn't resist picking some and inserting them into a heavy book to press them.
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| Wild flowers of Texas |
This is the end of Our Blog for this time. We hope you enjoyed it as much as we enjoyed putting it together. We've had an amazing Adventure visiting four more Capital Cities and enjoying the sights and sounds each had to offer. But it is time to go home even if there is still snow on the ground!!
Bye for now.
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