PRINTThe faces of Broadway
Throughout Columbia’s history, Broadway has been downtown’s main stage, and the street’s future looks to be just as interesting as its past.
Illustration by Elise Catchings
Facing east at the intersection of Broadway and Eighth streets. Photos courtesy of the Western Historical Manuscript Collection-Columbia and Anne Shifley
November 19, 2009 | 12:00 a.m. CST
Correction: In an earlier version of this article, Warren Dalton Jr. was misidentified as an MU history professor.
When Warren Dalton Jr. moved to Columbia to attend MU in 1935, people parked their cars in the middle of Broadway.
To say Columbia has seen a few changes since then is a definite understatement. Although people no longer park in the middle of the street, Broadway still looks very similar to the way it did 74 years ago, says Dalton, a Columbia resident.
The red granite columns and intricately carved limestone capitals of The Pasta Factory are classic ...
Built in 1921, the Haden Building, originally Boone National Savings and Loan, is now home ...
Built in 1917, the McKinney building on Fourth and Broadway is the only surviving example ...
Built in 1917, the McKinney building on Fourth and Broadway is the only surviving example ...
In 1968, concrete canopies were added to Broadway’s storefronts. The goal was to unify Broadway ...
With thick, cream-colored terra cotta that pops against dark textured brick, the Miller Building, which ...
For Jennifer Perlow, the removal of the concrete canopy above her newly leased, soon-to-be art ...
For Jennifer Perlow, the removal of the concrete canopy above her newly leased, soon-to-be art ...
Simple yet elegant, the flat-roofed single-story Hetzler building was built in 1916 and is an ...
Commonly known as the Cool Stuff building, the Metropolitan Building at 806 E. Broadway was ...
Boone County National Bank shows how scale can help cohesiveness between the old and new. ...
Deceivingly modern looking, the skylight in the 900 block of Broadway was only recently re-exposed. ...
An example of Beaux-Arts Classicism, Columbia’s Howard Municipal Building has also been called “Capitoline Hill.” ...
The ongoing addition to the Daniel Boone-County City Building is an example of New Urbanism. ...
In many ways, exploring the history of Broadway is like discussing someone’s life. Although the street’s basic genetic makeup has remained consistent through the years, the character of Broadway has changed according to the trends and times. Like wrinkles, the buildings’ facades wear a hodgepodge of architectural styles ranging from Beaux-Arts to Art Deco.
But as is often the case, time also helps create a more solidified whole, and Broadway is no exception. Somehow, this mishmash of old and new gives the street a personality all its own.
Architectural historian Elizabeth Hornbeck has dubbed this patchwork “unified eclectic.” Classical columns and terra cotta accents co-exist with modern lines and current renovations, and yet everything fits together like an unconventional jigsaw puzzle.
Certainly, this puzzle will morph as plans for the future of Columbia are implemented and trends evolve, but Broadway’s core will endure. And for future generations of Columbians, it remains likely that when they see pictures of present-day Broadway, the street will still hold the same sense of familiarity for them that it does for Dalton.
PAST
Since the beginning, Broadway has been the heart of Columbia. By 1821, the fledgling town moved closer to the water source of Flat Branch Creek and subsequently began clustering around a young Broadway.
In the 1860s and 1870s, the street’s distinctive brick style began to form and replace the original wooden-framed tinderboxes that were prone to fires. These Italianate commercial structures were the first step in Broadway’s meandering architectural history and are still visible in the upper stories of many of today’s buildings.
Italianate construction was a primary Victorian style in the U.S., and most of the pre-20th-century buildings have smatterings of Victorian elements. Built in 1870, the building that houses PS: Gallery is a perfect example. The round-arched windows and tin cornices, and the narrow windows and ornamental hoods of the 900 block are yet another visual reminder of Broadway’s architectural roots.
“The beauty of Columbia, I think, is in the old buildings, their cornices, the curved windows; you can’t even buy the glass anymore that’s in some of their windows,” Dalton says. “The new buildings don’t compare.”
At the turn of the century, more elaborate buildings began to emerge with the Neoclassical and Beaux-Arts styles. Two prominent examples of these can be seen in the columns of Boone County National Bank and the sculpted stonework of the Howard Municipal Building.
Throughout the early 1900s and into the 1930s, terra cotta became the most dominant architectural detailing and can still be seen on many of Broadway’s buildings. Also by this time, large-scale construction along the street was beginning to slow, and Broadway began a new stage of life.
With the 1940s and the end of World War II came an urban population boom. Building fronts were covered in efforts to modernize, and attention to architectural styles took a backseat. Because downtown was created as leasable space, new owners continuously remodeled, says Stephen Bourgeois, a local architect. The once-19th-century Victorian face of downtown was transformed, and much of the street’s original personality was hidden or removed.
The peak of this evolution came in 1968 when the city decided to canopy Broadway’s storefronts. In an effort to keep up with the popularity of retail malls, these hefty concrete structures were meant to make the street look more unified. During this period, a structural division began between the first and second levels of many buildings. While the storefronts would shift their look with each decade’s style, the upper levels were for the most part neglected and forgotten.
PRESENT
Although Broadway’s canopies remained a source of controversy throughout their existence, they weren’t removed until almost 40 years after they were installed. In the summer of 2006, as part of a citywide restoration effort, the era of the canopies came to an end.
To replace the eyesores but maintain continuity, some businesses have opted for canvas awnings, creating what Columbia artist Joel Sager describes as “classic Americana.” The same year the canopies came down, Sager used Broadway in a series of paintings, specifically focusing on the downtown awnings that he believes make Broadway hang together in a small-town America way.
Several downtown business owners were apprehensive about removing the canopies, but it made a huge difference in revealing the architectural details of downtown that were formerly hidden, says Tony St. Romaine, an assistant city manager.
Suddenly, Broadway’s historical and architectural accents, such as the teal and yellow terra cotta tiles above Cool Stuff and the pressed metal at several buildings’ highest cornices, were once again visible to those strolling down the street.
While removing the canopies revealed hidden treasures, it also emphasized the division that occurred between the first and second levels of many buildings. On the corner of Ninth and Broadway, Tellers Gallery & Bar boasts a bright, clean brick that contrasts sharply with the fat, white blocks of the second story. But even with these reminders of Broadway’s canopy years, a semblance of cohesiveness endures.
One reason for Broadway’s odd sense of consistency is size. Although architectural styles have differed over the years, similar scale was kept with any new building, says Brian Pape, a local architect. The scale of the Broadway strip is fairly small. Walking down the sidewalk, storefronts are at eye level and buildings typically aren’t more than two or three stories. Experiments downtown are not bold, and when new architecture has appeared, the buildings have held their own in character and substance, Pape says.
Part of this character is the interaction a building has with viewers and its environment, says Kathy Miller, co-owner of Columbia Associates Architecture. Depth is one way to provide this interactive feeling. The indented space of shops (Envy, American Shoe) along the 800 block of South Broadway creates some movement for passersby. “If you do have buildings that overhang, you still want to have a space that draws you in,” Miller says.
Many of the older buildings use this combination of spacing and architectural detailing most effectively. Because of this, the city wants to preserve as well as establish “uniformity in the canopies, brick and materials to match what it was like at the turn of the century,” St. Romaine says. Interaction, space and size are integral factors in the plans for Broadway’s future.
FUTURE
New Urbanism is a trend sweeping small towns across the country, Pape says, and Columbia is no different. To accommodate the movement back to downtown areas, New Urbanism has less to do with style and more to do with how pieces fit together to make an appropriately scaled and more active urban core.
For Columbia, growth is inevitable, says Nick Peckham, a local architect and member of the Downtown Leadership Council. Acknowledging this, a number of organizations, including the Downtown Leadership Council and the Historical Preservation Committee, are now focused on how the city and downtown should best approach future growth.
Many of the city’s plans revolve around high-density building. The goal is to promote “walkability” by focusing on multi-use buildings, more downtown residences, pedestrians and the elimination of surface parking lots, such as the multi-story parking garage currently under construction at the corner of Fifth and Walnut. This will push people to park and walk to their destination in hopes that they stay downtown and mingle, St. Romaine says.
Currently, the city is renovating three government buildings. The Gentry Building and the Howard Municipal Building have already been renovated, and the capstone of the tri-building revamp is the Daniel Boone City Hall, which is set for completion at the start of 2010. With a public plaza, the renovated City Hall will follow the New Urbanism philosophy.
In the midst of such growth, there still remains an emphasis on balancing any development with the extensive architectural history that defines Broadway, and Columbia in general.
“It is important to preserve buildings that are rich in vitality, to augment them and put them on display,” Bourgeois says. Ensuring they fit in with their surroundings and that they always remain part of the context is most vital, he adds.
Interestingly, this whole urban shift is not too different from the purpose of traditional downtowns of the 1800s. With no cars, amenities needed to be close, and buildings were usually taller than a single story because people often lived above them.
“Going back to a point in history and keeping a sense of its character” gives a building longevity, Miller says. Although Columbia has been quite effective in such historic preservation, it’s still a challenge in the dense center of Broadway.
So, as the Broadway corridor is gradually restored to a new sort of original and is intermingled with an authentically preserved past, there is no definite idea of the streetscape’s future aesthetics. But if history has shown us anything, it’s that Broadway will never lose its identity — it will only continue to mature.
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