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News Brief

July 25, 2025 |  By: Gavin McGough

The Centennial Celebration Committee is planning a grand birthday for two landmarks

Missouri Theatre

Photo courtesy: AlconsAudio.com

The 'City Beautiful Movement' flourished in the early twentieth century across the US, and particularly in the Midwest. Architects and planners looked to uplift their cities with grand buildings and landscaped streets. The movement hit St Joseph about a century ago, and two important works of architecture celebrate their centennial in 2027: City Hall and The Missouri Theater.

The Centennial Celebration Committee is planning a grand birthday for the two landmarks. Committee Chair Lori McAlister says the committee isn't waiting until 2027.

McAlister says, " There's just so much to talk about and to learn about both of these buildings that we didn't want to try to cram it all into a couple of weeks or a weekend. But we did want to give people an opportunity to get better acquainted with both Missouri Theater and City Hall."

Earlier this week, a program highlighted the Missouri Theater. Tomorrow, you can learn about City Hall and the City Beautiful Movement in a talk led by Max Guenther, a local architect. He will present at the Downtown Library at 1:00 P.M. McAlister says there will be more opportunities upcoming. The committee is also putting together a scrapbook for the centennial.

 McAlister adds, "We want to encourage anyone that has a favorite memory to share, an old photograph or a new photograph, a poem perhaps. We would just love to collect everyone's impressions of these buildings and their experience of these buildings and put them together in a book that we will then publish in 2027."

Submit yours or learn more by emailing celebrationseries2027@gmail.com.