FIRST - Buildings Constructed - Confederate Home - Higginsville, MO - First of its Kind on Waymarking.com

County of site: Lafayette County
location of site: 1st St., inside Missouri Confederate Memorial State Historic Site, Jct. MO-213, busi. MO-13, & MO-20, 2 miles N. of Higginsville
Marker erected by: Missouri Department of Natural Resources, Division of State Parks

Marker Text:
Cottage Row
Among the first buildings to be constructed at the Confederate Home of Missouri were the small frame houses making up Cottage Row. These three-room cottages were located along both sides of this road on lots 100 x 200 feet. It was not uncommon to see vegetable gardens and fruit trees in the yards. The cottages were occupied by veterans and their spouses who were physically healthy enough for independent living.

The Daughters of the Confederacy provided furnishings for the first four cottages in 1891 at a total cost of $395.05. In return they were permitted to name the cottage; Missouri's Confederate Generals John S. Bowen, William Y. Slack, Mosby M. Parsons, and Henry Little were honored in this manner. The ladies of Knox County, Mo., in recognition of a contribution they had made, were given the opportunity to name a fifth cottage. It was named in honor of General Martin E. Green.

Of the original 15 cottages only one survives and now serves as the site administrator's residence.

Confederate Chapel
The chapel was built in 1892. A contemporary wrote succinctly "At the south end of the street or avenue, stands a neat frame chapel built by the ladies of Lafayette County at a cost of $1,200, where preaching service is regularly held." In 1913 the chapel was moved to a more central location to accommodate an aging resident population. Sixty-Five years later, when threatened with destruction by the expansion of the mental health facility, it was moved again to its present location, which approximates the original. The Perceptor, Xi Chapter of Beta Sigma Phi Sorority was instrumental in this endeavor.

[Photos used on the marker were provided to the Missouri Department of Natural Resources by the State Historical Society of Missouri, Columbia.]

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