Stephen’s Publishing Building, Broadway and Hitt Street
Stephen Bybee
Columbia, MO
2011
I have passed by the Stephen’s Publishing Building many times while walking on Hitt Street and have always been magnetically attracted to its sense of mass and to the dynamic relationship I perceive between its smooth brickwork and its rough-hewn stonework. This image, taken on a warm summer night in August 2011, captures that relationship by focusing on the southeast corner of the building, conveniently illuminated by a streetlight on Hitt. The brickwork on this building is in incredible condition considering that it is now more than 130 years old, and the detail on the cornice is lovely…especially at night. Constructed in 1892 on the corner of Hitt and East Broadway, this handsome brick structure originally housed the Columbia Herald Newspaper and the E.W. Stephens Publishing Company. Looming majestically over Broadway the front of this building is emblazoned with a rising sun architectural motif, while the northeast corner once featured a multi-faced clock tower. As beautiful as the front of this building still is, I have always been infinitely fascinated by this particular corner of the long east wall. The incredibly rich detail of peeling paint on the bracketed cornices atop the wall, the deep and shadowy indentations on the hand chiseled stone lintels made ever more fascinating by the chiaroscuro quality lent by the single streetlight on this otherwise dark stretch of Hitt Street…all of these visual elements draw my eye and imbue this corner with a distinct artistic, historic and architectural presence The building originally featured a clock tower, since removed, and a brass weather whistle, giving downtown Columbians a fair estimation of ensuing weather at least once each day. Rumor has it that when the whistle was removed from the Stephens Building in 1925 it was transported to the relatively new municipal power plant on the north side of Columbia where it still resides today…alas, no longer whistling.