Columbia City Council approves purchase of Kirklin Home
COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)
The Columbia City Council on Monday night approved the purchase of the Kirklin Home at 107 Switzler Street.
The measure was unanimously approved with the rest of the consent agenda. The property was the home of Henry Kirklin, a famous horticulturalist in the early 20th century, city documents say.
Christina Smith and Martin Smith agreed to sell the property to the city for $91,000, according to the council memo. The property was appraised at $89,000 in February, documents state. The city intends to preserve the landmark for public use.
Council documents say the house was built for a formerly enslaved couple a few years after the Civil War. Kirklin was also born a slave, documents say. Kirklin’s mother, Jane Kirklin bought the lot in 1870. “The house appears to have been built for her and her husband Jacob Kirklin soon after, probably in early 1871,” according to the council memo.
Henry Kirklin inherited the house in 1878 and ended up owning most of the current block, which was developed into a successful commercial garden, city documents say.
“By the early 1900s, the house on Switzler Street was the operational center of his garden business, and most of his customers came to him. The garden featured cutting-edge technology, including a man-made pond that irrigated all parts of the garden via a piping system designed and installed by Kirklin,” city documents say.
Kirklin won a medal at the 1904 St. Louis World’s Fair and was a delegate at the National Colored Men’s Business League in 1913, the memo says. He’s recognized as the first Black instructor at the University of Missouri, according to the memo.
