Effort underway to save historic Katy Station from demolition
COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)
A former Boone County commissioner and magazine publisher is working to save the historic Katy Station from demolition in downtown Columbia.
Former Boone County Southern District Commissioner Fred Parry launched an effort on Facebook to try to save the building, arguing the historic structure is an integral part of Columbia’s history.
“I think that it’s important for us to look at surrounding communities like Fulton and Fayette and see how they have preserved history in their communities. We can learn a lot from those communities,” Parry told ABC 17 News. “We don’t have to tear down buildings to make them better. We can restore buildings and repurpose them, and it’d be nice if we could adopt that mindset here in Columbia.”
Katy Station, located at 402 E. Broadway, was added to the Columbia Historic Register on Jan. 29, 1979. The building originally served as a depot for the Missouri-Kansas-Texas Railroad.
“For a long time the Katy station was a gateway to our community, and that was the first impression that people had of Columbia, Missouri. It also speaks to the history of our community where transportation was involved,” Parry said. “One of Columbia’s greatest assets is the fact that we’re so accessible by highway, by river, by train, and it’s just a rich part of Columbia’s history that really we don’t think a lot about these days.”
Parry told ABC 17 News that more than 600 people have signed up to support efforts to save Katy Station since he launched the campaign.
The property is currently home to Shiloh Bar and Grill, which has operated at the location for nearly two decades after relocating from South Sixth Street in 2009.
In early September, the longtime Columbia staple announced on Facebook that the upcoming college football season would be its last. Owner Nic Parks later confirmed to ABC 17 News that the bar will close in December.
Parks said the closure is tied to the landlord’s plans to sell the property and alluded to a potential buyer’s plans to redevelop the historic Katy Station building.
Despite the Katy Station Building’s historical significance, the Historic Preservation Commission told ABC 17 News that nothing currently prevents the property from being demolished. The city can impose a 45-day delay on demolition to allow for further discussion, but beyond that, there are no additional protections in place.
One way for the city to provide additional protections for a historic building is through a zoning regulation known as a historic overlay, which places specific restrictions on a property or area to preserve its historic character. However, the Historic Preservation Commission said there is no historic overlay in place for the Katy Station Building.
Parry said most residents who have joined his effort are sensitive to the private property rights of the building’s current owner. While Parry acknowledges the owner likely has a buyer, he hopes members of the community can come together to make a counteroffer and prevent the historic station from being demolished.
“We think that the contract price on the building was between $5-and-$6 million. I think we as a community could raise that kind of money and preserve that building for a long time to come,” Parry said. “I think the best plan is to find a single private buyer or organization or entity that would want to save this building for historic reasons and keep it a public structure if possible, or if not, just an adaptive reuse where the building could be used for a new purpose and still maintained and preserved for years to come.”
While Parry said ideally a wealthy person or corporation would buy the building, he said other options could include a GoFundMe campaign. However, having the city purchase it is not one of them. Columbia recently saved the McKinney Building and was part of the efforts to save Wabash Station. However, Parry believes the city should not be expected or encouraged to buy Katy Station.
“I think if you ask the citizens of Columbia how they want their tax dollars spent, they’re going to tell you that they prefer that we invest it in infrastructure and we invest it in public safety,” Parry said. “We wanted to sort of remove this from the conversation that being publicly funded, because I believe the vast majority of citizens see much higher priorities for tax dollars.”
Parry has already partaken in similar preservation projects, including renovating the “Inspiration Home,” a house built in 1914 for John Thomas Mitchell, a prominent Columbia banker, and his wife, Belle.
“The house was in pretty poor condition when we bought it back in March, but we have spent the last six months restoring the home and bringing it back to its original grandeur and making it better than it was,” Parry said. “This is a great example of how a community can come together and save a historic structure and preserve it without costing taxpayers a dime and showing that we’re proud of our heritage here in Columbia and that we want to find ways to protect it.”
ABC 17 News has reached out to the city.
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