For the genteel among us, the Womans Building was built following a need to give women and children a better place to rest at the Missouri State Fair. The philosophy of the times dictated that women and children be segregated rather than encouraging family togetherness. The desire to improve conditions for women and children followed the popularity of the first one built at the World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago in 1893.
Full view of the current building. In the back and on the ground floor of the building is a museum of the history of the Missouri State Fair. And it’s also a little more like a basement and a good place to spend time during severe weather. There always tends to be at least one heavy storm during the fair each year. When you live across the highway from the fairgrounds for as many years as we have, you tend to recount these things pretty accurately.
Original cost is said to have been $30,000. An investment well spent.