Finally - the Missouri State Penitentiary has been nominated to the National Register of Historic Places.
The 100-plus acre site with nearly 160 years of history drew more than 20,000 visitors last year. Owned by the state, it's been eyed for a variety of redevelopment ideas since before it closed in 2004.
A programmatic agreement signed in June 2010, which allowed for several targeted demolitions through the Community Development Block Grant program, required a National Register nomination to be completed.
Nearly five years later, the State Advisory Council will hear the nomination at its May meeting. If approved, it will be sent on for final approval at the federal level.
The city's Historic Preservation Commission reviewed the lengthy nomination, prepared by the Camilla Deiber with Louis Berger Group, Inc., at its regular meeting Tuesday.
"I was surprised; I would have thought it would have been listed on the National Register a long time ago," said Commissioner Kevin Kelly.
Although pleased to receive the overall nomination, the commission was concerned about the limited scope of the nomination's focus.
The rough draft nomination for the Missouri State Penitentiary Historic District suggested the prison site was eligible under only two of the four areas of significance - associated with significant events and embodying distinctive construction.
The commission members emphatically agreed the site also is significant on the other two counts - associated with significant people and the property could yield important historic or prehistoric information.
Commissioner Mark Schreiber, whose books were cited throughout the nomination, named a few people connected with the prison, including Emma Goldman and Kate Richards O'Hare, Sonny Liston, Pretty Boy Floyd and James Early Ray.
Beyond the site's own history, it was the steamboat landing site for Union troops in June 1861 beginning the Civil War-long occupation of the Capital City. The federal troops also took over the wagon factory and other facilities at the prison, Schreiber said.
The commissioners also were concerned about the period of significance ending in 1963, before the 1974 integration or the 1989 opening of the state's second maximum-security prison.
The commission directed Schreiber and staff liaison Jayme Abbott to draft additional comments to be attached to the nomination.
The City Council will review the nomination at its Monday meeting.
In other business, the commission:
• Found no adverse affect would come from a sidewalk reconstruction project in the 200 and 300 blocks of Marshall Street.
• Reviewed the energy-efficiency improvements application for 217 Ridgeway, built in 1960.
• Appointed Art Hernandez and Doug Record to attend the state Certified Local Government Forum Friday.