Missouri Life Magazine

03/20/2025

The small, rectangular windows in this image were designed to allow visitors to see the city of St. Louis from the crest of the Gateway Arch. Workers would have peered out of these windows after taking the colossal climb up the emergency stairwell as the Arch was being built between 1963 and 1965.

To read more about how the Arch was built, check out our story: https://missourilife.com/the-man-behind-the-fan/

📸 The State Historical Society of Missouri

03/18/2025

Our thoughts and prayers are with our friends in Poplar Bluff, Piedmont, West Plains, Arnold, Rolla, and every other community impacted by the recent severe weather across Missouri and across the region. You can stay up-to-date with relief efforts from Convoy of Hope and find out how to help at the link below.

Convoy of Hope is responding to the tornado outbreak across Missouri, Arkansas, Mississippi, and Illinois. Several teams are en route to the impacted areas with relief supplies.

03/12/2025

A handful of photos by our friend from his photo essay “Quiet Places” in the 2023 March/April issue of the magazine.

03/10/2025

Amongst towering trees, green gardens, and expansive horse barns, a mansion built over a century ago still sits nestled into the Lee’s Summit countryside. Longview mansion was constructed under the direction of Kansas City lumber baron Robert Alexander Long in just eighteen months from 1913 to 1914. It was called the “Rural Versailles” by The Kansas City Star shortly after its completion.

After Longview Mansion, their country estate, was built in 1914, they spent their time between their two beautiful homes, Corinthian Hall, their city home (now the Kansas City Museum), and Longview.

The estate, along with over fifty of its surrounding buildings, was said to have been built specifically with Robert’s horse-loving younger daughter, Loula, in mind. Robert said Loula’s first sentence was, “Please buy me a pony,” and their city home was not suitable for horse riding and training, making her passion difficult to pursue. Wanting to foster his daughter’s love of horses, the Longview Mansion and its surrounding estate was erected on Long’s newly purchased 1,780 acres of land in rural Lee’s Summit.

Learn more about the history of the magnificent and mysterious Longview Mansion by clicking here:

https://missourilife.com/exclusive-look-at-longview-mansion/

03/04/2025

This Women's History Month, let's honor some of the first women to enact their rights in Missouri. 📖👩‍⚖️

First woman in Missouri:
• ✨To be elected✨ In 1880, Annie White Baxter was elected as the county clerk for Jasper County Court, a state-elected position. When Annie received her election certificate, she framed it and hung it up “for envious men to look at,” as The Marion County Herald reported.
• ✨To preach✨ Mary E. Andrews became the first ordained woman preacher in Missouri in 1902. She was a preacher at the First Unitarian Church in Kansas City. According to the American Unitarian Association, 1945–1960 yearbook, one parishioner said shortly after her death, “I had the highest opinion of her as a woman, a pastor, and preacher."
• ✨To vote✨ In 1920, five days after the passing of the 19th Amendment, which made it legal for women to vote, Marie Ruoff Byrum became the first woman to vote in Missouri. She walked 15 blocks at 5:30 AM in the drizzling rain to get to the polls in Hannibal.

To learn more about these women and the first Missouri women to patent a product and sit on a jury, click the link. https://missourilife.com/missouris-fearless-first-women/

Photo featuring Marie Byrum's name on a poll book.

Photo creds 📸 Missouri State Archives

03/04/2025

Pet piglets, fetch flowers, and buy farm fresh at ✨ Gooseberry Bridge Farm ✨ in Rogersville near Springfield!

This farm is a one-stop shop for all things cute, cuddly, and fresh. From baby bunnies to baby goats, this family-owned farm is the place to scoop up all that is adorable. 🐇💐

“It’s not just looking at them through a fence,” says Jeremy Hill, co-owner of the farm. “They can touch them and hold them and interact with them in a more personal way.”

To learn more, read our recent story: https://missourilife.com/hands-dirty-and-hearts-full/

02/27/2025

Few people know the men who helped to make St. Louis the “coffee capital of the United States” in the 1920s. ☕

These kings of coffee were risk-takers, visionaries, and hard workers. Some were immigrants. Most have faded deep into the city’s culinary history. So, pour yourself a mug of java and let’s meet some of the coffee kings of St. Louis.

By Deborah Reinhardt It’s a good bet that most—if not all—of the urbanites sipping lattes at MoKaBe’s Coffeehouse in St. Louis can’t name the patriarch behind Chauvin Coffee, the local business that supplies the shop with its roasted beans. But when asked, many could name a member of the b...

02/27/2025

As we break into spring, be sure to grab a copy of our March/April edition to read our feature “Green Landscapes” and learn how to grow native Missouri plants!

We took a trip to to learn more about native plants and captured some lovely springtime shots! 🍃🌸🌷

📸: .r.jones

02/24/2025

Did you know the oldest continuously operated federal hatchery is located in southwest Missouri? It was established in 1888 and is located on a natural spring. The visitors center alone is an architectural gem!

02/19/2025

Snow in Bellefontaine Cemetery ❄️

02/14/2025

Send to your Missouri valentine! ❤️💋

02/13/2025

A spectacular [2023] renovation makes the Harry S. Truman Presidential Library and Museum an essential destination for Missourians. Click the link below to find out what was included in the renovation. 🔗

A spectacular [2023] renovation makes the Harry S. Truman Presidential Library and Museum an essential destination for Missourians. From where I’m standing, it’s a short walk to 1945. Kurt Graham, director of the Harry S. Truman Presidential Library and Museum, greets me in the expansive, light-...

02/04/2025

Calling all chocolate lovers! 🍫 Join us in Rocheport on February 15th for the annual chocolate crawl! Stop and see us (plus our friends at Southern Provisions, Les Bourgeois, Meriwether Cafe, The Rocheport Winery, Stockton Mercantile, Manitou Studio, ART Off the Trail, Katy Trail B & B, and more)!

01/30/2025

In 1988, John and Melody Boyster moved from Arizona to the heart of the Ozarks. They decided to open up their own shop—Rosewood Farms Country Gifts, a mercantile gift store near Hartville. A couple of years later in 2000, they uncovered the treasured chocolate recipes of their great-grandfather, Joe Hawkins, also known as “Grandpa Joe.” After a year of practicing crafting the chocolates, the family opened a second store, Grandpa Joe’s Old Fashioned Chocolates, which sells more than 120 varieties of chocolate treats.

To learn more about the adventure of Joe's dream and what Rosewood Farms offers, click the link below.

Rosewood Farms Country Gifts LLC 🍫🍬

In the mid-1940s, Joseph (Joe) Hawkins took a hiatus from his full-time postmaster job in Arizona, packed his family up, and moved to California to attend candy-making school. Making candy was his passion and gift, winning him multiple blue ribbons across the United States. But at the time, selling....

01/30/2025

Most of Missouri’s drinking water comes from either surface water, like rivers and lakes, or groundwater, which is underground water that fills spaces in soil and rock. Each type of water has a different treatment process and offers different benefits.

To learn about where your water comes from, what it means to have ground or surface drinking water, and the contaminants in Missouri's water, click the link to see the story! 🔗https://missourilife.com/what-am-i-drinking/

01/24/2025

Are you a lover of all things vintage? We have exciting news for you!

Vintage Market Days® in St. Charles, Missouri is partnering with us to give away two VIP passes to their March Vintage Market Days® event: a vintage festival with thousands of unique, curated finds.

With 130 vendors attending the Vintage Market Days® event, you're sure to find something to add to your home, wardrobe, or vintage art collection. On top of vintage shopping, there will be live music, photo opportunities, and multiple food options to snack on as you shop around.

When: March 21-23, 2025,
Where: The St. Charles Convention Center

🎉 HOW TO ENTER: 🎉
________________________________

Entering is simple!
1. Follow Vintage Market Days of St. Louis, and give us a follow, too Missouri Life Magazine.
2. Share this post to your feed
3. Tag the friend that you would share your other VIP pass with!

We will announce the winner here on our page February 1st!

01/22/2025

The art of wine tasting isn't just letting the wine fall down your throat and hoping for the best. It is an art form that requires patience and sometimes ... a mentor. 🍷

Columnist Doug Frost shares some tips in wine tasting in is story: https://missourilife.com/how-to-taste-wine/

• Doug is one of four individuals in the world to simultaneously hold the Master of Wine and Master Sommelier titles, achieving his MS in 1991 and MW in 1993.

01/21/2025

Associate editor, Andrea Kaneko, shares how she fell in love with journalism again after receiving disheartening comments from others.

Before, when I would tell people that I work in journalism, I would get various versions of the same responses: “Journalism is a dying industry.” “All journalis