108-year-old city hall gaining historic status

COMMERCE, Mo. -- The 108-year-old city hall building in Commerce is one step closer to being listed on the National Register of Historic Places after the Missouri Advisory Council on Historic Preservation approved its nomination Friday.

This was just one of several steps taken in the process of getting the building on the National Register, which would make it open to receive federal and state money for restoration.

To get a listing on the register, a building must first be nominated.

Carla Jordan started the nomination of Commerce City Hall about two years ago while she was taking a historic preservation class at Southeast Missouri State University.

Jordan was approached about the city hall by a member of Commerce's town council whom she knew.

The university's historic preservation program helped Jordan initially, but the nomination process went on the back burner until Jordan, who graduates from the university in December, started C.L. Jordan Preservation. Jordan's preservation organization is part of the Westray Foundation, a not-for-profit philanthropic group founded by Joel and Pat Ray of Cape Girardeau that focuses on the promotion of Southeast Missouri.

One of the first steps was to send the nomination to the state historic preservation office for consideration. After the office went through and approved the submitted materials, it went before the advisory council for consideration. Now that the advisory council has approved the nomination, it goes to the National Register, where a decision is made within 45 days.

"It was an exciting thing," Jordan said of the advisory council's decision. "I've been floating since then."

According to Dr. Bonnie Stepenoff, a university history professor and member of the advisory council, there are several reasons why the council decided the Commerce City Hall was worthy of a historic register designation.

The building has served as the center of the community since its construction in 1896. It is also one of the few surviving historic structures left in Commerce after the 1993 flood. And not only has the building survived, it has retained its historic appearance and not been greatly altered since its construction.

"A lot of buildings listed on the National Register have local significance," Stepenoff said.

In her nomination, Jordan wrote that the city hall is a significant part of Commerce that has survived both natural disasters and attempts at demolition to continue as the town's center of government and social activities.

While Jordan is not a resident of Commerce, she said she has pursued the nomination because she fell in love with the community.

"There's a resurgence of historic preservation in Commerce right now," she said. "I think that the Commerce City Hall nomination is just part of that."

kalfisi@semissourian.com

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