The education of the deaf in the United States traces its roots to 1817 when the American School for the Deaf was founded at West Hartford, Connecticut. Other states were not far behind. In 1851, the Missouri School for the Deaf was established by an act of the Missouri Legislature. The impetus for that early beginning began the year before when William D. Kerr of Danville, Kentucky, wrote letters of inquiry to two Fultonians urging that the State of Missouri consider the possibility of establishing a state school for the deaf. Mr. Kerr's letters were sent to the Reverend W.W. Robertson and Preston B. Reed. Unknown to Mr. Kerr at the time was the fact of Mr. Reed's membership in the Missouri Legislature. Through the efforts of Rev. Robertson and Mr. Reed, the Legislature was encouraged and persuaded to appropriate money for the establishment of a school for the deaf in Fulton. At the time of its founding, the school was officially referred to as the deaf and dumb asylum. At the considerable urging of the first commissioners of the school, Professor Kerr was brought to Fulton to serve as its first superintendent and guided its subsequent growth. Mr. Kerr, later to become Dr. Kerr, through the conferring of an honorary degree by Gallaudet College in Washington, D.C., saw the school through its early building programs and was responsible for the school being elevated to a very prominent place among the nation's early schools for the deaf.

The original site of the Missouri School for the Deaf was a small frame farmhouse located on property belonging to the Fulton State Hospital. The property was on the hospital's southern boundary, an area currently set aside for part of the farming operation at FSH. On February 23, 1853, the Missouri Legislature authorized funds for the construction of permanent buildings on the present site of MSD. The school has operated continuously at its same location since the construction of the original buildings. There was, however, an effect on the school's operation during the War Between the States, and operations at the school were suspended on July 1, 1861. It was not reopened until June 2, 1863. It is reported in MSD Biennial Reports that the school was occupied during a portion of those years by the military.

As with so many schools and other institutions of considerable age, fire plays an unfortunate role in the history. On February 27, 1888, several of the major campus buildings were largely destroyed by fire. Fortunately, there was no loss of life or serious personal injury. However, property damage was extensive. M.F. Bell, Fulton architect, had done considerable design work on the buildings destroyed by the fire. His work covered renovation, enlargement and addition of the original buildings constructed in the early 1850's. At that time the main building had, as a focal point, a dome similar to the one Bell designed for Jesse Hall on the University of Missouri, Columbia campus. The fire of 1888 destroyed the dome and gutted the buildings. Bell was called upon again to do the design work for reconstruction. When completed, the Main Building again possessed a very ornate and prominent tower. The tower was dismantled in the 1930's. Other than the loss of the tower, the buildings remained basically unchanged until they were razed to make way for a major construction project in 1957-1959.

More >