About BCHS

The Walters Boone County Museum is home to diverse collections of artifacts from the early 1800s.

Although Boone County historians had been meeting since 1939, the Boone County Historical Society was formally organized in 1963.

The Society opened its first museum July 3, 1976, in the historic Maplewood House. This Italianate-style structure was built in 1877 on the farmsite of the Lenoir and Nifong families, which is now Nifong Park.

The Boone County Historical Society, and organizations throughout Boone County, along with the City of Columbia which owns the house and park, restored Maplewood for the nation's bicentennial in 1976. Since that time, the Society has maintained a cooperative agreement with the City of Columbia to operate Maplewood as an historic house museum.

By the early 1980s, the Boone County Historical Society began to draft plans for a history museum adjacent to the historic house in Nifong Park, and began to seek public support for its completion. Construction began October 1986 and was completed almost entirely with private contributions, volunteer labor and donated materials.

The Walters-Boone County Museum, named in honor of developer and benefactor Raul Walters, opened to the public on July 28, 1990. Today, the museum houses history galleries, the Montminy Art Gallery, climate-controlled collections storage, meeting rooms and the Wilson-Wulff Genealogical Library, which is operated by the Genealogical Society of Central Missouri.

On June 19, 1993, the Society began construction of an addition to the museum. The Montminy Gallery, named for the benefactors and artists, Pierre and Tracy Montminy, opened April 24, 1994. With the addition of the Montminy Gallery, the Society was able to present exhibits of the Montminy's work, changing exhibits which highlight the work of Boone County artists and photographs from the more than 700,000 images in the permanent collection.

These first-rate facilities, along with the museum's beautiful setting in 60-acre Nifong Park, have allowed the Boone County Historical Society to conduct a variety of programs and activities. These include Civil War reenactments, Chautauquas, the annual Boone County Heritage Festival, and the "Christmas Past" Maplewood Candlelight Tours, all of which are presented in cooperation with Columbia's Parks and Recreation department.