Business Listing

The Macon County Historical Society was incorporated on May 26, 1937. It was formed to collect, preserve, and arrange historical, religious, scientific, and educational material relative to the beginning, growth, and development of Macon County Missouri, and to establish a repository or library to make available such information to the citizens of Macon County. In January of 2006, the City of Macon entered into an agreement to provide the Blees Annex Building to the Macon County Historical Society to become the future Macon County Museum. The building commonly known as the "Blees Annex" was actually the gymnasium of the Blees Military Academy and was completed in 1900. The Blees Military Academy was built by Col. Frederick Wilhem Victor Blees, and was considered to be the West Point of the Midwest. The three story brick building is Romanesque in style. R.G. Kirsch was the architect of the building. The building was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1979. After the death of Col Blees, it became the Still-Hildreth Osteopathic Sanatorium. This was the world's first osteopathic sanatorium. The National Guard was the last group to inhabit the building. The building had not been in use for several years, and volunteers have worked hard on interior renovations to create a grand museum as well as a genealogy site. Each town and village, even those that no longer exist, but only in memory, will be represented.