Presser Hall was built in 1926 as a Conservatory of Music for Hardin College (see below). After the school closed, the building deteriorated badly. In the 1980s, a group of citizens formed the Presser Hall Restoration Society, and the Hall reopened in the early '90s. Today, the building houses the Presser Performing Arts Center; the auditorium seats 1000 and features excellent acoustics, stained glass windows, a 1000 square foot stage, and numerous dressing rooms. It hosts local, regional, and national theatrical and musical performances throughout the year.
This
flyer shows the former Audrain Christian
Seminary on the left and Hardin
Hall on the right.
In
1873, Mexico attorney (and later Missouri governor) Charles H. Hardin bought
the former Audrain Christian Seminary and the surrounding five acres of
land. In the fall of 1874, Hardin College opened with two divisions
for young ladies, Preparatory and Collegiate. In 1875, Hardin Hall
opened for residence; when Presser Hall was built in 1927, it was the seventh
and final building added to the campus. By the 1890s, the college
had become Hardin College and Conservatory of Music, and in 1901 was recognized
as the state's first junior college. The college closed in 1931 due
to a combination of financial trouble and the Depression.
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