Source unknown:

M. U. DESTROYED BY FIRE 50 YEARS AGO
Jan 1942---

Fifty years ago this week, on January 9, 1892, fire broke out in the main 
building of the University of Missouri.  The blaze started in a defective light 
wire in the central chandelier, and nearly wrote the finish of the University of 
Missouri.

A few persons were arriving to attend an entertainment, when the chandelier 
dropped to the floor and red flames leaped out.  The ceiling was of light panel 
wood and the fire made fast headway between the ceiling and the floor.  The east 
wing was soon in flames, which illuminated the snow covered territory for miles 
around.

Quick thinking saved some of the contents of the building.  The library books 
were lost, except those that were checked out.  Some of the law books and 
laboratory contents were saved.  The museum was entered by breaking through the 
wall and the valuables carried outside.

Fire fighters worked gallantly with buckets of water from the cistern in the 
basement and from the shallow surface pond south of the building until it was 
exhausted.  Columbia had no adequate fire department at the time.  By the 
morning the building was a pile of ashes and twisted metal.

It was a downhearted populace that stood helplessly and watched fire destroy 
virtually all of the University of Missouri.  But the next day classes were 
conducted in the Medical building, the Agricultural Building, now known as 
Switzler Hall, the churches and the Courthouse.

The new modern University came out of the fire of 1892.  It was built around 
what is now Francis Quadrangle and later buildings were placed at different 
sections of the campus.  Missouri’s famous columns are all that remain of the 
original building and they now stand in the center of the old campus, symbolic 
of the spirit of the University of Missouri.
_________________________

Addendum text:  Corner Stone of Old Building is in gate post 
North