HISTORY OF BRIARWOOD ESTATE

Briarwood Estate, sometimes known as the Troxell home, has had a long and colorful history, beginning in the 1800’s when the property was more than a mile west of Columbia on the road to Rocheport.

Three homes have been built on the site of the current manor house. The oldest structure, parts of which are incorporated in the present home, was a two-story brick house built more than 200 years ago. The bricks used were hand made and fired on site. One of the distinctive features of this small structure was a fireplace in each room. Later, a two-story Victorian-style frame house was constructed about ten feet north of the brick house. This was considered one of the better homes in the Columbia area.

Some time in the 19th century Elizabeth Frazee, a widow from Kentucky, moved into the frame home with her son, Lillian, and her daughter Mary. Mary later married Walter T. Russell and moved out of state. In 1926, the youngest of their four children, Julia, received the Columbia home from her bachelor uncle, Lillian Frazee, a year after Elizabeth Frazee died at the age of 94. In 1933, Julia sold the 30 acres with the frame and brick homes to Col. Alexander Richard Troxell and Mrs. Jesse W. Troxell. Col. Troxell later annexed a farm in the area and subdivided it, calling it Rockingham Place.

The Troxells were well-known citizens of Columbia. Mr. Troxell served in the army during WWII and retired as a Colonel, and for many years was a parade marshal in Columbia. He earned three college degrees including a degree from Yale University Law School, and had a prominent law practice operating from his office on the third floor of the Guitar Building. Mrs. Troxell earned three college degrees herself in arts, journalism, and science. She was the society editor of the Boonville Advertiser during World War I. Her father was a judge in the Missouri Supreme Court and her brother served on the Kansas City Court of Appeals, while her uncle, Walter Williams, founded the University of Missouri School of Journalism. Their home was visited often by members of high society including prominent judges and sitting governors of Missouri. They owned the local telephone company in Columbia until they sold it to General Telephone.

In November, 1938, the frame home caught fire – possibly from a faulty flue. With the help of several neighbors, most of the antique furniture and books on the first floor were saved. Crowbars were used to save much of the home’s walnut woodwork, chair-rails and mantels. After this incident, Henry Satterly Bill, an architect teaching at Mizzou, was hired to plan a new home with a floor plan similar to the original frame home.

An attempt was made to pull down the walls of the old two-room brick structure, but when it failed, it was decided to incorporate the old part onto the new home. The two rooms were made into one long living room with a fireplace in each end. The walnut woodwork and mantels saved from the fire were built into the new living room and can still be found there today.

Construction of the Colonel’s new home offered the chance for several artisans to replay, with their services, the money they owed Col. Troxell for his legal services. Bricklayer Frank Walker, for example, said to be the best in Boone County, did much of the brickwork as repayment to Col. Troxell for defending his son in a court case.

Other distinctive features of the new Troxell Home came from sources as diverse as a neighbor’s chicken house and a historic Boonville Mansion. The solid walnut door into the living room with a holy cross design came from neighbor Frederick Riechmann’s poultry house, when it was being torn down. A white marble fireplace in the home was obtained by Mrs. Troxell’s sister, Edna Williams, from an old Boonville home that was being turned into apartments. The hearth did not match the fireplace, but a Columbia friend, Mrs. Sherman Dickinson, gave Mrs. Troxell some marble of the same type which she had in her kitchen.

The new home, Colonial in design, was the centerpiece of the Troxell’s 80-acre-estate which they named Briarwood. The name was chosen partly because Mrs. Troxell attended Sweet Briar during her first year in college and partly for the rugged, pleasant connotation the word carries. As befits an estate with such a rustic name, the grounds were kept in a natural state, especially the expanse of land in front of the house. Originally, a circle drive came to the house from Broadway. That is now closed and entrances are provided from the east and west. As part of the renovation of the estate the more than two acres of woods between Broadway and the manor house is undergoing extensive landscaping to remove brush and highlight both the many trees on the property and make the manor visible from Broadway.

Its colorful history and elegance have made the Briarwood Estate a Columbia landmark. In 1981 the manor house (then called the Troxell House) served as the Designers’ Showhouse decorated by leading area designers to raise funds to benefit the Missouri Symphony Society. Later that year the estate was purchased and served as a family home until 2019 when it underwent a major renovation. The renovation preserved historic aspects of the house while adding modern amenities. Today the Briarwood Estate consists of nearly four wooded acres in the middle of town with the newly renovated Manor house and two additional structures: the carriage house and the gate house. Those other two structures are planned for future renovation.

Please accept our warmest welcome to you, your friends and family. Enjoy your stay in historic Briarwood Estate!