The Mansion remains a tangible testimony to the past as well as the future. Just as it was a Home to the Buchanan and Wallower families before, today it gains new meaning as the Home to all Southern Alumni.
After being an integral part of Southern's original 1967 campus, the Mansion remained idle from 1992 to 2006. The Missouri Southern State University Alumni Association created a strategic plan in 2004. One objective was to renovate the Mansion.
Alumni staff and board members began raising funds to restore the 4,000 square foot building with a substantial gift from Mary Helen Harutun, restoration efforts began on the exterior of the Mansion.
The facade enhancement was completed in 2007.
After the exterior work was done the Alumni Association began to concentrate on restoring the interior. Through a most generous gift by Ralph L. Gray, the interior work began in 2009.
After five years of planning and fund raising the Ralph L. Gray Alumni Center was dedicated on September 18, 2010.
For more information on the this historic site, please visit the History of the Mansion and the History of Missouri Southern.
