FAYETTE -- There’s a city in Howard County that is the home of many Civil War battles, an historic university and beautiful antique buildings.

Built back in 1888, the Howard County Courthouse is the centerpiece of Fayette. It is on the national register of historic places. Through cooperative efforts between the city and local organizations, the Fayette Courthouse Square has been restored to have an appearance common to the 1890’s. James Steele is the editor and publisher of 2 Fayette newspapers based near the courthouse.

“A lot of history was recorded here," Steele said. "Even in the predecessor courthouses which were obviously torn down or burned down or whatever it happened to be, many of the early governors and early political leaders in the State of Missouri actually came from Fayette going way back when.”

Fayette is the county seat of Howard County known as the Mother of Counties. At one time, Howard County was so large it was later broken into 22 surrounding counties.

A large number of Fayette homes are also on the National Register of Historic Places.  Many of those historic homes are on South Main Street.

You can find restored homes dating back to the early 1800’s in neighborhoods throughout Fayette. Fayette’s most famous historic place is Central Methodist University.  On the National Register of Historic Places, this university dates back to 1854. You can find historical markers all across campus. For example, the 1864 Civil War Battle of Fayette began south of the courthouse square and ended on the north end of campus, home of many historic buildings.

“Where you have things like classics hall, a nice 1900’s version of school building in good condition," CMU History Professor Dr. Robert Wiegers said. "You can go up to Brannock Hall, our administrative building, then up to T. Berry Hall. So if you start on campus, you can spend a good afternoon just wandering around.”

Fayette is a time capsule of beautiful historic homes and buildings. It hasn’t changed much in the past 50 years, and that’s what makes Fayette one of the most historic places in Missouri.

Several years ago, Fayette received world wide recognition as the main shooting location of the independent film, “Killer Diller”.

Many of the extras in that film came from the Mid-Missouri area.