Visitors to the Heckart Community Center in Sedalia will walk by a historic marker the next time they pass through the main entrance.

The marker, which commemorates the previous location of Jennie Jaynes Stadium, was formally unveiled by members of the Sedalia Historic Preservation Commission at a brief ceremony Thursday, Oct. 2. Mayor Andrew Dawson spoke at the ceremony, and afterward reflected on the decades that the stadium served as a gathering place for the community.
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Jennie Jaynes Stadium was constructed in the 1950s and was the home of Smith-Cotton Tigers football, soccer and track for over a half-century. The stadium was demolished in 2015, shortly after the completion of the new complex at the current Smith-Cotton High School campus. Like the current complex, the former stadium was named for Jennie Jaynes Lewis, who was the daughter of one of the founders of the Missouri-Kansas-Texas Railroad.  Jaynes established an estate that after her death would benefit of Sedalia’s youth.

This is the second historic marker installed by the Historic Preservation Commission, with the first placed two years ago at the site of the former George R Smith College. Thursday’s unveiling ceremony was also part of Smith-Cotton’s Homecoming weekend activities.