A DIFFERENT VIEW OF PRIN: 
FROM ACROSS THE RIVER

Everybody knows the beautifully expansive westward view from the bluffs at Principia, but there is another perspective that very few Principians see: the college, viewed from the other side of the river. 

The chapel is not only an iconic symbol for Principians, but is also a visible landmark from the small town of Portage des Sioux across the river.

“I love the chapel. I love hearing the bells ring when I am out in the yard doing work,” says Terry Green, who has an unobstructed view of the chapel from his house along the river. “I can also see the chapel when it is lit up at night, which is very beautiful.”

As he walked down to the river with his fluffy guard dog, Daisy, on a chilly, April morning before the spring foliage obscured the view, Green pointed out the Principia skyline. The chapel, Voney, Hutchinson House and Lowrey House were beautifully distinct. Green visited the college campus twice to take the driving tour because he was curious about what he could see from Principia’s side of the river. The first time he took the tour he stopped at the telescope near the chapel green. He says he was surprised that he could see, across the wide expanse of water, right into the front window of his house.

Portage des Sioux, population 328 – fewer than Principia’s student body – is located in St. Charles County, Mo., in the floodplain between the Mississippi and Missouri rivers. This town has its own unmistakable icon, the Our Lady of the Rivers Shrine, a white, haloed visage staring out over the Mississippi River. The town was saved from a flood in 1951 after a priest prayed to the Blessed Virgin Mary, which led to the shrine being erected in 1957.

While Amber Sullivan has been the librarian since 2007 at the Portage des Sioux branch of the St. Charles City-County Library District, she hasn’t seen the Principia skyline, but has done her homework. Asked about her knowledge of her neighbor across the river, Sullivan says, “You all don’t take medication or get vaccinations right? Good for you! Me neither!”

Sullivan heard about Christian Science and eventually Principia College through The Christian Science Monitor, which she read frequently while she was at graduate school in Arizona. She did enough research on Christian Science to know about the common mix-up between Christian Science and Scientology.

Sullivan has also driven past the campus and seen the grounds on the Principia College website. “It is such a beautiful campus,” said Sullivan. “I would want my kids to go there if they could.”

Not only do people living on the other side of the river know about Principia College and have seen the chapel on the bluffs, but one resident there, Barry Munsel, actually knows Andrew Martin, an art history and archaeology professor at the college.

Although the world’s third largest watershed is between Principia and his town, Munsel, a retired harbormaster, is trying to bridge that gap. As a Sea Scouts instructor who owns a fleet of boats in Sioux Harbor, he looks across the water and sees a market and a service opportunity. Munsel is aware of Principia College because his friends own Elsah’s Green Tree Inn. He says that he has been trying to get schools like Principia to get involved with his safe sailing program. A sailing connection across the river could bring these two small worlds closer together. 

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