Heritage Hall at ATSU: The Still Cabin and First School of Osteopathy

Heritage Hall at A.T. Still University contains two of the Museum of Osteopathic Medicine's largest artifacts:

• the Still Family Cabin;
• the First School Building of the American School of Osteopathy.

Both are historic structures.

Neither is sitting in its original location.

That distinction is the key to understanding what Heritage Hall preserves.

The Still Family Cabin came from Virginia

ATSU says the cabin was built in Lee County, Virginia, in the 1820s.

It represents the frontier environment connected with the Still family before Andrew Taylor Still's later life and work in Missouri.

The cabin is therefore an authentic Still-family structure, but it should not be described as a cabin that originally stood in Kirksville.

Its significance comes from the structure and family history, not from its present coordinates.

The first school building was used in Kirksville

The second major structure has a more direct Kirksville connection.

ATSU identifies it as the two-room building used by the American School of Osteopathy from 1892 through 1894.

Andrew Taylor Still founded the American School of Osteopathy in Kirksville in 1892.

ATSU describes it as the world's first institution of osteopathic education.

The small building therefore represents the earliest physical scale of a school that later became part of a much larger medical-education institution.

Both buildings were moved into Heritage Hall in 1994

ATSU says the cabin and first school building were moved to their present location in 1994.

That move placed two physically large historical artifacts together inside Heritage Hall.

The hall also contains interpretive material about the history of osteopathic medicine.

Relocation does not turn either building into a replica.

It does mean a visitor should distinguish between:

original structure and original site.

The cabin is original but came from Virginia.

The first school building is original to the early osteopathic-school story but was relocated into the museum setting.

What can visitors see?

ATSU says both structures contain artifacts interpreting the periods they represent.

The cabin presents aspects of Still-family frontier life.

The school building presents the earliest years of the American School of Osteopathy.

That makes Heritage Hall different from a display built entirely from photographs or text panels: the buildings themselves are part of the collection.

Current Saturday hours are contradictory

ATSU's own current museum pages do not give one consistent Saturday schedule.

As checked in September 2026:

• some current ATSU page headers say Saturday 10 a.m.–3 p.m.;
• some museum footers say Saturday by appointment only;
• another current exhibit index has even displayed a different Saturday closing time.

Monday through Friday, 8 a.m.–5 p.m., appears consistently across the official pages.

Because the Saturday information conflicts within ATSU's own site, a Saturday visitor should contact the museum before traveling rather than choosing whichever version is more convenient.

ATSU lists the museum at 800 W. Jefferson St. and provides guided-tour scheduling by phone or email.

Two buildings, two different kinds of authenticity

Heritage Hall works best when its story is kept precise.

The Still cabin is not a Kirksville pioneer cabin.

The first school is not merely a reconstruction of an early classroom.

They are two relocated historic structures with different origins, brought together to explain the family background of A.T. Still and the first years of formal osteopathic education.