Subcommittee hears case to designate America’s National Churchill Museum a national historic landmark

Rep. Vicky Onder introduced H.R. 1945 to designate America’s National Churchill Museum at Westminster College in Fulton, Missouri, as a national historic landmark.

Tim Riley, director and chief curator of America’s National Churchill Museum, told the subcommittee the museum marks the site of Winston Churchill’s 1946 "Sinews of Peace" address, commonly called the Iron Curtain speech, delivered at Westminster College with President Harry S. Truman at his side. Riley described the museum’s centerpiece: the reconstructed Christopher Wren church Saint Mary Aldermanbury, whose stones were dismantled in London, shipped roughly 4,000 miles and reassembled on the Westminster campus. He said Westminster College has invested $6,000,000 in museum preservation since 2020.

Riley said formal designation as a national historic landmark would boost tourism to Callaway County, Missouri, and could open federal partnership opportunities while leaving the site under local ownership and management. During Q&A, Riley confirmed the legislation requests a resource study by the Department of the Interior to assess possible federal partnership opportunities without transferring ownership to the federal government.

Witnesses and members framed the church and museum as an international‑to‑local story of resilience — a British building damaged in the Blitz, reconstructed in rural Missouri as a memorial to Churchill’s leadership — and argued that landmark designation recognizes its national significance. The hearing produced testimony and a request for further study; no committee vote occurred at the hearing.