New London, MO

New London is the Ralls County seat, laid out by William Jameson in 1819 on the public-square pattern that still organizes the town. The Salt River runs a couple miles north and east, and the Mississippi is about nine miles away, so the county seat grew with both courthouse business and river-country connections. Its Greek Revival courthouse is the local showpiece: four Tuscan columns, a cupola, and a second-floor courtroom kept in remarkably original condition. The building’s design even represented Missouri at the 1939 World’s Fairs.

New London Park Days turns that square into a June gathering, with food, music, and family entertainment on the courthouse lawn. U.S. 61 and Missouri 19 meet in town, giving New London a practical route toward Hannibal, Mexico, and the farms of Ralls County. The county courthouse, local shops, schools, and the nearby Salt River keep the town tied to a larger rural orbit without losing its square-centered shape. New London’s local scoop is that county government and summer festival life still share the same Greek Revival front porch.