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Shaw Nature Reserve, formerly known as Shaw Arboretum, is a 2,400 acres (9.7 km2) private non-profit nature reserve located in Gray Summit, Missouri, that is operated as an extension of the Missouri Botanical Garden. The first piece of land, 1,300 acres (5.3 km2), was purchased in 1925 when pollution from coal smoke in St. Louis threatened the Garden's live plant collection, especially the orchid collection. The orchids were moved to what was then known as the Gray Summit Extension in 1926. The pollution in St. Louis decreased with the waning use of coal for heat, making it unnecessary to move the rest of the live plant collection. The Garden made five more land purchases between 1926 and 1977 amounting to the Nature Reserve's current size of 2,444 acres (9.89 km2). Shaw Nature Reserve has several historic homes, including the Joseph H. Bascom House, built in 1879 by Confederate Colonel Thomas Crews. The reserve also contains the Dana Brown Overnight Center, a collection of log and timber buildings from the 1850s that were moved from their original locations and reconstructed on site, and a Sod House built by reserve staff to represent the kind of lodgings that would have been used in the area's original prairies. The habitats restored at the reserve include a large tallgrass prairie, glades, woodlands, wetlands and a wetland blind from which herons can be observed.