{"id":49,"date":"2010-03-13T19:54:55","date_gmt":"2010-03-14T01:54:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.historicjoplin.org\/?p=49"},"modified":"2010-03-13T19:54:55","modified_gmt":"2010-03-14T01:54:55","slug":"growth-of-a-city-fourth-street-looking-east","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.historicjoplin.org\/?p=49","title":{"rendered":"Growth of A City – Fourth Street Looking East"},"content":{"rendered":"

At the height of Joplin’s boom days, the intersection of Fourth and Main streets was the beating heart of the city’s commercial district.\u00a0 It was no coincidence that the city’s two greatest hotels, the Connor and Keystone, faced one another from opposite corners, or that Democratic party boss, Gilbert Barbee owned the House of Lords on another corner.\u00a0 Along Fourth Street, particularly that west of Main, was prime real estate.\u00a0 One venturing down west Fourth Street found themselves passing the Club Theater, as well the Elks Club lodge and the home of the Miners Bank.\u00a0 In the next few photos, we’ll examine the change to the street over just a few years.\u00a0 In addition, with a nod to Leslie Simpson’s latest book, Now and Then and Again: Joplin Historic Architecture<\/em>, a present day view of the street.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/a>

A view of Fourth Street looking east - sometime before 1906.<\/p><\/div>\n

In this first view there are several clues to time the photograph was shot.\u00a0 First, visible to the right is the steeple roof of the Club Theater.\u00a0 The Club Theater was completed in 1891.\u00a0 The conical roof further down the street marks not only the Keystone Hotel, built in 1891 and completed a year later, marks the intersection of Fourth and Main.\u00a0 On the left side of the street, a block down and hardly noticeable is the old Joplin Hotel.\u00a0 What is not in this photograph is the Connor Hotel, an eight story building that was built where our squat Joplin Hotel now stands.\u00a0 The Joplin Hotel was razed in 1906.\u00a0 As such, we know this photograph dates from before that time.\u00a0 Speculatively, sometime from 1891 to 1906.<\/p>\n

\"View<\/a>

View of Fourth Street looking east sometime after 1908.<\/p><\/div>\n

In this view we have some familiar faces.\u00a0 The Club Theater on the right, the Keystone down the block, and on the immediate right, the once Elks Lodge and offices of the Joplin Water Works.\u00a0 The main difference is now the reverse of our previous photograph.\u00a0 Where the old Joplin Hotel stood, now stands the Connor.\u00a0 Its presence lets us know that this photograph was taken after its completion in 1908.\u00a0 Note the change in design of the automobiles on the street and the lack of horse drawn wagons or carriages that were present in the previous view.<\/p>\n

\"Fourth<\/a>

Fourth Street looking east - sometime before 1913.<\/p><\/div>\n

Our third view of Fourth Street.\u00a0 The Connor and the Keystone are both present.\u00a0 The steeple roof of the Club Theater is conspicuously absent, though you can see the roof line of the club’s western side.\u00a0 Incidentally, by this time, the Club Theater, despite a renovation in 1905, had lost its status as the finest theater in town to the Shubert Theater which was located several blocks down to the south.\u00a0 The vehicles are a little more modern and a subtle aspect is the switch from one set of trolley tracts to two.\u00a0 Also different, which allows us to place this photograph as more recent, is the addition of electric signs to the facades of the buildings.\u00a0 Now, we state that this photograph is dated as having been taken before 1913.\u00a0 How did we come to that number?\u00a0 In this case, its simply knowing your source.\u00a0 This photograph came from a booklet published in 1913 to publicize the city, which allows us to place that hard date.<\/p>\n

\"Fourth<\/a>

Fourth Street looking east - present day.<\/p><\/div>\n

This photograph, taken on March 13, 2010, is not for the faint of heart for those who love the architecture of bygone days.\u00a0 All that remains from the previous photographs is our friend the one time host of the Elks and Joplin Water Works building on the immediate right.\u00a0 The row of buildings on the left are gone, though a few halfway down the block disappeared in the 1920’s when the Connor built an annex further down the block from its Fourth and Main location.\u00a0 The Club Theater is gone, the front of a car, marks the parking lot that now remains in its place.\u00a0 On the left down the block is the Joplin Public Library, situated where the Connor Hotel stood until 1978.\u00a0 The Keystone, destroyed several years before the Connor, is gone.\u00a0 The building visible beyond the library is the Joplin Globe office, visible only because the Worth Block was demolished (taking with it the House of Lords).\u00a0 On a bright note is the tall building at the end of the block on the right side.\u00a0 It was built around 1923 and managed to survive the devastation that was “Urban Renewal.”<\/p>\n

If any comfort can be taken from this view of modern day Fourth Street it is that the City of Joplin has embarked on a mission to restore and recognize the city’s remaining historic buildings.\u00a0 A drive down Main Street reinforces the belief that while a lot has been lost, that which remains will be saved.<\/p>\n

Sources: Historic Joplin collection, Missouri Digital Heritage.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

At the height of Joplin’s boom days, the intersection of Fourth and Main streets was the beating heart of the city’s commercial district.\u00a0 It was no coincidence that the city’s two greatest hotels, the Connor and Keystone, faced one another from opposite corners, or that Democratic party boss, Gilbert Barbee owned the House of Lords […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34,39],"tags":[190,16,7,24,188,32,52,192,193,31,8,189,11,191],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.historicjoplin.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.historicjoplin.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.historicjoplin.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.historicjoplin.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.historicjoplin.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=49"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.historicjoplin.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.historicjoplin.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=49"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.historicjoplin.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=49"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.historicjoplin.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=49"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}