Institution

Smith Brothers Manufacturing was founded in Sedalia, Missouri, in 1915, but moved to Carthage in April 1916 after Clayton and E.O. Smith were coaxed to the community by city boosters. Between 1916 and 1940, the company expanded, establishing branches in Neosho, Webb City, and St. Joseph, Missouri, and Iola, Kansas. The Smith Brothers weathered the Depression in the 1930s, and by 1940, nearly 1000 employees worked in its factories. The Smith Brothers regularly hired women to work on its factory floors. During World War I, the company contracted with the U. S. Army to make coats and paid women workers $3.50/day to make them. By 1938, the Carthage factory counted nearly 350 women among its workers. In 1999, Wall Industries purchased Big Smith, and shortly thereafter, in 2000, the Carthage factory closed. Leggett and Platt purchased this property and continues to use it for storage operations. Part of the complex of former Big Smith buildings, spread over several blocks, includes the original Platt Plow Works at 5th and Grant (southeast corner; see Clio entry for C. D. Platt Plow Works).

Elevated walk way between factory buildings on Howard Street, undated image.

World War I parade featuring Big Smith workers in U. S. Army jackets the plant produced. (Image from 2017 175th Anniversary of Carthage exhibit.)

Big Smith was noted for its overalls and other denim casual wear through its decades of operation. This pair of ladies jeans, displayed in the 175th Anniversary of Carthage 2017 exhibit, were purchased by Marian Powers Winchester.

Digitization on CLIO is part of Powers Museum's "Digital Carthage" project in honor of Carthage's 175th Anniversary Celebration (March 28, 2017 through March 27, 2018). 

Funding for the Walking in the Wards tour was made possible by a grant from the Missouri Humanities Council and the National Endowment for the Humanities, Spring 2017. 

"Fun-alls" and matching cap made by Smith Brothers Manufacturing and displayed in 2017 Carthage 175th Anniversary special "Community Collects" summer/fall display at Powers Museum. These were made in a variety of bold prints in late 1960s to early 1970s.

Blog posting of Smith Bros Mfg images. Production Room images are for Carthage location.

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Historically, this was the location of the Big Smith overall plant, after it moved from its original location at 4th and Garrison in the former Hall Livery building in April 1917. Founded by Clayton and E. O. Smith, Smith Brothers Manufacturing operated in Carthage until 2000. The complex of buildings either side of Howard Street is currently owned and operated by Leggett and Platt.

Smith Brothers Manufacturing (former), 526 South Howard Street

Director

During 2017-18 in honor of the 175th Anniversary of Carthage, Missouri, the Powers Museum created digital sites of some of Carthage's historic sites, stores, industrial buildings, homes, schools, and parks. Ward One's tour is located in the northeast section of town and features a mixed residential, commercial and industrial base along with one Missouri State Historic Site -- the Battle of Carthage SHS. The sites placed on this initial tour were based on selected artifacts that appeared in the 175th Anniversary Exhibit at the Powers Museum during 2017. The purpose was to show where these artifacts were created, used or purchased. The initial debut of "Walking in the Wards -- Ward I -- Downtown" took place during the 2017 Maple Leaf Festival. This project was made possible by a grant from the Missouri Humanities Council in conjunction with the National Endowment for the Humanities.

Jasper County's roots go back to 1841 when the county government was established in a&nbsp;log structure in an early village called Jasper (not location of current town of Jasper, MO). Carthage was chosen as the county seat a year later and a two-story brick building was constructed in 1851. It served as a hospital during the Civil War and fire destroyed it in 1863. The county government used other buildings around the courthouse square in the following decades until&nbsp; the current one was opened in 1895. The building is constructed of local limestone. At the&nbsp;time of the courthouse's construction, there were many quarries surrounding Carthage. Carthage Stone Company, owned by Curtis Wright and William Logan (1), supplied the stone for this structure. (See Clio entries for Wright House, 304 West Macon, and Logan Building, 301 East Fourth),&nbsp;&nbsp;

Constructed in 1894-95, the Jasper County Courthouse is located in Carthage, Missouri in the town's center square. It was designed by M.A. Orlopp in the Richardsonian Romanesque style. It is the third courthouse of the county. The building was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1973. Its first floor lobby area houses historical displays, murals painted by local artists, and a Route 66 exhibit modeled after Boots Drive-In (see Clio entry for same on South Garrison Avenue). 

Jasper County Courthouse, East Third and South Main Street

Like many other multi-storied buildings in Carthage, the third floor of this structure was removed in the 20th century and the entire front front of the building was remodeled with dark red brick similar to Pollard Building #2 and Center Building on South Main (see Clio entries for each). The first floor was occupied by small storefronts and the entrance to the Delphus Theatre, later renamed the Roxy theatre. Both the Delphus and the Roxy were movie houses. Local Ragtime composers Clarence Woods and James Scott, Jr. both were known to play "the keyboard at the Delphus, providing background for the earliest silent films while both were teenagers (1)." (See Clio entries Lincoln School #1 for further information on Scott). The building was destroyed by fire in the 1970s ﻿The Mattenlee Sanitarium, operated by Dr. J M Mattenlee at the turn of the twentieth century, treated "alcohol, opium, morphine, and tobacco addictions (2)." Patients boarded in a home located at 1133 South Main Street.

Once a three-story brick and decorated press metal front building, the Cassaday structure served the community in many ways. The first floor storefronts during the 1880s to the early decade of the 20th century housed various stores such as Kurtzeborn and Marker, Palace Dry Goods and the Campbell-Wright Mercantile Company. The second and third floors housed several business schools including the Carthage Business College, professional offices and medical institutions such as the Mattenlee Sanitarium. 





Cassaday Block (no longer standing), 120 East Fourth Street

The brick building pictured here first replaced Griswold's original frame structure constructed in 1868 (latter seen after the project's logos) the year he came to Carthage (2). The second building was built prior to 1884 and used by the Griswold Wholesale Grocery Company into the twentieth century. Among later occupants of the building were the Karbe Grocery and Jed Brown's Meat Market in the 1930s and from the 1940s until the 1972 fire, Western Auto occupied the building. If you walk around the new professional office building on this site today, you can see a mural on the wall of the former Burlingame and Chaffee Opera House that was painted by Webb City, Missouri, artist John Biggs in 2006 for the former Main Street Carthage organization (3). The scene features a Victorian ball at the opera house (see Clio entry for same) and was created by a grant from the Helen Boylan Foundation. The Bee's Old Fashion Variety Store and Ben Franklin, owned by Sue and Jack Vandergriff, was occupying the opera house building at the time of the mural's painting.

Selden B. Griswold operated a long-time grocery business at this location in a brick building that was destroyed by fire in 1972, along with three other structures to the west on the south side of the square.  Griswold, a Civil War veteran of the 53rd Illinois Infantry, was one of Carthage earliest merchants as the town rebuilt from its Civil War destruction. He hauled his first store goods himself by wagon from Sedalia, Missouri, the nearest railroad point (1).  In 1882 his company focused entirely on the wholesale grocery trade in the region and continued that practice until the late 1920s. (Griswold died in 1918.)

Griswold Grocery Building (no longer standing), 130 East Fourth Street

In the twentieth century, the second floor was used for storage while the first floor and basement commercial spaces were used by long-term occupants such as Turner Carriage, Harness &amp; Furniture Company, Woolworth's, Burr's Department Store, Belk's Department Store, and the Bee Discount and Variety Store. There is over 30,000 square feet in this building making it one of the largest buildings on the courthouse square. The building was damaged by a fire that destroyed the structure next door in 2013. Its current owner Keith McBride remodeled his building and operates McBride's Antiques on the first floor while continuing to restore the upper floor that once housed Carthage's early opera house.

This structure was constructed in 1877 with two storefronts on the first floor and an opera house on the second story (entered from a stairway on the right side of the building, see wooden door). W. L. Burlingame and Dr. J. B Chaffee were the original owners. The opera house opened in February 1878. In 1893 after another opera house opened two blocks to the east, the opera house closed and the second floor was used by Jasper County officials prior to the Jasper County Courthouse being built in 1894-95. 

This structure is within the National Register of Historic Places Carthage Courthouse Square Historic District (see link below).

Burlingame and Chaffee Opera House (former),136 East Fourth Street

Destroyed by fire in 2013, the former building on this site was built as a hardware store in 1885 although early prints of the building show 1883 on cornice (1). Built by brothers John D. and Frank McCrillis, they had conducted their hardware business on this same corner as early as the 1878 in a two-story frame building. 

Many other occupants have served this community from this structure including Payne Brothers People's Store, Kearney-Damon Dry Goods, McMurtry's Department Store and others in the first half of the 20th century.


McCrillis Brothers Building (no longer standing), 146 East Fourth Street

Many grocery stores have operated from this location since its first occupant, McDaniel and Ruffin, opened a mercantile here after the Civil War. Economy Clothing Company and other dry goods businesses were located here in the 1890-1910 period. In 1915, Union Trust Company, organized in 1913 by J. H. Staley, manager of the McDaniel Milling Company, opened at this address catering to farmers, agricultural interests and other small businesses. Late in 1931 the Bank of Carthage took over Union Trust assets. In subsequent years, various stores have occupied the first floor, while offices have occupied the second floor. Recently, the second floor was converted to apartment use.

McDaniel Building, 346 South Grant Street

Other late 19th and early 20th century stores occupying this portion of the square's east side were: Deal Drugs, Edel Drugs, W. T. Roach China and Queensware shop, Fitzer's General Store and Francis Variety Store. One of the later twentieth century occupants of this structure was the C &amp; W Cafe (1963 - 1980) later becoming the Gaslight Restaurant. Still visible on an interior wall of #342 is a mural painted by Richard Rhine for the C &amp; W Cafe with the theme of Victorian Carthage and its local trolley system. Once the Gaslight closed, other retail stores were located at these addresses including today's two merchants in the two storefronts.

This building began as several wooden commerical structures constructed in the 1870s and early 1880s. These were destroyed by fire in 1892 and Walter Smith announced construction of two adjacent brick buildings on the site. Early occupants were The When Shoe Store and Smith's own drug store.  An additional building was built next to Smith's structures by Alonzo Parkell for his tailoring company. Multiple stores came and went through the three storefronts and second story offices until Frederick W. Steadley bought all these properties by 1927. A year after his death in 1928, the three buildings were refaced in buff brick for a unified facade and the structure was renamed the Steadley building in honor of the one-time Carthage jeweler, limestone quarry owner, spring bed manufacturer (under name of Carthage Bed Spring Company, later Steadley Manufacturing) and one of the town's largest real estate investors. 

This building in within the Carthage Courthouse Square District of the National Register of Historic Places.


Steadley Building, 336 - 342 Grant Street

For ninety six years, the former Myers and Garland building at this location housed a multitude of businesses. The Carthage limestone facade carried both surnames of its owners Thomas Garland and William Myers (the latter a former Carthage mayor). One popular early occupant at this address was Roach's Queensware and Jewelry Store that sold domestic goods to many Carthage households including a variety of Jasper County Courthouse souvenirs once the courthouse opened in 1895.  By 1960 the building housed the Apartment Hotel and two first floor stores - Brown's Tavern and Ernie Williamson Music Store (1).  Williamson who had acquired the building that year, also operated a music store in Joplin, Missouri. In 1980 the structure became known as the Garland Center when it was re-purposed into several shops and the Belle Starr Restaurant on the third floor. The project was developed by Robert DeBaca, Lowell Davis and Tom Kingsbury. Myrabelle Shirley (aka Belle Starr) lived in Carthage prior to and during part of the Civil War years (her father John Shirley owned most of what is now the northside of the square). The building was occupied by Mostly Books and The Lilly Pad when the fire occurred in 1988. That summer there were two other fires in the downtown district that damaged or destroyed historic commercial buildings. Police vacations were cancelled that summer in order to perform extra patrols of the area until those responsible for the fires were caught (2). Although City Hall is not a historic building, it is located within the Carthage Courthouse Square National Register District (see link posted here). Text for this entry written by Michele Hansford, 2018, Powers Museum Volunteer.

After being located within the Jasper County Courthouse since 1895, the current Carthage City Hall was built after the former Myers and Garland building (built in 1892) and two other adjacent smaller historic buildings were destroyed by fire May 29, 1988. (Note: Myers and Garland names were used interchangeably throughout this structure's history.)

Today's City Hall lobby contains a unique display of ancient Carthage, Tunisia, artifacts from a former sister city relationship in the 1960s. Also on display is a series of works by Carthage artist Andy Thomas comparing ancient Carthage to Carthage, Missouri, during different periods of time. 

Carthage City Hall, 326 Grant Street (former site of Myers-Garland Building, no longer standing)

The First National Bank was established in 1872 by Jesse Thacker, President, and several other board members and operated at this location in a two-story brick building. In 1891, the bank built one of the first large-scale commercial buildings constructed entirely of local limestone. (Grace Episcopal Church at 820 Howard Street was the first all-limestone church structure built in 1890.) After the bank's construction project, the quarrying of local stone escalated and was used for more than just ornamental details on homes and commercial buildings. The structure was designed by Carthage architect C. W. Terry and built by the McNerney Brothers who were contractors and quarry owners. Terry's other designs in Carthage were the 1st National Bank board member Eugene O'Keefe's Cassil Place home on West Central (see Clio entry for Cassil Place), Dr. D. F. Flower's home at 901 Grant and Curtis &amp; Nira Wright's Home at 304 West Macon Street (see Clio entry for this address). The O'Keefe home was moved late in the 20th century to the Precious Moments complex southwest of town but is not open to the public any more. The Flower's home still stands. The Wright home was moved in the late 1980s to Eureka Springs, Arkansas. Terry had worked in Rochester, New York, and Wichita, Kansas, prior to moving to southwest Missouri.  In 1924, 1st National Bank expanded its banking facility south from the original building and erected a four-story commercial structure designed by George Hulin and constructed by J. L. Berkebile. Exterior and interior limestone and marble was provided by the Consolidated Marble and Stone Company of Carthage. It was this set of buildings that Central National Bank took over in 1931. These structures and other historic buildings to the south were torn down for the current structure much to the lament of many Carthage residents at the time and still today. However, the building has started to be noted for its modern exterior (missing original decorative metal screening between the limestone columns) and its almost pristine Mid-century Modern interior.

This corner has been been home to a succession of banks including the current United Missouri Bank (UMB), Central National Bank (CNB), and First National Bank (latter established at this site in 1872).  First National's 1891 building was torn down in 1963, along with other historic commercial buildings to the south, to make way for a new facility for CNB that had bought out 1st National Bank operations in 1931 (CNB formerly located at 149 East Third Street - see Clio entry for that address).

This structure is within the Carthage Courthouse Square Historic District on the National Register of Historic Places. Although this Mid-century Modern building was a non-conforming structure when the district was first added to the National Register, it now is well over fifty years old itself.

Central National Bank Building (former), now United Missouri Bank, 300 South Grant Street

Central National Bank operated on the first floor storefront of this building while the second floor was occupied with professional offices such as the McReynolds law office and the medical office of Dr. Everett Powers. In the latter half of the 20th century, the former bank area was used as the business office of Carthage Water and Electric Plant. Like other buildings on the north side of the square, this structure has more than one storefront. The left one was occupied by various stores including, Foster's Grocery (1884), H. M. Cornell's Agricultural Implement store (1888) and Boston Clothing House (1895). But for parts of three decades at the start of the 20th century, this storefront was devoted to music with Dumars and Gammon Music and L. H. Beck Music Company. It was Charles Dumars' store where James Scott, ragtime music composer and performer, was discovered. Scott would demonstrate any sheet music sold in the store and eventually Dumars heard some of Scott's original compositions and began to publish them. Scott also framed pictures while working for Dumars. A 1975 limestone marker in the sidewalk (in front of the storefront to the left in image) jonors Scott's achievements before moving on to Kansas City.

Central National Bank received its charter July 1, 1890, and opened for business on October 14. Founders were  Dr. Amos H. Caffee [druggist], President; J. P. Newell, Sr., Vice-President; J. E. Lang, cashier. In 1906, the bank put a local limestone stone front on its 1880s brick building and extended the stone around the Grant Street side of the building as it appears today. The interior was remodeled at this time, too. 

On December 11, 1933, the Carthage Evening Press reported that a CWS (Civil Works Service) project would employ 52 women "on the Carthage relief roles (1)." The women were to  make "comforts [bedding] (2)." The factory was located in the Central Bank building at the northeast corner of the square. The paper refers to the building as the "former" bank building and reported that it had been housing Red Cross supplies. 

This building is within the National Register of Historic Places Carthage Courthouse Square Historic District (see link below). Introduction text written by Dr. Megan Bever, Powers Museum Board Member and Missouri Southern State University Professor, summer 2017.

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Central National Bank (former), 149 East Third Street

By the late 1920s, more remodeling was done to this structure to create a totally new storefront for the J. C. Penney store from part of this building and part of the building next door in the Central National Bank structure. This store served the community for many decades. The Front Page store featured in the Google view closed in late 2018. The property currently is being developed into offices, an event center and a fitness center associated with the Fair Acres Y.M.C.A. (see Clio entry for same on south side of town). In 1975 a Carthage limestone marker was added outside the J. C. Penney store in the concrete sidewalk that acknowledges former local resident James Scott, ragtime composer (see Clio entry for former Central National Bank building located next to this property, 149 East Third Street).

Another example of older commercial buildings built in the 19th century being updated in the 20th century with a new "modern" facade treatment. Two 1880s commercial storefronts were united with a new brick facade after a fire in late 1917. The left store was the long-time home to A. B. Deutsch's Clothing Company and the right store was an even older establishment belonging to J. M. Whitsett's Dry Goods Company. Both Deutsch and Whitsett served the public into the 1920s. In 1922 Whitsett claimed to have "shipped the first car load of merchandise ever sent west of Springfield on the new [rail]road." (1) The goods were "bought from Samuel C. Davis, the oldest wholesale dry goods merchant in St. Louis. Carthage was a small town then, but a prosperous and growing one." (2) This was in 1870. His store at the time was at this location but in a frame building.

This structure is within the National Register of Historic Places Carthage Courthouse Square Historic District (see link below).

Deutsch Clothing Co. and Whitsett Clothing Co. (former), 141 East Third Street

Eventually three storefronts were created in the former mercantile space and offices were opened on the second floor. During the remainder of the twentieth century, among the various occupants of these spaces included the following: Reynolds Hardware, Edmiston's Department Store, Wallingford Shoe Company, Barnes Jewelry, and Baird News. In the1980s, the Flatlander Gallery was located here and sold artwork by Carthage artist Lowell Davis, creator of Red Oak II village located northeast of Carthage.  The first floor of the historic front facade was covered in the 1970s but the western wall of the building still exhibits Carthage limestone keystones above the bricked-in windows on the second floor and many Carthage Foundry-made cast iron pillars on the first floor.

This property's early owner, Robert McFarland, sold this parcel in 1851 to John Shirley who eventually owned most of the property that comprised the north side of the square. He operated a hotel and livery stable until he and his family, including daughter Myra Belle Shirley (later known as Belle Starr), left town for Texas during the Civil War. (A marker in the sidewalk further down the block at 119 East 3rd, notes Shirley's ownership of the square's north side.)

R. H. Rose was one of the Carthage's early settlers after the Civil War and opened a dry goods store. His first location was one of the storefronts below the Burlingame & Chaffee Opera House (136 East 4th Street, see Clio entry for address). A few years later, H. G. Damon began construction of a new commercial building across the Carthage square at Third and Main Street and R. H. Rose moved to that location. His store was a large establishment and had over thirty employees.Through good marketing and managing, Rose and son G. A. Rose after him, managed to survive the fierce competition of Carthage dry goods stores (at any one time numbering at least a half a dozen similar stores) and continued operations until the early years of the Depression. 

The building is in the Carthage Courthouse Square National Register Historic District.



Damon Building (former R.H. Rose Mercantile), 101 East Third Street

After sitting empty a couple years, this building became home to another local manufacturer, H. E. Willliams Products. Founded by Harold E. Williams, the company made a variety of products like potato mashers, lockers, sign board frames, automobile accessories, folding tables and many other metal products. In 1929 Williams moved his operations to this building. The factory was doubled in size in 1948 (brick expansion to south of older building) after converting its entire production line to fluorescent light fixtures in 1939. The company continued at this location until 1971 when the company, now called H. E. Williams, Inc., and headed by H.E.Williams' son John, moved to 831 West Fairview Avenue were it continues today under direction from a third generation of the Williams family. Among other early locations that H. E. Williams produced his metal products were 106 East 2nd Street and 331 North Main Street.  "When H. E. attended the [1939] World's Fair and saw the introduction of fluorescent lighting as a viable source of illumination, he and his engineers started developing fixtures to house the new source" (1) of electrical lighting. The company also continued making electrical light switches and outlet boxes under H. E. Williams' patents (see image above from Powers Museum exhibit). Among the buildings around the courthouse square that continue to use early Williams fluorescent light fixtures is the former Bank of Carthage Building (301 South Main Street, see Clio entry for this address) now the Carthage Deli and Ice Cream Shop. The fixtures in the restaurant's ceiling are early H. E. Williams fixtures from the late 1930s. During World War II, the Williams company made bomb support clips and the framework for the bubble canopies for military aircraft. With steel rationed, the company also had to figure out how to manufacture its light fixtures with treated Masonite and the company archives has one example of a fixture from this time period. Today, this building houses the Carthage Crisis Center.

In 1919 another Carthage shoe company was organized under the name Carthage Shoe Manufacturing Company by Henry Meuhling, Wallis Wallingford, John Bailey and John Marrs as officers. A two-story brick building was constructed and production began in spring of 1920. At construction, it was thought a third floor would be added to this structure at some point but it never was.

According to Carthage city directories, this particular shoe company did not operate long and at this point it is unknown if it might have reorganized into Carmo Shoe Manufacturing in the 1930s that occupied another shoe factory at Oak and Garrison (see Clio entry for company). However it is documented that Juvenile Shoe Corporation moved into this building and produced a variety of shoes until it closed all Carthage production around 1926 and moved operations to its Aurora, Missouri, factory. While operating in this location, Sanborn maps indicate that Juvenile continued operations at its River Street plant (original Kaut-Reith Shoe factory, see Clio entry for 200 South River Street) along with a third plant at 4th and Maple Streets (former United Wood Heel Company building).



Carthage Shoe Manufacturing Company (former), later H. E. Williams Products, 106 South Main Street

In 1895, city offices moved into the Jasper County Courthouse on the second floor of the new courthouse since the city had contributed $50,000 to the courthouse construction project to guarantee the courthouse remain in Carthage. Jasper County government had been without a permanent home from the time the town was re-built after the Civil War's total destruction of the town. Temporary county offices even included the upstairs rooms of the Harrington Building located next to the 1883 City hall with access into the second floor of the city building.  Today the former City Hall building includes museum exhibits on life in Carthage during the Civil War years, including African-Americans, Native Americans and Myra Belle Shirley (aka Belle Starr) whose father owned much of the land on the north side of the courthouse square (including portions of this structure's property). The museum also features Civil War-themed artwork from local artists Bob Tommey and Andy Thomas.

Construction began in early 1883 for this $7,000 multiple purpose structure that included city offices, fire and police departments and jail (then called the calaboose and located behind this structure). The building also held engine rooms for the early municipal water works. Horses that pulled fire department equipment were housed across the street at Crandall Livery (building now gone). 

The structure was remodeled in the early 20th century and continued to serve the City of Carthage as a fire station and in many other capacities including the long-time Civil Defense storage facility as directed by Opal Johnson from offices in Memorial Hall. In the 1980s this structure was converted by the City of Carthage for use as a museum dedicated to the history of the Battle of Carthage (July 5, 1861; see Battle of Carthage State Historic Site Clio entry, East Chestnut Street). The property is within the National Register of Historic Places Carthage Courthouse Square Historic District (see link below).




Carthage City Hall (former), now Carthage Civil War Museum, 205 South Grant Street

In 1961 this structure was converted into a bowling alley by Russell Newport and Gene Fain and current building owners still operate the location as a bowling and entertainment center called Grace Lanes. The building's neon sign is a popular item with photographers. The Carthage limestone-faced two story building located next this building was the Crane Hotel also owned by the Walter Crane, original owner of the theater building. The Crane Theater, that cost $50,000 to build in 1922, was one of Michaelis' last project since he died in a construction accident associated with the building of Joplin Missouri's Memorial Hall in 1923 (1).

The Crane Theater opened July 19, 1922. Its architect for the original building (now hidden under the limestone panels and steel slats) was Joplin, Missouri, architect A. C. Michaelis. At first the theater presented silent movies and live shows including old fiddler's contests, fashion shows for local clothing shops and history pageants for school children. Talking movies came to the theater in late 1929 and occasional live shows continued through the 1940s. In 1955 the building was remodeled by Samuel W. Bihr and renamed the Fox Theater but the film business only operated a four more years at this location before the building was switched to other forms of entertainment and leisure activities.


Crane Theater (former), 219 East Third Street

This building was built in 1909 and owned by William Logan. The Logan family home was one block east at 403 East 4th Street. Logan was a co-owner of the Carthage Stone Company and the building was constructed of limestone from this quarry. Logan also owned many other properties along the 200 - 400 blocks of East Fourth Street. While one of the first floor storefronts was the long-time home to the Gas Company for its service office and appliance store, a competing utility, the Empire District Electric Company, also had an office here at one time.The second floor was home to Rude's Business College moving here between 1937 and 1941. Rude's had become the successor to several other smaller business schools in Carthage in the late 19th and early 20th centuries including the Carthage Commercial College on East Fourth&nbsp;Street (see Clio entry for Cassaday Building). When it moved to this location, it advertised itself as "a good school in a good town, training good students for good positions at good salaries." (1) The upper level of this building also was used for fraternal organizations such as the Order of Odd Fellows, Royal Neighbors of America and the Rebekah Lodge.&nbsp;

In the late 19th century, Thomas Hennessey purchased ACME gas company and formed the Gas Works Company in Carthage, Missouri. Hennessey owned a patent for "the new system" of delivering gas and used two generators powered by coal oil to generate 130,000 cubit feet of gas per day. Within ten days of the company's opening, local businesses were placing orders to have gas connected.

This building is within the Carthage Courthouse Square Historic District of the National Register of Historic Places (see link below).

Logan Building (aka Gas Company Building), 301 East Fourth Street

When opened, rooms cost $1.50 to $2.50 a night and the restaurant was used by travelers and local citizens for daily dining and special functions such as club meetings, reunions and national sales meetings hosted by local businesses. For several years the Carthage Chamber of Commerce maintained its office at this location. By the 1940s and 1950s, the hotel's Sunday chicken dinners (sold for $1.00) were well known in the region. Owned and operated by various hotel chains including Wyman Hotels, the Drake closed in the 1970s and became care facility. Restored in 2006, the structure now houses senior apartments and the lobby has been returned to its original 1920s appearance.

Named after early Carthage settler and long-time hardware dealer A. M. Drake, this four story former hotel building also included a restaurant, beauty parlor, barber shop and office spaces that were used by the Carthage Chamber of Commerce and other civic organizations. Designed by Kansas City architectural firm Shepard and Wiser, the hotel cost $200,000 to construct over the course of 1920-22. Marian Wright Powers wrote her daughter, Marian Louisa Powers on October 11, 1920, that "today was the cornerstone laying of the new hotel, The Drake, and of course they had a big to do, and a good crowd... they had a clear, warm day, and nice weather." (Letter in collection of Powers Museum Archives.)



Drake Hotel (former), now Drake Hotel Apartments, 406 Howard Street

Once Leggett and Platt left this structure at Fifth and Grant, various other manufacturers where located here several dealing with wagons and carriages. By 1905 the Lanpher Brothers Carriage Works moved in and for about ten years manufactured carriages, assembled Ford automobiles and made their own trucks and autos. Later this location also became incorporated into the Smith Brothers Manufacturing Company complex of buildings from Grant to Howard Streets (See Clio entry for Smith Brothers Manufacturing). In 2000 when Leggett &amp; Platt, Inc. purchased the Big Smith property, Leggett &amp; Platt in fact bought back its original location of the C. D. Platt plow factory where bed springs, the initial product of the company, started production.

C. D. Platt Plow Works was established in 1873 to manufacture plows with equipment brought to Carthage from another plow manufacturer in Des Monies, Iowa, and by 1880, about 200 plows were made a month. However C. D. Platt's son Cornelius B. Platt, business man and Blacksmith, teamed up with J. P. Leggett, a mold specialist, and began production of bed springs. It is from this location at 5th and Grant Streets that Leggett-Platt Combination Spring Bed factory started in 1883.

The manufacturer soon out grew this facility and by 1892 moved to a new factory located on Second Street between Maple and Lyon. Production continued there until the mid-1920s when the plant was moved to Central Avenue. Today's Leggett & Platt, Inc., "produces a diverse array of products that can be found in most homes, vehicles, and offices" (1). It is "made up of seventeen business units, has 21,00 employee-partners, and 130 facilities in nineteen countries" (2).





Platt Plow Works (former), 201 East Fifth Street (later Lanpher Auto Works)

Prior to the 1906 high school, other high school buildings did not have auditoriums so all classes prior to the Class of 1906 held their graduation ceremonies at the Burlingame and Chafee Opera House (136 East Third Street; see Clio entry for same). The Class of 1906 was the first group to graduate from the actual school students attended. Additions to the original 1906 structure have included a gymnasium on the south side (1951, in the approximate location of the former 1890 Carthage High School later known as the Manual Arts Building) and an east wing in 1966 and a new auditorium on the north side in 1988. The latter construction project used the final supply of local limestone quarried for building purposes from Carthage Marble Corporation (now Americold off North Francis Street). The auditorium's lobby featured a school history mural by artist Andy Thomas.

Carthage's first public school built after the Civil War was constructed on the site of the former Carthage Academy (1855 - 1861) that was destroyed during the war. Both were located on the eastside of the 700 block of South Main Street.

This post-war school (no longer standing) was built in 1870 and the two-story brick school served all levels of education including grammar school and high school although the first high school class did not graduate until 1878. When a new high school building was built further south near Chestnut Street in 1890, the earlier structure became home to elementary grades and was known as Central School. 

In short order another high school building was needed and in 1906 a new Carthage High School was opened next door to the 1870 school building. It was built of Carthage limestone by local contractor Ellis Jackson. While serving the longest as the high school facility for the community, for the past few years, this structure served as the Carthage Junior High School. Beginning in 2019, it has become the Sixth Grade Center.








Carthage High School (former), 714 South Main (now Sixth Grade Center)

Eugene Field School served the Carthage school system from 1917 through the 1996-1997 school year when it was closed with the construction of Steadley Elementary School on West Fairview Road. Tom Bewick was the last principal of the school. The first principal of Eugene Field School was Lula Stanley who served from 1917 to 1950 (1). The naming of the school in early 1917 came as a surprise to Cathaginians. "It was generally supposed that one of the schools would be named after the late Prof. J. M. White, who died while superintendent of schools here, and that the other [school] name would be chosen from the names handed in by the citizens. There had been so much discussion as to which of the names suggested would be fitting that the board decided to choose names which had not been suggested (2)." Like Mark Twain School, Eugene Field School was designed by Percy Simpson and constructed by P. J. McNerney contractors (3).

During the 1916-1917 school session, the Carthage Board of Education approved the construction of two new schools including this brick and limestone structure. (Mark Twain Elementary School on South Main Street was the other school; see Clio entry for that school's history.)  Eugene Field was built on Chestnut Street between Fulton and Orchard Streets. The new structure replaced older ward schools of Washington and Irving that served the surrounding neighborhoods. The choice of the school's name was to honor Missouri poet and journalist Eugene Field as a sign of respect for literature in education which was considered important at the time. 

Eugene Field Elementary School (former), 613 East Chestnut

The second structure on this property opened in 1919 and was used until the 1954-55 term ended when integration of all students was accomplished in the local school system (a process that actually began during the 1953-54 term). Lincoln’s last principal was Mrs. Kathryn Redmond assisted by teacher Miss Eula Scott. The original school structure was torn down in 1965 and replaced with Carthage's Vocational and Technical School. Among the many graduates of Lincoln School was Kenneth O. Wofford (LHS Class of 1941, along with his future wife Willeta Brinker). Wofford served as a Tuskegee Airman with the United States Army Air Corps during World War II and then went on to become a colonel in the United States Air Force, also serving during the Korean and Vietnam wars. On his Library of Congress veterans oral history completed in 2006, Wofford gave his ethnicity as "60% Cherokee and Creek, 25% English and Irish, and 15% African (1)."

With heavy enrollment in the old Lincoln School located on Tiger Hill at the north end of Garrison Avenue, the Carthage Board of Education determined a new building was needed for its African-American students. In 1914 voters approved a $10,000 bond issue to finance a new school located at the corner of River and Sixth Streets across the street from the Tourist Park (now part of Carter Park on the east side of River Street, see Clio entry for Carter Park). Constructed of brick and local limestone, the first school term opened in 1915 but two years later, the structure burned. Lincoln students were sent to the old Ward One/Washington School that was vacant with the opening of the new Eugene Field School for white students (See Clio entry for Eugene Field School). 

Lincoln School #2, 609 South River Street (no longer standing)

The northern entrance off River street was created when the stone entrance gate to Cassil Place on West Central Avenue was moved to this location (see Clio entry for Cassil Place on West Central Avenue). For many years the corner at Chestnut and River Streets also had Carthage limestone pillars that formed an arched gateway and second entrance into the park but in 2016, those were moved further east on Chestnut to keep them from being repeatedly damaged by truck traffic. Next to these pillars at the River and Chestnut location was a marker with the text "July 5, 1861" to denote the Battle of Carthage action by both sides in this vicinity. That marker still stands on its original site. The park was home to leisure activities and sports events in the late 19th century through the first decade of the 20th century at which point it was developed into Carthage's Tourist Park for auto travelers using the early named highways such as the Ozark Trails and the Jefferson Highway. Facilities were added for tent and car camping and some of the rock shelters from this period still exist although the rock cabins do not. The Tourist Park was noted in AP news wire stories in the 1930s as one of best tourist parks along U. S. Highway 66. (U.S. 66 originally came into Carthage from the east via River Street and turned west at Central Avenue, so the park was only a couple blocks away.) In the 1930s the park also was used for New Deal recreational programs and would also become home to Boy Scout and Girl Scout activities in later decades.Today the park is still used for picnicking and sports events. Late 2018 Update: Southern portion of the rock entrance gates seen in the Google image have been damaged.

Carter Park is located between a creek and the former Saint Louis-San Francisco (Frisco) Railroad tracks and East Chestnut street on the south and South River Street on the west. The initial park property was donated by Dr. J. A. Carter whose home sits atop the bluff that forms the eastern edge of the original property. (This eastern-most portion of the former park property is now developed into the Battle of Carthage State Historic Site, see Clio entry for same on East Chestnut Street.) Originally the property was called Carter's Park in honor of the former property owner and park's donor to the City of Carthage.



Carter Park, 602 South River Street

This factory building was originally built in 1914 for $30,000 for use by the Kaut-Reith Shoe Company based in Saint Louis, Missouri. It was the first of many shoe manufacturers in Carthage, Missouri, during the 1910s and 1920s when the Carthage Chamber of Commerce was encouraging that particular industry. Juvenile Shoe Corporation moved to this building by 1919-20 and operated a few years before adding another plant at 100 South Main. All Juvenile Shoe operations in Carthage ceased around 1926.

In Carthage, this factory is more commonly known as the Steadley factory from the building's history as a bed springs manufacturer. This association began shortly after the death of F. W. Steadley when his son Kent reorganized the Carthage Superior Bed Spring Manufacturing plant formerly located on North Main and moved into this River Street facility under the name of the Steadley Company. This company operated for many decades before being acquired by Leggett and Platt, Inc., in 1996.




Walking in the Wards - Ward 1 - Downtown Carthage MO

Smith Brothers Manufacturing (former), 526 South Howard Street

Introduction

Images

Backstory and Context

Sources

Additional Information