Our Mission:
To promote, educate and preserve the integrity of historic properties throughout the Murphysburg District and Joplin.
Our Vision:
To help the people who live and visit our community understand how history shapes, inspires, and informs the present. To help the District remain a historic community that is beautiful, inviting, inclusive and safe for our neighbors to live and visitors to explore.
Values:
Preservation: We help home owners understand their historic inheritance and provide help and information to keep our neighborhood preserved.
Security/Safety: We value of our homes and the quality of our community depends on the neighborhood being secure. We will pursue funding to increase security and safety. We will collaborate with city officials and law enforcement to promote changes that better the Districts security and safety of all.
Pride of Place: We will help historic homeowners through collaboration of resources to take pride in the appearance and heritage of their home.
Community: Residence have a sense of community a will promote activities within the district that are socially, racially and ethnically diverse. We share a common interest in our homes and their heritage and sponsor activities that promote a sense of community.
City Services: Better city services enhance our quality of life and the value of our property. The Murphysburg District serves as a liaison with the City of Joplin and supports our residents as the press for the city services they deserve.
Property Values: Residents want the value of our homes and our investment to be protected and to increase. Home values depend on the quality of life in the neighborhood. We will work to protect and improve the quality of the neighborhood through community gardens, streetscapes and sidewalk improvements.
Board of Directors
2022 HMP Volunteer Board Members
President: Chris Ferguson [email protected]
Vice President: Wayne Stephenson
Secretary: Mary Anne Phillips [email protected]
Treasurer: Paula Callihan
Directors: Mary Ann Neff, Kristine Gustafson and Jim Burns
[email protected] | 417-208-9376
Funding
Operational funding: HMP does need to maintain enough cash reserve for ongoing expenses such as liability insurance, post office box rental, various dues, website maintenance, and more. Because HMP does not need to maintain a large cash reserve for office space, overhead, salaries, etc., we do not differentiate ourselves from competitors or similar organizations. HMP also takes advantage of Square and Pay Pal for payment of event tickets, vendor booths, dues, and donations.
In order for HMP associates to comply with the mission statement, educational activities and events will continue in a professional, safe, and low-risk manner. Our insurance agent will be consulted during the planning process. HMP will document the process of acquiring licenses, bonds, liability insurance certificates, and liability waiver agreements, as needed, from contractors, venues, homeowners, ticketed guests, co-sponsors, co-hosts, etc.
History
The Murphysburg National Register of Historic Places is roughly fifty-three-acre district that is comprised of thirteen full blocks and nine partial blocks roughly bounded by West First Street on the north, Pearl Avenue and Byers Avenue on the east, West Fourth Street and West Seventh Street on the south, and the rear (west) property line of resources fronting South Sergeant Avenue on the west.
Murphysburg National Register of Historic Places District Map
Murphysburg Action Plan, June 2017
Information in this website is provided by Historic Murphysburg Preservation, Inc. and is accurate to the best of its knowledge. HMP collects historical narrative from The Murphysburg Survey, Post Art Library, Find a Grave, City Directories, oral history accounts, History of Jasper County publication, Historic Joplin Blog, Joplin History & Mineral Museum, Ancestry website and newspaper articles.
HMP welcomes additional documentation, oral history, and photographs.
In 1992, the City of Joplin designated Sergeant Avenue from Second Street to Fourth Street as the “Murphysburg Residential Historic District.” At the request of homeowners in the adjacent neighborhoods, the City of Joplin expanded the historic district in 2004. The historic district encompassed Sergeant Avenue from First Street to Seventh Street and Moffet Avenue from First Street to Fourth Street. Rosin, an architectural firm conducted the Murphysburg survey in 2015. The Missouri Advisory Council on Historic Preservation voted to place Murphysburg Historic District on the National Register of Historic Places later that year.
Historic Murphysburg Preservation, Inc. was formed in 2005 for the purpose to implement charitable and educational activities that promote and stimulate historic awareness throughout the neighborhood. HMP, Inc. is a non-profit 501(c) (3) corporation governed by a volunteer board consisting of seven people. President, Vice President, Secretary, Treasurer and three directors. The organization is dedicated to the preservation of historic homes in Joplin’s only designated residential historic district. Past and present board members are personally and financially invested in historic preservation via historic home and business ownership. Their board members are involved in the City of Joplin Historic Preservation Commission, Missouri Preservation Board, Joplin History and Mineral Museum Board, Convention and Visitors Bureau Advisory Board and Ozark Gateway Association of Realtors. Many members have higher education ranging from construction to business and history degrees.
