Celebrating National Historic Districts & Places That Matter

The Arthur Waite House

Waite arrived in Joplin in 1880 at the age of 27. He grew up splitting rails in Nebraska and at the age of 21, applied and received a job at the country bank in Brownville, Nebraska. Thus began a lifetime career in the banking industry. Eventually he rode a “hog train” to St. Joseph, Missouri, and worked as a book keeper at the Merchant State Bank for Thomas Tootle. Tootle, meanwhile, was a partner of Joplin founding father, Patrick Murphy, in the ownership of the Miner’s Bank. It was a job at Miner’s Bank, located in the same building as the old Joplin Hotel, that brought Waite to Joplin.

Later on, Waite took a job as cashier at the Joplin National Bank, which for a time was located in the Keystone Hotel building. Eventually, Waite rose to the position of president of the bank. Established as a major figure in the Joplin banking community, he was the president of the Joplin National Bank and Trust Company, the Missouri Bankers Association, Jasper County Bankers’ Association and was a member of the Elks Lodge in Joplin.

Waite remained involved in banking and in the house that Garstang & Rea designed until his death in April, 1934.

Susie Chase Leonard Waite worked on the Y.W.C.A. board for many years, was a member of the Woman’s Club, Ridpath Club, Curtis Club, and Buddy Club.  At the time of her death in 1956, she was a member of the Health and Welfare board, on which she had served since its establishment in the early 1900s.  After Mr. Waite’s death in 1934, Mrs. Waite moved to the Olivia Apartments where she lived until the time of her death.

Credits to Historicjoplin.com

The Joseph E. Garm House

Joseph Edward Garm, vice-president of Joplin National Bank, was a well-known banker and financier. 

He was a member of the Joplin Rotary, president of the Joplin Parks Board, manager of Joplin Clearing House Association, president of the Missouri Bankers’ Association, and a member of the Home Building & Loan Association.

In 1946, Mr. Garm was the campaign treasurer for the proposed Tri-State World War II memorial museum in Schifferdecker Park.  The purpose was to give dignified tribute to the veterans and miners who gave their lives, and adequately display mineral specimens as well as war relics.  The prize collection of zinc-lead minerals was valued at more than a million dollars in 1946. 

The Julius Fischer House

In 1883 Mr. Fischer was on the Joplin School Board, in 1884 was associated with the Granby Mining & Smelting Co. as a cashier and secretary, and was Joplin City Clerk in 1887-1888.

Mr. Fischer was infamously known as the man that lost the election of Jasper County Clerk to Mrs. Annie Baxter by a very wide margin in November 1890.  She was the first woman elected to office and first woman elected as a county clerk—30 years before women could even vote!  He planned to contest the election claiming she was not a citizen even though the “male citizen” requirement had been stricken a short time before.  In December 1890 he ultimately decided not to contest Mrs. Baxter because he was appointed to be the Deputy Circuit Clerk of the Joplin office.  Newspapers across the U.S. and even Canada reported that the election should not be contested based on her sex.  Various newspapers wrote: He is mean and the type of man that would not hesitate to drown a widow woman’s dog; Mr. Fischer is a galoot; He ought to go and soak his head in a beer keg!

 Originally a farmhouse, the current façade is an historic alteration, with Tudor elements applied to the original I-House Form.

The Charles G. Henderson House

Originally from Indiana, Charles Henderson became president of the S. C. Henderson Wholesale Grocery Company in Joplin.  Charles was also associated in mining ventures, was a director of the Joplin National Bank, a director in the Joplin Realty Company, and a pioneer in the telephone and electric business.  After Mr. Henderson’s first wife Emma Downs Henderson died in March of 1926, he married Jessie Onstott Mead in the autumn of 1927.

HENDERSON S WHOLESALE GROCERY HOUSE was located on the corner of Main and Sixth streets the elegant brick.  two storie building was filled to its utmost capacity with a full line of the best goods for the wholesale trade.

The marriage of Ethel Henderson (one of two daughters) to Robert Ballard was solemnized at this house on Christmas Eve 1927.  The wedding party descended the stairway and crossed to a rose-twined trellis. Guests walked into the house through the porte cochere entrance. A supper was served in the dining room on a lace table cloth with crystal candlesticks and a silver tea service.  Strands of smilax and roses were festooned from the front door to the nearest chandelier.

This house has beige brick cladding, gabled dormers, dentil molding at the roofline, and many other architectural features.

Charles G. Henderson died in 1947 at the age of 81, but in 1933 his hometown newspaper reported on his death!  Nine days later a retraction was printed with Charles Henderson stating that it was not often a man could read his own death notice. The newspaper should have reported on the death of Charles’s son, Charles A. Henderson.

The Simon Schwartz House

Built by Joplin dry goods merchant Simon Schwartz, the house was one of the most elaborate in the area featuring a different type of wood in every room. The main house has asymmetrical massing, a stylized dormer, a unique square tower and bay windows. The porch has stone piers with fluted wood columns and square stone balustrades.

Mr. Schwartz and his wife Hennie sold the house to John Graham, a wholesale grocer and horse lover who constructed an elegant brick horse stable at the back of the property in 1898.

The next owner, Dr. Sam Grantham, housed his medical office in the parlor and later in the stable. According to local folklore, late one night associates of Bonnie and Clyde forced the doctor at gunpoint to remove a bullet from the arm of a fellow gangster. The Bonnie and Clyde hideout still stands at 299 W 34th St, Joplin, MO 64804.  When Dr. Grantham died, his younger son Sam, took over the practice.

In 1963, Dr. Irvine Kilbane moved into his medical practice. Dr. Kilbane and Mrs. Mary Joanne (Jo) (Booher Rosenak) Kilbane were well known and beloved by the Joplin community. Their memorial plaque can be viewed inside the Jewish Temple at 702 S. Sergeant Avenue in Joplin.