Celebrating National Historic Districts & Places That Matter

COSGROVE BUILDING

Built by Henrietta Jackson Cosgrove (1849-1927) who was a mine operator, writer, civic
leader, suffragist, philanthropist and involved in real estate. One of her greatest
accomplishments was securing pensions for miners’ widows by proposing that states adopt
widow’s pensions rather than vagrancy laws, thus saving the states’ money. By the 1920s, all
but four states adopted widows’ pension laws. She was married to Aruna P. Cosgrove (1842-
1901) and they had one daughter.
 
In May 2014, Mr. Allen was forced to sue Mrs. Cosgrove for the balance due on his commission
for the building. In December 2014 the case was dismissed when she finally paid him the
$460.32.

Businesses were located on the bottom floor and offices and living quarters on the top floor. In
December 1915 while Mrs. Cosgrove slept upstairs, robbers entered the Graham Brothers’
Grocery Store downstairs and stole chewing gum, cigars, chewing tobacco, ate lunch, and kept
warm around an oil lamp!
 
Through the years many different companies have officed here including the City of Joplin
Commissioners and Atlas Powder Company in 1914 and the Joplin Convention & Visitors
Bureau in the 1990s and early 2000s.
 
To learn more about the future of this building, contact Heather Lesmeister, Executive Director,
Spiva Center for the Arts at 417-623-0183.

Saint Peter the Apostle Catholic Church

Austin Allen looked to the Gothic Revival style for inspiration in this $60,000 masterpiece,
which is about $1,800,000 today. Appropriately enough, elements of this style—the pointed
arches, buttresses, and spires—all symbolize heavenward movement. 
 
Rich and poor, Catholics and Protestants enthusiastically contributed to the effort of building
Joplin’s first Roman Catholic church.

The rough-faced Carthage limestone is laid in regular courses of alternating wide and narrow
rows. A steel frame supports the steeply pitched slate roof and vaulted ceiling; therefore, the

wall buttresses are merely decorative. The primary facade has three arched entry ways. The
largest, in the center, features a beautiful rose window with a cross-topped spire above it. Finials
arise from each corner of the facade towers.
 
The Joplin Daily Globe published a full-page spread on Sunday, November 24, 1907 stating the
edifice “was regarded as the handsomest structure within the limits of the town of Joplin and was
pointed to with pride by every loyal citizen.”

Joplin Schools Administration Building

JOPLIN HIGH SCHOOL

During the fall of 1915 Joplin voters passed a $350,000 bond issue to purchase property, as well
as construct and furnish a new high school. In 1916 the Kansas City architectural firm of Smith,
Rea, and Lovett, along with Austin Allen, were selected to design the high school. At the time
Mr. Allen had offices in Joplin and Kansas City. Less than a year later, school officials were
saddened by the news concerning the death of Austin Allen.

Ten out of twenty school district buildings were damaged or destroyed by the 2011 Joplin
Tornado, but this historic building was spared. Today it houses Administration, the Gifted
Center, Franklin Technology Center-Adult Education, and Memorial Education Center. The
building will continue to serve Joplin into the next 100 years.

Unfortunately, Mr. Allen never saw
the completion of this three-story red brick structure. Classes began at Joplin Hight School on
January 21, 1918, with 31 teachers consisting of 22 female instructors. Their maximum salary
was $80 a month. The august structure has been the most versatile building in the Joplin School
District. Students, representing ages from preschool to high school, passed through the storied
walls. For a decade the building was the home of Joplin Junior College. (1958-1967) – Excerpt
from the Joplin History & Mineral Museum 2021 calendar.

Austin Allen, The Architect… Remembered

Sunday – December 3, 2023

Joplin | Webb City | Oronogo

1:00 to 6:00 PM

The lecture starts at 1:00 pm.  Tour sites open at 1:30 and run until 6:00 pm.  Guests can pick up their tickets at headquarters before or after the lecture and then start their self-guided tour of the sites.  Guests can visit the sites in any order.

 Historic Murphysburg Preservation, Inc. will host a lecture and tour on Sunday, December 3rd from 1:00 to 6:00 pm featuring eighteen historic structures built between 1890 and 1917 designed or associated with the distinguished local architect, Mr. Austin Allen.  Tour sites include Joplin City Hall, which was originally built as the Newman Building, St. Peter the Apostle Catholic Church, the United Hebrew Congregation Temple, Old Elk’s Club, and many more historic buildings in use today or under renovation.  Don’t miss this rare opportunity to tour the ongoing restoration of the Olivia Apartments or stand inside Austin Allen’s mausoleum—his final resting place at Mount Hope Cemetery.  

1:00 PM – Lecture by Brad Belk on the life and work of Austin Allen, Joplin’s premier architect between 1903 and 1917

Doors open at 12:15. 

Brad Belk, Principal Historian & House Site Director for Joplin Historical Neighborhoods, Inc. and Community Historian for Missouri Southern State University will deliver a lecture on the life and work of Mr. Allen at tour headquarters, the Joplin Schools Administrative Building, 310 West Eighth Street, Joplin.  The administrative building, originally Joplin High School, was designed in 1916 by Mr. Allen. 

A commemorative booklet (which is also the ticket and map) will describe each tour site and its history.  The tour includes fifteen sites in Joplin, two in Webb City, and one in Oronogo.  The tour will have approximately ten sites where the interior and exterior will be open to guests.  The remaining eight sites will only be visible from the outside or street view.  

Purchase tickets in advance at www.murphysburg.org for $25 per person til December 2.  Tickets can also be purchased on December 3rd at tour headquarters for $30 per person.  Children ages 12 years and under are admitted for free with an adult.

Due to the design of these historic properties, handicap accessibility is limited.  There are two handicap entrances on the west side of the Joplin Schools Administrative Building at 825 South Pearl Avenue.

$30 Day of Tour at tour headquarters, Joplin Schools Administrative Building, 310 W. Eighth Street, Joplin  (doors open at 12:15 PM)

Historic Murphysburg Preservation, Inc. is a non-profit organization that implements
charitable and educational activities, which promotes and stimulates historic awareness
throughout the Joplin area. The Historic Murphysburg District is generally on Sergeant,
Moffet, and Byers Avenues between First to Seventh Streets near downtown Joplin.
CONTACT INFORMATION
Paula Callihan, Historic Murphysburg Preservation, Inc.; 417-208-9376;
[email protected]; www.Murphysburg.org.

The Joseph S. Walker House

Joseph Scott Walker, Sr., along with his wife Mary Ellen, were original owners of this house. They moved out in 1903. Joseph was considered a “capitalist” and an ore buyer for the Edgar Zinc Company of St. Louis. He was superintendent of the Sunday school at the First Methodist Church of Joplin and for six years was president of the Jasper County Sunday School Association.

Next came Charles W. McAbee, and wife Louella. He was vice-president of Independent Powder Co. of Missouri and later president of Independent Candy & Manufacturing Co. at 4th and Missouri Avenue.

George Washington Moore resided at the house from 1931 to 1937.  However, in 1938, he and wife Ida moved across the street to the “old Schifferdecker home” at 422 S. Sergeant.  It is noteworthy because he “swapped houses” with the Hurwitz-Luecke Family that had lived at the mansion since 1920.  According to the Webb City Sentinel, George was elected the mayor of Webb City in 1904 and was credited with lifting Webb City out of the mud and otherwise modernizing what was then a rough mining community.  George was also an ore buyer and associated with numerous mining and smelting industries.  The Moores lived at the Schifferdecker house until 1947 when it was sold to the Hurlburt-Glover Mortuary—a saga onto itself—eventually settled by the Missouri Supreme Court!

  • Moore House in Webb City 2023
  • Mrs. George (Ida) Moore
  • George’s Death Nnotice
  • George Moore (mid-life)
  • 411 South Sergeant Avenue

Postscript: George’s “palatial home” at 903 S. Madison Avenue in Webb City, built in 1908, is slated to be demolished in the summer of 2023 to make way for new commercial development.  Thankfully, the two historic houses in Joplin that are associated with George and Ida listed above have been preserved.  After extensive renovations to the Schifferdecker Mansion by Joplin Historic Neighborhoods, George W. Moore remains engraved on the front step.

Bertha Hurwitz Luecke moved into the house in 1938 and remained until her death in 1952.  Bertha’s husband, Julius died in 1933; he was a jeweler.  Her brother, Dr. Leon Hurwitz also lived at the Schifferdecker House with the Luecke Family.  Dr. Hurwitz died in 1936, ten years after being convicted of selling morphine illegally, serving three years in Leavenworth prison, and understandably losing his medical license!  At one point, he was also appointed as the City Physician.  All of this could explain why Bertha was ready to “downsize” by moving to 411 S. Sergeant. 

Bertha’s son, Carl Luecke continued living here until his death in 1969.  He was an engineer for the Empire District Electric Company for 41 years.  Carl’s wife, Ruth Fleischaker Luecke held a master’s degree in special education and was the first teacher of the sight-saving classes in the Joplin school system.  Carl and Ruth continued living here until their deaths in 1969 and 1973 respectively.
In the spirit of keeping the house in the family, Ruth’s nephew, William “Bill” Fleischaker moved into the house in 1975.  The extended Fleischaker Family factors prominently in Joplin’s early history and that of the United Hebrew Congregation of Joplin.  Several family members continue to serve the community today.  

ARCHITECTURE

The two-and-one-half-story Queen Anne house has a limestone foundation, a hip roof with lower cross-gables and a side-wrap porch with a gabled pediment.  It has brick piers, round wood columns and dentil molding.  A transom can be seen over the front door. 

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