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.

Woman’s History Month…Two Untold Stories

Dora Annabelle Jesse Kneeland…The woman behind a famous seasoning

Dora was born in Diamond, Missouri in 1879 and moved to Joplin in 1895.  Her husband, Guy Kneeland was an engineer for a zinc mine and passed away in 1923.   Dora eventually came to live at 101 North Sergeant Avenue with a daughter, son-in-law, and grandson until her death on July 29, 1945.   Dora was a member of the Zinc Rebekah Lodge and First Baptist Church.

Why is Dora’s story special and carries on to present day?  The answer begins with Dora’s son-in-law, Cecil LeRoy “Roy” Williams, who was the founder of the C. L. Williams Chili Seasoning Company, now known as Williams Foods, Inc.

According to the Williams Foods website, a 1998 article in the Biz Journal (Kansas City), and a 2008 article in Ingram’s magazine, Mr. Williams started the Williams Chili Seasoning company in Webb City in 1937 and began by “…selling his mother’s chili seasonings…” in small brown paper bags and selling them out of his home.  However, there are two wrinkles to this account.  According to Dr. Benjamin Rosenberg, it wasn’t Roy’s mother’s recipe—it was Dora’s, his mother-in-law’s recipe.  The other wrinkle is the location and date.  According to a 1972 Joplin Globe article, “Many years ago, in a small garage in Joplin, (at Roy’s home) using a blender just about the size of today’s coffee blender, the original formulation of pure spices and seasonings were combined by C. L. Williams, the beginning of Williams’s Foods, Inc.”

The 1939 Joplin City Directory shows the Williams family living in Joplin at 101 North Sergeant Avenue.  The Rosenberg family lived across the street at 101 South Sergeant.  

Dr. Benjamin Rosenberg is a long-time Joplin resident, former City Councilman, and local dentist.  Dr. Rosenberg says the seasoning was made in the (extant) detached garage behind the William’s house on Sergeant Avenue.  While attending Columbia Elementary School (five blocks north at E Street and Sergeant Avenue) “Benji” would often ride his bicycle home for lunch.  At that time, Columbia did not serve lunch.  On some days Benji would eat chili for lunch served by the Williams family.  During the cooking, Dr. Rosenberg said, “You could smell chili all over the neighborhood.”

It appeared that no one else was selling packaged seasoning mixes for home use.  Later Mr. Williams was the first seasonings maker to put the product in aluminum pouches.  Once established, Mr. Williams approached the City of Joplin for a special use permit so that he could legally continue the process in his garage.  According to Dr. Rosenberg, City officials denied the request.  Mr. Williams moved his operation from the “small garage” to Webb City around 1942, although some reports site 1945.  However, the family continued to cook chili and the aroma filled the air.     
Interestingly, Roy continued his “real job” as the purchasing agent for Myers Motor Supply Company at 5th Street and Wall Avenue between 1925 and 1952.  Roy died in 1975 and his wife Ida in 1988.

The seasoning’s popularity grew and was distributed throughout the Midwest.  Mr. Williams sold the firm to Conrad Hock, Jr. in 1963 (although some reports site 1961) who continued operating under the Williams brand at the 1502 South Madison plant in Webb City.  By 1972, the seasoning was sold in some 30 states, many countries, and military commissaries.  In 1984, Hock moved the company to Lenexa, Kansas, which was not well received by Webb City residents and is still lamented today!  The company was sold again in March 2008 to C. H. Guenther & Son, LLC.  The manufacturing plant is still in Lenexa with the Guenther corporate office in San Antonio, Texas.

Thank you, Dora Kneeland, for creating a chili seasoning mix that started in a humble Joplin garage and continues to help people get dinner on the table some 86 years later.

The Fred & Red’s chili (spaghetti red) recipe is closely guarded, but many cooks believe the secret ingredient is Williams Chili Seasoning.  Fred & Red’s restaurant is located at 1719 South Main Street, Joplin.

Williams Chili Seasoning packets can be purchased at G & W Cash Saver Grocery Store at 811 West 7th Street, Joplin and across America.  Visit https://williamsfoods.com for the product locator then type in a zip code.