West Plains:: 1880-1930

By Toney Aid

On the eve of the Civil War, West Plains was a sleepy county seat with a population of 150 and a wood-frame courthouse in its town square. During the war, this Southern Missouri town was burned, abandoned, and eventually reconstructed. With the arrival of the railroad in 1883, West Plains turned boomtown, and photographers were among the first entrepreneurs to arrive. This volume of vintage photographs documents the town as it grew, struggled, and prospered over the next 50 years. Pictured here are the washwomen and the bankers, the circuses and the fires, the schools and homes that helped build the West Plains of today.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Arcadia Publishing
• Release date: Sep 18, 2012
• ISBN: 9781439631171

Toney Aid

Toney Aid, treasurer of the Harlin Museum, owns the Downtown Antique Mall on the town square in the location his family's business has been in since 1885. Active in many restoration projects, he has won two statewide preservation awards and helped place three West Plains buildings on the National Register of Historic Places.

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One

RAILROAD BOOMTOWN

West Plains experienced its biggest period of growth when the Kansas City, Fort Scott and Memphis Railroad arrived in December of 1882. Before then freight was shipped to town by wagon or ox cart from the railroad at Rolla or the steamboat landing in Batesville, Arkansas, both one hundred miles distant. Excitement began to build as soon as news of the railroad’s route was known. Less desirable land that was still available for homesteading began to disappear. The price of commercial lots in town escalated as prospective business owners arrived in anticipation of the coming boom. Few were disappointed. In ten years, the population multiplied over six times, and West Plains became the regional center of commerce its founders had dreamed about.

Howell County’s third Courthouse had its cornerstone laid on July 4th, 1883. The wood-frame businesses in the background are along the east side of the Square. They were soon replaced by larger brick structures during the building boom created by the railroad’s arrival. Note the photographer’s sign on the building to the left. He probably took this photo and the one at the top of the next page.

These men are breaking ground for the new Courthouse during the summer of 1883. This photo is important for its rare view of the pre-railroad Public Square in West Plains. One of the two buildings highlighted at the left rear, along the south side of the Square, is the previous Courthouse. It was built in 1866 after the first Courthouse was burned during the Civil War.

This 1884 view, taken out of the Courthouse, looks north, down Washington Avenue to the new railroad freight depot. The passenger depot was not yet completed. City Drug, to the right, was the first brick building in downtown West Plains (1881). Halfway down Washington is the steeple of the M.E. Church North; the next building you see uphill from it is the original church built in 1867 (which burned in