Carthage Historic Preservation honors Boots Court, Phelps Country House restorations

John Hacker, The Joplin Globe, Mo.
Updated ·4 min read

Mar. 21—CARTHAGE, Mo. — Carthage Historic Preservation doubled up on its annual Golden Hammer award for 2024.

The group, which owns the Phelps House in town and works to preserve historic structures, announced this year's winners are the Boots Court Foundation and B.J. Goodwin for his work restoring the Phelps Country House.

Stephen Wagner, co-chairman, said this was the first time they have given two awards in one year.

He said both the Boots Court and Phelps Country House are important to the heritage and history of Carthage.

"The Boots Court is so high-profile, it's right there, just about anyone coming into Carthage is going to see it," Wagner said. "We just really wanted to reward them for taking that property to another level. It's a no-brainer that they were going to be one of our choices either this year or in a near future year. The Phelps Country House is outside the city limits, and we talked a little bit about how far out of town we wanted to go in choosing award winners. The connection between the Phelps House ... and the Phelps country estate, it's so great that we felt that we wanted to recognize it."

Boots CourtThe Boots Court is one of four functional motels on Route 66 in Missouri that date back to the heyday of the Mother Road.

The original building was built in 1939 by Arthur Boots with gasoline pumps in front and four rooms for rent behind. The business was so successful that four more rooms were soon added.

The rooms featured carports and advertised a "radio in every room" — a luxury at the time.

Boots sold the motel to Ples and Grace Neeley in 1942, and the actor Clark Gable made his first stay at the Boots that year on one of his cross-country road trips. The Neeleys added the building at the back of the property with five more rooms in 1946. Gable stayed at the Boots a second time in 1947.

The motel changed hands over the years and had started to deteriorate, eventually became low-rent housing.

In 2011, sisters Deborah Harvey and Pricilla Bledsaw bought the motel at a foreclosure auction and began restoration, including its green neon lighting.

In 2021, the sisters sold the property to the nonprofit Boots Court Foundation, which also purchased the adjacent homes and former Sinclair gas station on the corner of Garrison Avenue and Olive Street. The homes were removed and the gas station was restored to become the Boots Court Visitors Center and offices for the motel.

The visitors center opened in 2023 and work continues to improve the space between the motel and the visitors center. Also planned are a number of RV utility hookups behind the visitors center.

Artists Alexandra Burnside and Cheryl Church are working on a mural on the billboard immediately south of the visitors center.

Phelps Country HouseCarthage's Phelps House, built in 1895 by Col. William Phelps and owned and now operated by Carthage Historic Preservation, combines limestone construction and Victorian-era architecture. Phelps, who died in 1916, liked it so much he built a near twin on a dairy farm he owned on what is now County Road 100.

He started building the Phelps Country House in 1900 and finished it in 1903. It has had three owners since Phelps finished it, including B.J. Goodwin, the current owner who also owns a number of area funeral homes.

The house has been on the National Register of Historic Places since 1983 and Goodwin, who bought it from the family of Archie and Irene Brewer in 2021, is restoring it to be his home. It will have 9,000 square feet of livable space when the basement is refinished. It has eight bedrooms, 4.5 baths and a former ballroom in the attic that is being renovated into the Goodwin's master bedroom.

The 240-acre property includes a 23-acre lake, which was known as a fishing spot for years. Goodwin said he removed tons of trash from the lake during cleanup of the property and that the lake is no longer open to the public.

Goodwin said he also replaced 54 windows in the three-story house. It has been completely rewired and has new plumbing, and the exterior has been resealed and tuck-pointed. Goodwin has installed a geothermal heating and air conditioning system.

Goodwin said there are not many farms in Missouri like the Phelps Country House.

"This is one of the most unique properties around because farmers, they could never afford to build a mansion like what's out here," Goodwin said. "And people that could afford those big mansions, they didn't want to be farmers. They built all their mansions in town. So especially in this part of the country, you just don't see any of these big old homes on rural land."