East Town meeting set for Thursday

Debby Woodin, The Joplin Globe, Mo.
·2 min read

May 21—Work is to resume on preparing the nomination of a proposed historic district within the East Town neighborhood.

A second meeting regarding the nomination that had been postponed in February is scheduled to take place at 6 p.m. Thursday, May 26, at the Boys & Girls Club of Southwest Missouri gymnasium, 317 Comingo Ave., Joplin. After the postponement in February, the meeting could not be rescheduled until the consultant on the study could make a trip to Joplin.

Residents may discuss earlier questions and concerns about listing a portion of the neighborhood on the National Register of Historic Places.

One of those was that a historic designation would result in gentrification, raising property values to the point that it would push traditional residents out of the East Town neighborhood. Another concern had to do with the boundaries of the proposed district.

City officials and members of the city's Historic Preservation Commission will talk about the district's location, its significance and other possible preservation projects. They also will give an update on the current and future plans and projects for the neighborhood.

One of the concerns expressed by residents at the last meeting was the size and boundaries of the proposal, to be named the Broadway Historic District.

The area to be nominated involves the north side of Langston Hughes-Broadway, which has been the main commercial zone of the neighborhood since it merged with the nearby town of Murphysburg to become Joplin in 1873. The proposed district would stretch from Broadway, which also is historic Route 66, north to Hill Street, east to just beyond Landreth Avenue and west to Division Avenue. That area takes in about 50 blocks.

A resident said at a previous meeting that district would be too small to be representative of the historic structures in the area.

Tom Walters, the city planner who advises the Historic Preservation Commission, said this proposal involves only the first phase of what is planned to be a two-phase nomination. Details of the second phase have not yet been specified, he said. Surveys conducted by a consultant to prepare for the nominations were conducted in two phases, one on the north side of Broadway and the second on the south side.

For information about the upcoming meeting, contact Walters at 417-624-0820, ext. 1539.