John Archibald Phillips House

Built in 1891, the John Archibald Phillips House is one of the best examples of Queen Anne architecture in Poplar Bluff. Its builder, John Archibald Phillips, was an engineer for the St. Louis, Iron Mountain and Southern Railroad. He also served on the city council and built a number of homes and commercial buildings. Interesting features of the house include a one-story porch with decorative woodwork, octagonal wood shingles, and milled brackets above corner windows on the second floor. The Butler County Historical Society occupied the house for several years and the house is now a private residence.

Phillips and his family only lived in the house until 1897 when moved to a bigger one two doors down the street. Another engineer of the St. Louis, Iron Mountain and Southern Railroad, Harry M. Roush, bought the house in November of that year. His second wife, Anna, acquired it after he died in 1904. She used it as a boarding house for railroad workers and allowed a local tailor to operate his workshop on the second floor. In 1908, Anna married one of her guests, Charles J. Davis, who worked for the Missouri Pacific Railroad and operated a livery business across the street and was a partner in a wholesale food business. In 1927, a tornado devastated much of the city and severely damaged the house. The roof was torn off and many windows were shattered but the house was repaired and a new porch was built.

Anna died in 1962 and willed the home to Zion Lutheran Church, which sold it to private owners in 1965. Twenty years later, they sold it to the Butler County Historical Society for use as a museum and office space. The Society remained at the house until it moved to the Poplar Bluff Museum, which is located in the historic former Mark Twain School.

"John Archibald Phillips House." National Park Service - National Register of Historic Places Nomination Form. February 12, 1998. https://catalog.archives.gov/OpaAPI/media/63817036/content/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_MO/98000034.pdf.

"John Archibald Phillips House - Poplar Bluff, Missouri." Waymarking. Accessed May 25, 2022. https://www.waymarking.com/waymarks/WMHN5N_John_Archibald_Phillips_House_Poplar_Bluff_Missouri.

"Visit the School House." Poplar Bluff Museum. Accessed May 25, 2022. https://www.pbmuseum.org/visit.