Central Park Area (Wards 1 & 2) - Neighborhood History Project - Clio

Entries on This Tour

1. Perkins Home, 902 South Main Street

Lawyer, judge, and Jasper County official, Joseph D. Perkins purchased this house for $3,300 around 1900 for his wife Mynta Mae Miller and his sons. His last son, born in 1905, was Richard Marlin Perkins who most Americans would come to know as zoologist Marlin Perkins of the Mutual of Omaha television series "Wild Kingdom" (1963 to 1985). This is the home Marlin grew up in when he was not with relatives in nearby Pittsburg, Kansas, or away at the Wentworth Military Academy in Lexington, Missouri. Marlin would graduate from Carthage High School just a block from his home in 1923 (712 South Main Street; see Clio entry for same). Throughout his life he kept close ties to Carthage attending class reunions, visiting former classmates, and participating in several community events such as Maple Leaf Festival. Judge Perkins, who lost two wives, continued to live in this house until the late 1920s when he began traveling and boarded is smaller homes. He died in 1934. Today this home continues to be a private residence.

2. Carthage High School (former), 714 South Main (now Sixth Grade Center)

Carthage's first public school built after the Civil War was constructed on the site of the former Carthage Academy (1855 - 1861) that was destroyed during the war. Both were located on the eastside of the 700 block of South Main Street. This post-war school (no longer standing) was built in 1870 and the two-story brick school served all levels of education including grammar school and high school although the first high school class did not graduate until 1878. When a new high school building was built further south near Chestnut Street in 1890, the earlier structure became home to elementary grades and was known as Central School. In short order another high school building was needed and in 1906 a new Carthage High School was opened next door to the 1870 school building. It was built of Carthage limestone by local contractor Ellis Jackson. While serving the longest as the high school facility for the community, for the past few years, this structure served as the Carthage Junior High School. Beginning in 2019, it has become the Sixth Grade Center.

3. Carthage Public Library, 612 South Garrison Avenue

Prior to 1870 the only libraries in Carthage were private affairs, owned by local individuals such as doctors or lawyers. In January of 1870 the first public library was opened, located above the local newspaper office of the Carthage Banner. Over the next few years the library was bounced around to several different locations in town. By 1890 the need for a permanent library had become apparent. An application was submitted to Andrew Carnegie for funding and a search for a suitable site began. The location selected was at the southeast corner of 7th Street and Garrison Avenue. One half of the site was donated by Mr. and Mrs. W. E. Hall in memory of their daughter Ruth. The other half of the property was purchased by a group of local concerned citizens. With an estimated overall cost of $45,000 dollars, $25,000 was contributed from Andrew Carnegie and the balance was raised by concerned citizens of Carthage. Built in a French Renaissance style with a touch of Greek influence, the library was opened on February 2, 1905. The opening ceremonies lasted three days with the main address given by William King Caffee, who was the President of the library's Board of Trustees. The initial inventory of books numbered 3,000 and the first book checked out was Ben Hur by Lew Wallace.

4. Central Park, 700 South Garrison Avenue

Central Park extends two blocks east from Garrison Avenue to Lyon Street and is located between Seventh Street and Chestnut Street. This area originally was Carthage's public cemetery in the 1840s to the 1860s and was used for burials after the Battle of Carthage on July 5, 1861. In 1869 the City of Carthage decided the property should become a park and remains were removed to other locations in town and Springfield, Missouri’s National Cemetery. The property was re-dedicated for park use and continues to be used as such today. Central Park is home to a and water fountain and water basin, playground equipment, bandstand, Reed Wading Pool, Missouri Vietnam War Monument, Marlin Perkins Statue and other smaller memorials throughout the grounds.

This Tour is a Walking Tour.

Central Park Area (Wards 1 & 2) - Neighborhood History Project

Created by Powers Museum on July 29th 2019, 12:33:19 pm.

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Description

This tour features selected addresses in and around Central Park. Many of the addresses featured here (along with the remaining structures extending southward from Central Park) are listed on the National Register of Historic Places Carthage Residential District and citations to those nominations are cited as links in the Clio listings. The buildings or sites in this tour were selected because they were the locations of objects displayed (whether manufactured, sold and/or used at a particular location) in the Powers Museum's 2017 exhibit focusing on businesses and industries of Carthage (including educational institutions as employers). It was the intent of the original project to create a vehicle that could show the exhibited objects as they related to a physical location that current residents and tourists can view by walking or driving by today. The digital sites on this Clio app were originally created by a special grant project funded by the Missouri Humanities Council and the National Endowment for the Humanities in 2017-18 as part of the Powers Museum's observation of Carthage's 175th anniversary. This tour has taken addresses from Carthage's voting wards 1 and 2 (Main Street addresses are in Ward 1 while remaining addresses are in Ward 2). NOTE: Other addresses to this tour may be added in the future by museum volunteers. Contact the Powers Museum for further information. www.powersmuseum.org

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