This former City Hall is located at 401 Washington Avenue. This building is now a satellite office for Drury University. From the National Register application:
(
visit link)
"West Plains Fire Department/City Hall, 401 Washington Avenue, 1917.
The front and side elevations of this one-story commercial building that have been covered with a flat stone veneer. However, the door and windows on the facade appear to be early or original. The three-quarter-view door is centered on the facade and is flanked by wood framed storefront windows. A frame rectangular tower extends approximately 20 feet above the roof on the south side of the building. There are two roll-up garage doors on the rear elevation."
From the City Facebook page:
(
visit link)
"The history of West Plains can be traced back to 1832, when settler James Howell (after whom Howell County is named) created the first settlement in the region known as Howell Valley. West Plains was so named because the settlement was on a prairie in a westerly direction from the nearest town.
The American Civil War
The location of West Plains led to nearly constant conflict due to the proximity to what was then the border between the Union and Confederacy. West Plains was largely burned to the ground, and Howell County as a whole was devastated. No major battles occurred in West Plains or Howell County, but much of the devastation came from constant guerrilla warfare.
Confederate Brigadier General James Haggin McBride gave residents an ultimatum to either join the Confederate army or to flee the area. An overwhelming majority of Howell County residents chose to flee, and over 90% of the population had fled by the time the war was over. Many, however, also chose to fight for the Confederacy, as McBride promised to protect his soldiers' property and loved ones. Men who spoke out against the Confederacy were arrested, as martial law had been declared by McBride. Though Howell County was in Union-controlled Missouri, it was easily within Confederate control due to its position on the Arkansas border.
The Great Depression era
As was the case with many other locations, the Great Depression hit West Plains in the 1930s. Citizens had little knowledge of what was going on with the national scene, except for what Neathery says in his book, "every place was a boom town, [but] in some places things were going bust as well." The first bank to fail in West Plains was the Farmers Savings Bank in West Plains circa 1926, and the lack of the present-day Federal Deposit Insurance Company meant that some people initially lost whatever wealth was deposited.
West Plains Dance Hall Explosion
On April 13, 1928, for reasons still unknown, a violent explosion occurred in downtown West Plains. About 60 people had gathered in the Bond Dance Hall, which was on the second floor of a building on East Main Street. The explosion was reported to be felt for miles, even in Pomona, which is approximately ten miles from West Plains. Windows were shattered throughout the block, and cars were also warped on the street. The explosion also damaged the nearby Howell County Courthouse so badly that it was vacated and left until late 1933, when it was demolished by the Civil Works Administration. 37 people were killed in the explosion, and 22 people were injured. 20 of those killed were never positively identified and buried in a mass grave at Oak Lawn Cemetery in the southeast part of town. Today, they are memorialized by the Rock of Ages monument, erected on October 6, 1929. The explosion has also been remembered in a folksong recorded 30 years later.
The reasoning behind the explosion is still a topic of controversy nearly a century after the blast. Numerous reasons for the explosion have been offered, but a definitive story has never been proven to be true. The most widely accepted theory is that the explosion somehow originated from leaking gasoline in a garage owned by J. W. Wiser, which happened to be on the floor below. Because Wiser was at the garage at the time, some have speculated that the blast was intentionally caused by Wiser as a suicide attempt, which his wife reportedly refused to acknowledge. In addition, the late West Plains native Robert Neathery explained in his 1994 book, West Plains As I Knew It, that a truck containing dynamite parked in the garage may have been the cause, indirectly part of a crime in which someone shot Wiser and set a fire to cover up the crime, and the dynamite exploded.
After the Depression
On Friday evening, April 2, 1982, a long-track F4 tornado struck the West Plains area, beginning in Ozark County and ending near what was the airport at the time. Many homes and businesses were significantly damaged or leveled by the tornado, which killed 3 and injured at least 28 as it hit the West Plains Country Club and nearby homes, as well as businesses located on U.S. Route 63.
The downtown area of West Plains, namely Court Square, was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on July 17, 2003. The Downtown Revitalization Economic Assistance for Missouri (DREAM) Act also opened up funding for renovations and improvements for certain downtown buildings."