The Bonnie & Clyde Garage Apartment, a nearly square rock-walled building containing four rooms of living space (plus bath) above a two-car garage, is located at 3347 % Oak Ridge Drive in south Joplin, Newton County, Missouri. Constructed ca. 1927, this two-story building sits on a poured concrete foundation and has a gently pitched hipped roof covered with gray shingles. Rafter ends are exposed and decoratively notched, a distinctly Craftsman detail. The small, south-facing, wood-framed building measures 29 feet across the front by 26 feet along the side elevations. In the front or south facade, apartment windows overlook a short, gently inclined paved driveway which accesses the property from 34' Street. Below the apartment level, two nonoriginal overhead doors face the street. A separate entrance in the west corner opens onto a stairway to the apartment and an inside entrance to the garage. There have been a few minor interior modifications in addition to replacement exterior doors, but the property substantially reflects its historic appearance...
The Bonnie & Clyde Garage Apartment at 3347½ Oak Ridge Drive in the south end of Joplin, Newton County, Missouri has statewide significance under National Register ... in the areas of Law and Other: Folklore. On Thursday, April 13, 1933, the square stone building was the site of a [deadly shootout between local lawmen and members of the notorious "Barrow Gang." Led by Clyde Chestnut Barrow and Bonnie Elizabeth Parker, members of the outlaw band had brazenly carried out a series of robberies and killings in Texas, Oklahoma, New Mexico and Missouri during the early years of the Great Depression, capturing the attention of lawmen and the American press. Barrow, Parker and three associate-Clyde's brother Marvin Ivan "Buck" Barrow, Buck's wife Blanche Caldwell Barrow and William Daniel "W.D." Jones-had spent a dozen days in the garage apartment when suspicious neighbors alerted police of activities they mistakenly thought spelled bootleggers. Two of the five officers who arrived at the garage apartment with a search warrant-Newton County constable John Wesley Harryman and Joplin detective Harry McGinnis-were fatally wounded as they approached the building and at least two gangsters-Clyde Barrow and Jones-were slightly injured. The outlaws escaped in a high-powered car, but what happened in Joplin was significant for several reasons. This was the gang's first double killing, and the vicious use of shotguns at close range galvanized authorities to greater efforts at apprehension. Playful, provocative snapshots the gangsters had taken of one another, printed from undeveloped film left behind when they fled, proved invaluable to authorities in bringing about their eventual demise. Diamonds and other incriminating evidence recovered from the apartment linked the gang to the robbery of a milling company during their stay in Joplin. The building is where Buck Barrow reportedly made a final, unsuccessful attempt to persuade his younger brother Clyde to surrender to authorities. And finally, what happened in Joplin seriously tarnished early images of Bonnie & Clyde as folk heroes-although they began reacquiring legendary status not long after their violent deaths little more than a year later. The garage apartment represents a defining moment in the saga of Bonnie & Clyde, and it is Missouri's most intact and best preserved structure with a strong and clear association with the notorious gangster lovers. The minimally altered ca. 1927 building remains strongly evocative of its bloody moment in Joplin's past. The period of significance is 1933, the year of the shootout.
The garage appears to be in good condition and appears like most of the garages in the area, there are no signs or designations of the events which occurred at this place.
The building was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2009.