The 'Alfred W. Greer House' in Poplar Bluff, Missouri was built in 1915 and is remarkably beautiful inside

Alfred W. Greer House, Poplar Bluff, Missouri.Skye Marthaler, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

The Alfred W. Greer House in Poplar Bluff, Missouri is an interesting house. It's a two-and-a-half-story house that was built in 1915. The architectural style is American Craftsman and it's made of brick. The porch is amazing. In 1998, this house was listed on the National Register of Historic Places. It's also located in the Cynthia-Kinzer Historic District.

The house has a lot of its original design. There haven't been a lot of significant alterations made to either the inside or outside. The main facade has huge porch piers made of brick. There's ornate woodwork on the first floor including the wood staircase.

The house is supposed to be one of the best examples of the Craftsman style from the early 1900s. Another interesting element of the house is the clay tile roof.

The Arts and Crafts movement finally made its way to the United States at the turn of the 20th century during the fall of the Victorian Era where two California brothers — Charles Sumner Greene and Henry Mather Greene — applied the style to their architectural designs and thus, craftsman style was born. (Source.)

Since the time of the construction of the house, only two families have lived in it.

Alfred W. Greer (1874-1966) traveled from Kentucky to Poplar Bluff in the late 1800s. Initially, he was a carpenter. As his business grew, lumber and building supplies, and contracting were included.

He also owned and operated the Greer Funeral Home (nka Fitch-Hillis). He built his home on Kinzer Street choosing the Craftsman style. Since he was also a lumberman, he used large amounts of oak and other hardwoods inside his house. There were three other houses constructed by Greer on Kinzer Street. Those houses didn't have as much detailing and were considered modest Bungalows.

There are other homes in Poplar Bluff built by Greer and his company. The house pictured in this article was lived in by the Greer family until 1922 at which time it was sold to Joseph and Nellie Gray.

It's interesting to me that Greer moved to another Poplar Bluff location after his house was sold. He died in 1966 at age 92.

Alfred W. Greer moved to another location in Poplar Bluff after the sale of the house. He died in 1966 at age 92.

Joseph and Nellie moved to Poplar Bluff in early 1914. They established the J.S. Gray Wholesale Grocery Company. Joseph was a board of directors member of the State Bank of Poplar Bluff. Nellie was the president of the Women's Community Government Club for 18 years. She also helped to organize the Humane Society and was a seamstress for the American Red Cross local board.

Joseph died in August 1956 at age 76 after which time Nellie inherited the house. When she died in July 1966, the house was inherited by their daughter, Pauline, and her husband, Frank Thompson Hearne.

Pauline died on June 29, 2019, at the age of 100. She, like her mother, was involved in several civic activities. Click here to read her obituary.

Their house on Kinzer Street sold in August 2022 according to Zillow (pictures can be viewed here--the interior of the home is fabulous). It is truly a beautiful home. It's hard to believe this home was built in 1915.

Thanks for reading!