The Joplin Connor Hotel was demolished in 1973.Photo bynone, public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.

The Connor Hotel was a beaux-arts style building located at 324 Main Street in Joplin, Missouri (Jasper County). It was constructed between 1906 and 1908. This building will be remembered for its unforeseen collapse in 1978 killing two men, one day before it was scheduled to be demolished. It had been previously listed on the National Register of Historic Places on February 28, 1973.

This building was also known as the Connor Towers Motor Hotel. The interior of the building, particularly the lobby, is said to have been worth the view because of the ornamental floor tiling and grand marble staircase that led to a balustraded mezzanine.

Millionaire, Thomas C. Connor, influenced the building of this hotel. He also owned the Joplin Hotel before it was built on the same site. The Joplin Hotel was demolished in 1906 to start building the Connor Hotel. Originally, the new hotel was going to carry the Joplin Hotel name, but at age 60, Connor died in 1907. When the new hotel opened in 1908, it was renamed the Connor Hotel in his memory.

At one time, the Connor Hotel entertained many of Joplin's elite.Photo byHABS photographer, Hal Wilder, Aug. 1978, via Library of Congress.

The lower floor of the hotel housed commercial shops and a bar and restaurant. There were a total of 400 rooms in the hotel. Since around the time of World War II, little was done to modernize or maintain the building. It also wasn't air conditioned although the hotel annex had window units.

In 1969, the building was closed and since nothing was performed to winterize the building, pipes would freeze and burst. In 1971, the building was acquired by two men and they renamed it the Connor Towers Motor Hotel and started rehabilitating the building.

The mechanical, plumbing, and electrical systems were updated. The lower-level commercial shops were remodeled and tenants moved in. At the time the building was nominated for the National Register, the new owners were working on getting an operational kitchen and restaurant. Supposedly, the owners were planning to seek a franchise with a national hotel chain.

Detail above the entrance.Photo byNRHP Nomination Form (1971).

The Connor Hotel used to be an important building in Joplin and an example of what wealth from the lead mines could bring. At one time, it was said to be a solidly constructed building. It was a core of life in Joplin.

Joplin's first millionaire is thought to be Thomas C. Connor. He owned the three-story Joplin Hotel that was constructed in 1874 at 4th and Main Streets. He replaced the hotel in 1906 with an eight-story hotel.

Connor retained the architectural firm of Barnett, Haynes and Barnett out of St. Louis to design the building and a local firm built the hotel. Connor only wanted quality materials for this building. After he died in 1907, it was his heirs who renamed the building to the Connor Hotel. In 1928-1929, an annex costing over $2 million was added to the hotel. The owners of the hotel were brothers, Allen J. Dean and D.J. Dean.

Photo byC. Snow, the Grand Staircase (1965)/NRHP Nomination Form.

The tragedies associated with this building

In building the new hotel, the first noted accident occurred in September 1906. A 90-foot crane was used to lift the steel beams in building the new hotel. The crane had unexpectedly crashed dropping a beam that a man named John Hively was riding up on.

In January 1907 after the completion of five floors, a plumber's helper named Irvin Neyhard also fell to his death. He died on January 25, 1907, at age 40-41. One resource indicates he was crossing the elevator shaft on a wooden ladder and it broke. A newspaper report of the event noted a witness thought he might have become dizzy due to the height because he had shielded his eyes and then took a misstep backward and fell. He fell over 40 feet to a concrete floor.

Also in 1907, while visiting a sanitarium in San Antonio, Texas, Thomas Connor died at age 60. A Democrate, he also was selected as a delegate to the Democratic National Convention in 1892, and as a State Senator from Jasper County in 1906. He never had he opportunity to complete his first term. His will and papers from 1893 to 1909 are stored for research at the State Historical Society of Missouri. His heirs ensured the building was completed.

During the 1970s, the hotel building was purchased by the city which intended to demolish it for construction of a new public library. For history's sake, it would have been nice to see the building converted into a library instead. That said, however, nobody could have seen what would happen several years later.

On November 11, 1978, one day before the building was scheduled to be demolished, the hotel collapsed with three workers inside. Thomas Oaks and Frederick Coe did not survive. After 82 hours since the collapse, the third person, Alfred Sommers, was rescued. Three days later, the building was completely demolished.

Sommers was part of the crew preparing the building for demolition. He was also salvaging some of the architectural pieces. When Sommers was interviewed, KOAM reported, the hotel wasn’t in good shape. Sommers indicated some of the bricks at the bottom were rotten. He took a week off due to an injured hand and went to the hotel on November 11, 1978, to retrieve his paycheck.

On that day, while still preparing for the demolition, the crew was short-staffed, so Alfred agreed to help in the basement. When the building came down, a beam that had fallen in the shape of an arch above him saving his life. Breathing in dust, he had broken ribs and pelvis.

When people were waiting to hear about the three men, one of them was Alfred's fiancée. After Alfred was rescued and recovered, he stayed in the construction industry until 1993. It was later reported Alfred died at age 64 in 2012.

Fast forward

From May 1981 to May 2017, the Joplin Public Library and Post Art Library operated for 36 years at the site of the Connor Hotel. On the exterior were two mounted architectural pieces salvaged from the hotel.

In October 2022, it was reported by the Joplin Globe the library was for sale and bids were being requested to redevelop and repurpose the building. The timeline for the building to reopen as the Science Center is set for 2025.

The new Joplin Public Library and Post Art Library has been operating from 1901 East 20th Street.

Thanks for reading.