Just about everyone you talk to knows the story of Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow.
The gun totin’ outlaws made a name for themselves in the 1920s and ’30s robbing banks and stirring media attention as they crisscrossed the Midwest. In April of 1933, the pair and their gang holed up in a Joplin apartment for a little rest and relaxation. After a 12-day respite in the Oak Ridge neighborhood of south Joplin, the couple and their gang of scofflaws fled Joplin in a hail of gun fire. Two local lawmen were killed in the malay, and the rest is Joplin history.
Flash forward 75 years to a different kind of fierce exchange: the Rev. Philip McClendon purchased the bullet-riddled apartment as investment property, managed to get it designated an historic site, and has twice been unsuccessful in getting the building zoned for use as a bed-and-breakfast. Neighbors in Oak Ridge voiced strong opposition to a B&B; in the area and the Joplin City Council nixed the pastor’s request. Every time the Bonnie and Clyde apartment comes up in a Globe story, controversy follows. Some say turning the place where two police officers died glorifies Parker and Barrow and disrespects the officers who died there. Others claim a bed-and-breakfast in the area would devalue their property and create excessive traffic in the now quiet neighborhood.
Once the story on McClendon’s most recent plans for the property was posted online, shots rang out in the comments forum at joplinglobe.com.
“About 24 years ago we lived across the street form this place. The whole neighborhood was kept up at that time. My husband and I drove around the old neighborhood a few weeks ago and was a appalled at how run-down it was. Maybe the neighbors on Oak Ridge should be grateful that someone is keeping part of the area nice and clean. Joplinites never did want anything going on in their sleepy little town, that is why there is never any real industry that comes in here like it does in Springfield.”
— No Entertainment
Everyone’s under fire
Most of the time in our comments forum, the sides are clearly drawn. With this story, everyone involved seemed under fire; the Joplin City Council for saying no to progress, the McClendon’s for wanting to make a little cash on their investment and the Oak Ridge neighbors for wanting to keep the bed-and-breakfast out of their neighborhood.
“There is already a bed-and-breakfast place right there a few blocks away in that very same neighborhood. It makes no sense to have another evil den of wickedness celebrating unmarried lust. Instead of making money from tourists coming to Joplin and spending their money in our restaurants and stores while they stay in a notorious landmark, the city should make them turn it into a church to glorify the Lord.”
— Pat Riot
“Those who were against the bed-and-breakfast did not truly do so out of some moral stand against celebrating a horrible event. In fact, we have several places where horrible events have happened preserved. In Memphis, I have visited the hotel where Martin Luther King was shot. In Dallas you can visit the location where JFK was shot. Is that wrong? Or is it just a convenient excuse for people to grab onto and argue against a bed-and-breakfast in their neighborhood?”
— AbleToThinkForMyself
‘History not always pretty’
“We all know that the neighbors didn’t really have a valid reason for being so adamantly opposed to this bed-and-breakfast. Their scummy neighborhood isn’t even worth driving through, let alone to rent a room in. I think the preacher should just make a point and sell the buildings to the creepiest person he can find with the money to buy it.”
— Spook
“I actually think this is a very minor historical incident that is exploited to make certain locations seem more valuable than they actually are. Bonnie and Clyde are merely an image that is romanticized and exploited.”
— Gemini Starfire Rainbow
“I would gladly trade paying overnight guests in a bed-and-breakfast next to me for a rental owned by an absentee slumlord and deadbeat tenants. Even the worst ‘guest’ can be ejected at once, yet it takes months to rid a neighborhood of lousy tenants.”
— 4 what it’s worth
“The Bonnie and Clyde thing is a part of Joplin’s history, and I’m sorry to say that history is not always pretty.”
— formallyknownasPrince
‘Once pristine Oak Ridge’
“With the illegal drug culture in Joplin, let’s hope some shaggy dog doesn’t rent the old place and ruin that once ‘pristine’ Oak Ridge neighborhood. Has anybody driven down Oak Ridge Drive lately? ‘Code!’”
— To the Full-Blooded Prima Donnas
“Let me guess, you’re the neighbor with the broken-down car in the yard, the couch on the porch, the house that hasn’t been painted in 30 years and the fence is deteriorating. You play loud music and your cat poops in your neighbors’ flower beds?”
— anonymous
“Prevalent dysentery among stodgy neighbors on Oak Ridge Drive and certain Joplin City Council members came to be referred to as ‘the Oak Ridge gallop.’”
— Did You Know?
Dave Woods is new media editor at The Joplin Globe.
