We would hate to look 20 years into the future and find that the home used as a hide-out by the notorious gangsters Bonnie and Clyde had been replaced by a strip mall.
Or, discover that an entrepreneur in another city had moved the house at 33471/2 Oak Ridge Drive to another town where it would become a misplaced tourist attraction. (Think Queen Anne home moved from Carthage to Branson.)
While owner the Rev. Phil McClendon is working to preserve the property, that doesn’t guarantee it will be protected in the years to come.
A crew working for the British Broadcast Corp. and National Geographic spent several days this week filming a documentary on Bonnie and Clyde that will feature a segment on the shootout that took place 75 years ago at a garage apartment the gangsters rented near 34th Street and Oak Ridge Drive in Joplin.
For 12 days and nights, Clyde Barrow and his girlfriend, Bonnie Parker, along with Clyde’s brother, Buck Barrow, and an accomplice by the name of William Deacon “W.D.” Jones lived in the two-bedroom apartment. On April 13, 1933, five lawmen, tipped off that the outlaws might be hiding in the apartment, pulled up in a patrol car.
The rest is history. Two of the lawmen died; the others survived the shootout. The gang fled south on Main Street and escaped through Spring City.
The film crew’s visit reminds us of the need for the building to be placed on both the state and national historic registers. The building is one of the last remaining structures linked to the gang’s presence in the Midwest. Bonnie and Clyde continued on a killing spree before being killed themselves on May 23, 1934, near Arcadia, La.
The property is worthy of nomination to the state and federal historic registers. We would like to see that happen at the local level with an application then sent to the Missouri State Historic Preservation Office.
Some in the community have asserted that by preserving the property, it glorifies the atrocities of the gangsters.
Preserving history means preserving facts. The shootout is another page from Joplin’s past. Good or bad, those pages complete the story that is Joplin.
Opinion
In our view: Protecting history
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