Battlefield-protection group awaiting final cost of repairs to Ritchey Mansion

Local News

Related Photos

Discussion

June 8, 2008

Anonymous The Joplin Globe Sun Jun 08, 2008, 08:30 PM CDT

By Derek Spellman

dspellman@joplinglobe.com

NEWTONIA, Mo. — Local preservationists hope that repairs to the tornado-damaged Ritchey Mansion will be complete by Sept. 1 as thoughts turn to the future of the historic site.

For the historic mansion, a “ballpark” estimate puts the total cost of the damage to the building caused by the May 10 tornado at between $86,000 and $100,000, said Kay Hively, a member of the Newtonia Battlefields Protection Association, and an advocate for preserving the house and grounds. The association will not have a final number until after the contractor has finished his work, she said.

Much of the damage to the building will be covered by the association’s insurance, although the organization will have to absorb some of the costs of cleaning up the surrounding property and of running an underground power line to the utility pole at the edge of the property, Hively said. Many of the trees that once studded the front and back lawns are gone.

“The place looks bare now,” she said of the grounds. “It looks like a big house on the prairie.”

The Ritchey Mansion served as a headquarters and a field hospital during two Civil War engagements in Newtonia. The Newtonia Battlefields Protection Association owns the mansion and both of the nearby battlefields.

The tornado that swept through Newton County last month tore off all three of the mansion’s chimneys, part of the brick in the front and several large chunks of the roof. It also inflicted other exterior and interior damage.

Hively said repairs to the outside of the building have been completed. The roof, missing brickwork and damaged windows all have been replaced, and crews have begun restoration work on the inside of the house.

That work will include tearing out and replacing damaged parts of the ceiling, repairs to floorboards, and rewiring the house, she said.

The association has not been asking for donations to help defray its repair costs, although that has not stopped some from contributing money to the effort or volunteering their time to pick up glass and other debris littering the lawn, Hively said.

The association is awaiting the final cost of repairs and the amount that insurance will cover to determine how much of the bill it will have to pay and how to do so, Hively said. The group hopes to have the repairs and cleanup on the mansion property finished by Sept. 1, although it has been and will continue to host tours while the work is under way.

Supporters are hoping that the show of local support will help accelerate a study of the battlefield sites that was approved by Congress and endorsed by President Bush several days before the tornado hit.

The legislation aims to determine the best way to preserve the sites. It authorizes the National Park Service to conduct the study to determine if the battlefields could be made a separate unit of the Park Service or brought under the management of Wilson’s Creek National Battlefield near Republic.

Jeffrey Olson, a spokesman for the National Park Service, estimated that the study would cost between $250,000 and $300,000, and take between 18 and 24 months.

He said he did not know when the agency would launch the study. The law requires the agency to conduct the study within three years of when funding becomes available.

The Park Service has about $550,000 available in its budget per year for studies, and the bill signed into law by President Bush last month authorizes a total of eight new studies, including the one for the Newtonia battlefields, Olson said. There also are some planned studies ahead of those.

Text Only

Local News

Water company cites reconnections
The May 22 tornado has caused a dramatic drop in water usage for the Missouri American Water Co., but things are starting to turn around — one reconnection at a time.

February 10, 2012 1 Photo
Survivor of ’78 Connor collapse dead at age 64
A big story in the history of Joplin was the 1978 collapse of the Connor Hotel at Fourth and Main streets. Alfred Summers, the man at the heart of that story, died at 6:41 a.m. Friday at St. John’s Mercy Hospital in Joplin after an illness. He was 64.

February 10, 2012
County asks for dismissal of sheriff’s suit
The Jasper County Commission is the final authority in budget allocations, including those from the county’s Law Enforcement Sales Tax fund, county lawyers have argued in a motion recently filed in Jasper County Circuit Court.

February 10, 2012
Winter weather back in forecast
The arctic front that passed over Missouri on Friday will bring cold temperatures to the region tonight.

February 10, 2012
Weather service upgrading radar at Springfield station
The National Weather Service radar station at Springfield will be out of service for about two weeks to permit the installation of dual-polarization technology.

February 10, 2012
MSSU, PSU to conduct financial-aid events
Missouri Southern State University in Joplin and Pittsburg (Kan.) State University each will conduct events Sunday to help high school seniors with completing the Free Application for Federal Student Aid.

February 10, 2012
Authorities term deaths of teens murder-suicide
Authorities say a teenage woman apparently shot her estranged boyfriend several times before turning the gun on herself and taking her own life.

February 10, 2012
Mike Pound: One man in America wants his robo call
I like to think I have pretty thick skin. If I didn’t, all the emails I get with the subject lines that read “Hey moron” would bother me. But they don’t, so I do.

February 10, 2012
Proposed Kan. abortion ban blocked by abortion foe
An influential anti-abortion legislator is blocking the push for a ban on abortion in the Kansas Constitution, highlighting a split among abortion opponents over tactics and frustrating the group advocating the “personhood” proposal Friday.

February 10, 2012
Kansas House GOP issues tax plan
House Republican leaders are proposing a plan to cut Kansas income taxes, removing one key objection to an earlier proposal from Gov. Sam Brownback.

February 10, 2012
More Local News Headlines

Water company cites reconnections

Local News

Search Results

Related Photos

Discussion

Battlefield-protection group awaiting final cost of repairs to Ritchey Mansion

Joplin City Manager Mark Rohr wants the city to distribute weather radios to all Joplin homes that don’t have one. That’s 11,000 radios. Do you think that’s a good use of $300,440?

Site Map

Contact Us