JOPLIN, Mo. — Members of the two boards that govern the Joplin Museum Complex on Tuesday agreed to further explore a plan by City Manager Mark Rohr to restore the Union Depot as a future site for the museum, but declined a proposal that they buy the newly restored Gryphon Building for the same purpose.

Brad Belk, the museum director, gave reports to the museum board and the Joplin Historical Society about the two proposals, outlining the advantages and the concerns he and the museum staff have about both buildings.

Gryphon Building

Toby Teeter, a majority partner in the restoration of the Gryphon Building, 1027 S. Main St., made a presentation to the boards in May offering to sell the building to the museum for $1.2 million plus the assumption of $5.6 million in debt, according to information discussed at Tuesday’s meeting.

Partners in the Gryphon have said that about 44 percent of the building’s space has been leased and they expect 60 percent to be occupied when the building opens Sept. 1.

Belk, in his report Tuesday, told the boards that the museum would assume those leases if it bought the building and could use the lower floors of the five-story building for museum display space. A building across the street that goes with the Gryphon would be available to serve as a laboratory and classroom space for visiting schoolchildren, Belk said.

“There is a tremendous upside to the Gryphon Building,” he said. “The building is not only beautiful but very spacious. All of the renovation has been excellent,” and would give the museum a highly visible location.

He said it provides something no other option has afforded: The potential of expanding museum displays up to 100,000 square feet and “the ability to grow into a major destination point for tourists.”

It would take additional museum staff to secure and operate the building, he said.

Drawbacks are the large windows that would have to be modified to protect displays from damaging sunlight, and the columns on each floor that support the structure would restrict the arrangement of space.

“We like to have large open spaces and space that is not already defined,” as gallery space, Belk said.

He estimates it could take about $2 million to convert the space for museum use.

John Knapp, geologist for the mineral museum wing of the current museum and a member of the museum board, asked where the museum would get the $3.2 million in acquisition and remodeling costs.

“I don’t know other than to go to the voters, and I don’t know if we want to do that,” said Clair Goodwin, board president.

Board member Bob Harrington said he had three concerns about the proposal: The cost, the idea of the museum director having a dual role as landlord and the distraction of having other occupants in the building.

The board approved a motion by Knapp to decline the offer because the money is not available to fund the deal, and the historical society board, also known as Friends of the Museum, made a similar vote.

Depot proposal

Belk then gave a report on his assessment of the Union Depot proposal, unveiled last week by Rohr as a plan he has devised to establish a town green urban park downtown connected to both the depot as a museum site and the future construction of a cultural arts center. He said the plan could be financed by a mix of various federal and state tax credits and urban development and historic preservation grants.

“It is a nice looking building” in the location of the 1870 lead strike that prompted the development of Joplin, he said.

“It is better laid out than the current museum location” for displays and visitor traffic, he said, and it has some large open spaces with high ceilings unfettered by supporting columns or other obstacles.

But there are a number of questions about the viability as a museum, he said.

One is that the existing interior space is less than the current museum’s, he said, based on his staff’s measurements of the interior. He said that the depot has 22,000 square feet of space, and not 41,000 square feet as has been cited.

Standing water in the basement indicates the building might not be watertight, as it would need to be for a museum environment.

An architect hired by the city to assess the space for use as a museum, Chad Greer of the Webb City architectural firm of Corner Greer & Associates, attended the meeting. He said he will begin work next week to investigate the cause and remedies of the water problem.

Greer said he has obtained an agreement from a specialist in museum design to study the depot’s feasibility as a museum site. She will give an unbiased opinion as to whether the building could be successfully converted, Greer said.

She will come to Joplin next month to meet with representatives of the city and museum about her findings. That meeting is set for Aug. 4.

Both boards voted to proceed with looking into the depot proposal.





Museum boards

The museum incorporates local history displays and a collection of mineral specimens. The mineral collection is owned by the city, and its board represents the interests of Joplin residents and taxpayers. The historical society board represents the private sector of the museum’s collections and private donations made to the museum, according to its president, Allen Shirley.