J. J. Frank Livery

J. J. Frank's livery stable is the business that established this Vine Street property as a transportation landmark. A Sanborn fire insurance map from 1895 identifies "J. J. Frank Livery & Feed" on the site, and the 1901 map labels the same building "J. J. Frank Livery." In September 1899 the Poplar Bluff Republican reported that Frank had begun a large brick addition on the east side of his stable, 50 feet wide and as long as the building already occupied, with a brick front and rear. Frank sold the operation — horses, carriages and building included — to James R. Hogg in 1906 for $18,000, then opened a livery in Sedalia, Missouri that he sold for $20,000 in 1907. He returned to Poplar Bluff and in 1910 acquired the undertaking business of George Begley, forming the Frank Livery & Undertaking Company. The company incorporated later that year with J. J. Frank, Walter Frank and H. I. Ruth as incorporators and capital stock of $15,000, operating its undertaking department at 419 Vine Street, across from the old livery. In March 1911 the company purchased the Malugen Brothers livery stable, returning Frank's firm to the barn he had built. Frank kept ownership of the Vine Street building when he sold the operating livery to Dan Peterson on January 1, 1918, and after the 1927 tornado he restored the damaged Garner Motor Company building on the property as a two-story structure. City directories continued to list the Frank Undertaking Co. at 419 Vine Street into the 1920s and 1930s.