Butler County Courthouse Added to Lost Sites Series
By Historic Poplar Bluff
Historic Poplar Bluff continues to expand its Lost Sites series with a new piece featuring the original Butler County Courthouse that once stood in downtown Poplar Bluff.
Built in 1887, the courthouse served Butler County for decades and was a prominent landmark in the growing community. The building was ultimately lost after the devastating 1927 tornado and fire, which damaged the structure beyond repair.
Although the courthouse no longer stands, historic photographs and postcards allow us to remember what the building once looked like and the role it played in the early history of the city.
To help share and preserve that history, Historic Poplar Bluff has created two new items based on historic reference images:
• A laser-engraved maple plaque featuring a vintage engraving-style illustration of the courthouse
• A printed metal historic marker style sign depicting the building as it once appeared
These pieces are part of the ongoing Historic Poplar Bluff Lost Sites series, which highlights buildings and locations from the city's past that are no longer standing.
The goal of the series is not only to create collectible items, but also to help document and share the visual history of Poplar Bluff through restored historic images and historical research.
Historic Poplar Bluff is a community history project operated by Ozark Riverways Crafts & Gifts, LLC, focused on researching, restoring, and sharing the stories of Poplar Bluff's historic places.
Additional Lost Sites will continue to be added to the series as research and historic images become available.
**Image Credit**
The historic Butler County Courthouse photograph used for reference in this project is based on a digitized scan of an image from the Poplar Bluff Museum collection.
Additional reference material used to create the artwork was sourced from historic postcards from private collections that have been digitized as part of the Historic Poplar Bluff project.
If you have historic photographs or postcards of Poplar Bluff you would be willing to share or have digitized, Historic Poplar Bluff would welcome the opportunity to help preserve them.