It’s nice to still have this reminder of the streetcar era among us, at 115 S. Madison St., along with the power-generating plant across the street (now Skateland).

Our feature photo this week shows how close the streetcar tracks were to the south side of the building. Unfortunately, the Southwest Missouri Railway roundhouse, which towers above the club house from behind, is no longer there. 

The Webb City Historical Society restored the building and referred to it as the Clubhouse. Earlier this year, the city accepted ownership.

According to Jerry Pryor’s “Southwest Missouri Mining” Images of America book, “A.H. Rogers, who owned the railway, furnished this clubhouse for the emplyees of the line, whose numbers varied between two and three hundred … The car barn is visible behind. Life was not always easy for the operators of the cars. Inebriated miners sometimes tried to liberate them for their own use. Clem Ault (mentioned earlier) had a hedge wood staff with a metal hook on one end for the switches and the other weighted as a ‘drunken miner persuader.'”

Until the genealogy section on the third floor of the Webb City Public Library reopens, you can purchase Pryor’s book from Amazon.