Visit the School House
(Open to the public every Sunday from 1 - 4 pm)
The Poplar Bluff Museum is housed in the old Mark Twain School building located at 1010 North Main Street. This building is called Mark Twain because construction started the same year Mark Twain died, 1910.
It is a two-story "H"-plan Classical Revival style. Construction costs were $11,300. 46. After a year, the school district had to purchase a small portion of land on the north side of the building to be used for a sidewalk outside of the building. That portion of land costs $750.
In 1920, four more classrooms were added, bringing the total of teachers to seven. Hot lunches were served starting in 1924. A telephone was added in 1939 and a piano in 1941.
The building closed as a school after the 1987-88 school year. The Poplar Bluff School District and its superintendent, Dr. Robert O. Moulton sold the property to the City of Poplar Bluff for the sum of $1 to be used as a museum.
A group of dedicated citizens, headed by Sam Giambelluca, began renovating the building to serve as a museum.
It currently houses The Poplar Bluff Sports Hall of Fame, Abington Haworth School House, Butler County Historical Society, Kanell Hall Veterans Museum and the Hall of Heroes, Githens Hall, Postal Room, Dale Gaebler Poplar Bluff People, The Scout Room, US Forest Service and Missouri Conservation Commission, Bowling Hall of Fame, Telephone Pioneers, Medical Museum, and Golf Museum. The building was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1998.
