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The Downton Motor Inn was shut down in 1965. It was located on St. Louis Street just east of Jefferson Avenue. The hotel was originally built by John T. Woodruff around 1914.
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Johnny Beauchamp won a 200-lap race at the Springfield Fairgrounds racetrack in 1957. In 1959, he and Lee Petty raced at the first Daytona 500 to a controversial photo finish.
A Girl Scout Camp was founded in 1936 just north of what is now called Dickerson Park Zoo.
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The former residence of John Polk Campbell was considered the oldest house in Springfield in 1937.
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Curt Merz recalls playing in Super Bowl I. Merz played for the Kansas City Chiefs against the Green Bay Packers at the Los Angeles Coliseum in 1967.
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The old Beiderlinden piano resonates throughout Springfield history. The piano was brought to Springfield in the early 1850's._55x75.jpg)
Little Joan Phipps decided to visit the library in 1936.
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The Springfield Leader and Press newspaper, in 1935, began a month long campaign to prove to the children of Springfield that Santa Claus really existed. When Santa himself showed up the children were thrilled.
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Springfield newspapers hired an explorer to travel to the North Pole in search of Santa Claus in 1935. 
McGregor Hardware Company, once located on St. Louis Street, built a new nine story building and moved the company to Water Street in 1936.
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Thanksgiving 1935 and one of the largest Thanksgiving offerings ever collected by the Junior Red Cross chapter of Senior High, now Central High School, was ready to be distributed.
John F. Kennedy visited Springfield in 1957. He spoke at the Democratic Party's annual Jackson Days celebration.
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Eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month...
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U.S. Federal Medical Center inmates were transported by train in 1936. A Springfield Leader & Press article describes their arrival at the depot.
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A description of Spring Lawn Farm from a 1911 newspaper article. The farm is a local legend with many and varied stories of it's past.
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Winoka Lodge, also known as the Schweitzer place, burned in 1977. Many people now consider the area haunted.
Does the ghost of Hardin Warren walk the hills in Taney County?
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Norman (Buddy) Baker, musical composer for Walt Disney Studios and a native of Greene County, gave an in depth interview to the Daily News in 1960 while visiting relatives in Springfield. 
Why would the Springfield-Greene County Library have a bill of sale for a black man from 1839? This 1936 newspaper article explains why the document was donated to the Library.
The Springfield Flour Mill was purchased by MFA Milling company in 1951. The flour mill, one of the last ones in the area, was located near the intersection of Chestnut and National.
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Springfield school children received their final vaccination against Polio in 1954. The children of various schools gathered at the Shrine Mosque to get the shots from nurses and to receive a lapel button that proclaiming they were "Polio Pioneers".
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Nathanial Lyon's sword was purchased from an antique dealer in Florida and presented to the Wilson's Creek National Battlefield Park Museum by the Civil War Roundtable of Springfield in 1969.
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Legendary banjo player Earl Scruggs performed at the Ozark Empire Fair in August 1965. Flatt and Scruggs enjoyed tremendous commercial success, perhaps most notably when "The Ballad of Jed Clampett" was used as the theme song for "The Beverly Hillbillies."
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In a letter to the editor of the News-Leader, fan dancer Sally Rand retells her parents sojourn in Springfield before her birth and includes her memories of friends and family that lived in Springfield, including her Uncle Frank Fellows.
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Paris Springs, a mineral spring in Lawrence County, was developed by Ely Paris, a former resident of Greene County. Mr. Paris' obituary in 1898 recalls a brief history of the springs.
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A history of the W. C. Smith home, formerly located at Atlantic and Grant streets, is recounted in this 1959 article.
An early Greene County cemetery located on property owned by the United States Medical Center for Federal Prisoners is spotlighted in this 1931 newspaper article.
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A souvenir booklet of the Springfield Children's Home gives an early history of the home, including the fire in December 1910 that took the lives of three children.
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The Steigner Hotel, also known as the Planters' House, burned in 1896. Its burning caused great excitment since Adam Rief was temporarily trapped in the burning building. The hotel had been built in 1867.
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For the 1931 Springfield City Directory, the Chamber of Commerce added an early history of Springfield and many statistics.
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Area residents scrambled to take one last ride on the St. Louis and San Francisco Railway. Some of their experiences are given in this newspaper article published in 1967.
Spanish Land Grant claims were used by an unscrupulous real estate salesman from Ohio to sell bogus land deeds in Barry County in 1869.
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A history of St. Luke M. E. Church, on the north side of Springfield, is told in this article published in 1927.
Was there a cemetery on the Springfield Public Square? This 1933 newspaper article speculates about the possiblity after workmen found a tombstone.
Dolly Parton and Mac Davis attracted over 7,000 fans to the Hammons Center in 1977.
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