"The USO had a substantial operation in Rolla during World War Two, serving thousands of soldiers on leave looking for recreation and an opportunity to get away from military life at Fort "Lost-in-the-Woods". The need for appropriate, and . . . — — Map (db m186162) HM
"The block of Eight Street from the railroad depot to Pine Street led to the business district. The strong of saloons on Eight Street between the railroad tracks and Pine Street was known as "Whiskey Row" during it rowdy days. The Baltimore Hotel is . . . — — Map (db m139738) HM
"The USO had a substantial operation in Rolla during World War Two, serving thousands of soldiers on leave looking for recreation and an opportunity to get away from military life at Fort "Lost-in-the-Woods". The need for appropriate, and . . . — — Map (db m139756) HM
This passenger car was built in 1883 by the Barney & Smith Car Company from Dayton, Ohio. The Barney & Smith Company built premier railroad passenger cars from 1848 to about 1894 and electric trolley cars for the next 20 years. The company had . . . — — Map (db m157186) HM
"The Campbell Building, on the southwestern corner of Seventh and Pine streets, was the centerpiece of Joseph Campbell's economic prominence at the turn of the century. The building housed the Rolla State Bank (Campbell was founder) and, until 1915, . . . — — Map (db m139742) HM
"After losing the Rolla Building, the public school occupied a former army commissary office at Ninth and Elm streets until it was destroyed in the Great Fire. Central School, shown here until construction and with a basketball game in progress, . . . — — Map (db m139752) HM
In 1953, communities began asking Frisco Railroad [sic - Railway] to make the old Frisco steam locomotives available as historic attractions for cities located along the old Frisco line. Dr. Clair V. Mann, secretary/historian of the Phelps County . . . — — Map (db m157163) HM
Fort Wyman and the Defense of the Railroad
Fort Wyman was the first of two artillery field fortifications built by the Union army at Rolla, signifying the importance of the railroad terminus to the northern was effort in Missouri.
The . . . — — Map (db m139747) HM
Steam locomotive 1501 was once part of a proud stable of thirty such engines on the Frisco Railway system. Built in 1923, the handsome modern machine was the pride of the fleet until dieselization of the system in the late 1940s. The 1501 was part . . . — — Map (db m157161) HM
"The quartermaster depot building at the northwest corner of Eighth and Pine streets was among many others in Rolla built by the Union army for its supply apparatus. Sold after the war as government surplus, the quartermaster building became the . . . — — Map (db m139737) HM
Site of hand-hewn log structure built in 1855 as contractors office for southwest branch of Pacific Railroad Later served as home of Edmund Ward Bishop Founder of Rolla During Civil War was used as officers quarters As the Eagle Hotel it was . . . — — Map (db m186159) HM
"Beyond the woman entering the National Bank is the southeastern corner of Eighth and Pine streets and the Central Drug Store, circa 1885. The Hotel Edwin Long replaced the drug store in 1931. Contractor M.E. Gillioz rushed the Hotel Edwin Long . . . — — Map (db m139741) HM
The ancients observed that when the full moon rose nearly diametrically opposite the sun at sunset, a lunar eclipse was very probable later in the evening. England's Stonehenge has a group of 56 post holes, known as Aubrey Holes, arranged in a . . . — — Map (db m157238) HM
"The Missouri Trachoma Hospital was one of two hospitals in the United States devoted for the treatment of this eye disease. The building was equipped with 70 beds and was completed in 1939 at a cost of $137,000. The grounds were donated by the . . . — — Map (db m139762) HM
"Cyrus H. Frost, David W. Malcolm, Joseph Campbell, Edmund Ward Bishop, A.S. Long, and others organized the National Bank of Rolla in 1871. The offices were in the Malcolm Building, on the north side of Eighth Street (now part of the parking lot . . . — — Map (db m139753) HM
The exact date of construction of the Main Street bridge is unknown. Based on old Rolla Express newspaper ads, it was in existence by 1862. Available records point to a less than reliable past. During its first fifty years, the bridge was . . . — — Map (db m139743) HM
"The Pennington-Gilbert Shoe Company factory opened east of the tracks in 1926 between Seventh and Eighth streets. The city provided the site after a vigorous campaign to bring the industry to Rolla that included sales of lots in the Frisco Addition . . . — — Map (db m139759) HM
Phelps County Courthouse
1860-1994
has been placed on the
National Register
of Historic Places
by the United States
Department of the Interior — — Map (db m139745) HM
Dedicated to all who served honorably
to preserve, protect, and defend our
nation principles of democracy
liberty and justice
~ Lest we forget ~ — — Map (db m139749) WM
"The automobile age in Rolla began about 1905." "The city began paving streets with brick in 1908, filling rutted paths and deep holes on Eighth and Pine streets...". "Local support for better roads coincided with national and regional promotions. . . . — — Map (db m139754) HM
"The highway helped sustain Rolla during hard times and war, but also brought increased traffic and stoplights, and, finally, new road construction. In just over a decade, traffic through town became heavy enough that the main stem of Route 66 was . . . — — Map (db m139757) HM
The Pandemic of 2020
In January of 2020, a coronavirus made it from China to the United States and by mid-March had spread across the entire world. Named COVID-19, it was considered so deadly that the government forced many businesses to . . . — — Map (db m157177) HM
Side A:
This Ozark plateau town, 1120 feet above sea level, was a "Child of the railroad." On a natural passageway to southwest Missouri, midway between St. Louis and Springfield, this site was chosen by the Southwestern Branch of the . . . — — Map (db m55637) HM
"Joseph Campbell established Rolla Mills across from the depot on the east side of the tracks between Seventh and Eighth streets in 1871. It was an important commercial enterprise for both townspeople and rural residents of the county, and was . . . — — Map (db m139758) HM
Dr. Joseph Senne, Dr. David Summers and Chancellor Joseph Marchello, set out in 1982 to develop a model of Stonehenge on the Missouri S&T campus. Senne, an avid astronomer, helped design and made the astronomical calculations for the replica. He . . . — — Map (db m157230) HM
"The Rollamo Theater opened on west Eighth Street in June 1931. Lantern slides had been shown in the Shaw Opera House and downtown "air-domes", and silent movies in the Lyric Theater on Pine Street, but the Rollamo Theater was the first modern movie . . . — — Map (db m139740) HM
"The Schuman Brothers erected a new building on the southwestern corner of Eighth and Pine streets in 1902. Briefly the home of the Central Drug Store, it was better known later as Scott's Drugs. For nearly seventy-five years, townspeople and . . . — — Map (db m139736) HM
Each day as its rays pass through the hole in the analemma plate below the lintel of the south trilithon, the sun casts a spot surrounded by a shadow on either the horizontal or vertical face of the two stones north of the trilithon.
During the . . . — — Map (db m157279) HM
Polaris, the North Star, is framed by the Polaris window. Polaris, a star of the second magnitude, stands alone and forms the tail of the constellation Ursa Minor. It marks the approximate position of the north celestial pole.
On clear nights, . . . — — Map (db m157241) HM
John Webber established the first homestead in what is now in the city of Rolla on this site in about 1845. The one and one-half story, single-room log cabin he constructed stood just north of this plaque. The concrete marker that covers Webber's . . . — — Map (db m139760) HM
Located on Salisbury Plain, 75 miles southwest of London, Stonehenge was built in three phases, beginning in 2800 B.C. by Neolithic people and culminating around 1800 B.C. during the Broze Age. Stonehenge evolved into primarily a 100-foot circle . . . — — Map (db m157228) HM