Bootheel
Margaret Harwell Art Museum puts art inside a historic Poplar Bluff house
The Margaret Harwell Art Museum ties Poplar Bluff's civic arts story to the historic J.L. Dalton home.
Poplar Bluff’s local color is not only river, rail, and courthouse history. The Margaret Harwell Art Museum gives Butler County a civic arts place inside a historic house.
The City of Poplar Bluff says the museum opened to the public in 1981 and was named for Margaret Harwell, a Poplar Bluff businesswoman and civic leader who left her estate to the city for an art center and museum. The museum’s own history says the city purchased the J.L. Dalton home in 1980 to house the museum.
That combination matters for the county page. It shows how a historic Poplar Bluff residence became a public arts institution, giving the city a different kind of downtown landmark than a theater, depot, or county office.
References
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