Ozarks Notebook: Saving Greenfield’s Town Square

Rural communities are built and shaped by the hands of generations with good intentions. Sometimes those efforts are challenged by modern-day circumstances, fewer mom-and-pop businesses, and shifting populations that leave those who remain to reminisce about different days. That was on display in Greenfield, Missouri, in late May. The rural community of about 1,200 people has seen significant change over the last few decades, losing most of its downtown businesses. Its square has faded, with many empty storefronts. Those realities are in contrast with a time capsule that last saw the light of day in 1976 – back when things were better – that folks gathered to dig up in May. When it was buried, the Dade County seat was a thriving hub in a place of agriculture. Even in the 1990s, the town square included a pharmacy, a furniture store, a bakery, multiple cafes, insurance agencies, an historic hotel-turned-museum, a beauty shop, a lumberyard, a variety shop, a grocery store, and more. All of those stops are gone. A few others have opened, but not many. Among those ghosts, locals gathered in late May to open that time capsule, their curiosity caught by the chance to remember what was. And the good times that may come again. Because in the middle of this depressing scene is something else: hope. In April, Greenfield leaders learned it was approved for a $783,879 grant from the Missouri Department of Economic Development’s Community Development Block Grant Program. The funding will be used to support improvements to 14 downtown buildings, covering nearly half of the district. “We can’t lose our square – it’s the county seat,” said Missy Netzer, a city council member who grew up in Greenfield and championed the grant application. “Our courthouse is beautiful. But if we don’t do something, it’s all going to be gone. So many (small communities) are.” Facing Communities’ Common Decline In my travels throughout the Ozarks, I frequently see fading buildings and landmarks that remind of what once was. As people and money shift, things change, even though not everyone may want them to. The bottom line: Greenfield isn’t alone in its decline, but I know its plight personally. This town is where generations of my family have lived; it’s where my dad grew up. My grandfather founded one of those insurance agencies. Long gone is the cafe where he went to drink coffee most mornings, right around the corner from his office. Even in my 38-year lifetime, the town has faded a lot. And that’s hard to see. Growing up in Greenfield in the 1970s and ‘80s, Netzer has experienced greater versions of those shifts. “When I grew up, we didn’t go to Springfield to shop,” she said, referring to the region’s largest city, about an hour away. “We shopped on the square because it had everything.” “Most people, if they didn’t grow up here, don’t know what the square could look like,” she continued. “They’ve only seen it (now). You hear about that all the time – how bad it is.” That’s why, in late 2025, I was intrigued and excited to learn of a grant application the town’s leaders had been working on for quite some time. With the help from the Southwest Missouri Council of Governments, the city was applying for a grant from the Missouri Downtown Revitalization program. According to the Department of Economic Development’s website, the program “offers opportunity for eligible Missouri communities to engage in revitalization efforts to renew downtown areas and restore them to their former prominence as a center of community activity.” The potential benefit was significant: The grant would be in partnership with local property owners, with the state funding 80% of the approved projects – up to $75,000 each – and the owners footing the bill for 20%. Netzer found the grant through an online search about three years ago, leading Greenfield leaders to approach Southwest Missouri Council of Governments (SMCOG) – the federally-designated economic development agency for the ten-county area of southwest Missouri – for help in completing the application. The process included securing local buy-in, blighting parts of the downtown area, and researching the history of relevant structures. Out of 32 downtown buildings, 14 signed on as part of the application. One of those building owners is Carmen Hargis Baker, who owns two structures included in the grant application. One, the town’s former International Order of Odd Fellows lodge, today is a flea market. The other building is currently condemned and simply used for storage. “I hope the grant will help revitalize our old buildings so they can be used for businesses for many years and bring some new life back to the square,” Baker told me. “This will be a great opportunity for our town and hopefully bring people to our area.” Those years of work led to an afternoon in November 2025 when I sat at a meeting led by Kelsi Walker, SMCOG’s grants and environmental manager. Locals gathered for an update on the application, which was soon to be finalized. “This has started from a small seed,” Walker said at the meeting, noting that, given the grant program’s recent start, it was a learning process on many sides to complete the application. “It’s been (relationship building) the whole time here, but we definitely have gotten to the peak of the application, and we’re really excited to submit and hear some good news. I do think this will be a really huge project for you guys, and to see the results will be really exciting.” The application was submitted in early 2026, starting months of countdown to the moment in April when a letter arrived for Mayor Dave Engroff – another of the grant’s champions – from the Missouri DED: “On behalf of the State of Missouri, we would like to congratulate the City of Greenfield for its efforts in enhancing the community and strengthening its economy.” The news brought hope that a better chapter – full of people, business, and community spirit – may be ahead via work that would have been difficult if not impossible without that state support. Folks such as Baker will be able to advance their renovation work, which in her case includes a new roof, lighting, and other minor improvements for one building and lighting, windows, heating, and cooling for the other. And it’s hoped the downstream impact goes beyond the property owners and the business district. “The grant was written so that the building owners get the benefit, but we would use local contractors,” Netzer said. “We’re wanting to really push this so that the funds … stay in Dade County, too, because then it’s twice-fold.” Encouragement Comes in Unexpected Ways Part of why I share this story is to celebrate this specific win. But even for folks far beyond Greenfield and southwest Missouri, I share this – and other local work being done – as a reminder that things can change. Greenfield’s revitalization grant is a huge moment to celebrate. But it’s one in several efforts Greenfield locals have championed in recent years to remind people that community is important, even when comparisons with the past bring a shrug and a sigh. One example is the Greenfield senior center, which closed during the Covid-19 pandemic; even after that, significant issues stood in the way of its revival. Netzer and others stepped in to ensure it reopened. A few blocks away, a group of local art enthusiasts founded Dade County ArtConnect, a nonprofit dedicated to bringing people together around a love for art. It moved into a former church, donated by a local minister, in 2025, and today is growing a community through classes, events, and performances. And, in recent years, the longtime newspaper editor and her daughter bought back the paper from corporate owners and now run it themselves for the good of the community. Flickering flames of hope are possible wherever there are people who care. They aren’t isolated to big moments of grant funding, as huge as that is. The decision to care is what counts because you need that before anything else can happen. “I had a passion, because I grew up here,” Netzer said. “But if you didn’t, you’d walk away.” She meant from the grant. But I think it reflects something greater. “We’re hoping it’ll be the first of many grants,” Netzer said. “I know there’s grants out there for sidewalks and for lighting. They are giving us three years to get this one done. There’s other grants out there that we’ve started looking into to do more buildings. It’s a way to bring it back to what it was when I was a kid.” Looking Forward Of course, there most assuredly will be challenges along the way. Which takes us back to the time capsule on the courthouse lawn on a sunny Sunday afternoon, the day after the town’s annual spring festival. Now came the moment: What would we see that hadn’t seen the light of day since 1976? “We do not know the condition of anything in that (time capsule),” said Allison Welch, who organized the unearthing. “We’re all going to find out together.” Sadly, what we first found was water. The vault’s seal hadn’t held, and the time capsule was completely flooded. A few things, though, were able to be salvaged: Coins, photos, newspapers, a cassette tape, baby shoes, and a spoon. There were likely many other items that simply didn’t survive, disintegrated into the murky water. There was collective disappointment, and of course, I wish that more items had been recovered. But to me, it didn’t feel like a moment of despair. It was a reminder that people still care. It linked past generations and those today via a shared moment of enthusiasm with Greenfield at its center.