There are two Cape Girardeau landmarks across the street from each other at Themis and Fountain that I’ve passed hundreds of time while working at The Missourian and going to the library that never caught my eye much.
The first is Christ Episcopal Church, a tiny building with a bright red door. (The original building is relatively tiny, but Google Earth photo shows several larger buildings attached to it.) I’m pretty sure I was never inside the building, even though I had friends who went there.
May Greene Garden
Even more invisible was May Greene Garden, tucked in behind what used to be the Federal Courthouse. It was named after May Greene, who taught in Cape schools for 53 years and had a school in South Cape named for her.
These photographs were taken in the spring of 2011. Click on them to make them larger.
I googled this to get the answer, I knew it had something to do with the Blood of Christ, but not the full story.
Why do churches have Red Doors?
“The red door tradition goes back to the beginnings of cathedral architecture in the Middle Ages. The color red, signifying the Blood of Christ, was painted on the north, south and east doors of a church. Such symbolism represented making the sign of the cross — Father, Son and Holy Ghost. Thus the edifice was marked as a sanctuary, identified as a refuge and safety zone from physical or spiritual dangers. The red doors shut out evil. Supposedly an enemy could not pursue his victim across the sacred threshold.”
It’s funny that you bring that up. I was looking at another church I photographed with red doors and thought of the coincidence. Thanks for explaining it.
Wow this is spooky you should choose these two photos together ken. May Green, Alma Schrader, and Barbara Blanchard all were known to wear red underwear. . …… a coincidence?? I think not!
It’s 1:21 am. What do u expect.
Well I never know that amazing fact that Brad came up with, and Don Price what you said about the red doors is amazing. I really thought it was a English thing…Red Coats, Red Door kind of thing. Well, I think that way.
As a kid I always really thought that this was a rich peoples church, because being small as it is not many people could attend and nice as it is, it needed RICH people to keep it going.
Well again that is what my 12 year old brain thought at the time and until now I had never reconsidered my take on the church.
It does look very British with the vines and Red door.
I did not attend Christ Episcopal Church but always thought it was so beautiful. In the early 1960s Mark (Nunnelee) and I became friends with Father England, the priest there for years, and chose to be married there on August 14th 1964. There have probably been changes to the church since then but I haven’t seen it in years. Thanks for the memories your photo evoked.
I lost a few baseballs in what is now May Greene Garden in the late 50’s. It was a dense garden with a small house that was the one part of our neighborhood that was off limits to us.
Here is the history of May Greene Garden with several photos, by Frony and others, in the included link:
http://www.semissourian.com/blogs/flynch/entry/40938
Thanks, Fred. For some reason, I couldn’t connect with The Missourian last night when I was posting this. I remembered that you had plowed that ground.
I remember this small church. I thought it was the most beautiful, peaceful looking church in Cape. I was in the church one time when the Rev. George Hesler took a group us to visit several churches in Cape so that we could get a feel for the differences and the similarities in the various Christian denominations. He also took us to the small Jewish place of worship on Main street that I thought was interesting.
We visited this church during Cub Scouts while at Lorimier school. John Vogel’s Mother was the Den Mother and took us to several churches so we could see the differences in them. Also worked at Metro news which was behind the church and like Ken passed all the places around this area many times while growing up.
My family were members of this church in in the 60’s and 70’s. My mom (Jean Lincoln) was the organist during most of those years and then again sometime in the 80s. I spent a lot of time there growing up. I drove by the church on my last visit to Cape and they have ‘swapped ends’ – the entrance is now on the opposite end. I didn’t go in, but I suppose the alter has been moved to the opposite end as well. Thanks for posting the picture.