Niece Laurie Everett of Laurie Antiques fame, sent me a question: “One place in Cape that has always intrigued me is the little house that sits in the middle of chaos out by Wal-Mart, Drury Hotel and White Castle. Have you ever done a story on it?”
As it turned out, I had just looked at photos of that house the day before while I was figuring out what I had shot but not run.
When Science Buddy Jim Stone was in town chasing a monster magnet up the Mississippi, he stayed at one of the hotels near it. When I picked him up, I said I needed to pause long enough to shoot some house mug shots for a follow-up story. Well, I’m easily distracted, so the photos have been languishing in my “get-around-to-it-some-day” file.
Here’s a hint
A reader who saw Laurie’s question pointed me in the direction of an aerial map that shows where the house is. Glad to see Cape County has a great mapping tool.
He has a piece of the story: “the little white house by Wally World is the gentleman that used to own all that property. Obviously, the Drury family was the purchaser and the rest of the development is history. The gentleman will live there as along as he wants/able to.”
I’ll have the real answer for you when I get to Cape next month. In the meantime, you can click on the photos to make them larger. The little pin-thing marks the location of the house.
The house is owned by my Dad’s cousin, Earl Siemers and his wife.
Clearwater Beach has one house like this…the owner would not sell or wanted to keep his home…so they built around him! This a cool home in Cape and see why the man kept it!
I have ALWAYS wondered about this house, too!! I guess Siemers drive is named after them then? 🙂 How cool.
Well, Sue beat me to the punch. Earl is a relative of my Dad’s as well. The land on the west side of the interstate, south of Route K and north of Bloomfield Road was owned by the Siemers family.
The greater Siemers family patriarch purchased a lot of the land west of Cape Girardeau from the Federal Government upon arriving here from Germany just after the turn of the century. It was divided among many family members over the years.
If you look to the west of Cape, one can see or might remember seeing a couple of big silos currently atop a hill and they have been there for a long time. That land was also part of that land included. That dairy farm belonged to the family of Frank and Esther James. Esther was a member of the Siemers family and sister to my paternal grandmother.
I remember Mr. Seimers telling me he had sold all his land but what his home sits on.
I think Frank and Esther James were my mother’s cousins. I remember going to a farm out that way and visiting them. I don’t remember if they were related on Grandpa Ike Harmon’s side or Grandma Eddie Thompson’s side.
I know virtually nothing of Frank James’ family tree prior to him. The last names that you provide are not in the Siemers immediate family tree (within two genrations) to the best of my knowledge.
I suppose they are also related to June Siemers? Terry Siemers?