Category: Broadway

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Star Service Station

These guys looked vaguely familiar, but when I saw the coin changer and the Star book peeking out of the shirt pocket, I KNEW where this was taken: The Star Service Station at 600 Broadway.

I bought a lot of gas from them over the years. They were in the perfect location: across the street from Nowell’s Camera Shop, on my way to The Missourian, and close to the Rialto, where Lila worked. Oh, yeah, also nearby to Tony’s Pizza Palace. What more did a young man need in the 60s?

Grand Opening December 1965

I filled a bunch of those Star Stamp books over the years. Ninety stamps would earn you $1.50 worth of free gas. I’ve never been a smoker, but my eyes open when I see smokes for a quarter a pack.

This was a full-service station, too. None of that pump-it-yourself stuff in those days. I don’t remember if they’d vacuum your car like Brune & Eaker’s Phillips 66 that I wrote about earlier.

Locksmiths, shoe stores, jewelry, gas stations

When I searched for stories about 600 Broadway, I found that it has been lots of things over the years. Here’s a sample:

  • Oct. 18, 1932 – Joseph Mosley, formerly of Dongola, Ill., today opened a jewelry sales and repair shop at 600 Broadway, in a building with Ed Randol’s shoe repair shop.
  • May 25, 1937 – Wm. Hartung said today he will move his sporting goods store possibly Monday from 611 Broadway to 600 Broadway. The store has been located on the south side of the street for nine years. The new location is near Frederick St., where a shoe repair shop formerly was located. The building interior is now being repaired and repainted, this building also being owned by the Hartung family. Both the store and the repair shop will be transferred to the new quarters.
  • Aug. 26, 1948 – Hartung’s Key & Repair Shop has a newly painted red and silver front. Wm. C. Hartung, owner, has been in the present location the past 48 years. His father, G. Hartung, owned the business before him.
  • Apr. 25, 1989 – A representative from Wisdom Oil reported on Monday the theft of gasoline from 600 Broadway.
  • Nov. 11, 1990 – At first glance, the service station at 600 Broadway here may appear to be the victim of a business gone bad. There is no attendant, and the building behind the pumps appears to be boarded up. Jamie Estes, president of Par Enterprises, which owns Par/Gas explains, “This station is a Par/Gas Fueling Club station. You can be a member if you have one of five credit cards – Par/Gas, Sinclair, Master Card, VISA or Discover. You drive up to the pump, insert your credit card, wait about 20 seconds, follow the instructions, and pump your gas. It’s all that simple.”
  • May 28, 2003 – Broadway Station is set to make another go at it at 600 Broadway, this time thanks to new owner Stephen Majeed, who also owns Sprigg Street Station. His station will have gas pumps and sell everything expected at a convenience store except liquor and beer. That’s because it’s too close to a couple of churches. He’s remodeled the interior and has added a drive-through.
  • Nov. 21, 2006 – Broadway Station reopened at 600 Broadway for a short time. Owner Steve Majeed opened the station to unload the 6,000 gallons of gasoline still in the tanks, selling the fuel for $1.29 a gallon. Majeed wanted to get rid of the fuel because he planned to build a new strip center there called Riverside Mall.

Stevies Steakburger in 2009

Stevies Steakburger was in the building when I was in Cape in October 2009. The white building on the right is Annie Laurie’s Antiques, formerly Brinkopf-Howell Funeral Home.

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Big Tire Smashes into Car

The big news in The Missourian Nov. 20, 1965, was a 700-pound wheel that broke off a city motor grader and went bouncing down the 700 block of Broadway. It smashed a window at Shoppers’ Warehouse Market, Inc., then bounced into in the side of Mrs. Diane Kincaid’s car. No one was injured. Cape Girardeau Patrolman Jeffery L. Steger is investigating.

That’s the most newsworthy photo – and the one that ran in the paper – but some of the other frames I shot that day are interesting from a historical standpoint.

Pete Koch’s Sinclair Station

I tried to read the price on the pumps, but I couldn’t make it out. My guess is that it was about 36 cents a gallon in 1965. The building and pumps have been replaced by a convenience store named Downtown Sinclair.

Downtown Sinclair in 2009

If there are any gas pumps around, I can’t see them in this photo. The Dino the Dinosaur sign has been replaced by one directing you to Centenary Church.

Familiar buildings on Broadway

The phone company building still has its microwave tower used for long distance back in the days before fiber optic cable. With a little imagination, I thought I could read that a Steve McQueen movie was playing at the Esquire, but I couldn’t make out the name of which one.

I can make out signs for Bill’s Pharmacy and Wayne’s Grill, the home of the best filet I’ve ever eaten. It was a Saturday payday ritual to stop off and have one of those bacon-wrapped steaks.

Crash attracted crowd

A crowd gathered, with much looking, speculating and theory-thrashing. In one of the photos in the gallery, someone with a movie camera showed up, probably from KFVS-TV.

Photo Gallery of the Big Tire Crash

Include are all of the shots taken in 1965, plus contemporary photos of the neighborhood in 2009. Click on any image to make it larger, then click on the left or right side to move through the gallery.

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First Presbyterian Church

I captured the final days of the First Presbyterian Church located at the corner of Broadway and Lorimier, across from The Southeast Missourian, in March of 1965. The building was 63 years old.

When I look photos of landmark buildings torn down in those days, I’m amazed at how little was salvaged. The 110-year-old bell that had called out firefighters and warned of jail breaks was saved to be reinstalled in the new church, but beautiful ornate woodwork was knocked down and hauled off.

Cornerstone was removed

A March 30, 1965, Missourian story said that the building’s cornerstone was removed and would be examined  later by a church committee comprised of Jack L. Oliver, Allen L. Oliver, Wendell P. Black, Mrs. Clyde A. McDonald and Mrs. Robert L. Beckman.

Bell goes back home

Before the end of the year, the new church far enough along that the bell could be reinstalled.

The re-belling didn’t go smoothly

The Dec. 1, 1965, Missourian story chronicled a number of missteps before the bell was placed gently into its cradle.

  • It had to be moved to a spot directly in front of the church.
  • The boom on the crane had to be lengthened.
  • A parking meter was in the way and had to be removed.
  • The crane ran out of gas and someone had to be dispatched to bring back five gallons to crank it up.

Finally it was on its way up

The Missourian building is on the left. The Idan-Ha Hotel hadn’t burned yet, and the city was still using the silver star Christmas decorations. Anybody know when those were phased out and what happened to them? I always thought they were kind of classy looking.

Pete Gibbar and Bill Vopelker were waiting

Pete Gibbar and Bill Vopelker, both of Perryville, were in the bell tower waiting for it to be lowered into place.

Bell bolted into place

The bell landed right where it was supposed to and was quickly bolted into its collar.

It works!

Pete and Bill were clearly happy when they rang the bell for the first time in its new home, the third of its existence. It was originally mounted in a wooden tower located on the courthouse side of the original brick Presbyterian Church. The tower and the church were torn down in 1904 to build the church that was just razed.

The bell, which is inscribed, Jones & Hitchcock, founders, Troy, N,Y, 1855,” was originally cast for a St. Louis church, but it proved too heavy to be used there. Mrs. Addie McNeely bought the bell for First Presbyterian for $500. It’s 43-1/2 inches wide at the mouth and weighs about 1,400 pounds.

First Presbyterian Church Photo gallery

Here is a gallery of other photos, including a strange shot I took while changing film on my way up to the bell tower. I include it because it shows some of the buildings in the area. Click on any image to make it larger, then click on the left or right side to step through the gallery.

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1989 Idan-Ha Hotel Fire

I happened to be in Cape on vacation July 7, 1989, when I heard about a fire at Broadway and Fountain. I was about 1,100 miles out of my jurisdiction, but nobody hassled me when I started taking pictures of firefighters fighting a fire at what was left of the old Idan-Ha Hotel.

Investigators determined that a tenant on the second floor left her room without realizing that she had left a pot cooking on an electric stove. She heard her smoke alarm going off, ran back into the apartment and found it engulfed in flames. She left the door open, which allowed it to spread to the rest of the building.

The Missourian gave the story extensive play in the July 9, 1989, edition. Missourian photographer Mark Sterkel showed up while I was there, so I was robbed of a chance to get another photo in the paper.

Some residents jumped from windows

About half of the 40 to 45 residents were home when the fire broke out. Several of them jumped out windows and off fire escapes to escape the blaze. The building’s concrete floors and brick walls slowed the spread of the fire upward, but it also trapped the heat, which made the fire difficult to fight.

First priority was rescue

The first call came in at 5:31 p.m.; it went to a second alarm four minutes later. When firefighters arrived, they saw a woman sitting with both legs out a second floor window, “not far from jumping or being overcome by smoke” Assistant Fire Chief Jim Niswonger said. Once she and other residents were evacuated, attention turned to fighting the fire.

A heavy stream of water from the aerial platform ladder truck’s deluge knocked the main blaze down pretty quickly. Two firefighters had minor injuries.

Part of hotel burned in 1968

This 1964 aerial shows the Idan-Ha Hotel before a 1968 fire destroyed the northeast portion of the building. The Common Pleas Courthouse is at the bottom; The Southeast Missourian is in the middle; the Idan-Ha is at the top left, across the street from the H & H Building and the Marquette Hotel. The KFVS TV building hadn’t been constructed yet. I think the tall, light-colored building at the corner of Broadway and Fountain was the Post Office at that time.

Here is a link to The Missourian’s story about the June 29, 1968, fire which destroyed the main section of the hotel, Milady’s Shop, the Rainbow Coffee Shop. Six other nearby businesses were also damaged.

Fire resources stretched thin

While crews from three of the Cape’s four stations were fighting the fire, three other minor fires were reported in the city. Fortunately, they were small enough to be handled without calling in mutual aid from Scott City or Jackson.

Photos of Broadway and Fountain

You can see additional photos of the intersection of Broadway and Fountain, including the Idan-Ha Hotel as it looked in 1966 and the present day.

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