Cape Girardeau History and Photos

May 1, 2014May 1, 2014

Working for Extra Credit

When I spoke to Dr. Lily Santoro’s Local Techniques in History Class, I offered to help students find information for the topics they had been assigned on local landmarks. The first step was to compile a list of posts about their subjects.

Jennifer was first out of the box

There’s always one student in the class who starts work right away. Jennifer Baker emailed me early on: “My topic is the Wehking Alumni Building on Broadway. From what I have been able to find, the building was previously occupied by the First Baptist Church. Construction on it began in 1926. So, my project will start with the First Baptist Church and end with the Wehking Alumni Center.”

I had to confess to her that the building had been on my to-do list for a long time, but the only photos I had were ones taken of the 1956 SEMO Homecoming parade by James D. McKeown III and passed on by his son, Steve McKeown.

I did suggest that she check out a story I had read that Louis Houck was so enamored by reproductions of classic sculptures he saw at the St. Louis World’s Fair that he bought them at the end of the fair and donated them to the college. I heard that they were being displayed in her building after being moved out of Academic Hall. I suggested she look for Joel P. Rhodes‘ book, A Missouri Railroad Pioneer: The Life of Louis Houck, to see if I remembered it correctly.

Bingo. “Wow! I just found a copy of this book as an ebook on line. Within minutes, I was able to read this section of Dr. Rhodes’ book on Louis Houck. Thanks again for the help! You are pretty cool!” she gushed.

Thanks to Jennifer, I finally got around to shoot the statues and former church for a future post. (If Jennifer is a REAL digger, she will uncover a story about a bank loan and why the building looks like it does. That’s the only hint I’m going to give because I’m saving it for my future post.)

Fairmount Cemetery

The deadline for the project must be coming quickly because I got a flurry of requests on Wednesday.

Crystal Haugsness wanted an aerial shot of Fairmount Cemetery and a photo of the cemetery with Bingo World in the background.

Beer on the first date at age 13

Lucas Greenwalt was fascinated by Myrtle Schilling Kuehnert, part of my Last Generation project. ” I was wondering, if by chance, you would give me permission to cite one of your works for a poster presentation. It was from a video interview you did where an elderly lady discusses her first date with her husband and they casually grabbed a beer at the age of 13. My project is on the Evangelical United Church of Christ here in cape. As you may know the church has very deep German roots and I feel as though this would be a wonderful reference when giving the history of the building.”

St. James AME Church

Scott Bates drew the St. James AME Church. “I want to know if you would allow me permission to use a photo from your website. The photo that I would like to use is the photo with Mr. Kaplan speaking and Rev. Ward smiling in the back. This was from the NAACP president’s visit to St. James AME Church in 1967.”

Luke Haun wanted Fair photos

Luke wanted six photos: four from the 1964 fair; one inside the Arena Building in 1966, and a color shot that Mother took in 2011. I liked his taste. He picked out some of my favorites.

I wonder if any other students will come skidding in tomorrow? They may be in trouble. I have to wrap up a bunch of loose ends before getting on the road to Ohio at the end of the week, so I may not be around to look up photos.

I hope Dr. Santoro gives me extra credit for my work. I could use some help pulling up my grade point average.

April 30, 2014April 30, 2014

Juden School Established 1854

Niece Laurie Evertt of Annie Laurie’s Antiques fame, said someone came into the store asking for information about Juden School. I admitted that I had heard of it, but had never shot any photos there.

I pretty much forgot about it until Monday afternoon while I was on a ramble with Buddy Dick McClard. I’m not sure how the topic came up, but Dick volunteered that the school was just down the road from his house.

School closed in 1960

News clippings say the school, which was established in 1854, was closed when the Nell Holcomb R-4 School District was created in 1960.

It has had a variety of uses since then. I saw references to art exhibits, an animal feed store and an antique store.

If you’re looking for it, it’s at 900 West Cape Rock Drive, on the corner of Cape Rock and County Road 635. [Editor’s note: I said it was at the intersection of 643 earlier. I was only half-way correct. Cape Rock Drive is 643. The intersection is 643 and 635.]

April 29, 2014

SEMO at Night

I had to do a quick honk ‘n’ wave trip to St. Louis to get something from Brother Mark; then I had to talk Wife Lila through a computer issue. On the way over to Sis-in-Law Marty’s house to break the news that an error message means that her hard drive is terminal, I stopped off to wish Altenburg Museum Director Carla Jordan a safe trip to Baxter Springs to help out in the aftermath of the tornado there. Her family is OK, but there are a lot of people who need support.

So, that meant I was scrambling for something to post. When in doubt, go cruising in the dark.

Kent Library is celebrating its 75th Anniversary. Mary Christy asked if she could use some of my pictures from the 1960s on the library celebration Facebook page, so the library has been on my mind.

True confession time: I couldn’t find a place to park, so I put on the four-way flashers and knocked off a few frames of Kent Library and Academic Hall. I didn’t even bother to set up a tripod or deal with the funky color balance.

Academic Hall still impressive

If I had taken more time to work on the exposure, you would have been able to see the new dome better.

I was afraid I’d get caught parking illegally, which might mean being incarcerated in the Advanced Wrestling class I was supposed to attend when all the other PE electives were full in 1966. I think my decision to transfer to Ohio University was done less because they had a good photo program, than because they didn’t require PE.

A building with clean, strong lines

I appreciate the clean, strong lines of Academic Hall. It looks the way a public building SHOULD look.

Click on any photo to make it larger.

April 28, 2014May 22, 2021

Pleasant Hill Presbyterian

While we were on our ramble to find the Cape Girardeau Northern Railroad depot in Fruitland, and and being distracted by dandelions, we ended up on 541 east of Hwy 61 on a lane that took us up to the Pleasant Hill Presbyterian Church. The door was locked, so I couldn’t go inside.

Church established in 1838

A sign in front of the well-preserved church proclaimed it was established in 1838.

Cemetery dates to 1839

A stone in the cemetery said it was established a year after the church

Visitor register in mailbox

I opened a mailbox marked “Visitors,” expecting to find a brochure or other information about the church. Instead, there was a notebook started in 1990 where visitors could leave messages.

Dialog with the dead

I leafed through a few pages of the molding and watermarked notebook and found that many of the writers had left what could best be described as dialogues with the dead. After awhile, I felt like I was intruding, listening to a private conversation at the next dinner table, and I put the book back.

It was the first time I’ve encountered that.

Pleasant Hill Presbyterian Church photo gallery

If you want to know more about the church, Pleasant Hill and Fruitland, James Baughn did a great job of covering those subjects back in 2012. Rather than doing a bunch of cutting and pasting and pretending I was doing research, I encourage you to visit his blog.

Click on any photo to make it larger, then use your arrow keys or click on the sides of the photos to move through the gallery.