Cape Girardeau History and Photos

December 15, 2013

Christ Episcopal Church

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.

December 14, 2013

Grand Prize Winner Lee Dahringer

Based on the big grin on Lee Dahringer’s face, he must have been the ’65 Grand Prize winner at the Class of 1965’s Grad Night. And, from the way he’s fondling that big-screen TV, that must have been the big prize.

Lee has been featured here before

I found a larger collection of Grad Night photos in June.

Grad Night photo gallery

Here are a handful of other photos from that night. Click on the photos to make them larger, then click on the side to move though the gallery. Holler if you see yourself or someone you recognize.

December 13, 2013

1965 CHS Home Economics

Home ec teachers Shirley Poorman and Joyce Mae Sander stand by one of Central’s warshing machines. Well, that’s the way Bill Hopkins and I pronounced “washing machine ” before debate coach Ruby Davis started twisting our ears off.

This is the photo that ran in the 1965 Girardot yearbook. You can click on the photos to make them larger, but that’ll just blow up the dust spots.

Lots of dust spots on this frame

From the way the shadows are falling in this photo, I must have had my flash bolted to the left side of the camera when I tilted the camera vertically, causing the light to come from below the subject. It doesn’t hurt too much here, but if it had been a little more extreme, it would have been like the horror effect you’d get by sticking a flashlight under your chin on camping trips.

If I had warshed the film a little better, it would have had fewer spots. OUCH! OK, Ruby WASHED. (That woman sure has a long reach.)

December 12, 2013November 1, 2023

More Disappearing Cairo

Cairo is a town of subtraction. I still take visitors there, but there is less and less to show them. It’s gotten so I hardly pull the camera out because there’s nothing but open ground where a vibrant downtown once flourished.

Here’s a view through a floodgate opening at 8th Street in some time around 1967. You can click on the photos to make them larger.

Looks pretty much the same in 2010

Except for being in color, the two photos are pretty much the same. This one was taken October 26, 2010.

2012 fire erases old buildings

A fire started in an adjacent building and quickly spread to these two old warehouse buildings. This was taken November 13, 2012.

Nothing left but pile of bricks

When the fire was over, nothing much was left except a pile of bricks and some columns.

Not even the bricks remain

By July 10, 2013, you would never know the buildings existed.

A line has been added to show the 2011 record 61.7-foot highwater mark on the floodwall. There is a common misconception that the Bird’s Point Levee was blown just to save Cairo. In fact, it reduced pressure on the levees and floodwalls in Brookport, IL, Paducah, KY, Cairo, IL, Hickman KY and Tiptonville, TN. Some have speculated that Olive Branch might not have flooded if the levee had been breached earlier.

The reason Cairo got so much attention was that the Cairo river gauge was the one used to judge when it was time to activate the floodway that had been in place since 1937.

Older Cairo stories

I’ve photographed Cairo since the 1960s. Here are some older stories and photos.