Cape Girardeau History and Photos

April 28, 2012

Beard’s Sport Shop, 818 Broadway

A reader was asking me about 818 Broadway. It’s been a whole lot of things, but it’ll always be Beard’s Sport Shop to me. When I photographed it in 2009, the sign on the front of building said Grace Cafe, but I think it had already closed its doors. I used to go to Grace Cafe when it was located in the old Vandeven’s Mercantile building at Pacific and Broadway because they had a fast internet connection.

Ornate decorations

I never noticed how ornate the trim was on the building until I looked at these photos. I thought that it might have been added recently, but Fred Lynch had a Frony photo of Beard’s and Wayne’s Grill that shows it clearly in 1961.

When Friend Shari and I shot the interior of the Broadway Theater in December, we retreated across the street for some coffee to thaw out. I couldn’t remember the name of the place, but a Missourian business column on April 18, 2011, said “Calix Coffee opened at 818 Broadway, at the former Grace Cafe location in Cape Girardeau. Owner Andrew Whaley, Jackson, previously worked at Grace Cafe as a barista. The shop sells coffee and fresh baked pastries, and Whaley hopes to add sandwiches and salads in the future.”

That must be it.

You can barely make out the Beard’s sign in a photo I ran the other day of a wreck at night on Broadway.

Interested in Pinterest?

I’m always a little slow in adopting new social media, but Son Matt added a new button to the front of the blog. You’ve been able to “Like” a page on Facebook and Google+ for some time. Starting last week, you could “pin” an image on Pinterest. It’s probably easier to show you some of my stuff that’s been “pinned” than to try to explain it. It’s sort of a nice way to get a high-level feel for the kind of stuff I shoot.

April 27, 2012

Jeane Adams’ End of Summer

One of my Missourian jobs was to edit the weekly Youth Page. It wasn’t heavy lifting: I had to edit copy submitted by student reporters and staff writers, lay out the page, write the headlines and come up with pictures for it. Whenever possible, I tried to assign them to myself for a few extra bucks in my paycheck. (Click on any photo to make it larger.)

Needed: end of summer story

I’m not sure which came first here, the chicken or the egg. Since it was summertime, the page was probably pretty light of school news, so I must have decided to do some kind of end of the summer story. Whether I ran into Jeane Adams while looking for that story or whether I ran into her and decided to build a layout around her, I don’t recall. I had never seen her before this shoot and never saw her again after we were finished.

At any rate, we wandered around town shooting things she remembered about the summer. I may or may not have gotten a photo release from her parents. We usually didn’t bother with that formality in Cape. I DO recall going by her house to tell her parents what I was up to. They trusted me enough to turn her loose for the afternoon. Their trust only went so far, though. I had to drag her younger sister or cousin or some kid as a chaperone (or because they wanted a free babysitter).

Jeane was a natural

Some days you’re lucky enough to find a natural model. Jeane was one of those people who came alive in front of the camera.

Ran one big photo with overlays

I wanted to run a series of shots (remember, I’m getting five bucks a picture), but I couldn’t justify filling the page with her. I compromised by doing something I hadn’t tried before. I made one big print, then created a layout of smaller prints stuck down to the big one with rubber cement. I cringe at photos that are cut into weird shapes, but even the diagonal crop of her looking at the river works in this case. I’d have shifted up and to the right if I was doing it again, but…

Pulling off something like today would be a piece of cake with Photoshop, but it was a bit more of a challenge in the days of film and darkrooms.

All over Cape

I’m not sure where the log photo was taken, but the train was at Arena Park and the river photo was Cape Rock. We probably shot the dog photo at her house.

Jeane was going to be a sophomore

I thought she was younger than high school, but the caption under the photo said, “Miss Jeane Adams, like most youngsters at this time of year, is sitting and thinking of all the things she had done over the three months of ‘freedom’ from teachers, homework and tests. The days of romping with her dog, riding the Arena Park Dinky to far-off places and just sitting watching the river go by are rapidly drawing to a close. Jeanne, who will be a sophomore at Central High School this fall, is the daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Milford Adams, 605 Albert. This dog’s name, incidentally, is Chico.”

Based on that she would have been Central Class of 1968. I looked for her on Classmates.com, but she wasn’t there and the class yearbook wasn’t online.

Where did this girl come from?

This little girl was in the middle of the roll of Jeane photos. I have no idea where we stumbled onto her, but she was too cute to pass up.

April 26, 2012January 28, 2016

1966 Senior Prom

This is prom season, so it was timely that I stumbled across a sleeve marked “Lila Prom With Her Friends.” That would make it the Class of 1966 Senior Prom. Linda Stone was the Prom Queen.

Where’s this girl’s date?

When you look at the gallery, you’ll see that all over the other girls have dates. Lila Perry (eventually Steinhoff) had a date. It was me, but I was taking pictures, so she’s solo. She’s spent most of our lives together apart like that.

I have to tell a prom story to show what a terrific person she was. Lila was Class of ’66. I was a senior, Class of 1965. We had been dating a few months, so it would have been natural that I ask her to my senior prom. Instead, I went to her and said that I had heard through the grapevine that a mutual friend of ours who was a senior – we’ll call her Suzy Q – wasn’t going to be asked to the prom by her on-again, off again boyfriend – we’ll call him Charlie Cad. “Would it be OK with you if I ask Suzy to the prom. I really hate that she wouldn’t be able to attend her senior prom. We’ll still have your senior prom next year.”

Well, that was pretty presumptuous on my part in several ways. It takes a lot of nerve to ask your girlfriend for permission to take another girl to something as big as the Senior Prom. It was also a stretch to be making plans for a dance a whole year away after pulling such a stunt.

She didn’t even hesitate. She told me to take Suzy Q to the prom. That’s when I knew I had a keeper if I hadn’t realized it earlier.

Linda got to sit on the throne

Linda got the crown and a chance to sit on the throne, but I got to take the real queen home. [I survived taking another girl to my senior prom, but I may not survive printing the picture of Wife Lila. She said she hated her hairdo.]

Photo gallery of the 1966 Senior Prom

I put names on a few faces, but I can’t swear that they’re right. Click on any photo to make it larger, then click on the left or right side of the image to move through the gallery.

April 24, 2012April 24, 2012

I’m Looking for Reader Help

I’ve been talking with a publisher the last few weeks about doing a book on Cape. We were moving right along until they discovered I live in Florida. They prefer their authors to be local so they can promote their books.

I explained about the reach of this blog, how many folks with an interest in Cape Girardeau read it and how they’re located all over the world.

On top of that, I said that I get back to Cape two or three times a year and could do the conventional press-the-flesh book signings and the like. For example, I’m putting together an October exhibit and presentation on Regional Photography for the Altenburg Lutheran Heritage Center and Museum.

I do a pretty entertaining dog ‘n’ pony show with lots of photos, videos and war stories.

How you can help

If you are a member of a service club, historical society or you can get more than three people together (not counting me), I’d appreciate the name of the person who arranges your bookings, so I can convince the publisher that I’m not a Cape carpetbagger. I won’t be ready to hit the chicken dinner circuit until next year, but I need to start making contacts soon. Feel free to email me the info instead of leaving it as a comment if you prefer.

Vendor contacts would be helpful, too

What do these pictures have to do with my request? Absolutely nothing. They just happened to be in the same negative sleeve. They DO represent the wide variety of folks I’ve photographed over the years and the kinds of groups I’d like to get in front of.

The publisher has arrangements with national booksellers, but they like their authors to come up with local stores that might be persuaded to carry the book: coffee shops, antique stores, historical societies, Chambers of Commerce and the like. I’d appreciate info from anyone who has contacts with any of these types of businesses. Again, email to ken@steinhoff.net is fine.

I’m kind of excited about finding an outlet for some of the thousands of photos I’ve taken. I’ll keep you folks in the loop. If this deal doesn’t come to pass, I’m convinced that another one will come along right behind it.