American Queen Archives

January 5, 2014

Kage House

I never knew the brick two-story building at 120 Broadway even had a name. I took a photo of it in 2010, but it was an afterthought, rather than a target. (Click on the photos to make them larger.)

Last summer, I wandered down Broadway to shoot the empty lot where the former First National Bank sat and discovered the American Queen riverboat was docked on the riverfront.

While I was trying to compose a photo that incorporated both the boat and the parking lot, I heard a voice from On High. I was pretty sure it wasn’t coming from the former General Baptist Church up the hill, so I looked over my shoulder.

Kage House is short-term rental property

The voice came from some nice folks from Texas who had rented the top floor of the Kage House for a brief stay in Cape. They invited me to shoot from the deck attached to the back of the building. I didn’t go inside, but they said it was very comfortable.

That’s when I learned the property has been converted to a short term rental property with rates cheaper than a lot of Interstate hotels with a lot less ambiance.

House on Downtown Home and Garden Tour

From a May 7, 2012, Missourian story quoting Keith Diebold:

When was your home built?

Sometime between 1860 and 1870

How long have you lived there?

In 2008 several of my friends were visiting Dave Hutson and noticed a “for sale” sign on the building at 120 Broadway. As a kid driving with my parents on Broadway to shop on Main Street, I was always intrigued by two buildings, the second being what I later found out was named the Kage House. A short time later my family and I took procession of the latter of the two. We do not live in the house but use the apartment on the second level as a place to stay when we visit. We also do short-term rentals to out-of-town guests.

What attracted you to the house?

I considered it to be a diamond in the rough, and after a few years now it is slowly starting to sparkle. It has not only been a fun hobby for the last three years renovating the building (my wife keeps telling me to find a less expensive hobby) but also has given me a chance to connect with some old friends and have made some great new friends in the process.

What is an interesting feature of the house?

The land was once owned by Louis Lorimier, who in turn passed it down to his daughter. At a later date it was sold for 300 gallons of whiskey. This is for sure one of the most intriguing features of the house as well as the methods in which the building was constructed. Living in Europe for 10 years and spending a great deal of time in New Orleans had given us a chance to see many buildings that were hundreds of years old that are still standing tall and will still be there in hundreds more. The Kage House, I am sure, will be one of those still standing long after I am gone, as it possesses some of those same quality traits of construction, built with only brick, stone, timber and steel.

August 21, 2013August 22, 2013

American Queen

I see in The Missourian that The American Queen has stopped in Cape again. I shot her when she paused there July 7, 2013. You can click on the photos to make them larger.

Ambassador of the Boat

There’s a security checkpoint at the gangplank to keep non-passengers from boarding. I’d like to nominate this guy as Ambassador of the Boat. He’s the crewman who has to tell folks, “No, you can’t tour The American Queen” and to answer hundreds of dumb questions from guys like me (and worse).

I looked at his name badge and said, “Your name is Ronald Watchman, right?”

“No, Watchman is my title; my name is Ronald Moore.” Watchman Moore retired from the Memphis fire service after more than three decades as a firefighter. After about a year, he was bored with retirement and applied for a job on The Queen. He was hired almost immediately as a porter.(A percentage of the crew must hail from the home port of Memphis.)

After a short period of time, the captain called him aside and said that his skills were being wasted as a porter, and he was promoted to work security.

He’s a good-humored fellow who enjoys chatting with people and seemed to know every passenger by sight. It was clear from the way they spoke to him that he was well-liked. If he’s typical of the rest of the crew, service must be first-rate.

“I’m a character”

Passenger Lesa Knight, center, said, “I’m a character.”

“Most folks I run into are characters, so I’m not surprised.” I replied.

“No,” she protested, “I’m REALLY a character. I wear a penguin costume at the St. Louis Zoo.”

I couldn’t argue with that.

Bikes on board

I spotted several fluorescent green bikes on the streets in Cape. It turned out that they were bikes carried on board for the passengers to use when the boat docked. I asked one passenger who was returning to the boat how he liked climbing the Broadway hill. He admitted that he had walked up the hill, but it was worth it to be able to see some of the landmarks in the Tour of Rush brochure.

I should have confined our conversation to biking. He didn’t share Wife Lila’s Uncle Ray’s opinion of Rush as a “horse’s patootie.”

Tour buses followed The Queen to all if its stops to take passengers sightseeing and shopping. If a passenger literally “misses the boat,” it’ll haul them to the next stop so they aren’t left on the riverbank, Watchman Moore said.

American Queen built in 1995

I was surprised to learn The American Queen was built in 1995. It reminded me of the Delta Queen docking in Cairo in 1968.

The company that built it went under (a bad choice of words for a steamship company), and it was laid up until 2008 when it was refurbished. Most of the reviews I read were gushingly favorable, but a few folks weren’t happy with various things on their cruises. It seems like most of those were in the early days when service and mechanical issues were being worked out.

Some folks can find fault with anything. The boat has to take on water from the shore more often than fuel. One of the last things the crew did before shoving off was to disconnect the hose feeding Cape water into the storage tanks. A non-passenger on the shore commented, “I’d never sail on that boat. I saw them drop the water hose into the river when they were pulling it in.”

“Do you realize that up until recently all the drinking water in Cape came out of that river?” I asked.

Stacks lower

Because the level of the river fluctuates, some stops have to be bypassed when the water is either to high or too low to dock. The stacks are designed to lower if they need clearance to go under some bridges.

Rooms open onto decks

Some of the cabins have private balconies, but most of the reviewers liked being able to walk directly out on the decks to mingle with other passengers.

Boat has elevators

Unlike early riverboats, The American Queen has elevators to make the boat handicapped accessible. Since it sounds like there are a lot of passengers in their 70s and 80s, that’s important. Getting onto and off the boat can be a bit tricky for those with mobility issues, the review warned.

Good view from the top decks

This view from the Common Pleas Courthouse shows how The Queen towers over many of the downtown buildings.

August 4, 2013

First National Bank Gone

I usually complain when an old building in Cape is turned into a parking lot, but I never had much of a feeling one way or another about the First National Bank, which later became the Cape Girardeau Convention and Visitors Bureau.

In fact, the only photos I took of the building at the corner of Broadway and Main might have been the night the Teen Age Club was rocking so hard the dance was moved to the parking lot of the old bank.

Lynch and Baughn covered the history

Missourian bloggers Fred Lynch and James Baughn did a good job of digging up the history of the bank, which was built in 1956. You can go to Fred’s blog to find all the links and photos, including recent ones taken while it was being razed. By the time I got to town, it was pretty much all over. This was taken July 5, 2013.

American Queen nice surprise

When I went down to pick up an order at Broussard’s on July 7, I saw a reason not to lament the loss of a rather nondescript bank building. Anyone parking in that lot in the future will have a great view of riverboats like The American Queen. The Buckner building on the corner is vacant now.

(I’ll have some shots of The Queen later. You can click on any of the photos to make them larger.)