Tag: Cape Girardeau landmarks

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Greetings from Cape Girardeau

I’m always looking for Cape memorabilia. I think I picked this Souvenir of Cape Girardeau postcard packet at Annie Laurie’s Antiques on one of my recent visits. It could have been mailed for 1.5 cents (without message) when it was new. (Click on any image to make it larger)

Sold at Strom’s News Agency

There’s a tiny note that says Strom’s News Agency, Cape Girardeau, Mo., on this sheet that has all kinds of factoids about Cape. I’m going to guess the information dates back to the late 20s or early 30s.

Bridge, bluffs and steam boats

The Mississippi River Traffic Bridge opened to traffic Aug. 22,1928, so this had to have been published after that.

The rock bluffs have me guessing unless they are on the stretch on South Sprigg south and west of the cement plant. I can’t think of any other bluffs that are that close to the highway on The Kings Highway. I’m not even sure that South Sprigg carried that moniker.

Someone much more ancient that me will have to come up with the last time three steam boats docked on Cape’s riverfront.

Is that the KFVS tower?

These postcards were hand-colored, so the artists had to make assumptions. Unless the facades changed, both the Common Pleas Courthouse and St. Vincent’s College were made of red brick.

The only radio tower that I can think of between Cape and Jackson was the KFVS Radio tower that I photographed in 2009. The one on the postcard doesn’t look like it’s on the crest of the hill but the perspective might be off.

Burfordville, Arena Building and SEMO

The Bollinger Mill and Covered Bridge at Burfordville looks pretty much like when I photographed them last year.

The Arena Building looks pretty much the same, too, but this was years before the Radio-Active Girl Scouts showed up there.

St. Vincent’s, Marquette and SE Hospital

Southeast Hospital certainly has changed a lot since this was taken.

The Marquette Hotel looked pretty close to this in the 60s when it was in the background of a fender-bender I covered at Broadway and Fountain. The artist missed on the color of the facade, though.

St. Vincent de Paul Catholic Church has red brick in the real world, too.

St. Francis Hospital long gone

St. Francis Hospital was torn down in 2000.

They must have run out of things to show in Cape, because the rest of the images are from around the Big Springs region.

Curt Teich & Co.

As a photographer, I’m pretty careful about appropriating photos that others have taken because I don’t like mine to get ripped off. In tiny, tiny print there was a note that the Souvenir Folder was © Curt Teich & Co. Figuring the copyright had probably expired – or the company probably had – I Googled the name.

I had seen this style of card over the years, but I didn’t realize exactly how many the company had produced. There’s a whole collection of them that includes images of more than 10,000 cities and towns.

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Water Plant Goldfish Pond

I scanned a really cool photo of my mother on top of Cape Rock. Then, I looked closely at the photo next to it and recognized it as the fountain in the small park just north of the water plant on Cape Rock Drive. I’m going to guess the photos were taken in the early 1940s. [Click on  the photos to make them larger.]

Aerial of Cape Rock and the water plant today

Here’s an aerial I shot last November of the area. The water plant is in the center, The small park with the fountain is directly across the street. The towboat is pushing barges off Cape Rock. The Country Club golf course is at the top left.

“Outstanding example of good taste”

A May 21, 1931, Page One Missourian story gushed, “A project of the Better Service Club…might be described as one outstanding example of good taste in landscaping and beautification in this city… Situated on the brow of a wooded ravine just north of the site to be occupied by the new $250,000 water plant, the rock garden and its central fountain forms an attractive background to the woodland.

This garden was built for the employees by Judge I.R. Kelso of the Utilities company… The cost of lighting the place and planting it to flower and shrubbery will be borne by the employees, who will also maintain the project.”

Has electric fountain

“A feature of this garden spot is an electric fountain, the only one of its kind as far as is known in Southern Missouri. Four huge stone pillars form an entrance to this small park, two of the pillars being located at each end of the park and containing an ornamental lamp, and two others forming a support for a proposed illuminated sign.

The large pool, including the fountain, forms the central structure of the garden. The entire garden is bounded by an attractive design of stone arranged in a tasteful manner under the supervision of Tony Haas. Around the edge of the large pool a walk has been constructed, leading from the entrance, and on the inside of the walk is a concrete, rock and brick trough for water planting. The fountain will be a bowl-shaped affair, with a circular spray which can be adjusted to a diameter from seven to 70 feet. A center spray will be forced about 20 feet high.”

[Note: I read in another account that the pool was shaped to resemble a light bulb, keeping with the utility theme.]

Night illumination

“Around the base of the fountain beneath the water surface a sealed case contained lights of seven different colors will be arranged to give a vari-colored illumination to the sprays from the fountain, forming a beautiful spectacle at night. Four floodlights concealed in the entrance pillars will also play on the fountain.”

Sun dial and crystal ball planned

“North of the pool will be a sun dial and a crystal ball will also be included in the arrangement. A pleasing feature of the beautification plans is the retaining of much of the native growth of the site. A large tree and smaller trees have been left growing at advantageous points in the garden.

“It is the plan of the employees to landscape an adjacent plot of ground to the park and provide a recreation center which will include tennis courts and other similar facilities.”

Almost lost?

I could swear that I read somewhere that the park was almost lost not too long ago but a land swap was worked out. I’ve looked through all my bookmarks and couldn’t find the story again. The good news is that is still looks much like it did in the 40s and will, hopefully, be there for many more generations.

Missourian photographer Fred Lynch and I compared notes one day about how many times we had relied on that fountain for weather wild art.

 

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Old Trinity Lutheran Church Bell

I mentioned that my brother Mark, and I did the best we could to document the old Trinity Lutheran Church before it was torn down. I decided to run the photos over a period of time rather than dumping them all at once. These photos were taken of the bell in the bell tower in August of 1978. (I’ll deal with the clock later.) As always, click on any image to make it larger.

How’d the bell-ringer know when to ring?

He’d listen to the service on the radio shown here on the left.

Black and white was better

This is one of those cases where the photo worked better in black and white. Note how wavy the glass in the mirror is.

Bell striker looked like sledge hammer

The bell had a clapper hanging inside it like you normally see, but it also had something that looked like a sledge hammer that could serve as a striker. I’m sure someone will be able to explain when it was used.

Bell bought in 1866?

You never know who to believe. The bell has a date of 1867 on it. A Sept. 1, 1937, Missourian story quotes Theodore Bock, 84, 214 North Lorimier street, as saying that the bell was bought in 1866.

“Mr. Bock was a lad of 12, and was a pupil at the church’s school when the bell arrived. The church, then known as the Evangelical Lutheran Church, was on William Street, east of Frederick street. The first day the 5-foot bell was up, he recalls, it was rung all day by children and adults. Rev. Riedel was pastor at that time.

“The bell, when moved to the present Trinity Lutheran Church, Mr. Bock says, was placed above the clock. He states he does not know who did the work high in the air when the steeple was built, but said it might have been Mr. Fisher or Mr. Hoer, who were two of the No, 1 carpenters in Cape Girardeau in those days.”

Bell set by Bernard Bremermann

A Sept. 3, 1937 Missourian story said, “…it has been revealed that the late Bernard Bremermann, father of Mrs. Alvine Owens and Mrs. Rose B. Gordon, 324 North Ellis street, Herman Bremermann, 315 Broadway, and John H. Bremermann, 19 North Fountain St., placed the heavy bell high in the steeple where it is now.

Bremermann was a spectator, while those working at the steeple were wondering how to get the heavy bell up so high. Having been a sailor, Mr. Bremermann was schooled in climbing and volunteered to do the job. Mrs. Owens recalled that she was a child in grade school when her father came home telling of the incident. Mr. Bremermann was a merchant on Broadway. He had left home when he was 16 years old to go on a sailing vessel and had been a pilot on the Gulf of Mexico for years before coming here.”

Moved to new church

I wasn’t there to capture the setting of the bell at the new Trinity Lutheran Church like I was when the First Presbyterian Church bell was hung in 1965, but another Missourian photographer was.

The caption said “Lee Underwood and Ed Meinz of the Walter Brockmiller Construction Co., carefully lower a girder that will be attached to the crown of the Trinity Lutheran Church bell, which was hoisted Thursday into the tower of the church under construction at Themis and Frederick. Underwood and Meinz are standing in the tower shortly after the bell, part of the original Trinity Lutheran Church, was lowered into the tower by a crane.”

(Actually, The Missourian said it was lowered by a “crain” in the June 19, 1981, cutline. I guess that reporter hadn’t been around many construction jobs.)

Gallery of bell photos

Click on any photo to make it larger, then click on the left or right side of the image to move through the gallery.

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Sportsman’s Club 39 N. Water St.

I shot the doorway to the Sportsman’s Club at 39 North Water Street when I was going through one of my periodic “peeling paint” phases. I didn’t know anything about the Sportsman’s Club, I just thought it was neat. It was probably shot around 1966.

Sportsman’s Club in 2009?

When I went walking down Water Street in 2009, I carried a copy of the photo with me to see if I could shoot a before and after picture. I thought it looked like it had become the back entrance to Port Cape. The door post at the right looks the same, only in better condition; there are two courses of brick on the left side of the door and an open space with a foundation stone sticking out.

39 North Water St. collapsed in 1968

I was surprised to run across an October 16, 1968, Missourian story that said the front part of the building at 39 North Water Street had collapsed. Workers for Gerhardt Construction said the two-story brick structure apparently caved in from the roof because of its old age.

How could something collapse in 1968, but still be around in 2009? This aerial photo of that block, taken before 1968, shows the three-story building that became Port Cape on the right. To its left, next to the parking lot that looks like a missing tooth, is a two-story building with three windows. Sandwiched in the middle is a two-story building with five windows.

It sounds like the 39 Water Street building collapsed from the middle in, spilling some bricks into the street, but leaving at least the front wall partially intact. It must have been rebuilt as a one-story building.

Problems with “Negro” Sunday night dances

Harold Abernathy, Oscar Abernathy, Charles Wilson, Harry Lee and Maso Meacham, representing the Sportsman’s Club, 39 North Water, an organization seeking to help Negro teen-age youngsters, called on the city council, The Missourian reported Dec. 9, 1958, using distinctions that signal how segregated the city was going into the 60s.

A Sunday night dance sponsored by the group was halted when there was a complaint. The council explained that city ordinance prohibits public dances on Sunday. If the organization was private, the said, did not sell tickets and held a party as a private organization, that was another matter.

The visitors said it was a private group designed to raise funds to provide recreation for teen-age Negro youths. Programs for the youths are held on Friday nights during the school year and on Tuesday and Friday in the summer, they said.

Caught fire in 1939

Cape’s downtown was threatened by fire when three business buildings caught fire, The Missourian reported Feb. 27, 1939. The blaze started on the second floor and involved the Co-op drug store, Fred Bark’s cafe, the Louis Suedekum cafe and beer parlor and a rooming house entrance on the Main Street side. On the Water Street side, were the Charles Young and Ben Edwards Negro cafes.

The paper said the fire apparently started on one of the Young Negro rooming houses, how or exactly where hadn’t been determined at the time of the writing.

Mr. and Mrs. Barks, who lived above their cafe, were momentarily trapped there. Mr. Barks, who hadn’t been feeling well, was in bed. Mrs. Barks rushed upstairs, using a rear stairway, then on fire, to call him. This was the only exit, and it was shut off by fire and smoke before they could escape. Firemen had to place a ladder on the front of the building to get them to safety.

The third floor of the Young building was mostly gutted and some damage was done to the second floor. Since the aerial shows that it was only two stories in the middle 60s, I’m guessing that the building lost its third story during its repair.

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