Common Pleas Archives

March 23, 2011April 22, 2021

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.

December 16, 2010January 7, 2012

1989 Idan-Ha Hotel Fire

I happened to be in Cape on vacation July 7, 1989, when I heard about a fire at Broadway and Fountain. I was about 1,100 miles out of my jurisdiction, but nobody hassled me when I started taking pictures of firefighters fighting a fire at what was left of the old Idan-Ha Hotel.

Investigators determined that a tenant on the second floor left her room without realizing that she had left a pot cooking on an electric stove. She heard her smoke alarm going off, ran back into the apartment and found it engulfed in flames. She left the door open, which allowed it to spread to the rest of the building.

The Missourian gave the story extensive play in the July 9, 1989, edition. Missourian photographer Mark Sterkel showed up while I was there, so I was robbed of a chance to get another photo in the paper.

Some residents jumped from windows

About half of the 40 to 45 residents were home when the fire broke out. Several of them jumped out windows and off fire escapes to escape the blaze. The building’s concrete floors and brick walls slowed the spread of the fire upward, but it also trapped the heat, which made the fire difficult to fight.

First priority was rescue

The first call came in at 5:31 p.m.; it went to a second alarm four minutes later. When firefighters arrived, they saw a woman sitting with both legs out a second floor window, “not far from jumping or being overcome by smoke” Assistant Fire Chief Jim Niswonger said. Once she and other residents were evacuated, attention turned to fighting the fire.

A heavy stream of water from the aerial platform ladder truck’s deluge knocked the main blaze down pretty quickly. Two firefighters had minor injuries.

Part of hotel burned in 1968

This 1964 aerial shows the Idan-Ha Hotel before a 1968 fire destroyed the northeast portion of the building. The Common Pleas Courthouse is at the bottom; The Southeast Missourian is in the middle; the Idan-Ha is at the top left, across the street from the H & H Building and the Marquette Hotel. The KFVS TV building hadn’t been constructed yet. I think the tall, light-colored building at the corner of Broadway and Fountain was the Post Office at that time.

Here is a link to The Missourian’s story about the June 29, 1968, fire which destroyed the main section of the hotel, Milady’s Shop, the Rainbow Coffee Shop. Six other nearby businesses were also damaged.

Fire resources stretched thin

While crews from three of the Cape’s four stations were fighting the fire, three other minor fires were reported in the city. Fortunately, they were small enough to be handled without calling in mutual aid from Scott City or Jackson.

Photos of Broadway and Fountain

You can see additional photos of the intersection of Broadway and Fountain, including the Idan-Ha Hotel as it looked in 1966 and the present day.

December 4, 2010December 4, 2011

1965 Live Nativity Scene

Close to 2,000 people a day stopped by the live Nativity scene on the steps leading to the Common Pleas Courthouse in 1965. The exhibit proved so popular that the run was extended past the expected Christmas Eve closing date.

Gregory Williams overcame his initial fears to become friends with the display’s donkey.

Not sure about the animals

His sister, Ellen, wasn’t quite sure she was comfortable with the animals. She decided the fence was less likely to bite. Gregory and Ellen are the children of Mr. and Mrs. Robert Williams, 2412 Brookwood.

A sheepish encounter

Linda and Roger Ziegler found out that the sheep would eat from the hands. Linda said the sheep were “cute.” Another child noted that the donkey is “bigger” than the donkeys on television. They are the children of Mr. and Mrs. August Ziegler, 323 S. Middle

Boys wanted to stay overnight

A night watchmen found six boys in the exhibit one night. They weren’t there to cause mischief, he said. They just wanted to spend the night with the animals, they told him.

In case you’re wondering, no, I don’t have a great memory for names. I happened to run across the Dec. 24, 1965, Youth Page where these photos ran originally.

March 25, 2010October 28, 2011

Nighttime Old Town Cape from the Common Pleas Courthouse

I have a favorite night shot of the Common Pleas Courthouse and Port Cape Girardeau taken from the Themis St. floodgate looking west, so I thought I’d see what it looked like from the other side.

This is shooting down the courthouse hill looking east down Themis St. The floodgate at the end of the street is closed because the Mississippi River is at about 36 feet.

Loose shot or tight shot?

I couldn’t decide whether or not I liked it as a wideangle or a slightly tighter photo. Electrons are cheap, so you get both.

There are some tiny smudges in the tight shot in the middle of the sky. You can calls them puffs of smoke if you like, but I think they are specular highlights from the street lights bouncing around between the lens elements. What the heck, let’s go back to calling them puffs of smoke. That sounds more interesting.

Bill Emerson Memorial Bridge from the Courthouse

While putzing around trying to get this shot composed, (for the record, I don’t care much for it) a young woman materialized from the shadows. We exchanged some pleasantries and she disappeared. There was an elderly gentleman sitting on a park bench nearby and he said, “Do you reckon we scared her off?”

Shana Gemoules, stairclimber supreme

About five minutes later, she showed up again.

“Did you just run up those courthouse stairs? Twice? On purpose?”

“Yes. It was three times.Yes. I’m training for a triathlon in Florida in April.”

When she disappeared down the hill again, the man on the park bench said, “Tell her there are 55 steps, not counting the landings.”

When she got back to the top, she was barely breathing hard and her heart rate was in the low 170s (resting is usually 52 BPM, she said.) A stint of working in a downtown restaurant where she had to hump meals up three floors prepared her for running up and down the courthouse steps, she said.

Getting ready to go car-free

Shana, who grew up in Perryville, graduated from Southeast Missouri State University and has worked at a variety of local resturaunts. She’s at Imo’s Pizza now, a place she rates highly for its employee-friendly management and good food.

Right now, she’s working to get debt-free and to sell her car to cut expenses. Cape is small enough that she feels like she can get around on foot or or her bike. Her boyfriend lives in a house with three other guys. The four of them make do with one car for those times when they go a long distance or need to carry something bulky.

When she finished her fifth climb up the hill, she said she was going to call it a night. All of the talk about food and restaurants had made her hungry.

I waited until she had run out of sight before I headed to my car. I wasn’t going to insult her or embarrass me by offering her a ride.