Louis Lorimier Archives

April 7, 2014April 7, 2014

Preservation Homework: Parks and Buildings

This is a continuation of the links I’m posting to help students in a SEMO Historical Preservation class. They’ve been given a list of Cape landmarks to research. It turns out I’ve written about most of them, so I’m going to give them a some background information about some of the parks and random buildings they’re looking for. I posted churches and cemeteries yesterday.

I’m doing a presentation to the class on April 8 where I will tell the students what I do and why I do it. After that, I’ll talk about how I do it. I hope I can get across there is no better way to find out things than to knock on doors and talk with people like I’m doing with The Last Generation project. I won’t swear that I get all the facts right, but you readers do a good job of setting me straight when I’ve miss the mark.

Cape Rock Overlook Park

Old Bridge Overlook Park

Cape Girardeau City Hall

Indian Park

Louis Lorimier and his Indian cohorts, battling the Americans, captured Daniel Boone.

Houck Field House

KFVS TV Studio/Tower on Broadway

This story has lots of links about KFVS

Fort D Park

Cape Girardeau Regional Airport

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 9, 2013August 9, 2013

Deer, Dear, We Had Fun

We were still celebrating the impromptu Mother Birthday Season on Thursday.

I know now why people have kids when they are young and not old. Two-year-old Graham loves going up and down Great-Gran’s basement stairs. Over and over and over again. Babies and toddlers wake up early, loudly and frequently. I’m in the basement, so I catch the THUMP! THUMP! THUMP! of little feet, but mostly miss out on the crying from Graham and Baby Elliot. I’m also far enough away that I don’t hear Matt snoring or Sarah poking him to make him stop snoring.

We Steinhoffs like to eat, so we loaded into two cars and headed up to the Pie Bird Cafe in Fruitland. Good home-cooking at a reasonable price.

After breakfast, Adam, Carly and their two boys headed in one direction and Matt, Sarah, Malcolm, Mother and I headed north into Perry County. Just about the time we got to the Altenburg Museum, the skies opened up, so we spent more time there than anticipated.

Steinhoff name shows up on 1901 plat map

Gerard Fiehler showed us a new acquisition: someone had donated a huge framed Cape County plat map from 1901 or thereabouts. It was full of names you’ve heard: Houck, Juden, Alt, Lorimier…. Then, down near where our property in Dutchtown is today, there is a plot marked W Steinhoff. Mother said the deed listed the property having been in the Steinhoff name long before we bought it, but this proves it.

Malcolm got to pull the rope that rings what used to be the church bell in the original Altenburg church that became a school and is now part of the Lutheran Heritage Center and Museum. We drove down to show Malcolm Tower Rock, but it was raining too hard to get out.

Largest herd of deer I’ve seen

We took Rt CC, which led us over the ridges that I’ve written about before. We popped out near Proctor and Gamble where we spotted the largest herd of deer I’ve seen in SE Missouri. There had to have been at least a dozen of them. Matt stuck his head up through the car’s moon roof to shoot this with my telephoto.

It’s worth clicking on to make larger.

Lost interest quickly

It didn’t take them long to lose interest in us and go bounding away, white tails flashing.

Foggy at the lookout

Malcolm was small the last time he was at the Trail of Tears lookout. The rain had just let up when we got there, but the sky was still gray and hazy. We could barely see across the river.

Are we in the clouds?

As you can see, it was just as foggy behind us. Malcolm wanted to know if we were in the clouds. We said we were, but it’s not like when you are in an airplane.

Both boys wanted to meet different friends and family members, so they took off. I headed out for dinner, then stopped to chat with Altenburg museum director Carla Jordan and her husband, Doc.

Dad would have approved

When I got home, I could hear laughing and carrying on as soon as I pulled in the driveway. Everybody was gathered around the table snacking and drinking wine. It was voted the best part of the Early Birthday Season.

Dad died August 7, 1977. It was a great to hear laughter around the kitchen table on this week. Dad would have approved. In fact, I’m pretty sure he was there sharing the moment with us.

Elvis, who died on August 17, did not make an appearance. We didn’t care.

[Editor’s note and update: I got my Elvis dates mixed up in my original post. We flew out of Memphis the day after Elvis died. I picked up copies of the local papers at the airport, then took them back to show the photo staff how poorly the Memphis media covered the story. After we critiqued their work, I pitched the papers. I don’t like to think how much those papers are worth today.]

February 18, 2013December 1, 2015

Mistletoe, Lewis & Clark

Friend Jan would have fit right in with Lewis and Clark. While she was here, we took a run over to Thebes and Cairo. Along the way, she started spotting huge clusters of mistletoe. I noted that she did NOT suggest we get in close proximity to it, particularly in regards to standing underneath it.

Her keen eyes put her in good stead with Lewis and Clark, who noted in their journal that on November 20, 1803, they were near the confluence of the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers. “They left from mooring on the Ohio side. They went seven miles, and noted much mistletoe hanging from trees. Lewis noted they had seen even more along the Ohio, increasing toward the mouth of the Ohio.”

Louis Lorimier had a bad day at the track

Nov. 23 – Stopped at Cape Girardeau to see Commandant Louis Lorimier. He found Lorimier at the racetrack. The race was just over and Lorimier was busy for some time settling disputes about the bets. Lorimier lost four horses on the race, worth $200.

Actual money was scarce. Main trading was done using such as horses, worth $50-200, cattle $8-10, cotton $100/ton, lead $80/ton. The settlement had begun eight years earlier and now had more than 1,000 people. Lorimier’s district went from the Grand Bend of the Mississippi north of the confluence, to Apple Creek which forms the north boundary of Cape Girardeau county, and 60 miles westward to the St. Francois River.

Cape people “sober, temperate, laborious and honest”

Nov. 24 – Left Cape Girardeau at 7 a.m. A crewman who had left to go hunting two days earlier hailed them from the other shore and they picked him up. He was much fatigued with wandering, and somewhat indisposed.

“People of Cape Girardeau have uniform character of sober, temperate, laborious and honest. Have erected two grist mills and a saw mill.”