Southeast Missouri Hospital Archives

April 11, 2014

Capaha Park Master Plan

Sorry for another Capaha Park story, but I post ’em as I find ’em. We were cutting across from Normal coming back from the university (something that won’t be possible when the all of the new master plan goes into effect), when I spotted dirt being moved on the hill just east of the old swimming pool.

That’s when I remembered seeing a brief in The Missourian about a new pavilion being built there. The March 28, 2014, story mentioned that the ground was being cleared, that the new structure should arrive in April and be installed in May or June.

The buildings in the background are part of Southeast Hospital.

Dinky will stay

A November 9, 2012, story assured residents that “Dinky,” the train that has been a park fixture for about half a century will stay.

Here is a link to the city’s master plan of park “improvements.” I put quotes around “improvements,” because I saw how Bloomfield Road was “improved,” so I’m withholding judgement.

April 10, 2014

Cape’s Hospitals

This is my last in an installment of links to help out Dr. Lily Santoro’s Local Techniques in History class. The students have to research a list of local landmarks. So far, I’ve helped them with

Today we’ll look at Cape’s two major hospitals: Southeast and St. Francis.

St. Francis Hospital

I was born in St. Francis, was treated for pneumonia there when I was a toddler, and had my tonsils yanked there. I’ve been searching like crazy for photos I took inside the place just before it was torn down, but they must have been filed someplace where I “would be sure not to lose them.”

Southeast Hospital

The hospital on the hill overlooking Capaha Park.

Stories I haven’t done

I hate to tell the students who have these topics that I haven’t written anything about them that I can remember.

Post Office, 310 Frederick St.
Wehking Alumni Center
Cape Girardeau Municipal Court
Missouri Park
Crisp Hall
Baptist Student Union

March 22, 2014

SE Hospital at Night

The way hospitals in Cape gobble up everything around them and grow new buildings like dandelions, this November 16, 2011, photo of Southeast Missouri Hospital may be outdated. It must have been chilly enough that nobody is sitting on the Capaha Park Lagoon park bench.

For photo geeks, it was taken with Nikon D40. The lens was zoomed to 32mm and the exposure was 1/2 second at f/4.5. The ISO was 1600. If I shoot it again, I’ll use my Nikon D7000 and see if HDR will give me a wider range of tones.

March 21, 2014

Municipal Band Shell

It won’t be long before the trees on Cherry Hill are blooming and the grass will be turning green around Capaha Park’s Municipal Band Shell.

Fred Lynch’s blog in The Missourian had a Frony photo of a November 11, 1957, Veterans Day memorial service at what was described as “the newly-built bandshell in Capaha Park. What is interesting about Frony’s photo is how tiny Southeast Missouri Hospital looked in the background.

[Style note: The Missourian’s story has it spelled as one word – bandshell – but I see it’s spelled as both one and two words. I’ll go with two, which makes my spellchecker happier.]

It’s been years since I was at a concert at Capaha Park, but here’s what a Jackson’s band concert looked like last summer.

You can click on the photo to make it larger if you’ve forgotten what green grass looks like.