Broadway trolley gone, remnants remain

From 1893 through 1934, trolley cars provided transportation through Cape Girardeau. Here a passenger prepares to board an electric street car at the corner of Broadway and Main. The Boston Grocery Store and Boston Rooming House were at the northwest corner. The building burned and was razed in 1934. That same year, Missouri Utilities Co. discontinued its streetcar operation in the city. (Southeast Missourian archive)

The book, When Missouri Took the Trolley, by Andrew D. Young, details the route of the trolley in Cape Girardeau:

International Shoe on North Main south to Broadway, west on Broadway, north on Henderson, west on Normal, south on West End Blvd., east on William, south a block on Pacific, east on Good Hope, north on Spanish, east on Independence a block to Main, north on Main to Broadway. Two blocks were added on Spanish south from Broadway to Independence, then a block east to Main, avoiding Broadway hill.

Out of the Past, Southeast Missourian:

Feb. 1, 1907

The Boston Grocery Store on Broadway now looks like a metropolitan house; since being renovated and repapered, the store has taken on the appearance of a new concern; I.E. Burroughs is the new proprietor of the grocery.

Feb. 20, 1913

Teichmann & Winningham, proprietors of the Boston Grocery, located at the northwest corner of Main Street and Broadway, have leased the room occupied for many years by a harness shop on the opposite side of the street; as soon as extensive improvements are made, the grocery will move there; it is rumored that the Boston was ordered out to make room for a saloon.

March 2, 1914

Dr. R.P. Dalton, the well-known physician with offices in the Houck Building on Main Street, will open a fine new drugstore soon in the Rodney Whitelaw building, on the corner of Broadway and Main Street, that was recently vacated by the Boston grocery store.

Nov. 22, 1934

Workers are razing another Cape Girardeau landmark; the old, two-story brick building at the northwest corner of Broadway and Main Street is being removed; the building is familiarly known as the old Boston Rooming House and store; it has been in the Rodney family 130 years.

Dec. 3, 1934

Nothing but a small pile of bricks remains of the old Boston Rooming House building at the northwest corner of Broadway and Main Street; other small buildings at that location are also being torn down in preparation for grading the site and constructing a large super-service station for the Sinclair Oil Co.

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Nov. 23, 1934 Southeast Missourian (excerpt)

Razing of Downtown Building Takes Another City Landmark

Another landmark in Cape Girardeau's history was fading today as workmen began razing the old two-story brick building at the northwest corner of the Broadway-Main street intersection, to make room for a modern improvement. The building is familiarly known by Girardeans as the old Boston Rooming House and store, which two businesses probably occupied it the longest.

...the site it occupies, according to an abstract, has been in the Rodney family exactly 130 years. It was sold to Thomas S. Rodney in 1804.

...The abstract, it was pointed out by Mayor Edward L. Drum, who handled negotiations whereby the site was leased to the Sinclair Oil Co., shows that Rodney bought the site from Wm. Lowry for 300 gallons of "merchantable whisky," and received payment in full. Lowry is thought to have acquired it from Don Louis Lorimier, the city's founder.

...At the time the building was all but destroyed by fire on Feb. 9 of this year [1934], the rooming house was still in operation on a small scale.The business on the first floor housed the Cauble fruit store.

I intended to take pictures of an old rail being removed from the street at Broadway and Main as part of the Broadway corridor project. Alas, a crew with Fronabarger Concreters worked much faster than I expected. As I arrived the old dirty beam was being loaded into a truck. I did shoot these photos at f/8 when I got there. Old rail ties still remained from the trolley days. I got to keep an old rail spike for being there.

UPDATE:

On May 4, a trolley rail emerged at the Lorimier intersection.

In this previous blog, Frony shot pictures of Broadway torn up in 1956.

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