Fred Lynch retired in 2018 after capturing images for the Southeast Missourian since 1975, in that time moving from black-and-white to color, from film to digital and to video. The blog title is a nod to an earlier era of news photography and the 4x5 Speed Graphic: It's more important to be there for the shot than to worry about technical details.

International Shoe Co. aerial

Posted Monday, August 19, 2013, at 12:00 AM

The five-story shoe factory building on North Main Street in Cape Girardeau was built in 1907 for the Roberts, Johnson and Rand Shoe Co. It was later the International Shoe Co. In 1935, International was making about 12 million pairs of shoes a year with a peak workforce of 1600. The factory was later owned by Florsheim Shoe Co. The building was abandoned in 1984 and demolished in 1990. (G.D. Fronabarger photo)

Previous blog:

Shoe factory parking

Comments

View 2 comments or respond

Community discussion is important, and we encourage you to participate as a reader and commenter. Click here to see our Guidelines. We also encourage registered users to let us know if they see something inappropriate on our site. You can do that by clicking "Report Comment" below.

Here are other photos of the shoe factory from the air and ground, including aerials of the land clearing for the casino.

http://www.capecentralhigh.com/cape-photos/cape-downtown/shoe-factory-to-cape-ca...

http://www.capecentralhigh.com/cape-photos/cape-downtown/shoe-factory-neighborho...

-- Posted by ksteinhoff on Mon, Aug 19, 2013, at 3:05 AM
Unlike Cape's current three largest employers, SEMO, Southeast & St. Francis, the shoe factory paid property taxes.

-- Posted by semowasp on Mon, Aug 19, 2013, at 1:06 PM

Respond to this blog

Posting a comment requires a subscription.