- Writing parking tickets with a friendly smile (4/23/24)2
- Mayor Ford, Kiwanis light up Capaha Park's diamond (4/16/24)1
- The rise and fall of Capaha Park's wooden grandstand (4/9/24)
- Death of Judge Pat Dyer, prosecutor of the famous peonage case here in 1906 (4/2/24)2
- A third steamer Cape Girardeau was christened 100 years ago (3/26/24)
- Cape Girardeau christens its namesake (3/19/24)
- The humanist philosophy of Lester Mondale (3/12/24)1
A second castle in Cape Girardeau
Much has been written about the castle on Bloomfield Road: Elmwood. But did you know there once was a "castle" in downtown Cape Girardeau?
It takes a bit of squinting and a lot of imagination, but the Adolph List house near the northeast corner of Broadway and Lorimier Street is described in old Missourian articles as "modeled after a castle on the Rhine." Dr. List built the impressive brick dwelling in 1888 and it stood until November 1937, seven months after the death of the dentist's wife.
Here are a few items I found about the house and about Dr. and Mrs. List from the files of Southeast Missourian.
Published in the Missourian June 12, 1919:
Published in the Missourian April 5, 1937:
Apparently, it took some time for the house site to be cleaned up after the demolition in 1937. Missourian records show that the last of the bricks from that dwelling weren't removed until March 1946. They were hauled away by D & G Builders Supplies, Highway 61. The story concludes, the bricks "were purchased earlier in the year from the owner, O.A. Knehans. Burton Gerhardt, a member of the new retail builders supply firm, is using the brick as backing in walls of a dwelling he is erecting for himself on Perry Avenue."
The final structure connected to the List property was a brick barn that was located behind the house. A May 2, 1947, Missourian article told of its razing: "Using a powered excavating machine, the Stovall Brothers Construction Co. attached a cable through windows of the brick building on the rear of the old List property, Broadway and Lorimier street, and pulled the structure apart, one wall at a time. Then, after the roof had been dismantled, the excavating machine lifted the rubble of bricks aboard a truck which hauled them away... The List property was purchased this week by Charles N. Harris from Judge O.A. Knehans."
Published May 3, 1947:
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