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.

Buildings bite the dust

Posted Wednesday, February 9, 2011, at 7:30 AM

Southeast Missourian Oct. 8, 1960

Buildings long identified with the business life of Cape Girardeau are falling before wrecking crews as work progresses on a spacious parking lot at the corner of Broadway and Main. Ruins at the right are of the building occupied by the Hutson store, while the lone one remaining is the former structure owned by the Eakers family, and housing a tavern on the ground floor. In days of the saloons, it housed the Palace Bar.

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I thought it was a current photo of Cairo, IL

-- Posted by FloridaMom on Wed, Feb 9, 2011, at 8:33 AM
It cant be Cairo. NO FIRE!

-- Posted by racer3694 on Wed, Feb 9, 2011, at 9:49 AM
Wow...even in 1960 "progress" meant more parking lots...

-- Posted by ol'homeboy on Wed, Feb 9, 2011, at 10:28 AM
I dig the car fins on the right side.

-- Posted by Kllrfsh on Wed, Feb 9, 2011, at 11:34 AM
As seen in this and other photos on this blog, the Downtown Merchants Association responded to the challenge of the Town Plaza by implementing an urban renewal of its own. Projects included: the destruction of the buildings above, razing of the St. Charles Hotel, leveling of the Frisco passenger station, erection of the flood wall, construction of a new retail building where the hotel had stood, new parking lots at either end of Main Street, and the construction of a new building for Motor Vehicle office.

If memory serves, no tax money was used for any of it.

-- Posted by semowasp on Wed, Feb 9, 2011, at 5:27 PM
a few more need to be torn down to open up the area like they did in ST Charles with selective demolition.

-- Posted by insider63785 on Thu, Feb 10, 2011, at 7:28 AM
Who is there to pay for that now?

-- Posted by semowasp on Thu, Feb 10, 2011, at 1:25 PM
Here's a shot of the old St. Charles Hotel (Gen. Grant slept here) and the Sterling store that replaced it.

http://www.capecentralhigh.com/cape-photos/cape-downtown/st-charles-hotel-genera...

-- Posted by ksteinhoff on Thu, Feb 10, 2011, at 9:07 PM

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