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From the Morgue
Sharon Sanders

Industrial Supplement, Part 8: The smelter and the boulevard

Posted Thursday, September 5, 2013, at 12:00 AM

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  • Ms Sanders; Have found your Industrial Supplement Blog very interesting. Was wondering if you know or have access to the history of the Cape Rock? Have heard several versions of story on how it came to be up on the hill, but have never known the true story. Would love to hear it.

    -- Posted by mmmary8 on Thu, Sep 5, 2013, at 11:19 AM
  • I covered the history of Cape Rock in a previous blog. Here's the link: http://www.semissourian.com/blogs/fromthemorgue/entry/45698

    -- Posted by GenealogyBuff on Thu, Sep 5, 2013, at 11:46 AM
  • Sharon,

    You don't mention it, but is today's West End Boulevard part of the original plan? Perhaps the only section completed? I don't know the dimensions of West End, but, as you know, at the turn of the 20th century, today's West End was at city's edge and did have street car tracks running down it. And the median (with trees) in the center of the second illustration looks something like the street as it exists today. I wonder what happened to the rest of the loop?

    -- Posted by criticaldiscerner on Fri, Sep 6, 2013, at 5:11 PM
  • criticaldiscerner:

    A 1905 newspaper story seems to indicate that West End Boulevard was part of the plan. It refers to Judge B.F. Davis circulating a petition asking the Cape Girardeau City Council to consider building a 100-foot boulevard around the city. According to the story, the boulevard would begin at the river one block north of North Street, then proceed west through Missouri Park, around Old Lorimier Cemetery to Washington Street or Normal Avenue, running through the Normal School (Southeast Missouri State University) campus to Capaha Park. It would then turn south to "near the southern limits" of the city, and then east to the river.

    The Cape Girardeau Chamber of Commerce took up the effort and a survey was even done of the route. Workers began acquiring rights-of-way for the loop, but I suspect there were difficulties obtaining those rights, and eventually the effort faded away.

    Thanks for reading,

    Sharon Sanders

    -- Posted by GenealogyBuff on Mon, Sep 9, 2013, at 8:20 AM
  • Sharon, always enjoy your columns. I even enjoyed criticaldiscerner's comments on the City Blvd. ring. I guess that it would have turned at Cousin St., would have been on Southern side of town, or maybe Jefferson St.

    -- Posted by Jim Blakemore on Wed, Mar 22, 2023, at 11:12 AM