BLAZE DESTORYS COLLEGE LANDMARK

A disastrous fire on the night of April 7, 1902, changed the Southeast Missouri State University landscape forever.

The fire of undetermined origin destroyed the ornate normal school building, erected in 1875. The building was the college at the time, housing all the offices and classrooms of the Third District Normal School.

The most famous description of the building was penned by Mark Twain. "There was another college high up on an airy summit -- a bright new edifice, picturesquely and peculiarly towered and pinnacled -- a sort of gigantic casters, with the cruets all complete."

Construction had just begun on a new academic building, Science Hall, when the fire swept through the Normal School building.

By the time the alarm was sounded about 15 minutes before midnight on April 7, flames were coming through the main roof and the community's antiquated firefighting equipment could not save the structure.

Hundreds of people came to the hill or watched from their windows as fire gutted the brick building.

Despite the fire, the school continued to operate.

Classes were moved to the Common Pleas Courthouse, churches and other buildings in town for a time.

By January 1903, classes were moved into the new Science Hall. By the fall of 1903, the small college comprised two classroom buildings.

To replace the Normal building, a new stately structure -- Academic Hall -- was erected. On Dec. 2, 1905, the building was opened to the public. According to newspaper accounts, at least 5,000 people walked through the building.

The city had graded and put gravel on Pacific Street and electric street cars made it fairly easy to reach the campus.

Today, Academic Hall remains the centerpiece of the Southeast Missouri State campus and one of Cape Girardeau's most visible landmarks.