Built for protection

It was built because a core group of downtown landowners wanted to safeguard their property. Today, people have decorated it with art.

Cape Girardeau's floodwall has protected the city from the Mississippi River for the past 40 years, but it was an idea in progress for nearly twice that amount of time.

Cape Girardeau residents first began talking seriously about the need for flood protection in 1927. After years of meetings and discussions, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers offered in 1943 to build a 7,210-foot flood protection system that included earthen levees and a 4,000-foot-long concrete wall.

Although there were discussions and meetings following the Corps' offer, it took the flood of 1951 to spur more action. There were more discussions and meetings, then construction began in 1956 on the first of two phases of the wall. The first phase was finished in 1958 and protected most of the downtown area. Construction on the second phase began in 1963, ran north to Sloan's Creek and was finished in 1964.

The entire project cost more than $4 million -- $27.84 million in today's dollars. The Corps of Engineers and downtown property owners and merchants paid for the project. News accounts at the time said the property owners contributed about a half-million dollars toward the cost.

The wall is designed to hold back a flood of 54 feet. The most recent record flood in 1993 reached 46.5 feet.

More secure

Downtown merchants today feel much more secure than business owners did 50 years ago before the wall was built. Previously they often moved their merchandise to the second floor of their buildings during high water. During the flood of 1951, johnboats navigated Main and Water streets. Businesses set up temporary boardwalks so their customers could get to them.

In a news account from Oct. 22, 1989, Glenn Hutson of Hutson's Furniture recalled how customers would take advantage of a flood's effect on business.

"They would come in when water was three feet deep in the street," said Hutson. "People would wait for a flood sale. ... When the water level would get up to 38 1/2 feet, people would be in the next morning."

In the same news article, R.E.L. Lamkin Jr., who operated the clothing store Buckner-Ragsdale at Broadway and Water Street, described how merchants felt about the flood protection the wall provides.

"We went down and gave the sea wall a pat on the back each spring," he said.

Not everyone loved the floodwall. The Southeast Missourian did not endorse the plan to build it. Some citizens thought the wall would ruin the city's image. Others supported flood control and preferred a levee, but they didn't want a floodwall to block their view of the river.

On Dec. 4,1957, L.R. Cain and Benjamin Dietrich filed a suit to stop construction of the wall. Cain and Dietrich stated that the city would lose a major tourist attraction if a wall were to block the view of the river. Cain and Dietrich also contended that "wind from the Mississippi and the East would be shut off, thereby imprisoning repugnant and offensive odors and creating a health menace."

They also claimed the location, size and height of the wall were "unreasonable and arbitrary."

The case was dismissed April 18, 1958, a day after the Corps of Engineers agreed to include a flood gate at Themis Street, the second gate in the wall for the downtown area.

Subdued celebration

The 1964 dedication of the floodwall was a subdued celebration, according to a Southeast Missourian article, because of the opposition to the wall. Col. James Meanor of the Corps of Engineers said in a 1993 article that "...there had been such acrimony that had ridden along with it that having such a show of celebration was not an appropriate thing to do."

The Mississippi flooded again in 1973, cresting at 45.6 feet, just slightly less than the next record flood 20 years later when it reached 46.5 feet. During the 1993 flood, John and Evelyn Boardman hung a sign on the clock at Main and Themis streets stating, "We love our floodwall."

A surveyor working downtown during that time used his expertise to estimate how far water would have reached in 1973 and 1993 had the wall not kept it back. Without the wall, he said, water cresting at 49 feet would cover about four feet at the base of the clock. At Main and Independence streets, the depth would increase to as much as 10 or 11 feet. On Main Street, between the clock and Independence Street, the water would have been about 5 feet high.

Proving its value

As the years passed and the floodwall proved its value, some residents began looking at it anew. In 1990 the River Heritage Mural Association began to see it as a blank canvas for artists, said Tim Blattner, president of the association. The association sought and received permission from the Army Corps of Engineers to paint a mural on the floodwall.

The first project the association sponsored was the "Welcome to Cape" mural on the river side of the floodwall in 1991. Next the association hired local artist Margaret Randol Dement to design the "Missouri Wall of Fame" mural, which was finished in 1995. It features the faces of famous Missourians and was painted by a sign company. Blattner said that 10-year-old mural will be repainted this summer.

Although not sponsored by the River Heritage Mural Association, a 2003 mural also designed and this time painted by Randol Dement herself, has the blessing of the association, Blattner said. The project, titled "Sunrise Over a New Land: Lewis and Clark in Cape Girardeau 1803," is located on the floodwall behind the Red House Interpretive Center.

'Mississippi River Tales'

The biggest and most significant project on the floodwall was completed just last fall: "Mississippi River Tales," 24 panels depicting the river from prehistoric times to the present. It was designed by Chicago mural artist Thomas Melvin, who headed a team of Chicago and local artists in the actual painting.

Although plenty of blank space still remains on the wall, Blattner said the association has no plans at present to sponsor any more murals.

The only plans for the wall at this point involve repairs the Corps of Engineers may make after concluding an ongoing study, said Tamara Atchley of the Corps of Engineers in St. Louis. Levee districts take care of routine maintenance, but the corps handles the larger repairs that may need attention, Atchley said.

lredeffer@semissourian.com

335-6611, extension 160

Floodwall timeline

* 1927: A swollen Mississippi River crests at 40 feet

* 1927: Talks begin at the Common Pleas Courthouse regarding the need for a floodwall

* 1943: Following another devastating flood, residents and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers meet to discuss levee system and floodwall

* 1944: Flood

* 1947: Flood

* 1951: Flood

* 1955: Corps announces plans for a flood-control project which includes a concrete floodwall

* 1956: Work begins on Phase 1 of the construction

* 1957: Lawsuit filed to halt building the floodwall

* 1958: Phase one finished

* 1958: Lawsuit dismissed when Corps of Engineers agrees to add a second floodgate at Themis Street

* 1963: Work begins on second phase

* 1964: Second phase finished. Floodwall dedicated

* 1973: Flood

* 1990: The wall's first mural, "Welcome to Cape Girardeau," painted on its east side

* 1993: Flood

* 1995: Flood

* 1995: "Missouri Wall of Fame" mural painted

* 2003: Lewis and Clark mural painted

* 2004: "Mississippi River Tales" painted