CAPE GIRARDEAU ARCHITECTURE TELLS A TALE ABOUT ANCESTRAL ROOTS OF EARLY SETTLERS

ARCHITECTURE EVIDENT IN OLD STRUCTURES: Built in 1882, the stately Kellerman house, 6 s. Fountain, above, commands an impressive view of the Mississippi River, Elmwood, pictured at left, is situated along Bloomfield Road. The structure is patterned after a Scottish castle. (SOUTHEAST MISSOURIAN)

HISTORY AT HOME: The Minton House, 444 Washington, is another of Cape Girardeau's oldest homes. It was built in 1846. There are stories that there was a tunnel under the house that led to nearby Old Lorimier Cemetery, but such claims never have been substantiated. Rueseler-Schneider House, 315 N. Middle, pictured below, was purchased about 1900 and was razed in the 1950s. (JUDITH ANN CROW COLLECTION)

Cape Girardeau's past remains alive in its many old buildings, from the castle-like Elmwood mansion to the Glenn House and its Victorian grandeur.

"The building environment here does reflect the cultural heritage of the city," said Patrick Steele, a preservation consultant from Clarksville, Mo., who is familiar with Cape Girardeau's old buildings.

Steele is assisting Cape Girardeau architect John Boardman in the restoration of the Alliance building on Spanish Street.

The downtown structure was built around 1905. The city's first water office was housed there. The building also provided lodging for the influx of people who arrived in Cape Girardeau by train in the early 1900s.

Steele said the structure is "extremely unusual" because it is the only remaining building in Cape Girardeau with a pressed-metal front.

But probably the most unique structure architecturally is Elmwood, the ancestral estate of the Giboney family.

Situated off Bloomfield Road, the 26-room, turreted, brick mansion dominates the site.

Alexander Giboney and his bride, Rebecca Ramsay Giboney, came to this country in the mid-1700s, settling here in 1797 and receiving a Spanish land grant for the property, which now comprises Elmwood.

When they settled here, Giboney found that the lush wooded setting with its huge old elm trees could not make up for his wife's longing for her native Scotland.

The castle-like mansion was intended to remind her of her native Scotland.

Built in stages, Elmwood resembles Dalhousie Castle in Scotland, which had been in the Ramsay family since 1280.

Descendants of the Giboney family still live in the more-than-century-old Cape Girardeau mansion.

Railroad entrepreneur Louis Houck married Mary Hunter Giboney and ended up living at Elmwood. The house has a wooden, carved lion's head mantel, which dates from the St. Louis World's Fair and was purchased by Houck. Heat and plumbing were installed in the home in 1894.

Settled 200 years ago, Cape Girardeau's early buildings were simple, plain structures.

"They (early settlers) apparently were influenced by the architecture of the areas they migrated from," said Boardman, who serves on the city's Historic Preservation Commission. "The buildings were simple, functional buildings."

In the downtown area, stores were generally located on the first floor of buildings, with residences on the second a common practice back in Europe, said Boardman.

Steele said Cape Girardeau was similar to other Mississippi River towns. "Every little river town was similar in nature in this area. They used brick because it was a natural element.

"The first buildings were log and then a combination of log and frame, but (construction with) bricks started fairly early," he said.

Steele said brick buildings were constructed here, beginning in the early 1800s.

Both Boardman and Steele said most of Cape Girardeau's early buildings displayed "vernacular architecture" that were relatively simple in style.

Although Cape Girardeau has considerable German heritage, the buildings took on an American look. "Here, they seemed to have gone to the room layout of most American buildings, with a center hall and rooms to either side," said Steele.

"Then there were the substantial homes," he said.

Cape Girardeau had an architect early in its existence. The architect Edwin Branch Deane designed a number of buildings, including the Reynolds House and the two-story, Victorian-era Glenn House.

The Reynolds House at 623 N. Main was built in 1857 by Joseph Lansmon, based upon plans drawn by Deane.

Lansmon was a brick mason who built many of the early structures, including the Common Pleas Courthouse, built in 1854.

Some 51,000 bricks were used in the Reynolds House.

Perhaps the most well-known of Cape Girardeau's historic buildings the Glenn House at 325 S. Spanish was constructed in 1883 by Deane for his daughter, Lulu, and her husband, David A. Glenn.

The restored house is now operated by the Historical Association of Greater Cape Girardeau.

Steele said it was after 1873 or 1874 before Victorian-style homes were erected in Cape Girardeau.

One of the oldest structures in Cape Girardeau is the Judith Ann Crow home at 323 Themis.

First mention of a house on the Themis Street property was in 1821. Lansmon, the brick mason, may have constructed the home.

The house, which has since been enlarged, was definitely standing in 1845. Revolutionary War veteran Uriah Brock, who came to Cape Girardeau from Virginia, died in the house that year.

Another of Cape Girardeau's oldest homes is the Minton house at 444 Washington.

It was built for the Rev. and Mrs. Adriel Sherwood in 1846 to be used as a private home and as a day school.

The deed to the property dates back to the early 1800s. At that time, the land was part of a farm owned by a fur trader. The land was later sold to Louis Lorimier, Cape Girardeau's founder.

The house served as the Washington Female Academy. The school was closed during the Civil War. During the war, the house was used as a smallpox hospital. The academy reopened after the war.

The eight-room house is named after Frances Minton, a member of a prominent Cape Girardeau family. She lived in the home from 1904 until her death in 1919.

There are stories that there was a tunnel under the house that led to nearby Old Lorimier Cemetery, but such claims never have been substantiated.

Some say the tunnel was used to remove the dead from the house when it was used as a hospital. Others believe it was part of the Underground Railroad that helped escaped slaves.

One of the more unique structures in Cape Girardeau is the Osterloh home, with its French-style, Mansard roof.

Tucked almost under the Mississippi River Bridge, the house perched on a limestone bluff faces the river.

William H. Wheeler built the brick house in 1889, just three years before the family moved to California.

The house was purchased by the Ernest Osterloh family in 1893 at a cost of $3,000. The family sold the house in the fall of 1928.

The house had no fireplaces. Instead, Franklin stoves were used. At one time, there was a widow's walk on top of the roof, from which one could scan the river for approaching vessels.

One of Cape Girardeau's most stately homes is Eastview, which sits adjacent to City Hall, atop a terraced hillside that borders Independence Street.

The white brick structure, with its veranda and columns, is typical of homes built during the Greek Revival period, which peaked in the South and Midwest between the 1850s and the 1870s.

The house was built in 1882 by Maj. George B. Clarke, a Confederate veteran of the Civil War. Clarke was elected state auditor in 1872. He also established a newspaper in Cape Girardeau, the Courier-Democrat, which has long since ceased operations.

Steele, an historic preservation expert, said most of the buildings in Cape Girardeau's downtown were built after the turn of the century. One exception is the Port Cape Girardeau restaurant, which is housed in a Water Street warehouse that was built in 1836.

Other downtown landmarks are St. Vincent's Seminary, which dates back to 1843; and Old St. Vincent's Church, built in 1853.

Another historic structure is the Oliver-Leming House, built in the 1890s. It's one of several Cape Girardeau sites on the National Register of Historic Places.

The placement of the Oliver-Leming home on the national register stems from the fact Missouri's state flag was designed in that house in 1908 through the efforts of Marie Elizabeth Watkins Oliver.

For Steele, Boardman and others, Cape Girardeau's historic buildings continue to offer a solid foundation to the city's past.