Cape says Broadway house may be spared

A 79-year-old brick house-turned-business may survive the Broadway widening project thanks to efforts by Cape Girardeau city officials to work with the property owner who doesn't want to relocate his ethnic foods business out of the structure.

"We are trying our best to work with him to be able to keep it there," said Martha Brown, a planner with the city's planning services department.

The widening of Broadway, however, would bring the concrete street close to the house at 1304 Broadway. But Brown said property owner Jerel Lichtenegger wants to preserve the building.

"It would take most of the front part of his property, but it would leave the building for him," she said.

An adjacent house to the west has been purchased by the city and will be torn down. City staff initially planned to demolish the Global Trading house, at the corner of Broadway and Park Avenue.

But Brown said that may no longer be necessary. But she said nothing has been finalized. The future of the house is still a part of right-of-way negotiations between city staff and Lichtenegger, Brown said.

The two-story house at 1304 Broadway has housed Global Trading Food Products since 1989. Before then, it was a photography studio. The house once was the home of Cape Girardeau lawyer Al Spradling, the grandfather of former Cape Girardeau mayor Al Spradling III.

Spradling Sr. moved into the house in 1938. Spradling died in 1945, but his grandmother resided there until the early 1960s.

Al Spradling III has fond memories of visiting his grandmother in the home. "It was a real nice house," he recalled.

But he said the house no longer looks the same from the outside. The porch has been enclosed and the small front yard has been paved with concrete.

"It is not historic anymore in my opinion," he said. As a result, Spradling said he isn't championing its preservation.

But Mayor Jay Knudtson said the current property negotiations demonstrate the city staff's willingness to work with property owners.

Knudtson said city officials don't want to unnecessarily take someone's property for a public works project.

"We are willing to take the extra time to exhaust those alternatives," he said.

City officials, however, aren't looking to save the house because of its history.

But James Haman of Cape Girardeau, who resided in the house and operated a photography studio there in the 1970s and 1980s, believes the building is worth preserving.

The house was built by a local physician, J. Riddle, in 1926. Haman said Riddle reportedly sent back one load of lumber for the house after finding some knots in the boards.

"The woodwork in the living room and dining room is just superb," Haman said.

The structure isn't a local landmark, but it's old enough to qualify for consideration. Buildings must be at least 50 years old to be designated local landmarks, city officials said.

No one is talking about making it a local landmark.

But Haman said he hopes the house will continue to stand.

"It would be a shame to tear it down really," he said. "It is a nice old building."

mbliss@semissourian.com

335-6611, extension 123