CITY HOTELS RECALL GRANDEUR, BEAUTY OF CAPE'S HISTORY; ST. CHARLES AND MARQUETTE WERE FINEST IN THE REGION

MARQUETTE HOTEL: The Marquette Hotel was opened Nov. 17, 1928 and it was one of the most elegant hotels in the region. The hotel was shut down by the Missouri Department of Health in July of 1971 for safety reasons. Since that time, it has been vacant. The building remains standing today. (JUDITH ANN CROW COLLECTION)

ST. CHARLES HOTEL: The St. Charles Hotel was constructed between 1838 and 1844 at the southwest corner of Main and Themis Streets. It was long considered one of the finest hotels in the city. The hotel fell into disrepair, and was finally torn down in 1967. (SOUTHEAST MISSOURIAN)

As the major trade center between St. Louis and Memphis, Tenn., Cape Girardeau has a rich and diverse hi story.

One of the best measures of that history is found in the various, elegant hostelries that have been situated here since the mid-19th century.

Two of the city's most prominent and earliest hotels were the St. Charles and the Riverview.

The St. Charles, constructed between 1838 and 1844 at the southwest corner of Main and Themis Streets, was long considered one of the finest hotels in the city.

But Cape Girardeau also was home of the first tavern-hotel in Missouri, which was built in 1806.

William Ogle, who, realizing the need for a place for people to meet and be entertained, and a place of shelter for travelers to sleep, erected a double cabin of logs in the early spring of 1806. It was near the river, where Themis and Main streets now intersect.

It cost Ogle $20 in store goods and a bonus of six dinners for obtaining the logs to build the building. The building had an upper story where travelers could sleep. There were two large stone chimneys at either end of the building and a long covered porch across the entire front, where two entrance doors opened, one into the Ogle home, the other into the hotel.

Although popular, Ogle's Hotel lasted only three months. The proprietor was killed in a duel by Joseph McFerron, the clerk of the court who had signed the license for Ogle to keep the hotel. The license had been granted by Christopher Hays, first justice of the court.

Ogle reportedly was hot-headed and took exception to McFerron's remark about a "too friendly preacher with some of the parishioners in the town, including his (Ogle's) wife."

After the Ogle Hotel closed, Charles G. Ellis opened a hotel in about 1810 on the northwest corner of what is now Broadway and Lorimier.

But the St. Charles became Cape Girardeau's most notable early hotels. One of the earliest operators of the hotel which was designed by Joseph Lansmon, who also was the architect for the Common Pleas Courthouse and St. Mary's Cathedral was Zalma Block.

Block came to Cape Girardeau from New Orleans some time after 1852, and he apparently first operated the New Johnson House. That establishment situated on Water Street, about a block north of Broadway later was renamed Marble City Hotel and, later still, the Riverview Hotel.

During the Civil War, the Riverview was used by federal soldiers as a hospital and officers' quarters.

Several years after the war, Block assumed control of the St. Charles. With the aid of his wife, the former Matilda Rodney, he ran the hostelry until his retirement Feb. 8, 1886.

The St. Charles was the leading hotel in Cape Girardeau and the center of social activity.

"The St. Charles corner was one of the busiest places in town," Lee L. Albert, who has written of Cape Girardeau history, recalls.

Gen. U.S. Grant, then commanding the western armies of the Union, was the honored guest of a ball at the hotel in July or August of 1862.

When Mark Twain was a riverboat pilot, he made stops at the St. Charles, history reports, and Charles Dickens was said to have spent a night at the hotel during a lecture tour.

But the hotel was best known for the magnificent balls that were held to commemorate notable events and happenings.

For example, Cape Girardeau news accounts of a leap year and centennial party held there in 1876 were as follows:

"The St. Charles Hotel, on last Friday evening, was crowded with a brilliant party, gotten up by the leading young ladies of our city for the purpose of entertaining the young gentlemen, and to treat them to one of the finest balls that ever came off in this magnificent hotel."

The hotel also can be said to be in one sense the birthplace of Southeast Missouri State University. It was in the parlor of the hotel, on Oct. 28, 1873, that a state board met and decided to put the Third District Normal School at Cape Girardeau.

But the St. Charles also is known for an infamous guest it housed in the 1850s a seriously ill man removed from a boat and taken to the hotel, where he soon died of cholera. From that start, a cholera epidemic spread through the community, taking many lives.

The primary competition came from the Riverview Hotel. The Riverview had a larger dining and ballroom, Albert recalled: "But the St. Charles was more homelike and the young set seemed to like it the best."

Still, the Riverview was as important a part of the city's past as the St. Charles.

Albert recalled in his book "Memories of Cape Girardeau and Old Man River" that the structure was a three-story brick building that catered to the needs of salesmen:

"Each of these hotels (the Riverview and the St. Charles) had a porter who met the trains. They would call out, `Riverview Hotel' or `St. Charles Hotel.' Most of the passengers seeking hotel accommodations were traveling salesmen, known as drummers.

"They would give their baggage checks to the porter representing the hotel of their choice and the porter would haul it to his hotel. Most of the drummers carried large sample trunks and the hotels had sample rooms where the contents of the trunks were put on display for the local merchants."

On Sept. 9, 1904, the Riverview met with disaster, when it and the Palace Saloon caught fire. Only the walls of the hotel remained standing. It was quickly rebuilt by contractor C.M. Lee, who transformed it into a modern affair, with a big, new addition, an elevator, electricity and private baths.

The Riverview's death by fire was only postponed, however. In one of Cape Girardeau's most spectacular and costly blazes, the hotel was destroyed on March 15, 1916.

Also destroyed in the blaze was the Buckner-Ragsdale Store at the corner of Broadway and Main Street; two saloons; the millinery store; L.B. Houck's office; and the Terminal Hotel (built in 1905), at 123 Water Street.

The St. Charles lasted much longer. After falling into disrepair, it finally was torn down in 1967.

Of course, another of Cape's grand hotels was the Hotel Marquette, which still stands at the corner of Broadway and Fountain.

With its Spanish-style architecture, terra cotta facings and balconies, it presents a reminder of an elegant past.

The Marquette was opened Nov. 17, 1928, when it was considered one of the finest hotels in the Midwest.

The Southeast Missourian recorded the hotel's opening and described the structure in detail:

"The huge columns (in the hotel lobby) lift themselves to support the high arched ceiling. All around the lobby, one gets an idea of an architect's dream that has gradually unfolded with patience... The rough-textured plastering has the color of Arabian sand and the iron railings which guard the mezzanine floor add further relief and atmosphere to the carefully executed designs of woodwork, tile and molding on the lower floor," the Missourian noted.

The newspaper described the hotel suites as being "elaborately equipped."

But since July 1971, when the hotel was shut down for safety reasons by the Missouri Division of Health, the six-story structure has stood all but vacant.

Another former hotel that remains in Cape Girardeau, at least in part, is the former Idan-Ha, across Broadway from the Marquette.

The Idan-Ha was constructed as a three-story structure sometime around 1903, and was known as the A.C. Vasterling Building. An addition was added to the hotel in 1907, and the five-story section on the southeast side of the building was added about 1922.

The Idan-Ha was forced to close just two weeks before a damaging fire in 1968, after being declared a fire hazard. Burton J. Gerhardt, a Cape Girardeau contractor, bought the building in 1971 and turned the burned-out eyesore into an apartment complex with a southern French decor.

But another fire, in July 1989, destroyed the five-story southeast portion of the building, which had to be demolished. The north side of the building continues to serve as apartments today, with offices on the main floor facing Broadway.