Four more Cape sites added to National Register

~ The River Campus, Old Lorimier Cemetery, Esquire Theater and Kage School are the newly added landmarks.

Four historical sites were recently added to a growing number of Cape Girardeau landmarks listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

St. Vincent's College and Seminary, 201 Morgan Oak St.; Kage School, 3110 Kage Road; the Esquire Theater, 824 Broadway and Old Lorimier Cemetery, 500 N. Fountain St., were placed in the register in late September.

Old Lorimier Cemetery

"This just says that Cape Girardeau has been very significant for the past 200 years," said Brenda Schloss, planning technician for Cape Girardeau Planning Department. "Not only is it significant for the citizens of Cape, but also to the county and state of Missouri."

The site of St. Vincent's Seminary overlooks the Mississippi River at the foot of the Bill Emerson Memorial Bridge.

The seminary has a long history in Cape Girardeau, dating back to 1838, and was responsible for educating thousands of students, especially priests.

River Campus/St. Vincent's Seminary

During the Civil War, despite low enrollment, St. Vincent's Seminary continued to train most of the Catholic clergy of the western part of the county. From 1910 to the early 1980s, the school operated as a seminary, preparing young men for priesthood.

In two years, the seminary will be transformed into Southeast Missouri State University's River Campus.

Southeast's president Dr. Kenneth Dobbins said there is great significance of the campus being put on the national register.

"I'm very pleased it was put on the register because it is a very historic structure," he said. "When we renovate we want to keep as much of the interior and look of the original building."

Associate history professor at the University, Dr. Steve Hoffman, said he would like to see other historic buildings at Southeast, including Academic Hall, put on the National Register of Historic Places.

"The more attention we can call to our historic places, the better off we are," Hoffman said. "These are the things that make Cape Girardeau unique and distinctive."

Terri Foley, a historic preservation consultant, was instrumental in getting Kage School, the Esquire Theater and Old Lorimier Cemetery placed on the register. She wrote the applications for each site, as well as the applications for the Southeast Missourian building and Warehouse Row District, which are already listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

"Kage School has a very unique history," Foley said. "It was one of the last one-room school houses in Cape Girardeau County."

Built in 1880, Kage School was used until 1966 and survived consolidation. In the 1920s, schools buses made longer distances to school possible and most one-room schools were consolidated into multiple classroom schools, where classes could be held separately for different grade levels.

The Esquire Theater is significant to Cape Girardeau for its architecture, Foley said.

"It is all art deco and Cape has very few art deco designs," she said. "When it was built in 1947, it had over one mile of neon on it. It was a very modern building for its time and the last downtown theater constructed."

The theater cost $150,000 to build, which was a very significant amount of money for its time period. Foley said the current owner has plans to open it again once he decides how it will best suit the community's needs.

"As for the Old Lorimier Cemetery, it is a local landmark and the first local landmark in Cape Girardeau," Foley said. "It is the only place within the city that depicts the many backgrounds of the early settlers of Cape Girardeau."

Old Lorimier Cemetery was the first public cemetery established in the city. Upon the death of Louis Lorimier's wife, Charlotte, in 1808, he gave the property to the city for use as a public cemetery. Charlotte Lormier's gravesite is the oldest one in the cemetery.

There are over 1400 marked gravesites and numerous unmarked sites. Only 26 of the burials in the cemetery occurred after 1956, making 98 percent of the markers historically significant, Foley said.

"This cemetery is the only place in Cape that really shows you the history of this town, who established it and it really is a documentation in itself," she said.

Schloss, who works closely with the city's Historic Preservation Commission, said it was important to recognize the cemetery on the National Register of Historic Places.

"Typically, cemeteries are extremely hard to get on the register," Schloss said.

To be eligible for the National Register of Historic Places a site, district, building or structure has to be historically significant or retain it's historic integrity, said Tiffany Patterson of the Missouri State Historic Preservation Office.

"It doesn't have to be in perfect condition, but generally it has to be 60 years or older," Patterson said.

Foley is currently writing applications to place the sites of the Broadway Theater, Jeremiah's, 127 N. Water St. and The Plant Lady, 221 Independence St., onto the National Register of Historic Places.

jfreeze@semissourian.com

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Historical markers

Here is a list of Cape Girardeau sites on the National Register of Historic Places

• B'Nai Israel Synagogue, 126 S. Main St.
• Broadway and North Fountain Street Historic District
• Cape Girardeau Commercial Historic District, 100 block of North Main Street and 100 block of Broadway
• George Boardman Clark House, 6 S. Fountain St.
• Esquire Theater, 824 Broadway
• Glenn House, 325 S. Spanish St.
• Haarig Commercial Historic District, sections of the 600 block of Good Hope St. and 300 block of South Sprigg Street.
• Hanover Lutheran Church, 2949 Perryville
• Himmelberger and Harrison Building, 400 Broadway
• House at 323 Themis St.
• Huhn-Harrison House, 340 S. Lorimier St.
• Kage School, 3110 Kage Road.
• Klostermann Block, South Spanish Street
• Marquette Hotel, 338 Broadway.
• Old Lorimier Cemetery, 500 N. Fountain
• Oliver-Leming House, 740 North St.
• James Reynolds House, 623 N. Main St.
• St. Vincent de Paul Catholic Church, 131 S. Main St.
• St. Vincent's College Building (Southeast Missouri State University's River Campus), 201 Morgan Oak St.
• August and Amalia Shivelbine House, 303 S. Spanish St.
• Southeast Missourian Building, 301 Broadway
• The Col. George C. Thilenius House, 100 Longview Place.
• Trail of Tears State Park Archaeological Site
• Warehouse Row Historic District, 19 N. Water St.
• Robert Felix and Elma Taylor Wichterich House, 300 Good Hope St.
• Wood Building, 1-3 S. Frederick and 605-607 Independence St.

Source: The Missouri Department of National Resources.