FRENCH COLONIAL HERITAGE CELEBRATION PLANNED FOR EASTERN MISSOURI

The Reynolds House, 623 N. Main, will be included in a special French Colonial Heritage tour in May.

Les Amis (The Friends), a not-for-profit French Colonial heritage support group, is seeking a partnership with the Missouri Division of State Parks and Missouri Division of Tourism for the project, which will feature a three-day French Colonial Heritage celebration in Eastern Missouri.

The group plans a celebration featuring a lecture, tour and entertainment over the Memorial Day weekend in each of three cities: one day each at Cape Girardeau, Ste. Genevieve and St. Louis.

The celebration will start at St. Louis May 24, said Steve Kappler of the Missouri Division of Tourism. It would move to Ste. Genevieve May 25 and to Cape Girardeau on Memorial Day, May 26.

A media conference to discuss the celebration will be held Feb. 4, at the Rotunda of the Old Courthouse in downtown St. Louis.

Joining a number of tourism executives at the conference will be Chris Jennings, director of the Missouri Division of Tourism; Douglas Eiken, director of, Missouri Division of State Parks; and Mrs. Elizabeth Gentry Sayad, president of Les Amis. Also attending will be Mary Miller, director of the Cape Girardeau Convention and Visitors Bureau; Jan Sutherland, French Colonial Ste. Genevieve; Flora Marie Garcia, executive director of the Missouri Arts Council; and Gary Eastons, superintendent of Jefferson National Expansion Memorial.

"French Colonial is almost non-existent in Cape Girardeau today," said Michael Roark of the health and leisure department of Southeast Missouri State University, who has studied French techniques and French land grants. "But there are some buildings here which lend themselves to French influence," he said.

One of them is the Reynolds House, which contains more than 50,000 bricks and is reminiscent of French Colonial architecture, a style that was popular in the Cape Girardeau area around 1800.

The one-and-one-half story brick house, built in 1857 for James Reynolds, an Englishman, doesn't have the Creole type of porch. It is also missing some other French techniques, but the silhouette follows the French pattern.

Another is Hecht's Store, which was constructed in downtown Cape Girardeau in 1927. The Hecht's building is French architecture with a Parisian look.

Roark will be guest lecturer at the Cape Girardeau event.

"There is not a lot of direct French influence left in Cape Girardeau," said Roark. "But you can see the French influence on property ownership papers, which reflect the long-lot land grants."

The influence after 1863 is more German in Cape Girardeau.

"We have a dream for the creation of a French heritage corridor, and to have it recognized by the United Nations," said Roark. The United Nations has a special education and culture group (NESCO) that recognizes major cultural sites.

Frank Nickell of the Southeast Missouri State University history department, said French influence can be seen flying along the Mississippi River. The French issued land grants in slices, each fronting the river, he said. "From the air, you can see fence rows reminiscent of the old French long-lots," said Nichols.

The French presence is more recognizable in Ste. Genevieve and in some Illinois areas, said Nickell.

Ste. Genevieve, founded in 1735, was the first permanent settlement on the west bank of the Mississippi River. It contains a number of buildings of French architecture and has significant French history.