GLENN HOUSE CLOSES TO PREPARE FOR HOLIDAYS

The Glenn House, Cape Girardeau's Victorian showplace, is about to go into hibernation before coming back to life for the holiday season.

The house at 324 S. Spanish Street will be open from 1-4 p.m. Saturday and Sunday and from 1-4 p.m. Sept. 30. The house also will be open from 9 a.m.-noon. Oct. 1 to accommodate the arrival of a riverboat. Anyone is welcome to join the tours, however.

The house then will close and be cleaned. Jeremy Wells, a graduate student in historic preservation at Southeast, and his wife, Jean, then will begin decorating the house for Christmas. The work will be part of Wells' project for his master's degree.

Barbara and Bill Port, members of the Historical Association of Greater Cape Girardeau, were in charge of decorations the two previous years.

An open house will be held with free admission when the Glenn house reopens Nov. 26, a date that coincides with the Christmas Parade downtown. Hours will be from 1-8 p.m. Visitors can come before the parade or afterward.

During December, the house will be open from 1-4 p.m. Dec. 2-3, 9-10, 16-17 and Dec. 30.

Melva Rose Lewis, corresponding secretary for the Historical Association of Greater Cape Girardeau, said admission numbers to the house during the summer were strong.

"It's never as much as we want, but we have had a lot of visits from the boats, particularly the river barge (River Explorer)," she said.

Construction of the Glenn House began in 1878. It was designed by Edwin Branche Dean, the city's first architect, for his daughter, Lula, and her husband-to-be, David A. Glenn. Dean was responsible for many of the city's historic homes, including the Reynolds House at 623 N. Main St.

In 1968, Robert Erlbacher donated the house to the Historical Association, which restored it in the ensuing years.

The house was named to the National Register of Historic Places in 1979.

The association's next general meeting will be at 7 p.m. Oct. 23 in the activity room at the Lutheran Home's Saxony Village.