Group plans to improve Red House

Cape Girardeau's celebration of the Lewis and Clark bicentennial concluded in late November, and the local historical museum it inspired has been closed since late December because of the lack of heat.

But the volunteer group that built the French Colonial-style, vertical-log cabin won't abandon its project. The group is looking to make continued improvements to the Red House Interpretive Center -- including completing installation of a heating and cooling system -- and put the structure on solid financial footing by raising $100,000.

The group so far has raised $3,000 toward that goal.

Jane Randol Jackson, director of the Cape Girardeau County Archive Center and chairwoman of the Red House Interpretive Center, said the money would generate interest income that could be used to maintain the building and pay for any future repairs.

The museum has no restrooms. But the city is planning to apply to the Missouri Department of Natural Resources for a grant to construct a separate restroom a short distance north of the Red House.

The restroom building, which would serve visitors to the downtown and riverfront area, is projected to cost $80,000. The Red House group would provide the $16,000 local match, city manager Doug Leslie said.

The building would have cedar shingles and cedar siding to complement the Red House architecture, officials aid. The handicapped-accessible restrooms will be built on a concrete foundation with prefabricated, modular bathroom units.

As for the Red House, it was built with $102,000 in state and federal grant money, $50,000 in cash donations and volunteer labor.

If a price tag were put on the labor, the total cost of building the Red House would have been more than $300,000, Jackson said.

The Red House, which took more than 50 volunteers about a year and a half to build and was completed in November, is owned by the city of Cape Girardeau.

No city money available

It officially is the responsibility of the city's Parks and Recreation Department. But in reality it depends on the efforts of Jackson's Friends of the Red House group of volunteers and continued private funding to operate.

"It is going to have to come from donated money. There is not any city money available for that purpose," said Dan Muser, parks and recreation director and a member of the Red House Interpretive Center board.

Muser said the city may end up doing minor maintenance work at the Red House in the future, but parks employees won't be staffing the museum. "We are not going to run it," he said.

Donations will be funneled through the city's Parks and Recreation Foundation.

The house, patterned after Cape Girardeau founder Louis Lorimier's home and trading post, sits at 128 S. Main St., just west of the floodwall and across the street from where the original building once stood. More than 100 vintage logs, taken from other early 1800s cabins, were used in creating the Red House.

"That is what gives it its authentic look," Jackson said.

A tornado in 1850 destroyed the original Red House, which Lorimier reportedly built in the late 1790s.

"We've tried to be as true to the old house as we can," said Jackson.

Can't use fireplaces

The 20-by-40-foot house has five rooms on the first floor and two fireplaces. But for safety reasons, the city won't let the Red House volunteers use the fireplaces, Jackson said.

With no heating system in place yet, Jackson said it was just too cold to conduct tours. "It will be open on Saturdays when the weather warms up," she said.

Because the museum must depend on volunteer tour guides, Jackson said there are no current plans to have the Red House open daily. In addition to being open on Saturdays, it will be open by appointment for group tours, she said.

The Red House has three main rooms, all on the main floor. One of the main rooms in the house displays eight informational panels detailing what life was like in Cape Girardeau in the early 1800s and telling the history of Lorimier. A second room is decorated how Lorimier's house might have been, and a central area set up to resemble the trading post. The first floor also has two smaller rooms, one that Jackson said will be turned into a video room where visitors can be shown informational videos. The other room serves as an office.

The second level of the house, reached by steep, narrow stairs reminiscent of the early 1800s, holds duct work for the heating and cooling system and a small balcony.

Jackson's group plans to install a glass ceiling over the room housing the display panels so that visitors can still see the wooden roof rafters but at the same time make it easier to heat and cool the room.

The Rose Hills Garden Club in Cape Girardeau, has secured a small grant to create a garden next to the house. Other improvements include construction of a grape arbor.

Jackson said she's thrilled by the involvement of local businesses and individuals in the creation of the Red House.

"That is what I think is so neat about this," she said. "It's everybody's Red House."

mbliss@semissourian.com

335-6611, extension 123