GROUP SAYS SAVE REYNOLDS HOUSE

Local preservationist Brian Driscoll says it will take a community effort to restore the old Reynolds House.

Driscoll serves on Cape Girardeau's Historic Preservation Commission. He said the city could apply for a government grant to help fund restoration of the 140-year-old brick house at 623 N. Main.

The community would have to provide some matching funds, he said.

Driscoll, a handful of other local preservationists and about 15 students in Southeast Missouri State University's historic-preservation program inspected the house Wednesday afternoon.

James Denny, a historian with the Missouri state parks system, accompanied the group.

Denny previously worked for the state historic-preservation program. "There are not many historians in government. It is fun to be one," he said.

Denny was in Cape Girardeau Wednesday to deliver a university History Club lecture on Missouri architecture.

A cold rain didn't dampen Denny's enthusiasm over the Reynolds House. Denny said the vacant, Greek Revival-style house with its fireplaces and central hallway is worth preserving.

"The Germans loved this kind of house," he said. "It would make a charming gift shop or a bed-and-breakfast."

Denny said the brick walls appear to be in good shape for the most part, but the wooden floors need some work.

He estimated it could take $50,000 to do the basic restoration work.

The Historical Association of Greater Cape Girardeau has owned the house since it was deeded to the group in 1982. But the association hasn't had the money to make many repairs.

Driscoll said few pre-Civil War houses like it exist in Cape Girardeau. "There just aren't many of them of this vintage and this style left," he said.

Greg Jones, executive director of the Arts Council of Southeast Missouri, said the house is a historic treasure.

"It is a community asset. The community has to get behind it," said Jones, who lives in an old home and describes himself as an avid preservationist.

"Really, the wonderful thing about a house is it tells stories," said Jones. "Once the house is gone, the stories are gone."

The original owner of the house, James Reynolds, came to Cape Girardeau with his wife in 1852. They moved here from St. Louis.

Reynolds was associated in the operation of the first steam flour mill in the area. The mill was a log structure that extended out over the Mississippi River just north of Broadway.

The house was built in 1857 by Joseph Lansmon, a brick mason who built Common Pleas Courthouse and many of the city's other early structures.

The house was designed by Edwin Branch Deane, the architect who designed the historic Glenn House.

Some 51,000 bricks were used to build the Reynolds House.

The Reynolds family occupied the house in 1858. Reynolds died in 1865, but his wife lived to be 100, dying in 1909.

In August 1912, two of his daughters found $1,200 in gold and silver coins that Reynolds had buried on the property during the Civil War.

Dr. Bonnie Stepenoff heads up the historic-preservation program at Southeast. She said the university program might be able to assist in restoring the house.

Stepenoff smiled as she gazed at the empty rooms with their dusty mantles and peeling paint.