Historic house shaping up with funds from city

Cape Girardeau's historic Glenn House hasn't always been treated well. Over the years, the Victorian-era home that is now a house-museum has seen its share of owners and tenants, some of whom haven't been kind to the 122-year-old home.

The Historical Association of Greater Cape Girardeau has owned the house for about 35 years, said association building and grounds supervisor Bill Port, but in the last 18 months, several major repairs have been made to the home, some of them using $31,117 of surplus funds from the Convention and Visitors Bureau.

The funds were left over from the city's tourism tax on motels and restaurants. The city council voted to give the funds over for repairs on the house in August, and the historical association has used the funds on several projects.

One of the largest and most visible of those projects is repairing the home's front porch, on which the supports had rotted.

"Basically we have rebuilt this from the ground up," Port said. "It takes a long time."

Work on the porch didn't start until late winter, but Port said the repairs will likely be completed by the end of the month. The porch had rotted supports underneath the deck, in the upper level and in the fascia at the top of the porch. The columns that make up the porch are also being replaced or repaired, and the railing on the upper and lower decks is being replaced.

Now the porch is being supported by temporary columns while contractors go through the long process of replacing the curved fascia pieces, each of which must be cut separately.

So far the association has spent about $22,000 of those city funds on the roof and other projects, said Port, with detailed documentation.

"We had to outline specifically what we were going to do and how much it costs before we could receive these funds," Port said. "We have to account for all of this."

Some of those funds have been used for other repairs, such as restoration of the front retaining wall. Drain tiles that had collapsed have been replaced and the wall has been tuckpointed.

All the wrought iron in the front of the house has been repainted black from those funds and the chimneys have been tuckpointed and are awaiting metal caps.

These are only among the most recent repairs made over the last 18 months, Port said. Some of the bigger projects were replacing the rotted wood in the wash house behind the home and replacing some rotten sections of the rear porch.

City public works director Tim Gramling said the city has also helped out on two minor projects. Public works repaired a concrete sidewalk in the back of the house and more recently repaired a minor water leak in the house's service lines.

"It's a quasi-city facility," Gramling said. "The house is a historical place that's on a tour stop and it's a tourist attraction. We try to help when we can with minor things."

The vast majority of repairs, however, have been performed under the auspices of the historical association. Port said that within the past six years, the association has spent about $75,000 on repairing the Glenn House, including the excess visitors bureau funds.

After the porch is repaired, all the major projects at the house will be finished, Port said. But some minor things will still have to be done, such as fixing rain leaks that allow water access to interior walls and paint.

For those projects and for the upkeep of the house, the association knows it will have to depend on its own money -- money that comes from admission fees for tours of the house, association membership dues and from a special fund that receives donations.

"We've gotten as much of that kind of support as we're going to have," Port said. "It's up to us, as it should be."

Future plans are to open the house up to rental for special events, like weddings, possibly before the summer is done. That will help to bring in the cash needed to keep the historic house going, association members say.

msanders@semissourian.com

335-6611, extension 182