HISTORICAL GROUP ACQUIRES GLENN HOUSE

In 1878, Edwin Branch Deane began building a house on South Spanish Street that his daughter, Lula, and her husband-to-be, David A. Glenn, would occupy. Deane was Cape Girardeau's first architect, a man who built many of the city's landmark homes, including the Reynolds House at 623 N. Main St.

Now a museum operated by the Cape Girardeau Historical Society, the Glenn House is important not only for its place in the city's history but because its acquisition marked the beginning of a historic preservation movement that continues in the city today.

The Glenn House at 324 S. Spanish was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1979. Now fully restored, it is a Victorian showplace with stained-glass windows, curved veranda, decorative wood moldings and cornices, and feathered woodwork.

David Glenn had $25 when he arrived in Cape Girardeau in 1870. He worked for awhile with the Leech Brothers before forming the Glenn Mercantile Co. in 1879. He married Lula Deane two years later.

Glenn's business eventually became one of the most prosperous in the city. The Glenns and their three children, Garrett, Ruth and Sarah, lived in the house until 1915, when financial reverses forced him to sell.

Henry L. Rozier bought the house first, but it was owned for most of the first half of the century by the John J. Hunter family, who sold it in 1953.

At one point the house was owned by Dr. and Mrs. Sylvester Doggett. Robert Erlbacher bought the house in the 1960s. His daughter, Ann Dombrowski, thinks he intended to make it into an office for his businesses, Missouri Dry Dock and Missouri Barge Lines.

Erlbacher decided to donate the house to the historical association in 1968, a short time before his death. The house was presented to the association Feb. 12, 1968, with the transfer of the deed completed in January 1969.

Officers in the historical association at the time were: Mrs. Paul Bukstein, president; Laura St. Ann Keller, vice president; Mrs. C.W. Suedekum, secretary; Mrs. E.E. Souers, treasurer; and Mrs. W.A. Ownbey, reporter.

Mrs. Erlbacher was chairman of grounds improvement.

Architect Fred E. Dormeyer Jr. designed the extensive restoration. The house needed a new roof to begin with at a cost of $4,000.

The Heritage Ball, which long was the social event of the year in Cape Girardeau, was a fund raiser for the restoration project.

The association had been founded in 1967. It was looking for an old residence to restore as a museum. Carrie Suedekum recalled that the Glenn House was in danger of being torn down.

The restoration was extensive. "We did a lot of the interior," she remembered. "Everything was bad."

The restoration is complete, and the house contains many Victorian-era artifacts, including the Glenn family Bible.

The Glenn House is open for tours year-round and is gaily decorated at Christmas.