HISTORY IN DECAY: CAPE GIRARDEAU'S HISTORIC GLENN HOUSE IN NEED OF COSTLY REPAIRS

Tour buses that roam Cape Girardeau invariably stop at the Glenn House, the city's showplace Queen Anne Victorian. A sharp-eyed tourist would notice that the 118-year-old Glenn House, listed on the National Register of Historic Places, is slowly falling apart.

Jeremy Wells, its executive director, can poke a finger in the bottom of one of the stately columns that hold up the front porch. "Nobody knows exactly the extent of the damage," Wells says.

The signs of damage on the porch are among many examples of water damage and dry rot at the house.

The house at 325 S. Spanish St. is suffering from environmental problems estimated to cost $70,000 to repair. They include a new roof and guttering system. The Historical Association of Greater Cape Girardeau, which owns the house, can't afford to have the work done.

The association maintains the Glenn House solely through member dues, private donations and admission fees paid for tours. It receives no funding from the city of Cape Girardeau or from the Convention & Visitors Bureau.

A historic-preservation student at Southeast, Wells says the roof membrane over the front porch failed over the past 10 or 15 years. The decorative wood on the front porch is obviously rotting, but he has bigger concerns about the structural wood. They won't know how bad the damage is until they begin taking the porch apart.

Porch damage

"The consensus is the porch might have to be disassembled piece by piece," he says.

Mabel and Robert Erlbacher donated the house to the historical association in 1968. The association took on an extensive renovation during the 1970s.

The house's asphalt composite roof now is at the end of its life cycle, Wells says, and granules from the roof have been clogging the gutters. The gutters are made of galvanized steel and are rusting. Because of the way the guttering system was designed, water pools badly around the house. When it pools on bricks, they absorb moisture and the grout comes out.

The wash house, a small building behind the main house, also has dry rot from a failed roof membrane and is showing termite damage. Part of the building is a support for the main house. Squirrels sometimes climb inside the holes opened in the rotting wood.

Warm and humid weather accelerates dry rot. "It's literally a fungus infection in the wood," Wells said.

Inside the house, Wells points to peeling plaster and a phenomenon called efflorescence, which manifests as a powdery coating left by water when it evaporates from inside a wall.

Damage throughout

Almost every room in the house and all the hallways show some signs of water damage.

Wells became executive director four months ago. Some halfway repairs made in the past may have made problems worse, he says.

Jim Weatherholt, who preceded Wells in the position, says most of the dry rot problems on the front of the house are caused by improper guttering. The problems have been building over a period of years, he said.

"I could never get them to do a contract with a handyman that would head things off," he said.

Lack of money is at the bottom of the Glenn House's problems, says Dr. Patrick Ruopp, the association's president.

"We are having difficulty maintaining it. The historical association is having difficulty coming up with that sum of money," he said of the $70,000.

Last year, $8,000 worth of work was done on the house after a windstorm caused damage. Insurance paid for the repairs.

No questions asked

Polly Cotner, who conducts tours at the Glenn House, says tourists so far haven't asked questions about the problems. "We try not to call attention to it," she said.

"Almost everybody that comes through comments on how well the restoration has been done and how much furniture we have in the house. They are very pleased with the tours."

The fact that the lights in the house are dim and the shutters usually closed may camouflage the deterioration, she says.

"So far we have been able to avoid making great note of that. Maybe that's not good. Maybe the public needs to know."

Wells said the association plans to approach the city with an appeal for funding. "We would like to have a small amount of money from the city so we can maintain the house and prevent some of these things from happening," he said.

Ruopp said the association's need for money to make the repairs before more damage is done is acute.

Donations to the Glenn House can be sent to the Historical Association of Greater Cape Girardeau, P.O. Box 1982, Cape Girardeau, Mo. 6370l.