LOCAL GROUP ANNOUNCES PLANS TO UTILIZE FORMER SEMINARY SITE

The Colonial Cape Girardeau Foundation announced plans Friday for a $7-8 million project to convert the 150-year-old former St. Vincent's Seminary into a national and local historic museum and civil war interpretative center.

The plan also calls for the construction of a library near the seminary building to house a collection of items written or owned by President Ulysses S. Grant.

Grant was headquartered at Cape Girardeau prior to a major military victory during the Civil War.

The Colonial Cape Girardeau Foundation was formed about nine months ago by a group of Cape Girardeau residents who started meeting with only one topic on their agenda the old St. Vincents Seminary.

The president of the foundation is Barbara Rust. The other foundation officers are: Becky Richey, vice president, Mary Robertson, secretary, and Mary Helen Flentge, treasurer.

During a press conference Friday, David Murphy, executive director for the foundation, and Rust announced details of the project.

It calls for the three-story seminary building to be converted into a series of museums containing items and documents of national and local historic interest.

The Grant Library will be built near the southeast corner of the seminary building, overlooking a natural slope toward the Mississippi River, with an amphitheater at the foot of the hill.

Murphy said the president of the U.S. Grant Association, John Y. Simon, a history professor and Southern Illinois University-Carbondale, is aware of the project. "He has seen the grounds, he has seen what we have to offer and is more than willing, ready, and able to assist us in any way possible," said Murphy.

A part of the grounds located south of the seminary building would be used as a Civil War reenactment area. To the west of the seminary building, plans call for the construction of a building to house an office of the Missouri Bureau of Tourism.

"We have no Division of Tourism office in Southeast Missouri, or for that matter, in Southern Missouri, and quite frankly, it's high time we had one. We are willing to afford them space in our project," Murphy said.

The plan also calls for a walkway from the seminary grounds, across the Burlington Railroad tracks, to a dock on the Mississippi River.

Although not a part of the project, Murphy said the foundation has long-range plans for the preservation and restoration of the downtown area that would include development of the now-vacant International Shoe Company plant site, and a tracked or rubber-wheeled trolley that would make a loop from the seminary through the downtown area, northward to the shoe factory site, which would have an assortment of historical buildings and arts and crafts shops. From there, the trolley would go up to the university campus before going back to the seminary grounds.

Murphy said the foundation has contacted the order of Vincentian Fathers (the seminary's owner) and the realtor to begin negotiations to purchase the property.

Murphy said he has been in touch with several sources of funding, in particular, the House Subcommittee on Procurement, Tourism and Rural Development, chaired by Missouri Congressman Ike Skelton. "He is very aware of what we are doing and very aware of what we have to offer and is more than willing to assist us in getting federal funding," said Murphy. "There will also be a great deal of local funding involved through fundraisers and other community functions."

He said the foundation plans to ask for funding from the Cape Girardeau Convention and Tourism Bureau.

Commenting on the urgency of the project, Rust said, "Those of us who are interested in acquiring the seminary property for the city of Cape Girardeau do so because we have a deep and abiding concern for the historical significance of this area.

"In my lifetime, many of the historical sites in this community have disappeared. I can remember this town without a floodwall. The river was a visual source of enjoyment and my family often went down to see the traffic on the river. The flood wall was necessary, I can attest to that because of six inches of water on the floor of the F.W. Woolworth building on more than one occasion.

"But the floodwall took away from the visual enjoyment of the river. The seminary was then, and is now, one of the most beautiful and tranquil places in the city. And the view of the river (at the seminar) is second only to Cape Rock, in my opinion," she continued.

"I would hate to see it (seminary) become a site for an apartment complex or industrial site. I would like to see this property be for the people of this community, and for the preservation of the history of this community."

Rust said the museums would provide a repository for the local history and heritage of Cape Girardeau, and the area. "Those of us committed to Colonial Cape Girardeau Foundation feel the seminary property is a logical place for this repository. We are asking you the people of this community to help us," she said.

Rust said initial reaction in the community to the project has been good.

"There has been no negative feedback from anyone in the community. They all feel this would be something that would benefit all of us, our children, and our grandchildren," she said.

Murphy said the foundation would like to complete the project within two years. "Our hearts say two years, but our heads say more like two to three years," he said.

Murphy said construction of the museum complex and Grant Library "will prove to be the catalyst Cape Girardeau needs to finally become a tourist stop. With what is already in place, the Glenn House, old St. Vincent's Church, and others, the transition of the seminary into a national historic museum is a natural."

Murphy cited figures from the Missouri Division of Tourism that an average of nearly ten percent of all tourists in Missouri want to visit an historical site, "Which the seminary most certainly is," he said. "In addition, an average of about 6.3 percent of those touring the state want to see museums, which the seminary most certainly will be."

Murphy said the St. Vincent's project will have a major, historical impact to the entire community and area. The project has the unanimous endorsement of the Cape Girardeau Greater Downtown Merchants Association.

"There have been in the recent past those who wished to revive the seminary in one guise or another, but they never got out of the talking phase," Murphy continued. "It is, though, to those past groups that we must give credit because it was from their dreams that this reality has materialized.

"This project already has wide-spread support from all over the city," he said. "It is not just a `downtown thing' or a `west side thing.' This is one of those very rare projects that doesn't come around very often one which everyone can be for, since it benefits every segment of our community and area. With the entire city behind it, we will indeed be stepping forward into our past and building for a greater and stronger tomorrow."

Murphy said past plans to develop the seminary property did not get off the ground because there was no vision, no pictures, just words of what was planned. "We have the vision, the dream, and the pictures, and it will happen," he said.