PBS crew filming in Cape; Glenn House to be featured

Few Cape Girardeau attractions compare to the Glenn House for beauty and historic significance, and “Missouri Life,” a show produced by PBS affiliate KMOS-TV in Warrensburg, Missouri, filmed there and at several other locations this week for an episode to air this fall.

Show producer Christy Millen said the show typically finds exciting, interesting places via “Missouri Life” magazine, produced in Boonville, Missouri.

Meredith Hoenes, host of “Missouri Life,” said she’s enjoyed spending time in Cape Girardeau this week.

“It’s a quaint, attractive, pretty place,” Hoenes said.

“Missouri Life” is in its third season, Hoenes said, and is up for two Emmy Awards.

Jane Stephens, left, Mary Lou Bass and Tom Bass ad-lib a tour of the Glenn House as Eric Boedeker of KMOS-TV films them Wednesday in Cape Girardeau.Laura Simon

KMOS operates from the University of Central Missouri near Sedalia. PBS affiliates in Kansas City, Missouri, and St. Louis have picked up the show, Hoenes added.

Hoenes said the KMOS crew has been “amazing” in finding cities in Missouri to feature, scouting locations, finding contacts and building a show from footage it shoots.

Hoenes said more than 40 hours of film is shot for each 30-minute episode, typically over five to seven days on location.

Producer Millen said episodes will be available online at kmos.org after they’ve aired, which should be in October or November.

Each season has six locations and one “best of” episode, Millen said.

Tom Grantham, board president of the Historical Association of Greater Cape Girardeau, which operates the Glenn House, said he thought it was a great opportunity to showcase one of Cape Girardeau’s important historical and cultural offerings.

The Glenn House, built in 1883, opened as a house museum in 1974 and was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1979.

Extensive fundraising and efforts by the Historical Association of Greater Cape Girardeau made restoration possible and allows for continued maintenance, Grantham said.

Earlier this year, restoration of the servants’ quarters was completed, and a tour series, “Voices from the Backstairs,” began in May.

The intent was to shine a light on the experiences of domestic servants — an important part of the culture in the late 1800s, Grantham said.

Stacy Lane, public-relations director for the Cape Girardeau Convention and Visitors Bureau, put together a marketing packet about the tour series, Grantham said, and brought attention to a new endeavor and an important aspect of life in Cape Girardeau a century ago.

“Gave us a lot of publicity,” Grantham said.

The house is furnished in period-correct antiques, Grantham said, acquired mostly through donations.

None of the home’s furnishings belonged to the Glenns, but likely are similar to what would have graced the home a century ago, he added.

Portraits rendered in oils or as photographs depict former residents of the house, including David and Lula Glenn, and prominent figures in Cape Girardeau and elsewhere in Missouri. These bedeck the parlor walls, covered in yellow silk.

“Victorians loved color,” Grantham said of the brightly painted turquoise walls and stenciled ceilings in the library, where his interview for “Missouri Life” was filmed.

Other locations featured in the Cape Girardeau episode will be Dynamite Coffee, Faithfully Fed, Cape Girardeau’s downtown area and murals, Fort D, Cape Rock Park and several other local attractions and prominent people, producer Millen said.

“We just fell in love here,” Millen said.

mniederkorn@semissourian.com

(573) 388-3630

Pertinent address:

325 S. Spanish St., Cape Girardeau, Mo.