SISTERS ENJOY LIVING IN FAMILY HOMESTEAD

PLAYING THE MEMORIES: Wilson enjoys music, and incorporated piano-playing greatly in her 50 year elementary school teaching career. Above left, she plays classical music on an 1873 melodian purchased by her maternal grandfather. Correspondence regarding the purchase is displayed above the melodian. Above right, the Wilson home is marked by a Queen Anne style turret on the front corner. Mary Wilson's mother used the wide angle view to watch her children at play outside. (Photos by Tom Neumeyer)

Mary Wilson, 90, can talk about roots with authority.

She and her younger sister, Ellen Wilson Wilcox, have lived at the same place at the southeast corner of North Ellis and North streets almost all of their lives. Wilson taught for a half-century at Washington Elementary School and taught the 3-year-old First Baptist Church Sunday School class for 46 years. Some of her original students at Washington School are now great-grandparents.

Although retired from teaching, she is far from inactive. She has been involved in tutoring music, one of the loves of her life, and maintains the family home and garden. She plays a variety of music on the family's antique piano or melodian, favoring Beethoven and other classical composers.

"People just don't get enough activity now," Wilson said. "They are glued to the television. They need to be singing, walking or something. It's too easy to turn on the tube."

She had a car briefly during her teaching career, but sold the old Ford. "I walked back and forth to Washington School while I was teaching there, and came home at noon," Wilson said. "Selling the car was a relief; I didn't want to bother with it."

She still enjoys sauntering through the north and east sides of town and has become familiar with most of the older houses and buildings there. "I enjoy walking in downtown Cape Girardeau," Wilson said. "The downtown is real Cape Girardeau. I wish it could be emphasized more."

The Wilson home is situated among many other stately homes built in the turn-of-the-century era by local entrepreneurs and businessmen. Many of the homes along North Ellis and Sprigg streets and North Street have been bought by families for restoration.

The Wilson home, something of a Queen Anne style with a front turret, is the "new" family house. Her parents, pharmacist J. Maple Wilson and Grace Senne Wilson, had it built for the growing family, adjacent to the old one, which was razed.

Grace Wilson designed the home with her family in mind. Unlike many Victorian houses, the interior is open and airy. An oak-paneled open stairway is topped by an immense skylight that provides brightness and can be opened for ventilation to cool the entire house.

The only shortcoming in her planning of construction was allowing enough bedrooms for the Wilson children. Two extra siblings, who came along later, caused some doubling-up in the children's rooms.

The newer furnishings in the house date from the turn of the century. The music room has a harp, antique piano and an 1873 melodeon purchased by her grandfather, Senne. One bed belonged to her paternal grandparents, Dr. William B. and Anna Juden Wilson, and a four-poster came from her great-grandfather, Benjamin Wilson.

J. Maple Wilson operated a pharmacy that had been started by his father. Originally located in downtown Cape Girardeau across from Lang's Jewelry, it was later at 1236 N. Main, to serve the burgeoning Red Star district developing near the International Shoe factory.

Mary Wilson and her siblings worked the marble-countered soda fountain, which drew neighbors to the shop like a magnet.

"The Wilson Special was whatever sodas we punched and put in the glass," she said. "We had a tennis court in back of the store where we and our friends played. We also had a tennis court on the farm west of town, where Sears is located now."

The family house originally had an octagonally-shaped barn and stable behind the house. Horses and buggies they used to travel out in the country were housed in the barn. It was later remodeled into a two-car garage when transportation needs changed.

The house itself has not suffered modernization. In contrast to houses that have been remuddled by new owners trying to remodel them, the Wilson home has retained its character through the years.

Wilson is concerned about the eventual fate of the home.

"The Methodist Church has purchased the two houses to the south of us," she said. "I understand they intend to raze them. They have talked to us two or three times about our plans. I don't want to think about it. There are other houses on the block that could be razed instead."