Tour today of Cape City Hall will explore history of buildings, grounds

Residents can take a walk down Cape Girardeau's memory lane today with the Historic Preservation Commission's history walk at the new City Hall.

In honor of National Preservation Month, Cape Girardeau's Historic Preservation Commission will host a guided walk of the new Cape Girardeau City Hall building, which was formerly the Common Pleas Courthouse and Carnegie Library, located downtown at 44 N. Lorimier St.

The tour will be lead by Steven Hoffman, a Southeast Missouri State University historic preservation professor and historic preservation program coordinator. Adam Criblez, a SEMO professor of history and anthropology, will provide additional information on the former Carnegie Library.

Hoffman said he thinks the whole complex is significant for Cape Girardeau's history, and the courthouse and the central role it and its grounds have played in the history of the city are important.

"Part of what I like about the new rehabilitation projects on the buildings is that we have a 19th century building, a 20th century building and a 21st century building, and they are all tied together," he said. "You can look and see that they are all from different centuries, but they all work together, which I think is part of the brilliance of the design."

The tour will begin at 5:30 p.m. today at the north entrance of the building near the fountain, and refreshments will be provided by the Bollinger Center for Regional History.

The grounds on which the buildings stand was renamed Ivers Square in 2017 to honor James Ivers, a slave for 25 years before enlisting June 18, 1863, at the Common Pleas Courthouse to fight in the American Civil War as a Union soldier. He fell ill and died Oct. 1, 1863, in Arkansas. His wife used her widow's pension to buy property in Cape Girardeau.

A statue stands outside the buildings honoring the United States Colored Troops.

"The statue stands in front of Carnegie Library, located on top of grounds that had been a market place where human beings were sold and rented as slaves. To stand in that space and be connected, that is much more powerful and meaningful than just reading about it in a book," Hoffman said. "Ivers enlisted in the Union army on the first day that African Americans were able to enlist in Cape Girardeau, and having that building physically there I think grounds us. In our history, we have had both triumphs and tragedies, so the purpose of having something like the Historic Preservation month is really to find ways to help people make connections. The walking tour is a tangible way of trying to help people connect."

Endangered buildings

In April, the Historic Preservation Commission released the 2022 list of endangered buildings to promote awareness of structures in Cape Girardeau the commission believes to have historic significance and in danger from deterioration and demolition.

Historic Preservation Commission Endangered Building list:

• 805 Broadway (former Broadway Theatre)
• 127 S. Lorimier St.
• 230 S. Middle St.
• 831 North St.
• 207 Henderson Ave.
• 600 block of Good Hope St.
• 419 Bellevue St.
• 543 S. Pacific St.
• 412 Asher St.
• 124 S. Lorimier St

Endangered Building watch list:

• Juden School, 900 W. Cape Rock Drive
• SEMO Art Building, 940 Academic Drive
• Old City Hall/Lorimier School, 401 Independence St.
• Surety Savings and Loan Association building, 318 and 320 Broadway
• May Greene School, 1000 S. Ranney Ave.
• E.W. Woolworth Co. building, 1 N. Main St.
• Hecht's building, 107 N. Main St.
• Kelso Arboreta, 2009 Old Sprigg Street Road
• 802 William St.
• 419 North St.
• 19 S. Benton St.
• 121 N. West End Blvd.
• 221 N. Sprigg St.

"If you bulldoze those buildings it is going to alter the overall character of your neighborhood and it is going to diminish it," Hoffman said. "Yet, if we can preserve those places, then we have these richer and more tangible connections that I think allow us to develop those attachments to places. If we come out of this month with a few more people being a little more appreciative of that, then that is what this month is all about."

More information on the endangered buildings listed may be found on the City of Cape Girardeau's website at www.cityofcapegirardeau.org.