UPROOTED FAMILY MAKES A NEW HOME

Dr. Charles F. and Martha Lou McGinty lost almost everything they owned when the First Exchange banks failed in 1992. That included a beautiful four-story house.

Four years and an experiment in country living later, the McGintys have re-established themselves in a tidy historic house in downtown Cape Girardeau, where she has plans to build a true English garden and revels in "the almost indescribable charm" of an old house.

The McGintys' house is one of 10 that will be opened to the public Sunday for the Historical Homes Tour and Victorian Tea Party.

The event from 1 to 4 p.m. is sponsored by the Greater Cape Girardeau Historical Society. Tickets are available at the door of any house on the tour.

Houses on the tour are:

-- Wildwood, long the home of the presidents of Southeast Missouri State University, located on the Southeast campus

-- Johnson Faculty House, 350 N. Pacific, one-time home of Professor B. F. Johnson

-- Norman Log Cabin, 186 Benton Hill Trace

-- Montgomery Home, 5 S. Lorimier

-- River Dell Bed and breakfast, 151 S. Spanish

-- Winchester Home, 224 Good Hope

-- Dr. and Mrs. Charles F. McGinty Home, 220 N. Lorimier

-- Jamieson Home, 131 S. West End Blvd.

-- The Glenn House, 325 S. Spanish

-- The Cape River Heritage Museum, 538 Independence.

The Victorian Tea Party will be held at the Glenn House.

The McGintys lost about $1.7 million when the banks failed. They had to sell their four-story house and Dr. McGinty, a surgeon who then was semi-retired, re-established his practice. Mrs. McGinty returned to work as the office manager.

They built a house in the country near one of their daughters but tired of the 7-mile commute outside town, especially in the winter. The McGintys bought the Lorimier Street house in February and were moved in by the middle of May.

The abstract for the house is dated 1882. The white brick one-story building was owned successively by the Wingerter, Bryan and Busch families until turned into an insurance office in 1962.

The structure subsequently was bought by attorney Raymond Vogel and was his law office until last year.

The "motel green" carpeting and a pervasive darkness made her husband Charles doubt its suitability as a home. But Mrs. McGinty had a feeling about the house.

"I liked the way it felt when I walked in," she said. "It felt like this is a place I could live the rest of my life."

They re-wired and re-plumbed, and split one of the bedrooms into a bathroom and walk-in dressing closet.

She added columns and a tile floor that defined the entryway. Almost everything else has been collected over 52 years of marriage and transplanted from their previous abodes.

Knowing space was limited, Mrs. McGinty sold thousands of books before moving to Lorimier Street. "I just kept the things I loved," she says, "mostly cookbooks."

The McGinty house combines grace and utility. Her large and valuable collection of Flo Blue ironstone from England gets plenty of use with five children and 12 grandchildren coming around. And the European-style furnishings include some fine antiques from France and elsewhere alongside some equally fine but much newer pieces "from Rust & Martin."

The English garden around back is a work in progress. Sixteen boxwood shrubs have been planted and a truck load of stones has arrived. Plans have been laid to accommodate wandering paths, benches, bird feeders and bird baths. Mrs. McGinty also intends to turn the garage at the rear of the property into a potting shed with glass doors for extra light.

Last October, Dr. McGinty moved his office into the building that houses his son Chuck's jewelry store. It's another relocation that has worked out well.

"We love it," she says. "The view of the river in winter and the people are so nice. Having sidewalks. We can walk to work."

Walking around downtown is one of the joys the McGintys have rediscovered at their new old house. Their grandchildren have found a new park -- Common Pleas -- they'd never played in before.

Mrs. McGinty likes the sounds of downtown and the new home she has made for her husband and clan.

"There is something beckoning about an old house to me," she says.