otherSeptember 5, 2017
Bert and Mary Ann Kellerman work to protect local historic locations through personal interests and Kellerman Foundation
Coincidence can serve as a subtle but powerful source of affirmation. It seems to follow around Bert and Mary Ann Kellerman with gentle nods to their passion for the preservation of the history of Cape Girardeau. They own two homes in town, both built in the 1800s and on the National Register of Historic Places, renovated a downtown business building which now houses Cup 'n' Cork on Spanish Street and had it placed on the register, and they have opened Heritage Hall, a museum on Main Street that houses their Kellerman Foundation.. ...
Coincidence can serve as a subtle but powerful source of affirmation.
It seems to follow around Bert and Mary Ann Kellerman with gentle nods to their passion for the preservation of the history of Cape Girardeau.
They own two homes in town, both built in the 1800s and on the National Register of Historic Places, renovated a downtown business building which now houses Cup 'n' Cork on Spanish Street and had it placed on the register, and they have opened Heritage Hall, a museum on Main Street that houses their Kellerman Foundation.
Both are former professors at Southeast Missouri State University, where Mary Ann, who taught interior design, served on a committee that developed a historic preservation degree program around 1980. It remains one of the few such programs in the country.
Their lives revolve around local historical preservation to the extent they currently are residing in possibly Cape Girardeau's most storied home, the Oliver-Leming House, one which will one day be donated to the Kellerman Foundation and quite possibly house a museum.
The house is most commonly known as "The Flag House," where original resident Marie Watkins Oliver designed the Missouri state flag. She was the wife of R.B. Oliver, a prominent attorney who served as state senator and played a major role in getting legislation for the Little River Drainage District, which helped drain the swamps from Southeast Missouri. He hired prominent architect J.B. Legg to design the stately residence in 1895.
Oliver would later wield his influence in helping Legg land the job of designer for Academic Hall in 1905 and five other buildings at Southeast, then known as the Normal School.
At the home, located at 740 North St. and virtually on the campus, Mrs. Oliver commissioned the help of Mary Kochtitzky, an artist who painted Mrs. Oliver's flag ideas onto paper. In 1909, they submitted a design only to see it lost when the state Capitol burned. Mrs. Oliver later supplied a duplicate of the original, painted on silk by a different local woman because Kochtitzky was out of town. The second time two flags were painted: One was officially adopted as the flag of Missouri in 1913, the other kept in Mrs. Oliver's bedroom at the residence.
The Kellermans surprised themselves when they bought the building around 2003, despite already living in a home on the National Registry.
"Had we not accidentally bought this one, we'd still be in that one for sure," Mary Ann says.
They moved to Cape Girardeau after meeting as students at SIU Carbondale. Bert, who grew up on a farm near Pickneyville, Illinois, obtained a master's degree and took a teaching job at Southeast's College of Business and Mary Ann, who was raised in the Leadbelt area, later followed.
They married and bought what came to be known as the Boardman Clark House and "Kellerman House" at 6 Fountain St. in 1971, and it started them down their current road. The Late Victorian/Queen Anne style house, designed and built by Edwin Dean in 1882, had numerous owners over the years with myriad tastes, which left it in disarray and in need of a person with a trained eye -- someone like Mary Ann. She was on the path to a doctorate in interior design, and the house was a workshop of sorts.
"Being in the design world, people make some really bad decisions," she notes.
The young couple was full of energy, and they were enthusiastic about the one-acre place that sits on a hill overlooking the downtown area.
"Had we not been young and foolish, we should not have bought that house," Mary Ann says. "That thing ate big wads of money, but we loved it."
Their devotion was evident when it made the National Registry in 1994, a move to protect and add visibility to the historic house, as well as to Cape Girardeau.
"When we went on there was very little on the National Register, and we thought it was important to have more buildings in the town that were on the National Register," Bert says. "Because if you're studying it from anywhere in the U.S., when you pull up that city, you see the history of that city based on what's on the National Register."
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Only 10 of the current 56 structures listed on the registry for Cape Girardeau County date before 1994, six of which were houses.
Mary Ann says the registry also represented a measure of respect for the integrity and authenticity of the restoration.
"It's a mark of it being done appropriately," she says.
They then took on a roofless downtown building on Spanish Street that had been severely damaged by fire.
"That's the one that made people think we were truly crazy," Mary Ann says about the Klostermann Block. It too ended up on the National Registry in 1994.
Then "The Flag House" came on the radar. The historic, stately house had been put on the register in 1984 but had fallen into disrepair, and Bert heard it was for sale. He always had a liking for "old, fancy houses," and this fit the bill.
It's a Colonial Revival style with solid oak strongly displayed throughout, and of such size that fraternities have inquired into it in the past.
"It's a man's house," Mary Ann says.
Bert fits that bill, and Mary Ann knew he was a fan.
"He said it's the only other house in town that I really thought I might like to own," Mary Ann says.
She told him to make an offer.
"They took it, and the next thing you know we owned the thing," Mary Ann says. "I mean it was so far from livable that we just let it sit here -- for 10 years."
She says she was at the house one day during the eventual renovation when a man knocked on the door. It turned out to be a grandson of R.B. Oliver, William "Colonel" Oliver. He unknowingly added a thread to the flag story when he asked about the house she was currently living in. She told him the location on Fountain Street.
"Col. Oliver said, 'You live in Uncle Mac's house,'" she says.
"Uncle Mac" was Stanley D. MacFarland, whose wife Edith painted the duplication of the state flag in the absence of Kochtitzky.
They eventually renovated the "The Flag House" in time for the centennial celebration. One of the features of the house is a view of Academic Hall, one of Legg's legacies.
The Kellermans are currently running an exhibit of Legg's architecture in Southeast Missouri at Heritage Hall. They like to showcase history of local significance at the museum, and will open a Ulysses S. Grant exhibit Sept. 19.
Their foundation, started in 2012, annually awards a $1,000 scholarship for students majoring in historical preservation.
Bert still likes both houses, and finds it hard to part with the house on Fountain Street. However, "The Flag House" has a special place.
"It is in a sense more of a public house because it is the flag and everything," Bert says. "The other one had some history, but not as much of a history as far as the impact on the community. The people here had a huge impact on the community."
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