otherNovember 28, 2005
Lost & saved landmarks
A spotlight on area buildings that have been torn down or have been saved through historic preservation...
A spotlight on area buildings that have been torn down or have been saved through historic preservation:
LOST: The St. Charles Hotel was constructed between 1838 and 1844. Built by Joseph Lansmon -- architect and builder of the Common Pleas Courthouse, St. Vincent's Church and St. Mary's Cathedral -- it was located at the southwest corner of Themis and Main streets. Guests included Ulysses S. Grant, Samuel Clemens and Charles Dickens. During the late 1800s the cupola was removed and relocated to the top of the courthouse, where it remains today. The hotel was torn down in 1967 to make room for a retail store.
SAVED: When it opened Nov. 17, 1928, the Marquette Hotel was one of the finest in Southeast Missouri and one of 35 hotels owned by the Hotel Securities Organization of St. Louis. Designed by Manske and Bartling of St. Louis and R.K. Knox of Cape Girardeau, Spanish-influenced architecture set the building apart. During the Great Depression, the hotel was sold to the Berberich Delivery Company of St. Louis in a bankruptcy suit. Thad Bullock purchased the building in 1969. In the early 1980s, the property was vacated and sat empty until the recent renovation and occupation by various Missouri government offices and private businesses. The renovation was made possible through tax incentives relating to its status on the National Register of Historic Places, where it was listed in 2002.
LOST: Fort A was one of four forts built in Cape Girardeau during August and September 1861 under the orders of Gen. Fremont. Fort A was probably the safest bastion, being located above Main Street at the east end of Bellevue Street. The shape was irregular, taking in much of the available hilltop. Records of the time refer to Fort A frequently, indicating that it perhaps served as the headquarters post. A windmill powered a grist mill, probably used by or even built by the soldiers.
SAVED: Fort D was constructed in a French style of bastion or redan, a triangle facing away from the river to the southwest. The purpose of Fort D was to repel attackers from the land, although one of its guns could have fired on the river as well. It was well-armed, with 32- and 24-pound cannons, as well as logs, shaped and painted to look like cannons from a distance. A stockade, or palisade wall, ran across the river side of the fort with a small gate on that side. Being small in area, probably most of the soldiers lived in tents on the outside, although some built dugouts in the side of the hill to the north of the fort. Apparently at one point in 1864 the fort was partially manned by African-American soldiers. Fort D was saved from development in the 1920s by citizen action and today is one of the few existing Civil War earthworks left in Missouri. A structure resembling a stone fort was built in the fort during the 1930s and has been used for many purposes since.
SAVED: The three-story Victorian house in the 400 block of Themis Street was built in 1890 by lawyer Robert Whitelaw and his wife, the former Katie Block. Whitelaw was born in Virginia but his family moved to Cape Girardeau County just before the Civil War. Whitelaw later graduated from law school at the University of Michigan and served two terms as Cape Girardeau County's prosecuting attorney and part of one term as U.S. congressman. The house, which has five fireplaces, is made of hand-pressed brick. The Whitelaw house has had its ups and downs over the years but today has been carefully restored to its original grandeur. It has been registered as a Cape Girardeau Local Landmark since 1996.
LOST: The Thomas Johnson house stood at the southeast corner of Broadway and Fountain streets, where the federal building is today. It was built sometime prior to the Civil War, but the exact date is not known. It was described as having large double parlors and dining room along Fountain Street. The house was L-shaped, and a two-story porch in the rear overlooked a garden. The house was owned by August Ruesskamp, a merchant, when it was purchased in 1907 for the new (now lost) post office and torn down.
SAVED: A men's dormitory was constructed in 1938 on the campus of Southeast Missouri Teachers College. Named Cheney Hall after Lucius H. Cheney, the first president of the Teachers College, the dormitory was built to accommodate 96 male students and also included guest quarters. The student rooms were 14 feet by 15 feet and were to hold two students. The contract to build the dormitory was awarded to E. A. Brunson Construction Company of St. Louis and cost $113,626. Located on Henderson Street behind the art building, it continues to be a home for students living on campus.
LOST: Local businessmen I. J. Albert and M. E. Leming served on the Normal Dormitory Association which was created in 1904 to erect two buildings on the south side of Normal Avenue. In September 1904, work on the men's dormitory known as Albert Hall was begun and, shortly after, so did work on the women's dormitory, Leming Hall. Each dormitory was three stories high and built of "blue" limestone. The student rooms measured 13 feet by 12 feet and had two closets of 3 square feet. Albert Hall was demolished in the early 1960s to make room for a new dormitory, Dearmont Hall. Leming Hall was demolished in the late 1970s to make room for the building of the new University Center.
LOST: Near the corner of Good Hope and Spanish Streets, the Sisters of Loretto founded a boarding and day school for girls in Cape Girardeau on Oct. 28, 1838. After many building additions, the St. Vincent's Young Ladies Academy covered nearly a full block and the main four-story structure overlooked Spanish Street with a kitchen and laundry in a separate building. After the 1850 tornado damaged the school, classes were held in the home of Edward Garaghty while repairs were being made. During the Civil War, instructors worried over the Union soldiers peering in the windows at the students. By the beginning of the twentieth century, the funding for St. Vincent's was dwindling as the Sisters of Loretto began to expand their schools across the country. When the Young Ladies Academy closed in 1928, it was estimated that 20,000 graduates were spread throughout the country. The demolition contract was awarded to L.A. Mudd in 1938 and the property was owned by the Sisters of Loretto until 1946 when it was sold for $16,700. As the main building was being demolished in 1938, a note was found hidden in a bottle that had been placed in the building's plaster. The note read, "This 25th November, 1851, this is the rebuilt (building) of the one destroyed by the tornado, 1850. Built by Ivers and O'Neal. Architect, Walsh."
SAVED: Established by the Vincentian Fathers, St. Vincent's College served as a school for students preparing for the priesthood. Construction on the oldest portion of the structure began in 1840 and was completed in 1843. Two more additions were completed in 1853 and 1871. The college served as a secular college and eventually became a college-prep high school, serving in that capacity from 1910 until closing in 1979. For a few years more, the buildings served as an evangelization center until closing in 1989. The buildings and grounds were purchased in 1998 by Southeast Missouri State University to be converted into the River Campus, a performing arts center for the university, fulfilling and continuing its original purpose as a center for higher learning. The main buildings are now in the process of being listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
LOST: Located at the southeast corner of Themis and Middle streets, the Ellen Wright House was built by Judge George Henderson in 1811. Constructed of poplar logs, it served as a home, tavern, trading post and seat of law for the judge, being Cape Girardeau's first courthouse. Ellen Miller Henderson Wright lived in the house 62 years, first as the wife of Henderson's son, Columbus, and later as the wife of Abraham Wright. The house survived the New Madrid Earthquakes of 1811 and 1812, but was torn down in 1917 soon after Ellen died.
SAVED: The Cape Girardeau Court of Common Pleas was established by the Missouri Legislature in 1851. A local tax was enacted in June 1854 for the construction of the building, to be used as a city hall, "calaboose" and courtroom. The exact date that it was completed isn't known, but it seems unlikely that the building was finished before the end of the year. The building was originally built as a square structure. North and south wings and the cupola were added as part of a renovation in 1888; the cupola -- or at least parts of it -- came from the St. Charles Hotel. The west wing was added in 1960.
During the Civil War, the Union provost marshal had his headquarters at the courthouse, and the jail in the basement housed disloyal locals, captured rebels, disorderly Union soldiers, and people awaiting trials.
The courthouse has changed hands from time to time. Originally a city-owned structure, the federal government acquired the building in 1941 with plans to demolished it. The transfer was unpopular, and the building was deeded back to the city in 1957.
Currently the courthouse is leased to Cape Girardeau County and continues to serve as a courthouse and office building.
Saved: St. James African Methodist Episcopal Church. The Cape Girardeau congregation of the African Methodist Church was formed in 1863, when the St. James Society, or Station, was organized following a revival held in the basement of the old First Baptist Church on Lorimier Street. After holding services at several locations, the congregation built the present church, on North Street, in 1875. Throughout the years, St. James has played a leadership role in the life of Cape Girardeau's African-American community, holding seminars, NAACP gatherings, and housing refugees in times of floods.
Lost: The old First Baptist Church was built about 1839 and was the first church built in Cape Girardeau. Only steps and entry foundation remain at the site on Lorimier Street, just south of Themis Street. Reportedly, the two separate step arrangements reflect the usage of the time; women used one set of stairs and men the other. The congregation continued to worship in the brick building until 1893, when a new church was completed at Broadway and Spanish Street. The abandoned church collapsed in October 1919.
SAVED: Centenary Methodist Church. The tornado of 1850 demolished the Methodist chapel on Spanish Street, which had been built just 10 years before. It was rebuilt at the corner of Bellevue and Middle streets, where it remained until the congregation divided during the Civil War. After the war, the Southern Methodists built a church at Sprigg and Themis streets. Eventually outgrowing that church, the congregation began construction of a new edifice at Bellevue and Ellis streets in 1906. They named it "Centenary," after the 100th anniversary of Cape Girardeau Methodism. The new structure burned in 1914 and was replaced the following year by the present Romanesque-style building.
LOST: Grace Methodist Church. Grace Methodist Episcopal Church was organized in 1852, and a house of worship was constructed two years later. In 1890, the congregation moved into its second church at Sprigg and Independence streets. It was a Gothic-style brick building. Following the construction of the present Grace United Methodist on Caruthers Avenue, the city of Cape Girardeau purchased the old edifice in 1959, and it became police headquarters. A new police station was constructed in 1976, and the next year the old church was razed. Today, the Cape Girardeau Fire Department headquarters occupies the site.
SAVED: Hanover Lutheran Church. Immigrants from the Hanover region of Germany have long played a role in Cape Girardeau history. Hanoverian residents northwest of Cape Girardeau worshipped in private homes and businesses and formed a congregation in 1847. They built Hanover Lutheran Church in 1887 along Perryville Road on land donated by Henry Krueger. An elementary school was constructed adjacent to the church in 1923. At the time of the church's centennial in 1987, it was added to the National Register of Historic Places. It was replaced in function by a modern church across the road in 1969.
LOST: Old Trinity Lutheran Church. The present Trinity Lutheran Church stands in the footprint of Old Trinity Lutheran Church at the northeast corner of Themis and Frederick streets. The old church was built in 1879 and replaced the congregation's original house of worship on William Street. The congregation, formed in 1854 with the help of the pastor of Hanover Lutheran Church, relocated to the present site as its membership grew. For 60 years, Trinity Lutheran School was in a brick structure next to the church on Themis Street from 1865 to 1925. In 1978, an engineer's report disclosed the church's badly deteriorated condition. The building was declared unsafe, and the following year it was demolished, to be replaced in 1982 by the present Trinity Lutheran.
SAVED: Carnegie Library. Cape Girardeau's first public library opened in 1914 in a building at Spanish and Themis streets. That same year there were discussions of building a library using funds provided by Carnegie Corp. Nothing was done, however, until two years later, when the Women's Council of Clubs obtained a $20,000 pledge from the Carnegie group to fund construction. World War I interfered with the plans, and in 1921 the matter was resurrected by the women's group. That year Carnegie Corp. agreed to a $25,000 donation, if residents could raise an additional $5,000. More than $11,000 was collected, and the surplus money went for additional books and equipment. In 1980, the Cape Girardeau Public Library was moved to its present location on Clark Avenue, and the old Carnegie structure was renovated into office space for the county government.
LOST: St. Francis Hospital. A group of Franciscan sisters came to Cape Girardeau in 1875, operating hospitals in two locations before constructing a small brick facility at the northwest corner of Sprigg and William streets in 1879. This hospital was greatly expanded with additions in 1882 and 1901. A new hospital was erected on Good Hope Street at Pacific Street in 1914, and the old building later became St. Mary's High School. Renovated and expanded periodically, the Good Hope Street facility served until 1976, when the new Saint Francis Medical Center was built on the west side of town. The old structure served as a dorm for Southeast Missouri State University students for a few years. Despite efforts to save it, the building was torn down in 2000.
SAVED: Academic Hall. After the fire destroyed the original Normal School building in 1902, plans were quickly drawn up for Academic Hall at the same location. The legislature authorized an appropriation of $200,000, and work on the new structure began in 1903. The architect for the hall was J.B. Legg, and the general contractors were Edward F. Regenhardt and C.O. Allen Maule of Cape Girardeau. The building was opened for public viewing in December 1905 and was put to use early in 1906. It has become the symbol of Southeast Missouri State University.
LOST: Old Normal School. Following the creation of the Third District Normal School in 1873, an ornate building to house the institution's classes and offices was built in 1874 and 1875 on the site of Fort B, atop one of the highest hills in the city. Three stories tall with a basement, the combination High Victorian Gothic and Romanesque structure was designed by C.B. Clarke of St. Louis. Samuel Clemens described it as "a bright new edifice, picturesquely and peculiarly towered and pinnacled. …" As another new classroom building was being constructed nearby, the hall caught fire and burned in April 1902. Classes were transferred to the Common Pleas Courthouse, various churches, and other buildings until new classroom buildings could be finished.
LOST: Fairground Park Clubhouse (Floral Hall) The Southeast Missouri District Fair began in 1855, when the Missouri Legislature appropriated $3,000 to form the Southeast District Agriculture Society. After being located on two different tracts in its first 45 years, the fair was moved to Fairground Park, now Capaha Park, in 1900. The land was purchased from Col. Robert Sturdivant for $2,000. The Fair Association immediately began building a grandstand, digging a pond and laying out a horse track around it. A clubhouse, known as Floral Hall, was built in 1905 by contractor A.J. Schmidt to showcase flowers, crafts and baked goods. During other months of the year, the pavilion served as a community center, housing dances, meetings and other gatherings. During the flood of 1937, an emergency hospital for refugees was set up in the hall. On Feb. 11, 1937, the remaining nine patients were carried to safety from the building as it burned to the ground.
SAVED: A.C. Brase Arena Building The Great Depression halted the fair, but in 1937 a special bond issue was passed by Cape Girardeau voters for the purchase of land that was developed into the Arena Park, home of the SEMO District Fair. The Works Progress Administration began to construct the Arena Building that same year. Evangeline Booth of the Salvation Army dedicated the new building on May 14, 1940. When World War II began, the fair was again canceled, but in 1944 the exposition returned. In 1988 the structure was renamed the A.C. Brase Arena Building, a tribute to the late civic leader who spearheaded improvements to the structure. Those improvements have continued through the efforts of the A.C. Brase Foundation and the city of Cape Girardeau.
LOST: William Hirsch House
The William Hirsch house was at 720 Good Hope St. and was built around 1860. With massive, 13-inch-thick brick walls, it had nine rooms and two halls on the two main floors, with four more rooms in the basement and one on the attic level. Hirsch's father, George Hirsch, founded a mercantile store at Sprigg and Good Hope streets on July 4, 1876, naming it the Centennial Store. It later became Hirsch's Thriftway. Expansion of the store's parking lot caused the old Hirsch home to be demolished in 1958.
SAVED: Fuerth/Kage House
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The Fuerth/Kage House is located on the northeast corner of Broadway and Spanish Street. The abstract for the property doesn't indicate a structure on that corner until 1883, but oral tradition holds that the 2 1/2-story brick house was built in 1860. Two years before that, the property was purchased by Charles and Walburger Fuerth. Three-time Cape Girardeau Mayor Fred A. Kage bought the house in 1886 for $1,332, and it remained in the Kage family until 1919.
LOST: Lacey House
The construction of the Lacey House dates to circa 1860. It stood approximately where the Cape Girardeau Central Junior High School campus is. The house was named for Alfred T. Lacey, who was a banker and mayor of Cape Girardeau. The brick home had 10 rooms with a number of fireplaces. The Lacey House was caught in the middle of the Battle of Cape Girardeau in April 1863, when it sustained damage from being shelled. This incident is immortalized on a panel of the Mississippi River Tales Mural. The structure was torn down in 1951.
SAVED: Longview, the George Thilenius House Longview, the home of Col. George Thilenius, is at 100 Longview Place. The house was built between 1870 and 1873 and was patterned after his sister's home in St. Louis. During the Civil War, Thilenius served as lieutenant colonel in the 56th Enrolled Missouri Militia, a Union Army unit composed of local men. After the war, Thilenius bought 9.56 acres of land for $1,000. He built a winery first, followed by the house. The latter was built in the Greek Revival style, featuring a classic triangular pediment and symmetrical architectural elements. The winery was razed around 1960, but the house is still the home of Thilenius' great-granddaughter. It was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1983 and on the Local Landmark list in 1996.
LOST: Horrell/Klostermann House.
Benjamin Horrell, a businessman from New Orleans, employed Edwin Branch Deane in the 1840s to build his summer home in the 300 block of South Spanish Street, facing the Mississippi River. The brick facade of this Greek Revival structure was the same on the east side as on the west, with large porches stretching across both front and back. In later years, it was owned by Louis F. Klostermann, a Cape Girardeau merchant. Klostermann's widow sold the property to the Knights of Columbus, who razed the building in 1935 to make way for the Knights of Columbus Hall.
SAVED: Frederick Pott House
The Pott house is at the northeast corner of Pacific and Themis streets. Tax records indicate this Italianate structure was built in about 1885. It was named for Frederick W. Pott, a native of Prussia, who came to Cape Girardeau with his parents in 1854. He operated a mill in Cape Girardeau until his death in 1910. His widow resided in the brick house until she died in 1933. In later years, it served as a doctor's residence and office. The house was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1999.
SAVED: Kraft Bakery Building. Adam Kraft was a 23-year-old German immigrant with little money, but plenty of talent for baking, when he arrived in Cape Girardeau in 1855. He worked for a local baker until 1862, when he started his own business on Water Street. It prospered, eventually expanding to three locations in the city. Kraft Bakery Building, at the northwest corner of Spanish and Independence streets, was constructed in 1882 in the German vernacular style. The brick building replaced a frame structure Kraft purchased in 1873. Adam Kraft died in 1888, but the bakery operation continued under the guidance of his wife, Elizabeth Huhn Kraft, and their three sons. The business closed in 1915.
LOST: Bauer Brothers Bakery. The brick structure at the northwest corner of Broadway and Sprigg Street was long known as Bauer Brothers Bakery. But records show that in 1871 the two-story, German vernacular building housed a saloon and hotel operated by Conrad Kempe. In about 1899, two brothers -- Carl and Fred Bauer -- established Bauer Brothers Bakery there. A third brother, Christian Bauer, joined the firm in 1906. The trio operated the bakery until Carl died in 1922. That same year, the surviving brothers sold a third interest in the business to Arthur A. Vogel. Master Baking Co. of Mount Vernon, Ill., purchased the operation in 1944. After it ceased being used as a bakery, the building housed a variety of commercial enterprises, including a restaurant and a thrift store. Milton George of Broadway Prescription Shops Inc. later bought the building and had it razed in 1977.
LOST: St. Mary's High School. After operating in two other locations in Cape Girardeau, the Sisters of St. Francis built Saint Francis Hospital at the northwest corner of Sprigg and William streets in 1878. The building was enlarged in 1901 and 1905. The hospital was moved to a new facility on Good Hope Street in 1914, and the original structure was used for various purposes, frequently sitting empty. In 1925 the building was purchased by the congregation of St. Mary's Catholic Church and was transformed into St. Mary's High School. It was operated by the School Sisters of Notre Dame and initially served grades seven through nine. For many years, St. Mary's, Lincoln (Cobb) School, and Central High School all operated within two blocks of each other. For 29 years the old building housed the parochial school, eventually becoming overcrowded and obsolete. A new Cape Girardeau Catholic high school was opened on Caruthers Avenue in 1954. The old hospital/high school was razed in 1956.
SAVED: Old Central High School. In 1913 Cape Girardeau voters approved a bond issue that financed the construction or renovation of several school structures. A contract to build a city high school on South Pacific Street was issued in 1914, and in October 1915 the school opened for use. In 1953 the high school was moved to a newer structure on Caruthers Avenue, and the building was reconfigured as the Central Junior High. After the new junior high (now Central Middle School) opened in the early 1960s, the building was gutted and rebuilt for use as a seventh-grade center, being renamed the Louis J. Schultz School. The extensive renovation changed the exterior appearance of the building, but much of the original infrastructure remained. After the third Central High School was opened in 2002, the original high school sat unused until this year, when further renovations allowed the Alternative Education Center to reopen on the ground floor. Ninety years after its construction, the massive old building is once again being used for its original purpose.
LOST: Old Lorimier School. Public education in Cape Girardeau got off to a controversial start. After the state legislature passed an act in 1867 allowing tax-supported public schools, Cape Girardeau's voters approved such a tax over vocal opposition, and a public school opened in the basement of the old Presbyterian Church on Lorimier Street. More opposition arose over a plan to build a school, but the bond issue passed and the new facility was constructed in 1871 and 1872 on Independence Street at Fountain Street. Lorimier School was built by D.F. Tiedeman at a cost of $15,000. High school classes were held in this building until the construction of Central High School in 1914. Due to deterioration of the Lorimier structure, classes were moved to Broadway School in 1928. Cape Girardeau's first school building was torn down in 1935 to make way for the new Lorimier School.
SAVED: New Lorimier School. To replace the aging Old Lorimier School, an $85,000 bond issue was passed in 1936 to build a new school on the same site, along with a $57,000 grant from the Public Works Administration. The eight-classroom structure opened in 1937. The school was closed in 1975 because of declining enrollment. In a good example of adaptive reuse, the city of Cape Girardeau acquired the building and converted it into a city hall, while maintaining its historic sense and association of a public schoolhouse.
LOST: The Daily Republican Building. Fred and George Naeter of St. Louis purchased The Daily Republican for $1,800 and published their first edition Oct. 3, 1904. In 1908 the Naeter brothers, joined by a third brother, Harry, constructed a new building at 225 Broadway, aided by Louis Houck. Construction began on the two-story, red brick building on July 10, and it was occupied on Nov. 2. J.B. Legg designed a structure with elements of the Mission style, topping it with a red-tiled roof and decorating the front with a distinctive second-story gallery. The business eventually outgrew the facility, and the newspaper, renamed The Southeast Missourian, constructed a new home in the 300 block of Broadway in 1925. The old structure became the Cape Girardeau Chamber of Commerce offices, as well as a meeting place for other civic endeavors. In the summer of 1974, the building was purchased by the First Presbyterian Church, which razed it in 1975.
SAVED: Southeast Missourian Building. Local builder J.W. Gerhardt constructed the Southeast Missourian building in 1924 to 1925. Designed in the Spanish Colonial Revival style by St. Louis architect Thomas P. Barnett, the building was dedicated in a two-day gala celebration in September 1925. The style was chosen to reflect the Naeters' "ideals of community beautification and development." Characteristics of the style were employed in the structure, including a Mission-tile roof, stucco walls, terra cotta cartouche, iron balconies, decorative brackets and tiles. The Southeast Missourian building was expanded several times, but has maintained a high integrity of its original design and has played a significant role in the community's history. It was placed on the National Register of Historic Places on June 1.
LOST: Farmers and Merchants Bank. Farmers and Merchants Bank was incorporated in November 1904 and opened for business on Jan. 3, 1905, in the 600 block of Good Hope Street. Situated in the Haarig business district, the bank catered to the financial needs of its German-American neighbors. In 1923, a new facility was built at the southwest corner of Good Hope and Sprigg streets. The red-brick structure was expanded and remodeled several times in the following years, including construction of an addition on the south side of the building in 1936 and installation of a drive-up window on the west side in 1970. Three years later, Farmers and Merchants moved its main banking facility to a new building on William Street, and the Good Hope location became a branch office. Boatmen's Bank of St. Louis purchased Farmers and Merchants in 1982, and in 1985 the Haarig structure was donated to the Salvation Army. Before it was razed in 1995, it had been the oldest surviving bank structure in the city.
SAVED: Sturdivant Bank. Col. Robert Sturdivant came to Southeast Missouri in 1835 and worked at various trades, including the mercantile business, teaching, newspaper publishing and banking. In 1866, he acquired the assets of the Third Branch Bank of Missouri and opened a bank under his own name at the northwest corner of Main and Themis streets in Cape Girardeau. This structure was torn down, and a new bank building rose in its place in 1892. It was designed by St. Louis architect J.B. Legg and built by Cape Girardeau contractor Henry Ossenkop. A small office on the second floor of the new building housed Cape Girardeau's first telephone company and switchboard in 1896. Sturdivant retired from banking in 1902, but the institution continued to thrive. In 1930 it abandoned its Main Street location and moved into the Himmelberger-Harrison Building on Broadway. A clock which had hung on the bank building since 1917 was purchased by H.I. Himmelberger in 1939 and was also removed to the H-H Building. The dark days of the Great Depression saw the demise of the Sturdivant Bank in 1932, but the three-story brick building which long housed the institution continues to be used for retail stores in the heart of downtown Cape Girardeau.
LOST: Anna Kay Farm round barn. Built around 1917 or 1918, the unusual round barn was on the west side of South Sprigg Street Road on the Anna Kay Farm. A twin to the dairy barn was on the Little Valley Farm nearby. At the time the barns were constructed, the property upon which both structures stood was owned by Mary Hunter Giboney Houck, wife of Louis Houck. While the barn on the Little Valley Farm was destroyed by fire in 1929, the Anna Kay barn was a landmark on South Sprigg until the early 1980s, when it fell into disrepair and was demolished. Round barns were an oddity in this area, but they held certain advantages over traditional rectangular structures such as the efficiency of feeding cattle from a center silo. The barns also contained large hayracks and storage areas on upper floors.
SAVED: The Armstrong-Ramsey house . The original Ramsey house was a two-story log structure, which is enclosed within the current Armstrong-Ramsey house on Silver Springs Road near Cape Girardeau Central High School. The log home was built by Andrew Ramsey, one of the early pioneers of Cape Girardeau, shortly after his arrival here in 1795. The house was enlarged around 1818, when it was purchased by Rebecca Cross Harbison. She left the property to her son, John Cross, who made further modifications. At the time of Cross' death in 1868, the property also contained a summer kitchen, a carriage house, a smoke house, a utility house and 10 slave cabins. Pieces of the original 408-acre farm were sold off over the years. In 1925 the remaining 105 acres were acquired by F.J. Armstrong, who renamed the property Silver Springs Farm. It remains in the Armstrong family.
LOST: I. Ben Miller Ice Cream Factory. I. Ben Miller was a native of Cape Girardeau County who worked in local drugstores until opening his own pharmacy in Cape Girardeau in 1893. He installed one of the first soda fountains in the city and produced ice cream from a hand-cranked machine. The product became so popular that Miller turned to the manufacture of ice cream on a large scale. This building was believed to have been built in the 1880s and was on Water Street, in the block north of Independence Street. Miller moved his ice cream factory into the brick structure in 1911. Five years later, he relocated to a building he constructed on Spanish Street. The Water Street structure was torn down in the early 1930s to make room for the Montgomery Ward building, which closed in 1981.
SAVED: Shivelbine's Music Store. The Planters' House, constructed about 1875, was a saloon and hotel at 535 Broadway. The first known proprietor of the saloon was Frederick Wittmoor, who operated the establishment in the late 1880s. The saloon closed by the end of the 1800s. By 1915, the building was used solely as a rooming house and as a "moving picture" house, with a bed sheet serving as a screen. The brick structure was eventually sold to John Atkinson and modified for use as the Excelsior Furniture and Music Store. During these modifications, the adjoining buildings were incorporated into the structure. It housed various businesses over the years, but in 1949 William and L.J. Shivelbine purchased M&S Music Co. and relocated the business to 535 Broadway. They changed the name of the enterprise to Shivelbine's Music Store, which continues to operate, a solid fixture of downtown Cape Girardeau.
LOST: Ellis--Wathen--Ranney House. Construction of the Ellis-Wathen-Ranney House, 501 North Main St., began in about 1839 and took two years to complete. Mr. and Mrs. Alfred Ellis had the house built for their daughter, Maria, upon her marriage to Ignatius R. Wathen. The house represented Early Classical Revival style, a form of Colonial architecture, at its best and was constructed with slave labor out of sandstone blocks locally quarried. It was built by architect Edwin Branch Deane, who also designed the Glenn House and the James Reynolds House. The Wathen home was later acquired by Judge Robert Ranney. In 1933, the American Institute of Architects tried to have the federal government preserve the home for its extraordinary architecture, but to no avail. By the mid-1950s, the building had been divided into apartments, and it gradually fell into disrepair. The home was demolished in 1958, and a concrete parking lot is now in its place.
SAVED: Harrison House. Located at 313 Themis St., the Henry and Lila Luce Harrison House was designed in the Queen Anne style by prominent St. Louis architect Jerome Legg. It was constructed in 1897 for Dr. Samuel Harris, a Cape Girardeau physician, who died shortly after its completion. William Henry Harrison, vice president of Himmelberger-Harrison Lumber Co., purchased the house in 1899, and it remained in the Harrison family into the 1980s. The Queen Anne style is characterized by the complex roof-line, asymmetrical facade, oriel window, Palladian window surrounded by fish-scale shingles and the wraparound porch. The interior of the two-and-a-half-story brick retains the original five fireplaces and several stained-glass windows. Under the care of the current owners, the Harrison House is once again a showplace and an excellent example of the Queen Anne style. It has been nominated for placement on the National Register of Historic Places.
LOST: Old Post Office: The United States first established postal service in Cape Girardeau in 1805. Using numerous other buildings at various times, a new post office/federal building was opened at the southeast corner of Fountain Street and Broadway in 1910. Built in a massive Second Renaissance Revival style, newspaper articles of the time revealed the stately building cost around $98,000, with another $10,000 for furnishings and fixtures, and $18,000 for the land upon which it stood, bringing the total to about $126,000. The post office served the city well for many years, and it complemented the other large buildings at the same corner: The Idan-Ha Hotel, the Marquette Hotel and the H&H Building. Despite pleas by concerned Girardeans to save it, the old post office was razed in 1967, a process that took much longer than planned because of the building's sturdy construction, and the present federal courthouse rose in its place.
SAVED: Fire Station No. 1: The building at 538 Independence St. once housed Cape Girardeau's jail, police court and fire department. In 1907 voters approved a tax levy for $7,000 to build a new police station at the northwest corner of Independence and Frederick streets. The fire department was added and the plans were modified to include its needs. Edward F. Regenhardt was the contractor for the building, which opened in 1909. As the police and fire departments grew, the fire section grew to two stories and an addition was added to the rear of the building. However, it still retained its original Colonial Revival style. In 1960, the police department was moved to the former Grace Methodist Church building, leaving the original building solely as Fire Station No. 1. The old station continued to serve the fire department until 1981, when it was replaced by the current structure a block away. The River Heritage Museum opened its doors in the old building the next year. To learn more about the history of this structure, and to view first hand the interior of an early 20th century fire station, visit the museum at 538 Independence St.
LOST: The Alvarado. The Alvarado was a service station and cafe that celebrated a two-day opening on Dec. 6 and 7, 1929, at the northeast corner of Broadway and Kingshighway. The 12-room structure was designed by the local architectural firm of Reither and Lindsay for I.R. Kelso's Kelso Oil Co. The popular cafe was built in the Spanish style. Kelso Oil sold its holdings, including the Alvarado, in 1952 to Socony-Vacuum Oil Co. Later, it was "modernized" in a series of renovations, with the gas station becoming larger and the canopy being removed. In the 1960s, the distinctive towers were removed, and the structure was reduced to a rectangular building. It was razed in 1971 to make room for a new gas station, which has now also been replaced.
SAVED: Turner Hall. Cape Girardeau's Turner Society, an organization of German immigrants, began construction of Turner Hall on Dec. 10, 1868, at the northwest corner of Broadway and Lorimier Street. Turner societies acted as community centers for Germans, helping them to adapt to the New World. The local hall was designed in the German Vernacular style by Nicholas Gonner, a native of Luxembourg. In 1888 the building was purchased by the Masons, who used it as their temple until new quarters were built in 1891. It was then sold and transformed into an opera house, which presented a variety of entertainment. Commercial operations, such as grocery stores, a Chinese laundry and The Daily Republican newspaper, were also housed on the first floor of the building at various times. In 1954, after being threatened with demolition, the building was purchased by Richard and Alene Barnhouse. It was renovated in a New Orleans French Quarter style, and the Royal N'Orleans restaurant was opened. After a devastating fire gutted the structure in 1990, owner Dennis Stockard rebuilt the opera house. Today, it continues to house the N'Orleans restaurant.
LOST: Cape Girardeau Northern depot. Resembling a fortification, complete with crenelations surrounding the roof, the three-story limestone railroad station was constructed in 1905 by Louis Houck to service his Cape Girardeau Northern Railroad. Contractor for the building was Charles Mortensen. The building consisted of two large waiting rooms and ticket offices on the first floor. The second and third floors housed the railroad's general offices. On Nov. 10, 1961, the depot -- then owned by the Missouri Pacific Railroad, but no longer being utilized -- was damaged by fire. However, the burnt building stood untouched until it was dismantled in 1964 by city workers. The parks department recycled the salvageable stone, using it in the construction of the State Conservation Commission building in Arena Park.
SAVED: Meyer Supply. Located in the Haarig business district, an area of mostly German businesses centered around the intersection of Sprigg and Good Hope streets, Meyer and Schwab Hardware Store was established around 1900 at 626 Good Hope by George Meyer and Herman Schwab. After a disastrous fire in 1916, the current building was constructed at 620 Good Hope. The brick, two-story structure shows distinctive Colonial Revival influences. A glazed tile detail surrounds the window bays, and a terra cotta panel inscribed "Meyer Building" decorates the front facade. William Frederick Suedekum first bought out Schwab and eventually Meyer as well. From 1926 until 1982 this building housed Suedekum Hardware or Suedekum and Son(s) Hardware, as various sons of the Suedekum family became involved. The Meyer family, which had plumbing businesses elsewhere, reacquired the business in 1990, changing the name to Meyer Supply Company. After 90 years, the building is still being used for its original purpose. It is a contributing building to the Haarig Commercial District, a National Register district.
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For information on preserving and rehabilitating a historic structure, contact the Cape Girardeau Historic Preservation Commission or the Historic Preservation Program at Southeast Missouri State University. -- Compiled by Scott House and Robyn Mainor of the Historic Preservation Commission of the city of Cape Girardeau
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