Out of the past 6/20/11

25 years ago: June 20, 1986

Riverfest kicks off in the evening in downtown Cape Girardeau, offering arts, crafts, games, Amtrak passenger train rides and more.

The former Food Horizon's IGA store in Town Plaza has been purchased from Wetterau Inc., by Kenneth Storey of Sikeston, Mo., and is now a Storey's Food Giant.

50 years ago: June 20, 1961

Property owners along Edgewood Drive have petitioned the city council for relief from the fast driving of motor vehicles on the street; the street, only a few years old, runs north and south from Gordonville Road to Bloomfield Road; petitioners charge that some vehicles are being driving 50 to 70 miles per hour.

The Cape Girardeau County Historical Society has completed plans for the July 4 rededication of the memorial fountain and renovated bandstand in Courthouse Park.

Bauer Bros. Bakery was at the northwest corner of Broadway and Sprigg Street. In 1936 it was remodeled and the covering over the front sidewalk was removed. (Missourian archives)

75 years ago: June 20, 1936

A hand pump has been installed at a cement reservoir east of the railroad tracks in the Smelterville suburb by city workers under direction of Commissioner Phil Steck; it replaced one that had been worn out, and pumps water from a city water line for the use of nearby residents.

Bauer Baking Co., 700 Broadway, holds an open house to show off its remodeled and rearranged establishment; one of the characteristic touches of early Girardeau architecture disappeared with the remodeling; that was the big porch built over the sidewalk; now, what was an ordinary brick front is an attractive black and green Carrara glass, resembling glazed tile.

100 years ago: June 20, 1911

C.C. Hawley and Co., contractor in street improvements and similar work involving the handling of stone and dirt, lands the contract for riprapping the riverbank in front of Water Street south of Independence Street; Hawley says he'll start at once to secure the barges necessary to haul the stone to the city.

Two hundred thirty-two Elks Club members and families arrive aboard the steamer Cape Girardeau from Murphysboro, Ill., for a social visit with the local Elks; the visitors are on their annual trip by boat from Grand Tower to Thebes, Ill., from which point they will take a train back home.

-- Sharon K. Sanders