Out of the past: Feb. 14

1994

A building permit has been issued for the addition of eight loft apartments in the former Montgomery Ward building in downtown Cape Girardeau; Don Lowe of Sikeston, Missouri, owner of the building, announced earlier that the apartments would be added on the second floor of the building, with five of them providing river views.

Whether Notre Dame High School expands or a new facility is built, the high school will remain strictly Catholic, says Bishop John J. Leibrecht; the bishop, here to celebrate Mass with students from Notre Dame, St. Vincent de Paul and St. Mary's schools, says some change for the school is on the way, probably within two years.

1969

The 150-member cast of the musical "Up With People" delivers its first of three shows in the evening at Cape Girardeau Central High School auditorium; 50 members of the cast are staying on the State College campus during the show's run here, while the other 130 young people will bunk in homes throughout the community.

The move from Florsheim Shoe Co.'s old plant on North Main Street to its new facility on Highway 74 begins in the morning.

1944

Cape Girardeau and the district dig and slide their way out from under six inches of snow, the heaviest in five years; street and highway traffic is slowed, and minor accidents are numerous; the snowfall comes as a surprise to this section of the state, which thus far during the season had witnessed little more than flurries.

The heavy snowfall and slippery roads don't daunt one farmer, who wanted to come to town to sell his produce; unable to negotiate the roads with his automobile, Joe Kirchdoerfer, who resides west of Cape Girardeau, hitches two mules to a sled, loads it with milk cans and other produce, and travels right on in past stalled automobiles.

1919

A long-distance message from Jefferson City to The Missourian late yesterday afternoon advised that the original copy of the Speer Bill, No. 285, providing for the amendment of the drainage law, has disappeared, and that it will be necessary to prepare a substitute bill; the bill was at a committee hearing Monday night, which was addressed by several men from Southeast Missouri, and it disappeared at that time.

A contract has been let to W.J. Gerhardt for the construction of a large, two-story brick addition to the already large Roth Tobacco Co. manufacturing plant here; the new addition will make room for about 30 more workers, bringing the total number of employees to about 100.

-- Sharon K. Sanders