Out of the past: June 17

1996

Organizers say this weekend's festival was one of the most successful Riverfests ever, coming to a rousing close Saturday night as thousands packed the lawn of the Common Pleas Courthouse for the annual fireworks show and the golden sounds of the country band Lonestar; festival chairwoman Laurel Adkisson says attendance at the concert was the largest she's ever seen at Riverfest; with hot days relieved by cool evenings, Riverfest 1996 easily eclipsed last year's turnout, which was marred by bad weather.

The construction industry picked up in Cape Girardeau during May, following a slight downturn in April; building permits worth $2.8 million were issued last month, more than double April's figure; two of the building projects are in Cape West Business Park: a 78,000-square-foot strip shopping center and a 14-screen cinema.

1971

State College students will return to history and social science classes this fall in two new locations; the Division of History and Social Science will occupy the now empty Education-Social Science Building and the old Campus School; this move is possible because of the April relocation of the education-psychology department and Campus and College High schools to the new $2.5 million Education and Psychology Building on the north part of the campus.

Assessed valuation of real and personal property in Cape Girardeau County gained by slightly more than $3 million from 1970 to 1971, reports County Clerk Rusby C. Crites; the assessed valuation for 1971 was $91,328,185.

1946

City Commissioner Charles Schweer says he has written the State Board of Health in Jefferson City requesting that an inspector or group of inspectors be sent here to tour local dairy farms and processing plants; the move was made by Schweer as a step in his efforts to secure for the city a full-time milk inspector; the last similar survey in the city was conducted by the state in 1943.

The Idan-Ha Hotel, Broadway and Fountain, as it appeared in 1951. (G.D. Fronabarger ~ Southeast Missourian archive)

The Dormeyer Pharmacy, in the Idan-Ha Hotel building, has been sold by Byron F. Dormeyer to Trueman D. Boone, who assumes management of the establishment; Boone came to Cape Girardeau in October 1944 from North Platte, Nebraska, as senior examiner at Harris Field for the Civil Aeronautics Administration; Linus DeLisle of Portageville, Missouri, has taken the post as pharmacist and other employees are being retained.

1921

The women of the Council of Clubs continue to raise the matching funds necessary for the construction of a Carnegie library in Cape Girardeau; the council has asked Mayor H.H. Haas to officially assure the women the city will provide an ongoing maintenance fund for the library; the city counselor has advised him the City Council has the authority to levy a special library tax for support of the facility; it is believed such assurance will help the women in their fund-raising efforts.

Henry Hartzell, who with his wife, has been here several months visiting his parents, leaves for Joplin, Missouri, where he has lived for a long time; he is a mining engineer and says the mining business is duller now than at any time in many years.

-- Sharon K. Sanders