Out of the past: March 28

1991

Partial funding for a 320-foot-long, 14-foot-tall mural for the downtown floodwall has been recommended by the Cape Girardeau Convention and Visitors Bureau Advisory Board; the mural proposal, which will be submitted to the city council, calls for a $5,000 cash outlay for the $16,300 project, with a $2,000 contingency fund for repair and maintenance of the giant mural.

Safehouse for Women Inc., a not-for-profit organization that hopes to establish a safehouse here for women and children who are victims of domestic violence, is moving ahead with plans for a $100,000 fund drive.

1966

Preparations for the widening of Highway 72 in Jackson and nearly 3 miles to the west are evident to motorists traveling the route; workers of the State Highway Department are busy with burner devices and scrapers in removing all old tar from cracks in the surface of the concrete paving. Trinidad Asphalt Co., which will do the widening, is making other preparations.

The Jackson Chamber of Commerce endorses the action of the chamber executive board last week in making a $1,000 deposit on the old Oliver house on East Adams Street. Prior to the motion to endorse the action, several people spoke in support of the purchase of the house and converting it to a city museum.

1941

The Cape Girardeau City Council gives C.A. Juden permission to erect a brick building on North Spanish Street, between Themis and Independence streets, for the National Youth Administration; the city waived the installation of a sprinkler system in the new structure as provided by the city building code for downtown structures.

The city council orders a check of traffic over the toll bridge here for a period of one week; the data will be sent to E.L. Cordes, manager of the Lewis and Clark Bridges at St. Charles, Missouri; Cordes will then provide an unofficial estimate on the value of the river bridge here.

1916

Charles "Dick" Wipperman, a tailor on lower Broadway, is planning to build a fine bungalow on South Lorimier Street; he disposed of his old home in the West End several years ago and then closed a deal with John Lilly, cashier of the Sturdivant bank, for a lot next door to the beautiful Lilly home.

W.S. Lawrie speaks at a mass meeting of black residents at Lincoln School in the evening; he pleads for cooperation on the part of adult blacks of the city in securing a larger attendance of black children at the school in all grades. A committee of blacks recently asked the school board for more high-school work at Lincoln School.

-- Sharon K. Sanders