Out of the past: May 14

1999

A recent survey by the community and economic development group of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign shows that the majority of shoppers in the Cape Girardeau retail market — 77% — visit the downtown area to dine, and 53% make the trip downtown to shop; 60% of customers surveyed rate downtown shopping as fair.

Southeast Missouri State University names Dr. Dennis Holt its interim provost; the Board of Regents approves the appointment following a closed-door meeting at the University Center; Holt is senior associate provost at the university; he will serve as Southeast’s chief academic officer while the university searches for a permanent replacement for Dr. Charles Kupchella.

1974

An eight-year effort to establish a medical clinic at Jackson is a step closer to reality; the Southeast Missouri Medical Center, Inc., last night gave the go-ahead for the initial development stage of the project; the action allows the St. Louis consulting firm of Bank Building Corporation to begin pre-costing, functional designs and elevations and project estimates of the clinic and a nursing home facility.

The resignation last night for Dr. F. Wade Callicutt as assistant superintendent and director of secondary education at the Cape Girardeau public schools brought action by the school board on two changes in the secondary administrative staff and left a vacancy at the junior high school; James B. Englehart, now principal at the junior high, was appointed to fill the position in the central board office being vacated by Callicutt; Lanny W. Barnes, assistant principal at Junior High, was elevated to the position of principal.

1949

Judge J. Henry Caruthers in Common Pleas Court yesterday overruled a motion to dismiss a suit brought against the Fox Theater Corp. for allegedly failing to follow the law with regard to placing theater seats in its two motion picture houses here, the Fox Broadway and the Orpheum; the suit alleges those theaters fail to maintain aisles along the outward ends of the rows of seats, either in the balconies or on the main floors, in violation of the statute; judgment in the amount of $5,000 a day for each daily performance in the last five years is asked; this would total over $18,000,000.

The initial phase of an extensive remodeling program on the old Park Theater building in the 200 block of Broadway, to be the new home of the Salvation Army, will be completed within three weeks, says Maj. Leonard Burridge; while local unit personnel will be elated when work is finished and they can move from the present Spanish Street location to the new quarters, there is still a big problem, that of raising $3,500 yet needed to pay for repairs and redecoration.

1924

The Cape Girardeau Chamber of Commerce is planning a series of projects, which they will present to city officials and seek cooperation to carry it out; included in the number of suggestions which the Chamber will make will be ones asking for more rigid observance of fire regulations, removal of unsightly and dangerous buildings on prominent streets, construction of sidewalks on all improved thoroughfares and general cleaning up of the city’s streets.

The Elks Building on Themis Street will be sold at public auction on June 6; the date is announced by local attorney Rush H. Limbaugh, who has been appointed special master by Judge John A. Snider in Common Pleas Court to handle the sale; the present indebtedness against the building, which for years has been Cape Girardeau’s leading community meeting place, totals about $25,000.

Southeast Missourian librarian Sharon Sanders compiles the information for the daily Out of the Past column. She also writes a blog called “From the Morgue” that showcases interesting historical stories from the newspaper. Check out her blog at semissourian.com/history.