Red House Interpretive Center

The 1934 Central High School Girardot had wood block-style illustrations of Cape Girardeau landmarks in it. This is an artist’s depiction of The Red House, Louis Lorimier’s home. It, and the first St. Vincent’s Church, were destroyed by a tornado.

Red House in 2010

This is a photo of the Red House taken March 22, 2010.

The Red House’s website says, “After much discussion and debate it was decided that a reconstruction or replica of Lorimier’s original Red House was just not possible. No one actually knew for sure what the original trading post looked like. All the group had was a drawing of a house taken from the recollections of a local resident, Sara Bollinger Daughtery. What the board decided to do was construct a house of the French colonial architectural style – a style that would have been used by a French Canadian in this area at that time; and to construct this house following the design of Daughterty’s recollection. Rather than call the house a “replica” or reconstruction it would be an interpretation of the style of house that Lorimier may have built and lived in.”

Other Red House photos and stories

3 Replies to “Red House Interpretive Center”

  1. Steve Strom was one of the people instrumental in the actual building of the ‘new’ Red House. I was visiting for a couple of days during its construction and helped for about an hour in the terrible heat. My job was to work on a very small portion of a brick wall in the back, laying some bricks where no one would see 🙂 It is still a wonderful memory of helping to preserve a portion of Cape’s history.
    Steve also was involved in the rebuilding of the Old Bethel Church near Jackson, Mo, which was a log cabin style of building. I’m not sure why that interested me so. When I would visit my parents, who still live in Cape, I would visit the work site, taking video of the progress. Here is a link to the video I made of the rebuilding of the Old Bethel Church
    http://www.ssteelevideo.com/ssteelevideo/Documentary.html
    Many people donated many, many hours on both projects.
    I enjoy your site.

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