St. Francis Growing

St. Francis Hospital construction 02-24-2013A Feb 24, 2013, Missourian story said that St. Francis Hospital broke ground in November on a $127 million expansion and renovation project. I spotted the work on my way to Best Buy the other day.

Big hole and lots of rock

St. Francis Hospital construction 02-24-2013It’s incredible how big the facility has grown and how much bigger this is going to make it.

Earlier St. Francis Stories

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Peeling Paint Photos

When Son Matt found the photo of Paul Lueders that ran earlier, he also stumbled across some of his frames of a subject I’ve been looking for. I’m going to see if anyone can remember where this mural existed. (Don’t cheat and look at the filenames.) You can click on the pictures to make them bigger.

Horse-drawn fire engine?

It’s hard to tell with a lot of the pieces gone, but it looks like it might be a horse-drawn fire engine. The Dalmatian and the guy in a uniform (in the closeup at the top) send me in that direction.

I’m still looking for my film from this shoot. It’s gonna be in the bottom of the last box I pull out.

Other Cape murals

City Hall / Lorimier School

Dr. Herbert’s office (clown mural not shown, but talked about)

Lutheran Church mural on building that may be torn down to make parking lot.

Sharon Sanders Blog

I frequently send you over to look at Missourian photographer Fred Lynch’s blog,  f/8 and Be There. Well, another Missourian writer has launched a blog: Sharon Sanders, the paper’s librarian. She just published a touching tribute to her father, who died at age 94. If you like my stuff, I’m sure you’ll enjoy reading her column. Rumor has it that it’s going to run on Thursdays. Leave her some comments so she feels appreciated. It’s lonely when you’re first starting out and you don’t get feedback.

I had lunch with a young staffer last time I was in Cape. My advice to her was, “get to know your librarian. She can make you look a lot smarter than you are, help you flesh out stories or even give you enough info to write one without heavy lifting on your part.” I never met a newspaper librarian who didn’t love to go digging in what we used to call “The Morgue” for you. I envy Fred for being able to turn to Sharon for help researching his photos.

 

St. Francis Hospital Growth 1976-2011

There are photos of Brother David’s wedding in this sleeve, so I assume this aerial of St. Francis Hospital was taken in the fall of 1976. Mount Auburn Road is on the left. The paved road at the bottom is William St. or Route K. The road running left to right across the top of the frame is Independence.

You can click on any of the pictures to make them bigger.

St. Francis Hospital today

The hospital has been expanded so many times you have to look closely to see the original building. This aerial was taken April 17, 2011.

Mount Auburn Road runs left to right across the bottom of the picture. The road on the far right is William / Route K. The road directly to the right of the hospital is Gordonville Rd. It was under construction in the 1976 photo. Silver Springs Rd., with a roundabout at Gordonville Rd. runs left to right at the top.

Hospital, Doctors Park and Westpark Mall

Pull back a little more, you can see how much has been built at that intersection.

St. Francis is at the top left. The Y-shaped building is Westpark Mall. It did to the Town Plaza, what the Town Plaza did to the downtown merchants. The complex at the bottom right is Doctors Park.

Older stories about St. Francis Hospital

Last baby born in old hospital