Photos around Cape Archives

July 6, 2016

Broadway Burger King

The same night I photographed McDonald’s, I thought it would only be fair to knock off Burger King, too. When I searched for the history of the fast-food place, I found a gazillion restaurant reviews, but not a lot of hard information. A 2004 Century of Commerce compendium in The Missourian made note that Burger King Restaurant was established at 2346 Broadway in 1972.

Other business highlights of that year included:

Keys Music moved to 121 Broadway.
A&P Super Market on Spanish Street closed and was taken over by J. Ronald Fischer.
The former Vandeven store on Broadway was sold to Craftsman Office Supply
Speed Equipment Worlds of America Inc. opened in the 2100 block of Broadway.

FindTheData info about BK

When I searched for 2346 Broadway, an interesting site called FindTheData popped up. It mined public records for information about the property. It looks like most of it dates to 2011.

It is a commercial building with an estimated value of $195,087.
That is 216% higher than the $61,829 average for commercial properties in the 63701 Zip Code.
That places it among the most valuable 20% of commercial properties in the area.
It has 0.66 acres of land, while a typical one has 0.53 acres.
It has moderate flood risk, high earthquake risk, very high tornado risk, and very high hail risk (but has below average hail risk for Missouri, which is one of the most hail-prone states in the U.S.).

Cape is a lower middle class city

The data site has this to say about the city:

It has about 38,665 residents and is about 28.87 square miles in size.
The city is considered to be lower middle class because a disproportionately large percentage of its households earn between $25,000 and $50,000 a year. [The blue sign in the middle photo was advertising they were hiring for $8.25 an hour, by the way.]
Through geospatial analysis of the company’s database, they’ve discovered Cape Girardeau has a high number of alternative medicine, bars, and gym business types compared to the typical city.

Alvarado was located at Broadway and 61

Oldtimers will remember the Alvarado as being located at what was once the outskirts of town at Broadway and Hwy 61, where the Burger King is now. I haven’t found any file photos of the Spanish-style building, but Fred Lynch and Sharon Sanders did a good job in Fred’s blog of telling the history of the landmark building.

June 30, 2016

The Butcher Block Closes

The Butcher Block at 1157 North Kingshighway looked awfully dark when I passed it the other day, so I scoped it out on June 25.

The business was housed in the building that used to be Esicar’s, a meat-selling landmark that opened in 1934. It became The Butcher Block in 2012 after a fire and several changes in ownership caused Esicar’s to close for good.

Yep, dark and empty

The Butcher Block Facebook posted a notice on June 6 that “the doors are closed and the shelves are empty. Thank you all for your patronage.”

A reader who asked if “Anybody know why it closed?” got this answer: “Tired of trying to find a real butcher. And with living 2 hours away. And having several irons in the fire. Something needed to give. Sorry cape lost the only meat shop it had. But family always needs to come first. Thanks for your business though.”

Previous stories about 1157 N. Kingshighway

June 10, 2016June 10, 2016

A Rose Garden Party

A celebration honoring the 1953 founding of the Capaha Park Rose Garden by Arla Harris and Gladys Stiver was held June 8 at the garden. The event included women in fancy hats and clothing, a collection of garden club archive photos, refreshments, and a live band.

Earlier stories about roses and the garden

Garden party photo gallery

Everybody was friendly and full of smiles. I guess you can’t be grumpy when you don hats like these. Click on any photo to make it larger, then use your arrow keys to move around.

June 8, 2016June 8, 2016

Is McDonald’s Wimpy’s?

Road Warriorette Shari came down from St. Louis for a few days to see her mother and to attend a ceremony recognizing her late grandmother’s work on the Capaha Park Rose Garden.

While we were cruising town looking at all the changes, it dawned on me that I had never been in the McDonald’s on Broadway near Central High School. We wondered if McDonald’s was this generation’s version of our Wimpy’s Drive-In with teenage drivers making an endless loop of cars between the long-gone burger joint and Pfisters. (Click on the photos to make them larger.)

Lines, but no looping

There was a steady stream of cars pulling into the parking lot, but they usually just queued up at the drive-in window, picked up their orders and took off. There weren’t any cars full of teenagers checking out each other or sitting and talking. Maybe they were all on social media.

The first Broadway McDonald’s was built in 1967 by Jerry Davis, who owned several landmark Cape eateries. He and flight instructor Kenneth Krongos were killed when the small plane they were in crashed in bad weather in 2003.

You can read about Mr. Davis’ restaurants here.

My perfect record is intact. I still haven’t been inside the store. That’s not to knock the business; it’s just that there are too many other places I’d rather eat in the area.