Photos around Cape Archives

April 23, 2010November 24, 2016

Jefferson, Oldest Standing School in Cape

I went K through 8 at Trinity Lutheran School, so I don’t have much first-hand knowledge of Cape’s public schools. In fact, it was a bit of a challenge to locate Jefferson School, which turned out to the the oldest standing of Cape’s schools.

Located at Jefferson and Ellis

The school was built in 1904. You can read an excellent history of the school, which includes contemporary photos of the interior by downloading the National Register of Historic Places registration form. It’s a large document, so right-click on the link, then choose Save Link and open the file later with Adobe Acrobat.

Population quadrupled

The Civil War slowed population growth in Cape, but the population nearly doubled between 1900 and 1910, and had almost quadrupled by 1925 to 15,258. Much of the growth was in the working class neighborhoods in the area served by Jefferson School.

The building had four class rooms on each floor, with a central hallway and two narrow stairwells.

Was Black School 1953-1955

In 1953, Cape Girardeau schools were still segregated. Black students attended John S. Cobb School (originally named Lincoln School) until the school was destroyed by a fire. White students attending Jefferson were sent to May Greene School, and the 108 Black students were sent to Jefferson School.

Bob Miller wrote an interesting piece for The Missourian when classmates celebrated a school reunion in 2004.

When the school system was integrated in 1955, the school was closed.

Became apartment building

At some point, the interior was converted to apartments, with two apartments on each level.It also served as a union hall.

Much of the original wood trim, stairwells and windows are intact. Years of neglect, water damage and vandalism, have taken their toll.

I asked the developer who converted Schultz School into very attractive senior housing if he had considered taking on Jefferson School as a project. He said the building didn’t have enough possible living space to make it practical from his viewpoint.

Gallery of Jefferson School photos

Click on any image to make it larger, then click on the left or right side of the photo to move through the gallery.

April 21, 2010June 19, 2016

Country Club Rises from Ashes

I wasn’t exactly a country club kind of guy. Tennis, for me, involved more ball chasing than volleying. Golf swings were too close to the scythe Dad had me swinging clearing brush alongside the highway.

Dad put me to work one summer doing construction work (the only time from the time I was 12 until I retired in 2008 that I didn’t work for a newspaper in some capacity). He sold it as an opportunity to make some money, but it was his way to demonstrate that college was better than hard labor under the hot sun.

Form oil is nasty

One assignment was to unload lumber off trucks coming in from the job sites. The worst job was humping 4×8-foot sheets of 3/4-inch plywood that had been used as concrete forms. Those unwieldy hunks of dead trees weighed almost as much as a scrawny 16-year-old.

I’d have to unload them from the truck, stack them, use a wire brush to scrape off any concrete that was sticking to them, plug any holes with corks, spray them with form oil and then stack them in bins that were frequently over my head. The form oil was nasty stuff that was designed to keep concrete from sticking to the plywood. It was designed NOT to come off.

As luck would have it, the one time a date invited me to a pool party at the country club was a day when I had spent all day unloading trucks. I could barely raise my arms, let alone swim. I was afraid that I’d leave an oil slick on the pool no matter how many showers I took. The pool and I survived, but I don’t recall being invited back.

I didn’t spend much time shooting these pictures. I was afraid someone might recognize me and hand me a scrub brush to clean off the oil stain I had left 40 years earlier.

This was probably not the building I was in for that swim date. The Missourian had a story that the original building, which opened in 1921, burned on a cold, sleety night Dec. 11, 1963. It’s likely that I had been in the old two-story building.

The Country Club has a spiffy website with some impressive pictures. The site says the formal opening of the new clubhouse was held exactly two years after the old one burned. It became the first 18-hole golf course in Cape.

April 21, 2010December 14, 2021

Who’s Been Writing On The Walls?

For once, I know the answer to the question, but I’m going to see if any of you ‘fess up. You’ll probably recognize a lot of the names scrawled here. I’m going to pose a question: where were these pictures taken?

Why only these names?

One thing I can’t figure out is why the names are all from about the same period. I don’t know if the walls were covered for years and then uncovered long enough for the graffiti to appear, then re-covered. It might be that earlier kids were too afraid to write on the wall and that later generations couldn’t write. Who knows?

Gallery of Graffiti

Click on any picture to make it larger, then click on the left or right side of the photo to move through the gallery (hint: you don’t have to click on the arrow; anywhere on the side will do it.)

Is your name here?

Tell me the full story. Where is it, when was it done, was it done individually or in a group, anything at all.

I think the inscriptions are old enough that they qualify as history, not vandalism. After all, if they were a few hundred years older and carved on cave walls, they’d be considered petroglyphs and somebody would make the place a national monument.

April 19, 2010April 19, 2010

Mario’s Pasta House in Jackson

Warning: this story isn’t about Cape and it’s not about anything old. In fact, it’s just the opposite. It’s in Jackson and it’s something new.

My mother and I noticed a lot of cars around a building at the intersection of Highway 61 and 25 just as you come into Jackson. It’s near where you board the trains of the St. Louis Iron Mountain and Southern Railway for excursion rides, so we assumed that’s what it was.

On another pass, though, we noticed this sign and decided to give it a shot.

Mario and Doris Grippo

Mario Grippo came to the New Jersey from Italy 37 years ago and and has been in the food service business ever since.

After spending most of three decades in New Jersey, he came here and opened Italian restaurants in Marble Hill and Advance – “We were on a farm, literally on a farm in Advance,” his wife, Doris chimed in. They decided to move their operation to 252 E. Jackson Blvd. a couple of months ago.

Next to Iron Mountain Railway

Mario’s Pasta House isn’t affiliated with the excursion line, but it’s adjacent to it and is the best way to find the restaurant. The driveway is a little tough to spot. I pulled into the service station right before it by mistake the first time.

That diesel locomotive, by the way, was built in 1950 for the Pennsylvania Railroad and pulled the Broadway Limited, among others. It was capable of speeds of up to 120 miles per hour. In 1971, the Pennsy sold it to Amtrak when all of the railroads got out of the passenger business. Amtrak sold it to a tourist railroad, the Blue Mountain and Reading in Pennsylvania, which sold it to the Iron Mountain Railway in 1998.

The diesel is being used until the line’s steam locomotive can be put back in service. For more information about the railway, its schedule and prices, go to this link.

Good food, reasonable prices

For a new restaurant, it’s getting a lot of business, so you may have to wait a few minutes to get your order. I’m not known for my patience, but I have no problem waiting for the quality and quantity of food that comes out.

Their Calazone Meat Lovers was excellent, and big enough that I had some to take home. The next trip, I ordered a Meat Lovers Pizza. (I think it was the 12-inch size.) Again, big enough for two days.

When Wife Lila went there this week, she said, “The crust was better than any pizza I can remember having. The waitress (who remembered your mother and you) said it was New York style, then added, ‘well, New Jersey-New York, we’re all from New Jersey’. I don’t care what they call it. It is the best I can remember having anywhere. It’s my new Wib’s.”

Waitress was accommodating

I asked what my mother had ordered: “She didn’t want anything on the supper menu, because it was too much food. She explained that to the waitress, who said she’d check about what they could do for her. She came back and said they have a lunch special that was small… two stuffed shells and a meatball. The guy would make it up for her for supper.

“The shells looked like they were stuffed with ricotta and the shells and the meatball (one) were covered in red sauce and put under the broiler. It looked good to me, and I can’t even have that much cheese. Your mother ate every bite and pronounced it really good. They were very accommodating, and she was happy. ”

When I was there the first of April, their fountain drink machine hadn’t been installed yet, so they served bottled water and drinks. I don’t know if that’s changed.

Review of Gordonville Grill coming

One of Mother’s friends mentioned a new place to eat, the Gordonville Grill. It, too, proved to be excellent. I ate there at least four times during my stay. I’ll get around to writing a review on it soon. See, I’m not ALWAYS lost in the 60s.