Photos around Cape Archives

April 26, 2015

The REAL Dutchtown Tavern

Back on April 4, I did a post on a foundation down in Blomeyer that I thought was the Dutchtown Tavern. I hedged my bets by putting a question mark in the headline. Some readers had memories of the tavern, but at least one of them thought it was at the base of the high hill in Dutchtown proper, not across from the Montgomery Drive-In.

Saturday afternoon, I stopped in at that building, which now sports a sign that reads “Dutchtown Used Furniture.” Painted on the side is a Coca Cola ad and a sign that says, “Slaughter’s Stor.”

Click on the photos to make them larger.

Don and Cathy Heuring own the place

Don and Cathy Heuring established the Dutchtown Used Furniture Store in 2004. The building, which is more than a hundred years old, they said, was the Dutchtown Tavern until 1993, when it closed after owner Jim Slaughter died. His widow sold the place, and it served several different businesses until the Heurings took over.

Was tavern and liquor store

The Heurings said the bar was on this side of the archway, and the liquor store was on the other side.

I’m still a little confused. The previous story mentioned that Raymond John “Tiny” Ford owned and operated several regional bars and nightclubs, including Tiny’s Danceland, The Jamna, The Ozark Corral, Dutchtown Tavern, and Edgewater Bar. Mr. Ford died in 2002 at 85, so he may have been involved in the tavern business before Mr. Slaughter.

Can anyone clear that up?

April 23, 2015

Heislers’ Heifer Highway

Brothers David and Mark and I were talking about families who have lived on Kingsway Drive over the years. The Hales had a farm on the right side of the road as you were heading toward Jackson. Their pasture was right behind our house.

They were good about giving me permission to camp out in the hill behind us. It was far enough away that my buddies and I thought it was a big deal, but it was close enough that Mother and Dad could look out the window to see if we had set our tent on fire.

Where did the Heisler cows graze?

The Hale barn was on the same side as their pasture, so I knew where their cows grazed, but where did the Heisler cows, with a barn on the left side of the road, munch grass?

Mark said they grazed across the highway, where the Osage Center is today. When Highway 61 was widened, the state put in a culvert that both drained the area and let the cows go from the barn to the pasture.

Based on the vintage aerial, I would say that the cow culvert would be approximately where it looks like Cape Splash is expanding. I was tight on time and there was some orange plastic fencing blocking off the area, so I can’t swear the culvert is gone, but I didn’t see it.

Of course, Mark COULD have been pulling our collective legs. He has been known to do that.

April 22, 2015

Why Weren’t We Killed?

Looking at this photo from Steve McKeown’s collection of his dad’s old family photos made me think of the red Radio Flyer wagon Brothers Mark and David and our buddies used to streak down Kingsway Drive.

Our wagon had a tongue which folded back so a rider could steer the wagon, unlike the rope contraption in the photo.

We trudged up the hill time after time for a 45-second ride down from in front of 1618 Kingsway Drive to the fishhook-shaped J-curve at the bottom.

A physics lesson

We discovered the elemental law of physics that heavy objects at the top of the hill have lots of potential energy that gradually bleeds off by the bottom.That was the advantage of loading up the wagon with brothers and buddies. It also meant you had people to help pull it back up to the launch site. The brothers, unfortunately, would frequently beg off, saying they were “too tired” to walk back up the hill, leaving us to pull them AND the wagon back. It was amazing how their tiredness went away when it was time for another run.

Too often, the blast to the bottom would be interrupted by the cry of “CAR!!!” that would result in the tongue being abruptly twisted in whatever direction would throw us off into a ditch for safety.

Check out the socks

This wasn’t a generation of white sock wearers. Looks like Mom must have bought his jeans with the idea that he’d grow into them, and until he did, then rolling up the cuffs would keep them from dragging in the dirt.

Looks like his shoes are holding up well. I had a lot of pairs that had been half-soled. Late in grade school days, I would nail “taps,” onto the heel. Ostensibly they were to keep your heels from wearing down, but the real reason for putting them on was to make a cool noise when you walked the hallways in school. They came in various sizes – from tiny to huge horseshoe-shaped ones that were suitable for clogging.

The coolness factor was negated if you happened to hit a slick patch of floor that would cause your legs to spread apart like a guy with one leg in the boat and one on the dock.

April 13, 2015

Masonic Lodge / Keys Music

When I started down the Broadway hill on my way to Broussard’s for a take-out order, the Rust & Martin sign atop the brick building at the corner of Broadway and Spanish stood out.

On the left is the old First Baptist Church / General Baptist Church. I photographed the steeple being painted in 1967.

Cornerstone laid in 1891

An Old Town Cape plaque says “One November 5, 1891, the cornerstone was laid for the Masonic Temple and on June 24, 1892, the dedication ceremony was held. The builders were C. Lindemann & Son of Cape Girardeau. Kirchner & Kirchner of St. Louis were the architects. In 1970, the Masons sold the bulding to Vida Keys. It remained the Keys Music Store until 2001. It is a contributing building in the National Register Historic District.”

The Masons built a new building on land near Broadway and Kingshighway that had originally been donated to be Doggett Park.

A long time coming

I’ve been watching the renovation work for several years. It’s nice to see a landmark building preserved.

It’s in good company. The nicely-restored Kage House, built between 1860 and 1870, is right across the street from it.