Photos around Cape Archives

September 24, 2014

“Hope House” on Hwy 74

“ "Hope House" Hwy 74 09-23-2014 When I was a kid on our way to Advance, we’d always keep an eye on a house being built on Hwy 74 just west of what is now I-55. (I-55 wasn’t even a gleam in Dwight Eisenhower’s eye back in those days.)

The builder got the basement finished, put tar on the “floor” of the house to make it a roof, and got no further. I’m pretty sure someone lived in it because I vaguely remember smoke coming out of the chimney.

I think there was a church that took that approach on Independence, William or Bloomfield Road. I know of a couple of houses in Cape that did that, too, but I can’t place where they were.

Called a “hope house”

When I Googled “living in basement until house is built,” quite a few hits came up. The practice of doing this was common enough, I found, that it had a name: it was called a “hope house.”

Modern day building codes and permits would make this hard to do today, someone pointed out, because they call for firm start and end dates. A construction project that went on for five or 10 years might not get approved.

When I slowed down to make the turn down the lane to the house, Mother said, “I figured you were going to do that.”

The basement walls look like they are in pretty good shape, and I could see that interior walls of concrete block had been roughed in. Several windows at ground level would have let in light. Unfortunately, the old tarred floor had deteriorated to the point that it was letting in more light than the windows.

In the end, there was more hope than house left. I wonder what happened to the owner.

September 23, 2014

Cedar Lake 2014

This is the only view I could find of Cedar Lake on September 16, 2014.. There is no public access that I could see.

The lake is northwest of Millersville on the east side of 481 and north of 72.

Looks similar to this

When I posted this photo taken in the ’60s back in 2010, I had lots of good comments from folks who confirmed that it WAS Cedar Lake.

Looks like it’s about the same angle, except closer to the water than I could get today without trespassing.

September 22, 2014

Peironnet Family Mausoleum

Whenever I go visit Dad’s grave in the New Lorimier Cemetery, I see the Perionnet family’s mausoleum just as I turn left to leave the graveyard. Missourian librarian Sharon Sanders wrote about the history of the structure in her December 5, 2013, blog. I’ll steal a few snippets from it, but if you want to get the whole story, you should go to her blog.

Harlan P. Peironnet was first resident

Harlan P. Peironnet was a prominent Cape Girardeau businessman when he died in St. Louis in 1912. He was first buried in New Lorimier Cemetery, but his wife and son-in-law spent $3,475 to have this mausoleum built by a St. Louis company. Newspaper accounts said some of the granite pieces weighed as much as 14 tons and had to be moved in special wagons pulled by “giant” horses brought in from St. Louis.

Mr. Peironnet’s remains were disinterred and moved into one of the eight crypts in the building in 1914. His wife, the paper reported, viewed his remains, “which were in nearly as perfect condition as the day he died, a year ago.”

Peironnet’s wife died in 1951

Mrs. Julia Moon Peironnet died in 1951, a few days short of her 96th birthday. She came to Cape when she was two, the daughter of one of the first practicing dentists west of the Mississippi, and was was one of the first students at Cape Girardeau Normal, which later became SEMO University. She taught school in Wayne County and in East Cape Girardeau, where she was ferried back and forth across the river in a skiff.

Lightning hit mausoleum in 1984

A cemetery worker making his rounds on a March morning in 1984 noticed damage to the mausoleum that he thought might have been caused by a bomb. A federal bomb squad that was called in determined that the building had been struck by lightning. The force of the bolt blew off a 2-foot by 2-foot chunk of granite, knocked off one of the double doors and shattered much of the marble slate that made up the eight biers inside.

The damage has since been repaired.

It’s interesting how much of the skyline on the right is dominated by Southeast Hospital. (Click on the photos to make them larger.)

In a good neighborhood

I was fascinated by the “Miller” tile work setting off the graves on the south side of the mausoleum. Had I stepped back a few more steps, I would have seen the stone marking the grave of I. Ben Miller, noted farmer and businessman.

The light-colored stone on the right belongs to Dr. Lila Miller, his daughter. Mr. Miller named his dairy farm on Sprigg Street the Lila Drew Farm in honor of his daughters, Miss Lila Miller and Miss Clara Drew Miller. Both daughters are buried in this section, along with son Edwin Miller and his wife.

September 18, 2014

Time and Termites Take Toll

When I photographed McLain’s Chapel in the Indian Creek Community in 2011 for a story published in 2012, I wondered how many more winters it would survive. The answer is in this photo.

Time and termites took their toll. Massive beams had been hollowed out over the years.

Where did marker go?

I looked around for the marker that stood next to the building but couldn’t find a trace of it, and LaFern Stiver said she didn’t know where it had been taken. (I remember her reaction when I pointed out that the word “original” was spelled wrong on the stone. It made her old school-teacher hair bristle. Some stone cutter somewhere got his virtual knuckles rapped, I’m sure.)

Here’s my original post with photos and a history of the chapel. It has an interesting (and bloody) past.