Cape Girardeau History and Photos

June 5, 2014

Perry County Courthouse

The Perry County Courthouse on the square in Perryville catches the last rays of golden sunlight on a chilly November day in 2013.

The courthouse was built in 1904. The Cape County Courthousein Jackson was built in 1908.

June 4, 2014

I saw Tim Kincaid from Edgewater Glass doing some work on what is now the Mount Moriah Missionary Church and decided to pull into the parking lot. I got a quick look inside the church and had good intentions of going back to shoot the interior, but that will have to wait until the next trip to Cape.

It looks like Boyd Hobbs, who painted the church steeple in 1967, needs to come back to put on a new coat.

Common Pleas Courthouse

It’s early enough in the spring that there was a clear view of the Common Pleas Courthouse. When I photographed the 200 block of Broadway in the late 1960s, it was full of buildings, including the Boy Scout office. It’s all green space these days.

Lots of decks

I had never had a clear view of this house on Bellvue before. That’s quite a collection of decks and tree houses. It’s in the vicinity of Civil War Fort A overlooking the Mississippi River. Click on the photos to make them larger.

June 3, 2014June 3, 2014

Clinton Wren Remembers Smelterville

I’ve got to get on the ball if I want to have an updated version of my Smelterville project out by this summer. Clinton Wren and I took refuge in Long John Silver’s on a scorching hot day in July 2011 while he talked about growing up in South Cape. (Click on the photos to make them larger.)

Everybody was loved

“Everybody was loved,” he said. “Everybody was family. If one done something, another parent would take care of you. Everybody’s parent looked after you. It wasn’t like now, you know. It was one community of love. I’ve got good remembrances from there, you know. Some of that made me the man that I am now.”

Floods and chopping wood

“Worst thing was the floods and high water. Actually, coming back in and lots of cleaning to do. After that ’73 flood, we didn’t come back after that. We went through two floods before finally Mama made the decision to move out.

“I’ll tell you another thing – making fire, too. Going out there in the cold and chopping wood; that’s another thing coming back to me. Outside bathrooms. We had some hogs back there, too. That might have been our hog pen, but I don’t remember us having that many pigs.”

A quarter went a long way

“Henry Warfield was in the construction business. Sold a lot of lumber; tore down a lot of houses. There used to be a couple of big houses at Morgan Oak and Frederick. He just tore down stuff all over the city. He’d haul it down there and salvage what he could salvage. He’d save all the bricks. You can drive all over this city and see brick homes built with those bricks. Cleaning bricks… Made a lot of money then.

“We always had a little money. Of course a quarter was quite a bit of money. We’d get a quarter a month allowance. A quarter went a long way. After school we’d work for Henry. Maybe make 50 cents or a dollar, depending on what he was doing. Brick work, you’d make a little bit more money. A quarter was quite a bit of money in those days.”

Happy Birthday Little League

This weekend’s Parade magazine (boy, is IT ever getting thin) offered Three Cheers for Little League on its cover. It pointed out that the youth league celebrates its 75th anniversary on June 6.

I’ve done a bunch of stories about youth league baseball and softball. (I never was too clear on age divisions and the like.)