From the Morgue: Names of skilled laborers revealed

A conversation with a friend recently revealed to me that my grandfather, Henry Sanders, helped construct Academic Hall’s famed dome. It seems Henry worked alongside my friend’s father in creating Jerome Legg’s and Edward F.H. Regenhardt’s masterpiece, now the symbol of Southeast Missouri State University.

I had no idea. Oh, I knew Henry was a carpenter, but I had only heard of him building houses and barns in the Cape Girardeau-Scott County area. And there is one story of Henry and my father, Louis Sanders, who also was a carpenter, moving a house from flood-prone Big Island to equally-flood-prone Commerce. I remember Dad pointing it out to me on one of our visits to the river town.

This whole revelation about Henry helping build the dome makes me wonder, what else did he help construct? And how many of us go through our lives admiring houses and buildings, without knowing the skilled laborers who were responsible for those structures?

Well, I can reveal two artisans who contributed their skills to the Missourian Building.

In the pages of the Southeast Missourian, there are frequent reports about the construction of the newspaper’s office building at Broadway and Lorimier Street in 1924. An article from Oct. 31 provides the names of two stonemasons — Louis Brinkopf and Charles Bock — who constructed the stone retaining wall south of the building. The wall is still there, a silent tribute to the men who built it.

Published Friday, Oct. 31, 1924, in the Southeast Missourian:

Weather conditions perfect for concrete building work

The pouring of the concrete slab over the basement of The Missourian’s new building was completed Thursday, the fine weather enabling the Gerhardt Construction Co. to make record time on it. It required more than a thousand sacks of cement and exactly a (railroad) carload of reinforcing steel. The completion of this slab before bad weather sets in protects the building job from the possibility of a sea of mud that would have had a serious effect on the forms for the heavy beams.

The basement does not extend under the entire building, it being approximately 75 by 100 feet while the building is 125.6 by 113 feet. The slab over the basement, makes the floor for the first story. Later on, when all the pipes and conduits are in the ground, the balance of the slab will be poured, which will make the floor for the first story complete.

Carpenters are now putting up the forms for the second story and the pouring of concrete will start within the next few days if the weather continues favorable.

The stone wall extending across the south end of the property, and a similar wall running down the incline to the basement, have been completed. Such walls are nearly a thing of the past. The rock in these two walls was in the walls that skirted the property on Broadway and Lorimier Street before it was cut down to street level, and as it was on hand, it was made use of.

The stones from the walls that skirted the Doyle property at the southwest corner of Broadway and Lorimier Street were reused in the construction of a retaining wall south of the Missourian Building in 1924.Southeast Missourian archive

Louis Brinkopf and Charles Bock, two veteran stonemasons, and perhaps the only men now in Cape Girardeau who can do such work, put up the walls. Many men have inspected them and declared them to be models of an art that has about disappeared. Stone walls are no longer used because it is much cheaper to put in concrete walls, the cost of the cut stone being very high.

A dying art

Thirty years ago there were two or three stone quarries in Cape Girardeau from which different kinds of stone was taken for foundations, retaining walls and even for the surfacing material for houses. There are a few stone-veneered houses in Cape Girardeau that were built within the last 20 years.

The two college dormitories are perhaps the last stone buildings to be erected. The stone came from a quarry on the same property. Since that time very little, if any, stone has been quarried. A few walls have been built of stone that came from other jobs, as in the case of The Missourian’s walls, but it is probable that these walls will be the last to be used here.

Two stone-veneered houses were erected on West End Boulevard the past summer, being of Missouri red granite. They have attracted much attention and favorable comment, and many lovers of architecture have gone out time and again to see them, hoping that such buildings will come into favor again. The stone work is exceptionally beautiful.

Two more weeks of favorable weather will see the slab for the second floor, with the many columns, poured and then more than half the concrete work will be in place.

The entire framework of the building is to be of reinforced concrete and after the fame is up, the roof will be put on and the brick walls will be laid in.

The obituaries of both Bock and Brinkopf mention their professions as stonemasons, although they are short on detail.

Published Dec. 20, 1934, in the Southeast Missourian:

Charles T. Bock dies suddenly; funeral to be held on Saturday

Charles T. Bock, 78 years old, stonemason and truck gardener, died suddenly at his home, 803 N. Ellis St., at 10:39 a.m. today. He was sitting in his living room, listening to music, when he collapsed and died of an attack of heart disease. Coroner A.J. Moore viewed the body, and after conferring with the family physician, did not conduct a formal inquest. Mr. Bock had been ill in recent months of high blood pressure, but was not thought seriously sick.

Born in St. Louis (on Sept. 15, 1856, the son of Charles Bock), he came to Cape Girardeau with his family when a year old. He lived here since, being a stonemason and, in recent years, working as a truck gardener.

Fifty-four years ago (April 25, 1881), Mr. Bock was married to Minnie Schuette, who survives. A son and daughter also survive, and two brothers and two sons (Charles and Arthur J. Bock) are dead. The (surviving) son and daughter are Adolph Bock of Cape Girardeau and Mrs. Robert Bock Copeland of Chicago. Mr. and Mrs. Copeland are here on a visit. There are also 12 grandchildren.

Funeral services will be conducted Saturday afternoon, with the exact time not yet decided. The body is at the Brinkopf-Howell Funeral Home. (Burial was at Fairmount Cemetery.)

Published Jan. 4, 1945, in the Southeast Missourian:

Louis Brinkopf, 78, passes away; funeral services Saturday

Louis Brinkopf, 78 years old, a longtime resident of Cape Girardeau and a retired stone contractor, died at 1:50 a.m. today at his home at 219 N. Middle St., after a lingering illness.

Funeral services will be conducted at 2 o’clock Saturday afternoon at Trinity Lutheran Church with the pastor, the Rev. F.H. Melzer, in charge. Interment will be in Lorimier Cemetery. The body will remain at the Brinkopf-Howell Funeral Home until noon Saturday, when it will be taken to the church.

Mr. Brinkopf is survived by his wife (Malinda “Linda” Heuer Brinkopf), two sons, Sgt. Benny Brinkopf, stationed at Camp Swift, Texas, and Sgt. Fred Brinkopf at Davis-Monthan Field at Tucson, Arizona, and a daughter, Mrs. John Dolhancey of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Sgt. Benny Brinkopf and Mrs. Dolhancey are here, while Sgt. Fred Brinkopf will arrive tonight.

Mr. Brinkopf was born in Cape Girardeau, Sept. 30, 1866, (the son of Frederick and Johanna Laue Brinkopf) and lived here all his life. He was a stonemason and stone contractor for many years and helped build the State College buildings, some of the public school buildings, the mausoleum and many of the fine homes of the city.

He was street commissioner for 12 years under Commissioner Louis Wittmer and was active until 1941, when he retired.

Sharon Sanders is the librarian at the Southeast Missourian.