Out of the past: Jan. 15

2000

​Plans to extend Mount Auburn Road from Bloomfield Road south to Silver Springs Road will create added benefits for commercial property owners in the area, but it will also mean some added costs for them; anyone who owns property along the proposed extension will be assessed a tax bill of up to $56 per foot plus land acquisition costs; a public hearing on the project is set for Tuesday at City Hall.

The waiting lists for beds in the nation’s veterans homes are long and could be getting longer as World War II and Korean War vets get older; Samuel E. McVay administrator of the 150-bed Cape Girardeau Missouri Veterans Home, says as many as 500 names are on Missouri Veterans Homes waiting lists, with about 100 of them awaiting space at the local facility.

1975

​The Southeast Missourian has learned that the City of Jackson will offer to trade evenly its property to the north of the existing jail for the site of the present jail and the county-owned land adjacent to it; reports that the Jackson City Council, meeting Monday night, had voted to eliminate the additional $25,000 the county would have had to pay for the property under an earlier swap has been confirmed by Jackson Mayor Carlton Meyer; however, research by the newspaper shows the site of the existing jail plus the adjacent property wouldn’t be large enough.

The top two levels of Southeast Hospital’s new four-level parking garage were temporarily opened for parking yesterday in hopes traffic bottlenecks and other crowded parking problems will be alleviated, says O.D. Niswonger, assistant administrator of the hospital; the facility has experienced severe parking problems since construction of the garage and development of the East Wing addition began in early 1974.

1950

​A new electric organ is dedicated in the afternoon at Maple Avenue Methodist Church, with Bishop Ivan Lee Holt of St. Louis giving the dedicatory speech; preceding the rites is a 30-minute organ recital by Mrs. J. Clyde Brandt.

Harold E. Hughes, formerly soil scientist in charge of all soil survey work in Southeast Missouri for the U.S. Soil Conservation Service, has been transferred to Jackson, where he is in charge of the Jackson Soil Conservation office, assisting the Cape County Soil District; reared on a farm near Middletown in Montgomery County, Hughes was graduated from the Missouri College of Agriculture in June 1941; during his service as a bombardier with the Army Air Corps, he was shot down over Germany and was the only survivor of his crew; after six months as “a guest of Hitler”, he was liberated by Patton’s Third Army.

1925

​One barn is partially burned and fire is discovered in another in Cape Girardeau under circumstances that fire department officials believe to be suspicious; fire, discovered shortly after 1 a.m., partially destroys a barn on the old Albert place at 1107 Broadway, and for a time threatens other buildings in the immediate vicinity; another blaze is discovered at 5 a.m. in an automobile truck in the barn at the rear of the I. Ben Miller ice cream factory on South Spanish Street; had it not been for the latter’s quick discovery by employees, the entire building would have been destroyed.

The Cape Girardeau City Council cancels the special election, scheduled for Saturday, at which Cape Girardeau was to vote on the question of extending the present city limits; a technical error in the description of certain land to be included, caused by a discrepancy between a federal and county survey, causes the cancellation.

Southeast Missourian librarian Sharon Sanders compiles the information for the daily Out of the Past column. She also writes a weekend column called “From the Morgue” that showcases interesting historical stories from the newspaper.