Out of the past: Nov. 15

1999

The district economy continues to operate at what appears to be full capacity; home sales continue to be strong throughout most of the district, and year-to-date residential building permits are above their year-earlier levels; in Cape Girardeau, home sales — new and existing — have averaged more than 40 a month this year; at Jackson, the average is 20 a month.

Jim Wilson Co., a wholesaler distributor of automotive, light truck and heavy duty truck parts, tires and shop equipment, is moving to a new site in Cape Girardeau; James B. "Brad" Wilson, president of Jim Wilson Co., joined company officials and others Friday morning for a groundbreaking ceremony for the company's building, to be constructed at 2007 Southern Expressway.

1974

The Missouri Tax Commission has taken under advisement Aquamsi Land Co.’s appeal of an $84,000 real estate assessment on the Montgomery Ward and Co. building, 18 N. Main St.; in so doing, commission chairman James E. Riney said during a hearing on the appeal at Jackson yesterday that perhaps the lengthy dispute over the assessed valuation of the building should be settled in Circuit Court; it was the third hearing the Tax Commission has held on the issue in the past three years; the dispute pits County Assessor Ed Blumenberg and the County Board of Equalization against Aquamsi.

There was a bomb scare at Cape Girardeau Central High School yesterday, but authorities aren’t going into details because of fear of encouraging further telephoned threats.

1949

Adolph E. Kies of Jackson was reelected president of the SEMO District Fair Association at an organizational meeting last night, which followed the annual membership meeting, attended by 100 persons; at the membership dinner meeting, secretary Elmer P. Lind reported that the association expects to go into the red on the 1949 fair by some $2,152.67.

St. Louis artist George L. Schultz, who bounded into fame recently with his painting of President Truman’s portrait for the American Legion, will be the guest exhibitor at The Missourian’s third annual art show next Saturday and Sunday; Schultz, portrait painter and commercial artist, will display 10 oil paintings at the exhibition; he and his family are literally “steeped in art”, he being a great-grandson of a silversmith to the king of Denmark and a grandson of an eminent Copenhagen architect.

1924

With the Cape Girardeau’s street paving program nearing an end because of threatened cold weather, city officials are preparing to turn their attention to several projects that may be worked out during the winter months; they include the annexation of all outlying suburbs, completion of plans and letting of contracts for the installation of the Normal sanitary sewer in North Cape Girardeau, the opening and improvement of Merriwether Street from Frederick to Middle and the awarding of contracts for paving of additional sections of streets in various parts of town.

The highest building restriction in Cape Girardeau is to be enforced in the building of residences in Rockwood Park, the newest subdivision of the city, which is being opened in the block west of the Teachers College campus by Brumback Realty; no home costing less than $5,000 may be erected in the subdivision; a paved drive will run through the center of the park, starting at H.J. Himmelberger’s residence on Henderson Avenue and running to West End Boulevard.

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.