CHRISTMAS ORNAMENT FEATURES ACADEMIC HALL

Academic Hall, which has been a fixture on the Southeast Missouri State University landscape for more than 90 years, will be featured on the third annual Christmas holiday ornament sponsored by the Downtown Merchants Association.

The special-edition ornament is being presented in conjunction with the university's 125th anniversary, said Judith Anne Lang, owner of Judith Anne's gift shop, a member of the Downtown Merchants Association and coordinator of the annual ornament project.

Construction of Academic Hall started in 1903 and was completed in 1905. It replaced the ornate old Normal School Building, which had been erected in 1875, two years after the school had been established in 1873.

"I have a prototype of the ornament," said Lang. "It looks great."

Two thousand of the ornaments will be ordered, double the usual order for the annual ornament.

"A share of the proceeds will be donated to the university for its River Campus at St. Vincent's Seminary. The university has pledged to raise $8.9 million in private funds for the new campus facility.

Academic Hall is the third design for the downtown ornament. The first, in 1996, was a hand-painted engraving of the Common Pleas "Courthouse and the Clock." Last year's ornament featured the "Mississippi River Bridge, 1927."

"We have a few of the 1998 ornaments left," said Hale.

The ornament this year will be available with a gift box and stand, said Lang.

The downtown group will use its share of the proceeds to refurbish Christmas decorations.

The ornaments will go on sale Nov. 1.

The annual ornaments, said Lang, are not really so much Christmas as collective decorative ornaments.

"We're always looking for other ideas for the future," she said. "We'll consider anything that depicts Cape Girardeau. We want to offer something new and unique every year."