Ceramics studio to open in former downtown Cape synagogue

Rob Lorenz is nearly ready to open Riverside Pottery, a studio offering classes in methods of ceramic arts, after more than a year of work on the historic building that will house it.

The B’Nai Israel Synagogue at 126 S. Main St. in Cape Girardeau was built in 1937 after a fire destroyed the Jewish community’s scrolls and meeting place in Capaha Park, according to the Southeast Missourian archives.

The synagogue was first used Sept. 5, 1937, and Lorenz will open his doors to the public during a scaled-down First Friday celebration Sept. 4 this year.

The synagogue, designed in Spanish and Islamic styles by architect T.P. Barnett, saw regular Jewish religious use into the 1970s, but by the late 1980s held only limited services, due to a decline in the area’s Jewish population. In 2012, Lighthouse United International Ministries, led by Adrian Taylor, moved in, and in 2019, the congregation moved to the present location at 710 Southern Expressway.

Merriwether Investments had the building placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2004. Merriwether Investments bought the building from Martin Hecht, owner of the former Hecht’s retail stores, in 2003. Ideas for the building’s use included a museum and a children’s library, according to previous reporting, but did not materialize.

Pottery wheels and tables are seen inside Riverside Pottery on Tuesday in Cape Girardeau.BEN MATTHEWS

Now, Lorenz is ready to move ahead.

The main entrance opens onto a large room, with throwing wheels and tables for hand building work. Racks for in-progress pieces and lockers for tools and other equipment line the walls. An industrial slab roller for larger-scale clay preparation is ready to roll, and a clay extruder will allow students to press clay through a variety of shapes for effect — like Play-Doh, Lorenz said.

During Lorenz’s art education studies at Southeast Missouri State University, he took a required course in ceramics, and liked it so much he ended up with enough credits for a Bachelor of Fine Arts in ceramics and his art education degree. He taught art in Jackson public schools for a couple of years until he and his wife moved to Illinois, where she is from.

At Southern Illinois University in Carbondale, Lorenz earned his master’s degree and joined up with a group of potters. After teaching at John A. Logan College in Carterville, Illinois, then a stint at Paducah (Kentucky) School of Art and Design, Lorenz felt the urge to take his teaching to the community.

“It’s a different dynamic, teaching the public versus teaching at a college,” Lorenz said. With budget concerns, keeping attendance and grading something as subjective as art, it can be “gets sticky,” he added.

Rob Lorenz gives a tour of Riverside Pottery's future gallery room Tuesday in Cape Girardeau.BEN MATTHEWS

“There are infinite ways to finish ceramics,” Lorenz said as he stepped into the glaze-making room. That holds the kiln, which fires to cone 6, and shelves upon shelves of components for glaze.

“A glaze is a liquid slurry that melts into glass” and coats each piece, Lorenz said. The colors and finishes depend on the chemical components, and while glazes are available commercially, Lorenz prefers to fine-tune by using his own ingredients.

He’ll order clay by the box, he said, and a clay mixing machine will allow him to reduce waste.

Opposite the glaze-making room are the gallery spaces, each with stained-glass windows. The shop space will house a retail shop, and the gallery room will allow space for exhibitions, he said.

“We were lucky to come across this building,” Lorenz said. “The proximity to downtown is beneficial, the layout is good, and the historic nature of the building sold us on it.”

Rob Lorenz poses for a photo Tuesday at Riverside Pottery in Cape Girardeau.BEN MATTHEWS

The official opening is during First Friday on Sept. 4. An after-school art club starts Sept. 8, and classes for potters begin the week of Sept. 15. More information is online at www.riversidepotterystudio.com, or search Riverside Pottery Studio on Facebook.

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