Special Collections and Archives is pleased to announce that the Houck Papers are now open for public use.  Processing of the papers, completed in December 2002, was made possible by funding from the Missouri Historical Records Grant Program.  The collection contains the papers of Louis Houck and his son, Giboney Houck.  Louis Houck, a Cape Girardeau lawyer and businessman, is best known for his development of the railroads in Southeast Missouri.  His first venture, the Cape Girardeau Railway Company opened in 1880.  In his lifetime, Houck created three railway lines, creating an extensive network that reached into Arkansas and Illinois, and spanned much of Southeast Missouri.  Houck was also very involved in the development of the Normal School at Cape Girardeau.  He served on the Board of Regents at the school for almost forty years.  Houck Field House and Stadium are named in his honor.  Giboney Houck was Louis' son and business partner.  He worked in a variety of his father's businesses.  Additionally, he served as a Major in the Missouri National Guard, and as a member of the Missouri House of Representatives in 1919.  Like his father, he was also an entrepreneur, starting a telephone company and the People's Theatre in the downtown Cape Girardeau area.  The Houck Papers reflect both the personal and professional interests and activities of both men.  For information about using this or other collections, please see our collections policy.

January 21, 2003

The Historical Association of Greater Cape Girardeau recently approved the transfer of the archival materials held at the Glenn House in Cape Girardeau to Special Collections and Archives.  The materials, which consist primarily of clippings files on a variety of local history subjects, will be available to the public for use in the reading room of Special Collections by Summer 2003.  Anyone interested in using the materials prior to this date should contact the Special Collections Librarian at 573.986.7446.

September 2002

The Kansas City firm of consulting engineers Harrington & Cortelyou recently donated to Special Collections papers related to the construction of the Mississippi River Bridge at Cape Girardeau, 1926-1929.  H&C Design Engineer David J. Glastetter, a former resident of Cape Girardeau, was instrumental in securing the papers for Special Collections.  The approximately 12 linear feet of papers consist of correspondence from the home and field offices, journals of Chief Engineer P. V. Pennybacker, financial records, photographs, maps and blueprints, including the original hand-drawn plans for several proposed versions of the bridge.  The papers, which are currently in process, are expected to open to the public in January 2003.

May 2002

Special Collections and Archives has received a $22, 500 grant from the Missouri Historical Records Advisory Board for processing the Louis Houck Papers.  The grant will provide for the hiring of a project archivist, who will perform arrangement and description work on the papers.  Louis Houck, a prominent figure in Cape Girardeau in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, figured significantly in the economic development of Southeast Missouri.  A railroad entrepreneur, Houck laid the first railroad line into Cape Girardeau.  In his twenty-five years of railroad construction, Houck was responsible for laying five hundred miles of track in Southeast Missouri.  An historian by avocation, Houck published a multi-volume history of Missouri in 1908, and served as President of the Board of Regents of the Normal School for thirty-six years. 

September 26, 2001