New ownership for the old Cape Girardeau City Hall

CAPE GIRARDEAU, Mo. (KBSI) – The old city hall building, formerly known as the Lorimier school, has been bought, and its new owners are Bert and Mary Ann Kellerman.

“We have been in preservation, involved in preservation since 1971.”

The Kellermans are preservationists. They will pay the city nearly $550,000 in a deal expected to close July 24.

Frank Nickell’s entire life’s work will be represented within the museum, which the Kellermans say they need more room for.

“So we’re out of space in that building, and just sort of accidently fell on looking at city hall,” said Mary Ann Kellerman. “So we didn’t really plan it, it just sorts of happened.”

Frank Nickell is a retired Southeast Missouri State University history faculty member. His work landed in the hands of the Kellermans who are using the space of the former city hall building to help debut the artwork.

“It will be a museum,” said Mary Ann. “We don’t know for sure what the name will be yet, but it will be a museum of Dr. Nickell’s lifetime work of the Nickells heritage archive.”

Bert Kellerman says the opportunity of buying the old City Hall building was simply meant to be.

“It seemed a natural, and Cape has lost some of its historic homes, so on and, we thought we wanted to help try to be a positive regard,” he said.

The Kellermans are excited for the new adventure and hope to continue preserving some of Cape Girardeau’s history.