It seems like Almost Yesterday that the landscape of Cape Girardeau featured a number of special places where residents could relax and enjoy a pleasant change of scenery. In the middle of the nineteenth century Franck’s Gardens on the hill along Jackson Road, now Broadway, was such a place.
A product of the German migration to the region in the 1850s, this park-like beer garden was one of the social centers and “beauty spots” of the community for approximately four decades. Named for John A. Franck, but anglicized to “Frank”, the grounds included a mansion, beautiful gardens and varied amusements.
A visitor in May of 1864, during the Civil War, described the grounds as a beautiful, green, and shady park, with exotic plants, extensive flower beds, and pleasant walking paths, all surrounded by rows of silver poplar trees. Children loved the swing sets, the ten pin bowling alley, and the town’s only Flying Dutchman.
A long arbor extended to the back of the property to a small summer house covered with beautiful wisteria vines. The grounds also included a large poultry yard that featured giant peacocks and a hermaphrodite rooster.
Inside the mansion at Frank’s Gardens were small tables where lunches, beer, and other drinks were served. Here was an authentic German beer garden, one of Cape Girardeau’s special places.
Although there were occasional incidents that sometimes gave “Frank’s” a harsh image, the 1864 visitor said he observed only the faces of happy children and beautiful ladies.
Those who currently drive past the eleven hundred block of “Jackson Road,” – today’s Broadway – are unaware that they are passing by the site of Frank’s Gardens, an important social center from Cape Girardeau’s past.