Front of the J. Maple and Grace Senne Wilson House in Cape Girardeau, Missouri.Photo byNyttend, public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.

The historic J. Maple and Grace Senne Wilson House is at 344 North Ellis Street in Cape Girardeau, Missouri. This two and a half story home was built in 1903-1904. On July 7, 2015, it was listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The home is privately owned.

The architectural style of the home is Late 19th & Early 20th Century Revivals: Colonial Revival. The foundation is limestone and the walls are brick. The architect was Lewis Brinton Blackwood.

This home is in a residential area near Southeast Missouri State University. The front of the home has a one-story full-width porch supported by Tuscan columns. There's also a two-story octagonal tower on the northwest corner.

This house is important due to its architecture in the period it was constructed. It's amazing this 120-year-old home still exists today. The house is also important because it reflects the period when styles were going from the Victorian style to the Revival style. Architect Blackwood designed the house for pharmacist, J. Maple Wilson, and his wife, Grace Senne.

Joseph Maple Wilson Sr. and Grace Alverta Senne married on June 19, 1894. They had at least three sons and two daughters.

The Wilson Home in 2022.Photo byGoogle Maps screenshot.

Wilson commissioned their house to be built in 1903. His wife, Grace, wanted a different home on the property to start their family. They used to have a frame house and the new house was more open. Blackwood was their architect and the builder was William Taylor.

Wilson had attended the State Normal School in Cape Girardeau and the University of Missouri at Columbia. Later, he and his father established a pharmacy. The Normal School was around a block from their new home. There, Wilson also taught science and penmanship.

In 1939, Wilson sold the drug store and retired. Wilson Sr. died on December 15, 1943, at age 79. His first wife, Lulu Taylor Wilson, died on May 2, 1891, at the very young age of 21. of that marriage, a daughter named Lulu was born. She died on February 26, 1892, at 9 months old.

Wilson Sr.'s second wife, Grace, died on March 31, 1930, at age 57. Their daughters, Mary Wilson and Ellen Wilson Wilcox, took over the ownership of the property after their parents died.

Mary and Ellen kept the home in their family until they died in 1991 and 1993, respectively. A granddaughter of Joseph and Grace, Judith Cureton, acquired ownership of the home in 2005.

Lewis Brinton Blackwood

Architect Blackwood designed several buildings in Cape Girardeau. A native of New Jersey, he moved to Kansas earlier in his life. After he visited Cape Girardeau in the early 1900s, he started advertising his services. In 1904, he established an office in the city.

The Wilson House was probably one of Blackwood's first projects since he had also opened his office in the year it was completed. Besides designing homes, Blackwood also designed other buildings. Some of the local buildings and notable houses he designed include the below.

• Centenary Church building (south of the Wilson House)
• First National Bank
• Liberty Carriage Factory
• Abraham Russell Ponder House (listed on the National Register in 2008)

Blackwood went back to St. Louis in 1907. He would return to Cape Girardeau to supervise construction.

Louis B. Blackwood died in St. Louis on August 20, 1911, at age 67. He was buried at Bellefontaine Cemetery in St. Louis.

In 2015, the Southeast Missourian featured the home which included interior images, including the Wilson's granddaughter who owns the home. Visit here to see those images.

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