Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 34, Number 30, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 13 December 1901 — A MONUMENT TO HIS MEMORY [ARTICLE]

A MONUMENT TO HIS MEMORY

Will Be the 6rand Building Judge Thompson Has In Mind. The faot that Judge S. P. Thompson had in contemplation the erection of a fine building on his lots, at the southeast corner o f Washington and Cullen streets, has already been mentioned, As we learn more about the Judge’s plans, the more we find that what has previously been published regarding them, gives but a faint idea of what he has now f n contemplation. Even yet we feel reluctant to publish the details of all we have learned, from what we deem wholly reliable sources, lest by some mischance the great plans should not be realized, and the consequent disappointment of our people be correspondingly great. Suffice to say then, at this time, that Judge Thompson has in contemplation the erection of a building that may well be termed monumental, and which, in a literal sense, will be a monument to his memory, that will keep his name bright in the remembrance of the people of Rensselaer and Jasper for generations yet to oome. These words are no exaggeration, but “words of truth and soberness.” A building say 120 by 150 feet in size, three stories and a basement in height, built of enduring stone, brick and iron. A great department and drug store, and a grand entrance to a grand opera house, to be in the first floor. On the second floor the stage and main body of the opera house, offioe and apartment rooms. On the third floor, the opera house galleries, halls, lodge rooms etc. The opera house, a stage of regulation size, to be capable of seating 2,000 people, and to be finished, furnished and equipped in the most oomplete manner. A place in short, that Rensselaer will be glad and more than glad, and proud and more than proud to have now, and will serve all its needs when in the time not perhaps far distant, when our monumental oourt house, and this soaroely less monumental opera house, will be the center of a oity of 10,000 prosperous people, and of a county of ten times ten thousand.