On Oct. 30, Century Casino Cape Girardeau will mark 10 years of successful operation at 777 Main St. by looking back to its 2012 founding as Isle Casino Cape Girardeau and by looking forward to the planned early 2024 opening of a $26 million, six-story, 69-room hotel on casino property.

What may be forgotten by all but those with longer memories is the casino effectively revitalized the river city’s Red Star district.

“Red Star” is a cherished reference to what the land now occupied by the casino used to produce long ago: shoes with a distinctive red star on the side.

St. Louis’s Roberts, Johnson & Rand Shoes built a behemoth factory on Main Street and began production in 1907. According to local historian Beverly Hahs, the business became known as International Shoe in 1919, and boasted a peak employment of 1,600 souls making soles by 1935.