Photograph courtesy of Dorothy Squires
By Christy Marshall
Like Brigadoon, some neighborhoods simply drift into oblivion, never to be heard of again. But of all the segments of the city’s population, the African-American community has seen the most neighborhoods dwindle into oblivion.
Remember LaClede Town, started in 1964? No? That’s not too surprising, since the 1,400 townhouses and apartments it contained were razed in the late 1990s. The neighborhood surrounded the Berea Presbyterian Church, which was sold last year to Saint Louis University.
LaClede is just one African-American neighborhood that has vanished. John A. Wright Sr. details others in St. Louis: Disappearing Black Communities (Arcadia Publishing, 888-313-2665).
York (of Lewis and Clark fame), Dred Scott, Josephine Baker and Scott Joplin all used to reside downtown. Elizabeth Hobbs Keckley—author and one-time seamstress to Mary Todd Lincoln—lived at 5 Broadway. All of the first African-American churches below Jefferson Avenue are gone, with the exception of Saint Nicholas Catholic, the first parish given by whites to blacks.
Since St. Louis’ earliest years, African Americans have lived in the Carondelet, The Hill, Compton Hill and Rock Springs neighborhoods. A self-sustaining community, Compton Hill was bordered by Park, Grand, Jefferson and Chouteau.
At the beginning of the 1900s, African Americans established homes in the Brentwood, Richmond Heights, Clayton, Pagedale and Breckenridge Hills areas. Of those original settlements, only the populations in the last two remain. In Kirkwood, Meacham Park has been pretty much displaced due to the shopping development with Target, Wal-Mart and Lowe’s.
Other lost neighborhoods: Sandtown in North County (disappeared around 1935), Robertson (eaten up by the expansion of Lambert International Airport) and Black Jack (in North St. Louis).
