THE GREATER VILLE (56)
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LOCATION
The area is bounded by Marcus Avenue on the northwest, Natural Bridge on the northeast, Dr. Martin Luther King Drive and St. Louis Avenue on the south via North Taylor Avenue and Sarah Street, and North Vandeventer Avenue on the southeast.

HISTORY
The Greater Ville shares much of the history of the Ville neighborhood, which nests comfortably inside the Greater Ville. By the mid 1800s it was home to a mix of African Americans, Germans, and Irish Immigrants. Unlike the Ville, parts of the Greater Ville area were restricted by covenants to preserve racial inequalities through allowing only white home ownership in certain areas. Similar to the Ville, though, the Greater Ville has suffered greatly from neglect and disinvestment as both the white and black middle class have virtually disappeared in a mass exodus out of the city. As the middle class left their homes in the Greater Ville behind, many urban poor relocated to this neighborhood after they were pushed out of areas such as Mill Creek Valley during the “urban renewal” period of the 1950s.

CHARACTERISTICS
The Greater Ville area residents would not necessarily refer to the area they live in as The Greater Ville. In fact, many of them would associate themselves more with the Beaumont area or simply include themselves in the Ville neighborhood. The Greater Ville neighborhood surrounds the Ville neighborhood in the shape of a horseshoe. On the northern section of this land mass, the area sits across Natural Bridge Road from Fairgrounds Park.

The Greater Ville, like other neighborhoods in this northern area, contains many paradoxes. Driving along St. Louis Avenue, a visual survey of the neighborhood reveals a tree-lined block of stable, well-kept, two- and four- family homes followed by a block of overgrown board-ups on a one-to-one ratio with intact housing. Two blocks later, a once commercial area of St. Louis Avenue is now totally empty with vacated lots and derelict buildings. This trend is not specific to St. Louis Avenue; the same can be said of Taylor, Greer, Labadie, and most other neighborhood streets. For businesses, the situation appears even worse. Signs of life are few and far between the corner store board-ups and chain-link-fence-covered storefronts. Yet strips of small businesses, such as those along Natural Bridge Avenue near Taylor, show signs of prosperity in their storefronts, including a coordinated effort in displaying blue awnings on all the businesses. A sign of hope in these paradoxes can also be seen in the day care on Sarah Street, whose brightly painted sign sets off its building from the two abandoned board-ups that sandwich it.

The blight in the Greater Ville is confirmed statistically by figures that place the Greater Ville second-highest among all of St. Louis’s 79 neighborhoods in each of the following: vacant buildings, condemned buildings, and demolitions.

INSTITUTIONS AND ORGANIZATIONS
The neighborhood is home to several religious institutions: the Lovejoy Missionary Baptist Church, the Cote Brilliante Presbyterian Church, and Immanuel Lutheran are a few examples of the strong spiritual element of this community. The Cote Brilliante Presbyterian Church on Marcus Avenue also operates a preschool for neighborhood children. Immanuel Lutheran has been active in community outreach for many years.

The Northside Community Center reaches out to community members in the northern part of St. Louis, especially in the Greater Ville and Ville neighborhoods. As a United Way member agency with a holistic approach to service delivery, Northside Community Center offers services to neighborhood clients in three major program areas: elderly, housing, and children/youth. Its youth department offers several services, including job training, a parent support group, food pantry, social service referrals, delinquency and substance abuse prevention, leadership development, after-school tutoring, field trips, recreation, and social and academic counseling. Neighborhood seniors benefit from the following programs at the Center: nutrition education, health management, safety, coping skills, tax assistance, daily nutritious meals, and social events. Since 1974, Northside Community Center has been active in the rehabilitation of vacant houses in the community for rental to low-income families.

The Julia Davis Branch Library is situated on the Greater Ville’s northern boundary, Natural Bridge Road. The library is a great asset to the community, young and old. It bears the name of a longtime Ville resident, educator, and historian; Julia Davis graduated from Sumner High and taught at several St. Louis schools, including Simmons School.

PLANNING AND DEVELOPMENT
The North Newstead Association concentrates on the rehabilitation of the 21st Ward. In the residential arena, the Association does both rehabilitation of current housing stock and new construction. In the portion of the 21st Ward that lies in the Greater Ville neighborhood, the association maintains rehabilitated rental properties on Ashland and Lexington. They have also been active commercially through The Façade Program. This program helps business through giving them a “facelift” of sorts. Examples of projects in this program include the addition of new awnings to businesses and the placement of trash receptacles and benches in front of area businesses.

The Beaumont Betterment Corporation (BBC) was founded by Reverend Clyde Harper and area residents in 1992. BBC is heading up an initiative to revitalize housing in the area surrounding neighborhood schools, such as Beaumont High School. The organization has focused on initial fundraising and preliminary planning for a targeted 16-block area; the southwestern portion of this area is inside the Greater Ville neighborhood. The area is bounded on the west by Clay, on the east by Prairie, on the north by Natural Bridge, and on the south by Greer. The BBC believes that the primary focus in revitalizing a neighborhood needs to be concentrated around the neighborhood schools. Some of their ideas include a program to encourage teachers to move back in the areas surrounding the schools.

Members of the community and congregation of St. Matthew the Apostle have formed a neighborhood movement called “Revitalization 2000.” This community-based organization produced a 1999 report outlining a community development strategy, describing conditions of land use, and mapping the neighborhood’s assets. The report focuses on using the neighborhood’s program and spiritual resources in transforming the neighborhood’s physical elements into an attractive and safe community. Specifically, the plans include the acquisition of housing as well as vacant land. The strategy calls for demolition of some housing stock and revitalization of other. Outlined in three phases, Revitalization 2000 identifies the use of land for building a community garden, expanding the Parish Center, designating space for recreational purposes, building a facility to educate at-risk middle school youth, and building a new single-family home. Renovation of housing stock will focus on single family homes for sale to low- and moderate-income families and a site for the community outreach ministry.

Also active in realizing better housing in the Ville area is the Greater Ville Historic Development Corporation. One of the Corporation’s focuses is the administration of the Home Repair Program, which, as its name suggests, helps community members finance home repairs. They have also been instrumental in the construction of a number of new homes in the area. In collaboration with Habitat for Humanity, the Greater Ville Historic Development Corporation has successfully helped bring new home construction to streets such as St. Ferdinand, Bellglade, St. Ferdinand, and North Keller. Their role is focused on securing the property and also qualifying candidates for the new homes. Most homes are being offered to qualified residents on a lease-to-purchase program. In addition to its residential programs, the Greater Ville Historic Development Corporation has hired a consultant, Aldolphus Pruitt, to create a strategy for redeveloping the commercial area, Brown Plaza, on Martin Luther King near Whittier.