VANDEVENTER (58)
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LOCATION
The area is bounded by Martin Luther King Drive on the North, Delmar on the South, Vandeventer on the East, and Newstead on the West. The Vandeventer neighborhood lies between the Central West End and the Ville and is just west of Grand Center.

HISTORY
The area that today makes up the Vandeventer neighborhood was once a part of the Grande Prairie Commonfield established by St. Louis’s early French inhabitants. Commonfields for cultivation were laid out on the broad prairies west of the settlement. These were parceled into long narrow strips to different landowners but fenced with a common enclosure. This system was maintained until about 1800, after which pacification of Native American Indians enabled farmers to spread out. At that point, fences were abandoned in favor of the Anglo-American practice of individual farming.

By 1850, the majority of arpent strips had been combined into larger tracts more suitable for the purposes of subdivision and development. By the mid-fifties, two large subdivisions had been laid out in the area, Cote Brilliante, to the west and Prairie Place along Belle Glade, to the north. In 1858, Charles M. Elleard, a florist and horticulturist, purchased a tract, bounded by the present Martin Luther King Drive, Annie Malone Drive, Cote Brilliante and Newstead Avenues, just north of the present-day Vandeventer neighborhood. There, Elleard established a conservatory and greenhouses. Real estate activity slowed during the Civil War but resumed quickly following the conflict's end. By 1870, a small town, Elleardsville, had emerged around Elleards’s floral nursery. During this period, the northern portion of what is now the Vandeventer neighborhood was contiguous with Elleardsville. In fact, Elleardsville’s town hall was situated on the corner of the present Martin Luther King and Whittier. The local horse track, Abbey Trotting Race Track, occupied in the northern section of the current neighborhood, in the area between Page, Whittier, MLK and Taylor. After the track moved westward in about 1877, this area was developed as the Evans Place residential subdivision.

The Grand Prairie area experienced a gradual urbanization, building-up westward from Grand Avenue, which continued into the first decade of the twentieth century. Among many people moving into the area were significant numbers of German and Irish immigrants, as well as some African Americans. In the early 1900s, during an era of racial segregation and restrictive covenants, Elleardsville, or "the Ville", was one of the few areas in the City open to African Americans. These practices remained through the first half of the century. During which time, the Ville emerged as the heart of black culture in St. Louis and home to many prominent African-American institutions. During this time period, Lloyd Lionel Gaines (1911-39?) lived with his family in a house on West Belle Place in the Vandeventer neighborhood. After graduating first in his class from Vashon High School, he became the first African-American to apply to the University of Missouri School of Law, then a segregated institution. After rejection of his application, Gaines, with the assistance of the NAACP, took his case first to the county court, then, the Missouri Supreme Court and finally, to the United States Supreme Court. The court landmark decision in 1938 was the first of a series that culminated in the abandonment of the 1896 "separate-but-equal" doctrine of Plessy v. Ferguson.

CHARACTERISTICS
In the later part of the twentieth century, the Vandeventer neighborhood, like others in the area, experience a dramatic decline as residents moved elsewhere and the economic base deteriorated. Today, Vandeventer residents strive to improve the area and reverse this trend, by participating in various organizations to build a better and stronger community. These organizations include Citizens for a Better Community, Block Units, Urban League, Enright Neighbors Association, SLACO, Neighbor to Neighbor, Americorps, Weed and Seed, and a Community Council. In fact, the 4100 block of Enright was the first Urban League block unit.

Vandeventer is an old neighborhood that is solidly on the frontier of the future. With the Central Corridor of St. Louis for the most part rehabilitated, the developers and real estate agents are looking slightly to the north, in the Vandeventer area. Throughout the neighborhood there is some of the worst deterioration in the City of St. Louis, right around the corner from some of the best new housing in the City. Along Delmar and Enright are large three-story homes with intricate terra-cotta detail work representative of 19th-century architecture. Streets throughout the neighborhood boast variety in the size and type of housing stock. There are various affordable housing options, including two- to four-family flats and apartment buildings.

Turner Park, located at Belle and Sarah, is a perfect example of the mixed condition of the Vandeventer neighborhood: At one corner there is a playground that could be the cornerstone of the surrounding blocks; at the other corner, there is a unmaintained baseball diamond whose teams have long since moved from the neighborhood.

INSTITUTIONS AND ORGANIZATIONS
There are a wide variety of religious institutions in Vandeventer where community members have access to both religious and some social services. Transformation Church and World Outreach Center takes its ministry to Third World countries across the globe, including parts of Africa and Haiti. Nonetheless, it also works in the nearby community with over 25 local ministries. These include a Drug and Alcohol Ministry and a Prison Ministry. The Church is also in the process of opening a Christian bookstore on Page Avenue. The Shiloh M.B. Church is active in the community and provides social programs such as a latchkey program and computer classes. The community is also home to the Lively Stone Church of God, All Saints Baptist Church, Monumental M.B. Church, New Covenant, and many others.

The Vandeventer neighborhood can educate its children within its neighborhood through the end of the middle school years. For preschool-age children, the HDC Head Start is an option. Cole Elementary School, located on the 3900 block of Enright, is within walking distance for many of the neighborhood’s younger children. In the heart of the Vandeventer neighborhood is Stevens Middle School and Community Education Center (Stevens CEC). The Stevens Middle CEC was named for the first African-American pastor to become a candidate for membership on the St. Louis Board of Education, Reverend George E. Stevens. The middle school serves the Vandeventer neighborhood as well as neighborhoods to its west, south, and east. It serves about 320 students in grades 6, 7, and 8. The CEC offers both academic-oriented programs, such as computer-related courses, and fitness programs. The CEC also operates a summer camp program for children 5-14 years. Across the street from Stevens is a neighborhood garden, Marcus Garvey Community Garden, which was a "Citizens for a Better Community" project.

Across the street from Stevens is a neighborhood garden, Marcus Garvey Community Garden, which was a Citizens for a Better Community project. Citizens for a Better Community has been a neigborhood association in Vandeveter for over a decade. This nonprofit group of concerned residents works to improve both social and physical conditions within the neighborhood and recently played an important role in Vandeventer becoming a Weed and Seed neighborhood.

PLANNING AND DEVELOPMENT
Vandeventer ranks sixth among St. Louis’ seventy-nine neighborhoods in the number of vacant land parcels. This in no doubt reflects the difficulties the neighborhood has faced in recent years, but nevertheless, it also illustrates potential opportunities for the future. The abundance of vacant land and its close proximity to the already redeveloped Central West End has made Vandeventer a prime target for private redevelopment. The largest private building effort is underway by Pyramid Construction. Finished new homes and those under construction line the neighborhood’s southern border, Delmar Avenue. Developers such as Mid City Development and Gary Johnson are also claiming stakes in the neighborhood’s future.

Ranken Community Development Corporation was incorporated in 1994 as a nonprofit venture between Ranken Technical College and the St. Louis Association of Community Organizations (SLACO). RCDC’s mission is to build and sell single-family homes to individuals and families meeting low- to moderate-income guidelines. Some their most recent projects include the building of homes in the 4300 blocks of West Belle and Page Avenue.

Vandeventer was selected in 1998 to be one of the first neighborhoods to be included in the St. Louis 2004 Sustainable Neighborhoods initiative. Its selection was based upon a number of criteria focusing on neighborhood needs and capacity for success. Sustainable Neighborhoods is an unprecedented partnership to revitalize nine neighborhoods through an ambitious initiative directed by the residents themselves. Eighteen financial institutions contributed funds to create the largest concentration of private capital ever directed at neighborhood revitalization. The funds are earmarked for investments and loans in the neighborhoods for new and rehabilitated housing, new business development, and job creation. An additional focus on developing health-related projects for children has been underwritten by the Deaconess Foundation.