Welcome to
The Ville
The history of human activity in the Ville Neighborhood reaches back to the earliest recorded history of the region and perhaps further. Within the historic era, the neighborhood has been home to individuals from a diversity of cultures. It was homes for wealthy landowners, modes laborers, simple farmers, doctors, lawyers, teachers and influential politicians. It was a microcosm of the forces that built the nation; within it history can be seen wars, migrations, the fight for civil rights and the achievement of individuals against difficult odds. Tracing the cultural processes that have formed this neighborhood over the centuries not only helps us understand the past, but can give us a far deeper understanding of the present.
The Ville is situated just northwest of downtown St. Louis, and covers a roughly 9 by 5 block area. This area is bounded by Taylor Avenue on the West, St. Louis Avenue on the North, Sarah Street on the East, and Martin Luther King Drive on the South. The neighborhood was established on the high hilltop within the interior uplands, ranging in elevation between 500 and 530 feet above sea level, lying about 2 1/2 miles from the Mississippi River bluff line.
Elleard, another wealthy resident of the neighborhood participated in a variety of business enterprises in addition to horticulture. The Ville originally belonged to Charles M. Elleard, a florist and horticulturist who maintained a conservatory and greenhouses on the tract. Elleard donated most of the products of his nurseries to his friends. During Elleard's twenty or so years at his property on Goode and St. Charles Rock Road, the area became known as Elleardsville. In the late nineteenth century, Elleardsville (later shortened to "The Ville") attracted German and Irish immigrants, along with some African Americans. The neighborhood's first black institution, Elleardsville Colored School No. 8 (later renamed Simmons School), opened in 1873.
Between 1920 and 1930. The Ville went from being 8% African American to being 86% African American. More and more African American institutions were established and the area thrived. Much of the "eliteness" in the Ville's reputation dates from this period. The most famous resident of The Ville at this time was Annie Malone.
Annie Turnbo Pope Malone came to St. Louis in the early part of this century and began making and selling beauty products. She called her products "the Poro System". She then became so successful that she was able to build her own million dollar building to house her various enterprises. The Poro Building became an important symbol of African American enterprises and was located near Sumner High School in the heart of the Ville. The building housed her Poro College of Beauty Culture and her manufacturing plant as well as a number of other organizations.
While in St. Louis, Annie Malign was a generous contributor to the St. Louis Colored Orphan's home and the St. James A.M. Church . She successfully pushed the city to pave streets in the Ville. Annie Malone is remembered as a generous philanthropist, a civic leader, and one of the most successful African American entrepreneurs in the city's history. The St. Louis colored Orphan's Home moved to the Ville from Natural Bridge Road in 1922 thanks to a large gift from Annie Malone. The Home was later renamed the Annie Malone Children's' Home.
St. James African Methodist Episcopal Church was organized in 1885 and further established an African American presence in the community. As part of a "turnkey" project, St. James A.M.E. helped finance a home for the elderly, know as James House Senior Citizens, across the street from the church, at the former site of Poro College.
The Charles Henry Turner Open Air School for Crippled Children, the first of its kind for African American children in the city, opened at 4235 Kennerly, in 1925. The school was named for a distinguished entomologist with numerous scientific publications to his credit who taught at Sumner High School from 1908 until 1922. The Open Air designation had to do with the belief at the time that fresh air was helpful to those suffering from tuberculosis and fresh air was part of the regimen at the school. The school later became the C.H. Turner Middle School Branch.
Sumner High school opened in 1875 as the first African American high school west of the Mississippi. The school is named for Senator Charles Sumner, who in 1861 became the first prominent politician to call for full emancipation. Originally established at 11th and Spruce streets, Sumner moved to 15th and Walnut streets in 1895. It acquired its present home in the Ville in 1910 when citizens petitioned the Board of Education to move the school away from the saloons and pool rooms near its downtown location.
Sumner Normal School, which had been a department of Sumner High School, became a college in 1925 and took the name Sumner Teachers' College. In 1930, the name was changed again to Harriet Beecher Stowe College and it was housed in a portion of the Simmons School. In 1940, a new facility was built on Pendleton to house the teachers' college. With desegregation in 1954, Stowe College merged with the all white Harris Teachers' College.
Billups Avenue, named after Kenneth B. Billups, a musician, teach and Sumner alumnus, who served as chairman of Sumner High School's music department and founded the Legend Singers, and opera star Grace Bumbry was one of Billups' most successful students. Billups Avenue runs west of Sumner High School, on a section that was formerly part of Pendleton, extending from Kennerly on the north to Martin Luther King on the south.
Homer G. Phillips, a lawyer and community leader who lived near the Ville, is associated with the successful passing in the 1920's of an $87 million bond issue that included a million dollars for an African American hospital. In 1931, after the bond was passed but before the hospital could be built, he was assassinated by unknown assailants while waiting for a streetcar. The hospital, with a 177-bed capacity, opened in 1937 and was named after Phillips. The hospital remained open until 1984 and employed 800-900 people.
In 1938, the Tandy Community center, named for Captain Charleton Tandy, and early politician, equal rights activist, and Civil War hero, opened its doors. Since that time it has offered recreational facilities to the members of the Ville, specifically such sports as boxing, basketball, swimming, dancing, crafts, and dramatics. In the adjoining Tandy Park are the tennis courts where Arthur Ashe, among others played.
Antioch Baptist Church, one of the oldest Protestant churches in the Ville, was incorporated in 1884. The present church building, at Annie Malone Drive (formerly Goode Avenue) and North Market, dates from 1920. Rev. James Cook, one of Antioch's most memorable pastors, gained recognition for his direction of the Pine Street YMCA and his activity in the civil rights movement.
John Marshall Elementary School, built in the 1900's, is the only school in the Ville area not originally intended for African American students. In 1918, Marshall became an intermediate school for African Americans. It has served the area as an elementary school since 1927.
In 1972, Easton Avenue and a portion of Franklin Avenue were renamed Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Drive as a tribute to the Baptist clergyman and civil rights activist who was slain in 1968.
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