Neighborhood History

Penrose's neighborhood identity was a long forming. In the early 19th century, the area was characterized more by land speculations than by actual settlement. It took it's name from Clement B. Penrose, whom Thomas Jefferson appointed land commissioner in 1805. Penrose lived on a nearby estate and was of the region's prime land investors. Another early land owner was statesman Henry Clay, a shaper of the Missouri Compromise.

Penrose did not take on take on the contours of a community until the late 1880's, when farmers and dairymen, most of German heritage, moved their families into the area. By 1900, the community, though still rural, was sufficiently settled to boast two German churched, St. Engelbert Catholic Church and Salem German Evangelical Church.

With the 1920's commercial development and transit lines raised land values around the northern edges of St. Louis. Most of Penrose's subdivisions date from that era, when single family brick homes sprang up along Euclid, Shreve and Lee avenues. Although some of these subdivisions were the work of outside investors, others were developed by long time residents, a prime example being the area around Steinlage Drive, a street named for a local German family in the dairy business.

The early 1960s were years of transition for Penrose. As older residents moved out, African-American families moved in. The well-constructed houses were ideal for moderate-size families offering many their first opportunity for home ownership. Middle- and upper-income African-Americans, including teachers, nurses and city and government employees, made Penrose their new home. A significant number came from home. A significant number came the Ville, located to the southeast and long the city's premier African-American neighborhood.

As Penrose's African-American population increased from 33 percent in 1960 to 95 percent in 1970, African-American institutions helped solidify the neighborhood. St. Peter's A.M.E. Church relocated to the corner of Shreve and Margaretta in 1962. In 1974, the Julia Davis Branch Library, its name honoring the noted St.Louis educator, opened on Natural Bridge.ator, opened on Natural Bridge Avenue.

Soon residents began to organize, showing their commitment to community improvement. One of their first tasks was to difine exactly where Penrose began and ended. Choice, not history, became the factor of deciding neighborhood boundaries - Kingshighway on the west, Natural Bridge on the south, Newstead on the east and Interstate 70 on the north.

In 1981, Penrosians joined forces with St. Engelbert Church to create a chapter of Neighborhood Housing Services, a non-profit partnership of residents, businesses and government. By 1989, NHS had made nearly $1 million in home improvement loans, much of it to senior citizens with modest incomes. Today the Penrose Self-Relient Neighborhood Association, an outgrowth of NHS, rehabs and invests in existing structures.

In addition, Penrose boasts several neighborhood safety and social programs. One such effort is the local Community-Oriented Policing (COPs) program, through which patrolmen have become a highly visible part of the community. The Neighborhood Festival, held each first Saturday of June, in Penrose Park is a much-anticipated event, bringing together local residents and visitors all around St. Louis.

Penrose's strength today lies in the dedication of its residents, many of whom have lived in the neighborhood for 30 years or more. Through "choice," they have refined their community, building an atmosphere of cooperation and improvement. Here, as elsewhere in St. Louis, the idea of "neighborhood" comes much from human spirit as from streets and landmarks.