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Racially Restrictive Covenants Ruled Unenforceable 75 Years Ago Today

May 3, 2023 Featured, History/Preservation, North City Comments Off on Racially Restrictive Covenants Ruled Unenforceable 75 Years Ago Today

At the beginning of the 20th century racism was thriving, though it took different forms in different places. The south had harsh ”Jim Crow” laws, lynchings, etc. Cities like St. Louis were less overt, but were still very racially segregated.

In 1916, St. Louisans voted on a “reform” ordinance that would prevent anyone from buying a home in a neighborhood more than 75 percent occupied by another race. Civic leaders opposed the initiative, but it passed with a two-thirds majority and became the first referendum in the nation to impose racial segregation on housing. After a U.S. Supreme Court decision, Buchanan v. Warley, made the ordinance illegal the following year, some St. Louisans reverted to racial covenants, asking every family on a block or in a subdivision to sign a legal document promising to never sell to an African-American. Not until 1948 were such covenants made illegal, after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled on Shelley v. Kraemer, a case originating in St. Louis.

St. Louis Magazine
This house at 4600 Labadie was at the center of the case Shelley v Kraemer

Here’s a summary of the two cases the U.S. Supreme Court consolidated, the namesake is from St. Louis.

In 1945, an African-American family by the name of Shelley purchased a house in St. Louis, Missouri. At the time of purchase, they were unaware that a restrictive covenant had been in place on the property since 1911. The restrictive covenant prevented “people of the Negro or Mongolian Race” from occupying the property. Louis Kraemer, who lived ten blocks away, sued to prevent the Shelleys from gaining possession of the property. The Supreme Court of Missouri held that the covenant was enforceable against the purchasers because the covenant was a purely private agreement between its original parties. As such, it “ran with the land” and was enforceable against subsequent owners. Moreover, since it ran in favor of an estate rather than merely a person, it could be enforced against a third party. A similar scenario occurred in the companion case McGhee v. Sipes from Detroit, Michigan, where the McGhees purchased property that was subject to a similar restrictive covenant. In that case, the Supreme Court of Michigan also held the covenants enforceable.

Wikipedia

Interesting the state courts in both Missouri & Michigan found the covenants enforceable. The local civil court ruled against the neighbors…on a technically. Not enough property owners had signed on to enact it.

On October 9, 1945, respondents, as owners of other property subject to the terms of the restrictive covenant, brought suit in the Circuit Court of the city of St. Louis praying that petitioners Shelley be restrained from taking possession of the property and that judgment be entered divesting title out of petitioners Shelley and revesting title in the immediate grantor or in such other person as the court should direct. The trial court denied the requested relief on the ground that the restrictive agreement, upon which respondents based their action, had never become final and complete because it was the intention of the parties to that agreement that it was not to become effective until signed by all property owners in the district, and signatures of all the owners had never been obtained.

Justia

With this 1948 decision many whites decided to leave north city for north county.

— Steve
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St. Louis urban planning, policy, and politics @ UrbanReviewSTL since October 31, 2004. For additional content please consider following on Facebook, Instagram, Mastodon, and/or Twitter.

 

St. Louis Roots: Andy Cohen

May 2, 2023 Events/Meetings, Featured, History/Preservation, North City Comments Off on St. Louis Roots: Andy Cohen

This Friday, May 5th 2023, St. Louis native Andy Cohen will get a star on the St. Louis Walk of Fame:

The late-night TV talk show host and executive producer will be inducted into the St. Louis Walk of Fame at 5 p.m. Friday, May 5. A live ragtime band will begin performing at 4:30 p.m. 

The ceremony is free to the public and will take place in front of the Moonrise Hotel at 6177 Delmar in The Loop.

Cohen was born and raised in St. Louis and graduated from Clayton High School in 1986. He is best known as the host and executive producer of Bravo TV’s “Watch What Happens Live with Andy Cohen.” He was also an executive producer for “The Real Housewives” franchise and hosted numerous specials. 

KSDK

Cohen’s roots in St. Louis go back a very long time, as detailed in January 2021 on PBS’ program Finding Your Roots (Against all Odds, S7E2). NPR’s Nina Totenburg was the other guest.

If you missed this episode, or want to watch it again, it will be shown again tonight on Finding Your Roots, 9.1 7pm CST in St. Louis.

In the above clip Cohen reads about a paternal great great grandfather, Russian peddler Simon Kruvant, injured in a horse/carriage accident in 1889 at South Broadway & Koeln Avenue. We also learned Kruvant and his wife lived at 1122 N. 7th Street.

1122 North 7th Street was a one story non-residential building, seen here in a 1909 Sanborn Fire Insurance map. Either the newspaper article gave the wrong address, or this immigrant couple were living in a commercial space.

Given that Kruvant was a peddler a commercial space with room for goods, cart, and horse makes sense. This wasn’t in the Post-Dispatch archives so it must’ve been another newspaper.

The red arrow center toward the bottom shows where 1122 N 7th was. Pink is masonry, yellow is wood frame. Neighbors include industrial, tenements, and Father Dempsey’s Men’s Hotel.

To see this map page in detail click here.

Today 1122 North 7th Street is part numerous vacant blocks just north of the dome.

This area was known as Near North for a long time, but officially it is part of Columbus Square. Before Neighborhoods Gardens and Cochran Gardens were built the neighborhood contained the highest concentration of tenements in the city.

This neighborhood welcomed the poorest immigrants, including: Irish, Jewish, Italian, and blacks escaping the Jim Crow south.

See Andy Cohen tonight on Finding Your Roots and receiving his star Friday in front of the Moonrise Hotel.

— Steve
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St. Louis urban planning, policy, and politics @ UrbanReviewSTL since October 31, 2004. For additional content please consider following on Facebook, Instagram, Mastodon, and/or Twitter.

 

Former St. Liborius Church Complex Fits Beautifully in the Street Grid

October 21, 2022 Featured, History/Preservation, North City Comments Off on Former St. Liborius Church Complex Fits Beautifully in the Street Grid

A major reason why I decided to make St. Louis my home back in August 1990 was the complex street grid and the buildings that neatly fit into it. One of the finest examples of fitting into our decidedly non-orthogonal street grid is the former St. Liborius Church complex, bounded by Hogan, North Market & 18th streets. This is where two different grids collided (View in Google Maps).  When two grids of different orientations met the result was often awkward — this created very interesting buildings on non-rectangular sites. The views looking down streets as they bend into another grid alignment can be spectacular.

Looking east on North Market in September 2011. The former convent is in the center, the church on the right.

St. Liborius was a catholic parish founded by German immigrants on October 21, 1856 – 166 years ago today. In the 1850 census St. Louis had a population of 77,860 — that was a 372.8% increase over the 1840 census. By 1880 the population was 350,5218.

In March 1888 work on the foundation was underway, their existing church & school were a few blocks to the west. In June of that year it was reported the cost was $100,000 and “much of it was on hand.” In 2022 money that’s like $3.124 million!

“The church was completed in 1889. The rectory was built the following year and the convent was built in 1905. The School Sisters of Notre Dame taught in the parish school from 1859 to 1969. The parish buildings were declared a City Landmark in 1975 and listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1979.” (Wikipedia)

The year after the church opened the 1890 census showed the St. Louis population had grown to 451,770.

Let’s take a look at the church and surroundings in 1909.

The October 1909 Sanborn Fire Insurance Map shows the church, convent, and rectory –plus a school & other structures on the site. Only the 3 circled in green remain, everything else in this view is gone. Click image to view full page of the 1909 map. Pink is masonry, yellow is wood frame.

The 1910 population was 687,029. By this point the parish was more than half a century old, the sanctuary more than two decades. In late August I finally got up close to the buildings, and saw inside the sanctuary.

Getting closer we can see the front relationship between the convent and church
Around the north we see a brick wall where the school had been.
Inside the wall we see the large space between the sanctuary and convent.
The rectory faces 18th Street. With the grade change the 2nd floor of the rectory connects to the main floor of the back of the sanctuary. Great use of topography.
Back around near the front corner of the church we see the back of the rectory. Additional buildings were to the right in 1909.

In my 32+ years in St. Louis I’ve seen too many great 19th century buildings fall apart due to neglect & abandonment. I’ve feared the loss of these. But the former convent is owned by Karen House, a catholic worker house. The sanctuary & rectory are owned by SK8 Liborius — a skate park.

The interior of the church was stripped after closing in 1992. It’s great seeing indoor ramps in the space. Photo by David Frank.

The other use for an old sanctuary I’d like to see would be as a vertical hydroponics farm.

— Steve Patterson

 

Lewis Reed’s 25-Year Political Career (1997-2022)

June 8, 2022 Featured, History/Preservation, Politics/Policy Comments Off on Lewis Reed’s 25-Year Political Career (1997-2022)

Former 21st ward alderman John Collin-Muhammad resigned two weeks prior to a federal indictment against him and two others was unsealed. Jeffery Boyd resigned his long held seat as 22nd ward alderman the day after the indictment became public.

The third indicted was board president Lewis Reed, who resigned yesterday.

All three may avoid guilty verdicts in court, but politically they’re finished.

I never trusted Lewis Reed, I never could get a direct answer from him. He’d always just laugh and change the subject. Huge red flag in my book. Yuge!

Thankfully I can proudly say I’ve never voted for Lewis Reed. Not when he first ran for the citywide office in 2007, or re-election three times since. I never voted for him when he ran for Mayor.

Here’s a brief outline of Reed’s political career in St. Louis.

Reed was the campaign manager for 6th ward alderwoman Marit Clark’s 1997 independent run for mayor against Democratic nominee Clarance Harmon. Reed’s day job was as a computer network manager for a hospital group.

Harmon won the race but Reed got himself appointed to the St. Louis Port Authority, quickly becoming the chair. By 1999 Clark decided to retire from the Board of Aldernen, Reed was one of three candidates to become Alderman in the 6th ward. The other two were Patrick Cacchione and Brian Ireland.

Lewis Reed won his first election in St. Louis.

In the Spring of 2001 board president Francis Slay was elected mayor, alderman Jim Shrewsbury elected board president.

It was as 6th ward alderman that Reed came to my attention in 2006, over a planned police substation in the Tower Grove East neighborhood. It was known in the Fall of 2006 that Reed would be challenging board president Jim Shrewsbury in the Spring of 2007, causing people to begin planning to replace him on the board, representing the 6th ward.

From Reed’s 2007 campaign website running for board president. Saved on 3/6/2007 — knew it would eventually be useful.

Reed won his first citywide election in the March 2007 partisan primary by defeating 2-term president Shrewsbury, becoming president of the board the following month.

In March 2013 Reed ran for mayor for the first time, losing to incumbent Francis Slay. He remained president of the board since it was elected two years off from the mayoral race.

In Spring 2017 Reed again ran for mayor, but this time incumbent Slay wasn’t seeking a 4th term. The Democratic primary was packed with people wanting to become mayor. Others on the ballot included then 21st ward alderman Antonio French, Treasurer Tishaura Jones, 22nd ward alderman Jeffrey Boyd, and 28th ward alderwoman Lyda Krewson. Krewson became the city’s first female mayor. Every other candidate kept their existing elected sears that year, except Antonio French. John Collins-Muhammad was elected 21st ward alderman, succeeding French.

There’s a lot more detail I probably could’ve researched/included, but I think you get the overall picture of Reed’s 25 year political career in St. Louis.

— Steve Patterson

 

St. Louis’ Dr Martin Luther King Drive 2022

January 17, 2022 Featured, History/Preservation, MLK Jr. Drive, North City Comments Off on St. Louis’ Dr Martin Luther King Drive 2022

Today’s post is a look at Martin Luther King Jr  Drive in the City of St. Louis — my 18th annual such post. As in the 17 times prior, I traveled the length in both directions looking for changes from the previous year.

Streetsign

Not much has changed since MLK Day 2021 but I’ll detail them later. First I want to address how the street gots it name, and when. After Dr  King was assassinated in Memphis in 1968 some cities began almost immediately to rename major streets in his honor. St. Louis took four years.

In 2017 I quoted the following 2013 post on Facebook:

Stl250
February 17, 2013 

This Day in St. Louis History, February 17, 1972:
Martin Luther King Boulevard is dedicated
A Board of Aldermen bill was passed that changed the name of Easton Avenue and portions of Franklin Avenue to Martin Luther King Boulevard. Alderman C.B. Broussard was a primary sponsor, and he announced that the change was part of a nationwide organized drive to rename streets in honor of the murdered civil rights figure.

Sounds good, but in fact-checking I discovered it is partly inaccurate. I should’ve checked the accuracy in 2017. “Dedicated” implies an event, media, long-winded speeches, and big scissors to cut a ribbon — which did not occur.

Here’s what really happened:

  • February 18, 1972: A bill was introduced to rename part of Franklin  Avenue and all of Easton Avenue. (Post-Dispatch 2/19/1972 P7)
  • March 21, 1972: Board of Aldermen gave final approval to bill 20-2 earlier in the day. (Post-Dispatch 3/21/1972 P27)
  • Spokesperson for Mayor Cervantes said he would sign the bill the following week. (Post-Dispatch 3/31/1972 P19)
  • Post-Dispatch editorial expressed “reservations” about renaming Franklin & Easton for Dr. King. They weren’t sure it was a worthy honor. They favored a new park or boulevard. (Post-Dispatch 4/2/1972 P108)
  • East St. Louis mayor James E. Williams Sr. announced his city would rename the Veterans Memorial Bridge and Illinois Ave to honor Dr. King. This would mean a person could travel from the east limits of East St. Louis to the west limits of St. Louis on roads honoring Dr. King (Post-Dispatch 4/11/1972)

After the official change before businesses changed their letterhead, and the public continued to use the old names. Unfortunately it was only a few years after MLK was honored through East St. Louis IL and Saint Louis that construction began on a convention center, closing two blocks of King Blvd between 7th and 9th. D’oh!

Ok, let’s start on the east end and heading west.

On MLK, facing west toward Tucker Blvd. On the right is the former Post-Dispatch building, now housing the St. Louis offices of digital payment company Square. On the left is Interco Plaza. This block is now one-way westbound.

Interco Plaza, a public park, after being “closed for renovation” in September 2021 as a way of relocating the unhoused that had set up camp. The background is St. Patrick Center, a non-profit organized to “combat homelessness.” This public park has not yet reopened to the public.

A year ago I mentioned the old buildings that were razed on MLK just east of 14th. Now we have a surface parking lot with zero fencing, landscaping, trees, etc. Plus a new driveway. Why do hip tech businesses locate in downtowns if they don’t want to design for downtowns?

Imo’s Pizza is adding onto the east side of their headquarters/warehouse. 16th Street has been closed to vehicles and pedestrians for years — a subtle way to say “keep out” to north side who want to enter the more prosperous Downtown West neighborhood.

Hard to see in this photo, but clear plastic bottles have been put into the holes in a chainlink fence. I found it interesting. NW corner of MLK & Vandeventer.

Last month the non-profit Dismas House announced it bought the former 15-acre Killark Electric Manufacturing property at 3940 MLK.

Liked the 100k SF building for many years, not a fan of the replacement windows that were installed decades ago. Killark first leased the site in 1918, not sure when they bought it or built this building.

“KILLARK ELECTRIC MFG CO.” is in stone at the top of the main building. City records list 8 buildings on the site, but I can only see records for six. Of the 6, the oldest is from 1892 and the newest is 1966.

The glass-enclosed entry doesn’t look original, but it has been in place as long as I can recall.

From MLK I could see a community garden at Sarah & Evans. Click image to see Good Life Growing’s website.

More bricks have fallen off the front of 4277 MLK.

4749 MLK has looked bad for years, but thankfully it has been getting some stabilization.

4859 MLK has also looked bad for a long time, noticed a little bit of the side wall has collapsed. 4961 next door is also in poor condition. The building on the left is privately owned, right is owned by the LRA. Both were built in 1905.

The setback building at 4973 MLK, just east of Kingshighway, has been mostly finished for many years. New this year is temporary construction fencing. The side lot out to Kingshighway has been disturbed recently.

5084 MLK is now a Moorish Science temple.

The nice composition of buildings at 5700+ MLK still look stable.

5736 MLK is a medical cannabis dispensary, or will be once it actually opens — click the image to view their currently bare bones website. The space next door is a meeting/event space. Both very positive in an area short on good news.

Just west of Goodfellow we see one unit worse than the others.

Floors and the roof are gone, accelerating deterioration of the brick walls. 5810 MLK

5861 MLK, built in 1907, is showing some wear. The stone plaque over the center doors says it’s the “Kinsey Building”.

The former JC Penny department store at 5930 is still standing. Would love to see this building renovated and occupied.

The buildings across the street may not survive as long. The gap is where a building was lost in 2020.

The famous Wellston Loop transit building continues being exposed to the elements.

The west side is no better.

The sidewalk between Irving Ave and Kienlen Ave was just replaced. This is in Wellston — St. Louis County, just beyond the St. Louis city limits.

Like previous years a few bright spots, mostly depressing decay.

— Steve Patterson

 

 

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