Reclaiming Historic Assets to Transform Communities

Catalina Freixas, Melisa Sanders, Aaron Williams, Cindy Mense, Nick Hoffman

“Reclaiming Historic Assets to Transform Communities” engages with the community of The Ville, a historic Black neighborhood in north St. Louis that has been home to many notable artists, activists, and several pivotal institutions, including Stowe Teachers College, Poro Beauty College and Homer G. Phillips Hospital. For instance, The Ville was the site of both the first African American high school west of the Mississipi and the most prominent Black teaching hospital in the world, at the time of their respective founding. Once a thriving and vibrant neighborhood (amid practices of de jure and de facto racist city planning practices), for many decades now, The Ville has faced declining residency, disinvestment, and an aging population, all of which have contributed to the erasure of its cultural and historical legacy. This project seeks to preserve and revive The Ville’s contributions to civil rights, the arts, education, and African American heritage more generally through collaborations with, and not for, the community.

Secondary Organizers

Liz Kramer

Michael Burns