The Ville is a historic African-American neighborhood with many African-American businesses located in North St. Louis, Missouri, U.S.. This neighborhood is a forty-two-square-block bounded by St. Louis Avenue on the north, Martin Luther King Drive on the south, Sarah on the east and Taylor on the west. From 1911 to 1950, The Ville was the center of African American culture within the city of St. Louis.

History

Early history

After St. Louis was founded in 1764, the area now known as The Ville was set aside as part of the Grand Prairie Common Fields. At this time period the area was full of farmed land, and the first Black residents arrived at this time as enslaved people by the local farmers in the area. In the early 19th-century the first White settlers arrived in the area, mostly moving from the states of Virginia and Kentucky. Some of the early landowners had recognition in local street names including: Kennerly, Wash (now Whittier), Goode (now Annie Malone Drive), and Taylor. James Kennerly had a large plantation in the area, known as Cote Placquemine (or Persimmon Hill Plantation) near the present intersection of Kennerly and Taylor Avenues; and it was destroyed by fire in 1863.

20th-century

Starting in 1911 the use of restrictive covenants and other legal restrictions prevented African Americans from finding housing in many areas of the city. As a result, the African-American population of St. Louis was concentrated in and around the Ville (short for "The Village"). The neighborhood was the site of a number of important cultural institutions for the Black community, including Sumner High School, the first high school for Black students west of the Mississippi River; and Homer G. Phillips Hospital, established in 1937 as one of the few Black teaching hospitals in the United States and the only one in the city to serve Black people. The Antioch Baptist Church on Market St., whose red brick Gothic-style building was constructed in 1921 and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places, was an important cultural center of the Black community during segregation and beyond. The history of the neighborhood was reviewed and its surviving historic resources were assessed in a 1998 study, and its extension in 2010.

About

As of the 2010 Census, there are 1,868 people living in The Ville and 6,189 people in the surrounding Greater Ville neighborhood.

Demographics

In 2020 The Ville's racial makeup was 95.9% Black, 1.7% White, 0.3% American Indian, 1.8% Two or More Races, and 0.4% Some Other Race. 0.3% of the people were of Hispanic or Latino origin.

Education

Former schools

Notable buildings

Notable people from The Ville

• Arthur Ashe • Josephine Baker • Chuck Berry • Grace Bumbry • John Collins-Muhammad • Julia Davis • Herman Dreer • Dick Gregory • Sonny Liston • Annie Turnbo Malone • Vincent Price • Maxine Waters