Louis Colored Orphan’s home was located in the community in 1922 thanks to a generous contribution from hair-care pioneer and philanthropist Annie Turnbo Pope Malone. Other significant black institutions were established in the Ville which insured its emergence as a black middle class community. Louis school board to relocate the school to the Ville to escape the pool rooms and saloons near its downtown location. At the time it was the first high school for African Americans west of the Mississippi River. Sumner High was originally built in what is now downtown St. In 1910, Sumner High School, named after the famous Massachusetts abolitionist and U.S. The blacks of Elleardsville began to call their section of the community, “the Ville.” As the black population grew native white, Irish and German residents relocated to other sections of the community and established restrictive covenants to exclude black residents. The colored school was initially staffed by whites however, by 1877 African American teachers had replaced white faculty and administrators.īy the 1880s a small but steady stream of African Americans migrated to the community for employment opportunities and better housing. The school was the earliest African American institution in Elleardsville. 8, to accommodate the community’s black students. Louis built Elleardsville Colored School No. In the early 1870s the community began to attract German and Irish immigrants as well as some African American citizens.

Louis in the 1860s from San Francisco, California. Prior to becoming known as the Ville, the community was called Elleardsville, after Charles Elleard, a white horticulturist who migrated to St. Louis, was open to African Americans during a time that much of the city was covered by restrictive covenants which prohibited African Americans from owning or renting residential property. The Ville, located just northwest of downtown St. The Ville is a residential and business district remembered as the cultural center of the African American community in St.

Where is the ville