Historical April–May 2000 article. Dates, prices, services and contacts describe the source period; current availability has not been established.
We spent 8 years in an apartment on Nina Place before we went house-hunting. Naturally, we wanted to live in an area like Skinker-DeBaliviere or University City, in part because of its strong reputation for tolerance and diversity.
As a mixed couple, that was what we wanted for our children. Actually, there were very few Indians in St. Louis at that time, and I had come from Arkansas to Affton in my high school years, just after the Little Rock integration crisis, and it was important to me to live differently from that stereotype.
The more we hunted for houses, the closer we got to home.
Finally, we realized that we wanted to stay in Skinker-DeBaliviere neighborhood. Why go elsewhere?
It had everything we wanted, big houses at reasonable prices (under $ 20,000), a welcoming feeling, clearly the most diverse neighborhood in the St. Louis area.
We had been shown many houses by Dan Feinberg in the Central West End, (unbelievably cheap in those days. some as low as $ 20-30,000), but many of those needed massive amounts of work. Feinberg mentioned a recently rehabbed HUD house on Westminster.
We made an appointment for a Saturday morning and walked over from Nina Place.
In front of the big red brick house were a few adults chatting. and three or four children, about 3-5 years old, black and white, playing on the sidewalk, riding big wheels.
I thought, “wow, Chanaya would have playmates here!” Inside the house were at least four young women: Cherie McKee, Suzanne Hart and others. Cherie lived across the street, and I knew her and her three children from the library’s “Pre-School Story Hour”.
We couldn’t believe all of them were there to show us the house and answer questions about the neighborhood. What a welcome it was!
This was the “friendly recruitment” of the Residential Service. Later we met the next door neighbors, the Greens, a stroke of destiny for friendship if ever there was, who had also come to Westminster through the Residential Service a year before.
We learned that another house two doors away was also being purchased by a young black family, and we both moved into our homes the same weekend. Rita Sweets, later to become famous as director of the Dinner-Theatre, her husband and nearly 3-year old daughter Nikki were New Neighbors on Westminster, too.
Originally published in The Times of Skinker-DeBaliviere, April–May 2000.
Read this article in the original newspaper issue.
Original source: SD_Times2000_04.pdf, printed page(s) 8; PDF page(s) 7.
