Author’s note: It occurred to me that with the upcoming 25th anniversary of The Times of Skinker DeBaliviere, many newer residents might like a peek at some recent history. The following are recollections of our 26 years here…
In 1960, my husband, Rick, and I attended a conference in St. Louis and spent a good deal of time exploring the city. The west end and Forest Park really impressed us, so that, in 1968, when Rick accepted a position at St. Louis University, we knew where to look for a home.
Moving 5 children and a dog from 3 and 1/2 acres in the suburbs of Pittsburgh, Pa. was a formidable task. This new place had sidewalks. Our kids were fascinated by them since in the country we had none.
We also wanted an integrated neighborhood. Our third son, Hugh, has a skin pigment that tans very easily and he was always complimented on his tan. Once in Pittsburgh, when he was about four, Rick took the boys to the county swimming pool where some African Americans were swimming. Hugh was excited and said to Rick, “Look at the great sun tans they have, Dad!” “That’s it,” we decided. “When we move, it’ll be to the real world.”
In May, 1968, we left the children with a sitter and came to St. Louis for a week to find a home in the west end. We had to find a real estate company and this was the real eye-opener. Several realtors would not show anything in the Skinker-DeBaliviere area and indicated that we did not understand the racial situation in St. Louis. I spoke with one on the phone who said frankly, “You don’t want to buy there (Skinker DeBaliviere). It’s going to be all black in two or three years.” Stunned and shocked, we moved forward and signed on with one company that didn’t mention racial climate. We were assigned a young, new agent who said she’d look but couldn’t find anything in this neighborhood.
Rick and I spent mornings and evenings walking around the neighborhood and noticed many children playing. We visited John and Jane Cross on Kingsbury, who were referred to us by a mutual friend back east. When we mentioned our predicament, Jane jumped up and pointed to the house across from theirs and exclaimed, “That one’s for sale.” Sure enough, we found a “For Sale” sign behind some bushes. The house was listed with the company we were dealing with. It looked occupied because curtains had been left behind.
We immediately went to our agent with the news. She checked her file and was puzzled: It wasn’t listed. Then she excused herself and said she would check another file. She returned looking ashen and disgusted and apologized because this house was in a file “For Blacks Only.” This was Wednesday and by Friday we had bought the house, after some heated discussions with the realtors. The Crosses introduced us to Susie and John Roach, and he handled the closing for us.
On August 8, 1968, we moved in and met so many wonderful, energetic and interesting people. To our delight, we discovered that in the 40 homes on 61xx Kingsbury, there were about 140 children from cradle through high school.
There were suspicions that real estate people were steering whites away from the neighborhood. In fact, it was the beginning of “Block Busting.” This was brought up time and again at neighborhood gatherings. Besides the “white flight” aspect of all of this, there were many fine black families who left because they knew what had happened elsewhere. No longer able to be silent about suspicions, the neighbors talked openly about it and looked for action and solutions.
In my opinion, Susie Roach (now Mrs. Dan Feinberg), was the “energizer bunny” of that era. She and Joanne Budde (wife of a Wash. U. grad student) had begun an art show on Mother’s Day of 1968 on St. Roch’s playground fence. They also cranked out a mimeographed neighborhood newspaper on an occasional basis. That was probably the beginning notion of The Paper (now known as The Times of Skinker DeBaliviere).
Joanne and Susie knew the wife of another Wash. U. grad student who was experienced in newspaper work. She explained what they should do to set it up and lay it out. They put out a call for staff and had a good response. Jody Creighton was the first editor and The Paper was founded in 1970. Interestingly, in 1972, a group of women from the Central West End paid our staff a visit to learn how to go about beginning their newspaper and the West End Word was born.
In order to counter the block busting, Susie rounded up a group of women to form a not-for-profit Residential Service. It worked with, but was independent of, the Skinker DeBaliviere Community Council. In fact, there was no office. It seemed to run out of the apron pockets of those (then) young, energetic, idealistic women, who had understanding and helpful husbands.
One group kept the files for apartment rentals available and another had a file of homes for sale. Initially, this was a word of mouth operation throughout the neighborhood. If you wanted to sell your home, the Residential Service would help. Marlene Mestres and Betty Newsham were the mainstays of the Apartment Rental section. Susie, Pat Kohn, Suzanne Hart, and I held up the Homes for Sale end. There were a lot of helpers for both when needed.
The houses for sale in Skinker DeBaliviere had personalized advertising. People would spread the word at their workplaces and invite the prospective buyers to see the homes. Men from the neighborhood contacted banks to encourage home loans for the area. When a potential buyer found a house, lawyers John Roach and the late Richard Hart handled the closings.
Also, we must remember and be thankful for the late Phil Lucier, who lived in Parkview. He believed in the neighborhood and backed up his belief with seed money for West End Townhouse, an enlightened development corporation. Through his generosity, buildings were bought and rehabbed.
Suzanne and I spent over five years showing the homes for sale. We were weekend street walkers showing interested people available housing. Early on, Susie and Pat took real estate courses and got their licenses in order to better understand what the service was up against. Therefore, they acted as advisors to the service. They each were spark plugs generating fruitful ideas.
I spoke with Suzanne Hart recently. We reflected on those five years of showing homes. She commented that unless residents are tuned in to neighborhood events, a similar housing situation could happen again. Some of the people who were introduced to their homes by the Residential Service were Steve & Dee Vossmeyer, Sam & Lu Green on Westminster; Tom & Karleen Hoerr on Washington; Rick & Venita Lake on Waterman; Arline Webb on Pershing; Gene & Dolores Hoefel on McPherson; and Rocco & Bernadette Di Lorenzo, Bob & Debbie Bracey, Peter & Maggie Marcus on Kingsbury—to mention but a few. Vince Schoemehl, Jr. was a big visionary. His wife Lois said he bought his house while they were dating.
In 1969, the first Mother’s Day Art Fair was held on the 61xx block of Kingsbury. It was not a “celebration of self” as has been reported on several occasions. Rather, it was a “marketing tool”—almost a desperate measure to bring people into the neighborhood. This was where residents from all over our neighborhood helped with the physical set-up and take-down of the snow fence for the art work and by volunteering or being dragged onto a committee, of which there were many.
Boy Scout Troop 98 of St. Roch’s needed a fund raiser and their wise guy Scoutmaster decided to host it in the Bender backyard. It featured hot dogs and Polish sausage sandwiches and Pepsi or beer. Something for every taste! The Scouts and some parents worked hard, and it prospered and lasted for the life of the fair. Interestingly, several times visitors returned the following week hoping to find the beer garden open!
A few years into the fair, Don & Sue Tepas on McPherson felt there was a need for a breakfast restaurant to accommodate early arriving artists and early rising neighbors. They recruited vast numbers of Schoemehls and other neighbors to work it.
The House Tour made its debut in 1974 and remained a part of the Art Fair until the last one in 1981. This was the extra marketing measure to introduce people to the area. Planning for the whole affair began not later than October in order to line up tour homes and to staff them with host and hostess house sitters.
In the mid to late 1970s someone had a great P.R. idea! That’s how everything seemed to happen: great idea—enthusiasm—yelling “let’s do it”—and then getting to work! This idea was to have a huge banner across Skinker at Waterman advertising:
