Urban Renewal - Mill Creek Valley
Sources:
St. Louis Development Program. 1970.
St. Louis University history book
APA PAS report
Historical Photographs and Sketches
Pine East of Grand
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Washington and Grand
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Lindell West of Grand sketch, 1890
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Lindell 1910
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Mill Creek Valley before clearance
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Existing Conditions
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After Clearance
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St. Louis University Area
1947 SLU campus
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1969 SLU campus
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Discusion on the Urban Renewal project: Mill Creek Valley, described in the St. Louis Development Program, 1970:
After Diagram
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Result:
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Historical Land Use and Development progression
Forest > Farmstead > Country Estate > 1860s row-house & townhouse additions > 1910s apartment houses & commercial buildings > 1930s subdivided houses and slumming or lack of maintenance and reinvestment, private or public > in-migration of low-income Southern African Americans looking for work in the North 1940s/50s > urban renewal and slum clearance
Why Slum Clearance and Urban Renewal?
Many factors contributed to why the City of St. Louis actively sought to conduct slum clearance and urban renewal.
• Money: the Federal government, under Title 1 provided money for public housing, urban renewal, and slum clearance
• Financing Ratio: The ratio was 3:1 where the Federal Government paid 75% of the cost of clearance and assemblage where the City paid 25%, this financing scenario makes it easier for the City to take on large projects
• Location: Mill Creek Valley is located in the central spine of the region from Downtown, Midtown, Central West End, and Clayton where land values are highest and lead to construction of office and high-end residential
• Population: The City was rapidly losing upper class and middle class residents to the suburbs
• Demographics: The 1940s and 1950s saw the migration of low-income African Americans moving to the North for jobs and were forced to move into segregated neighborhoods like Mill Creek Valley with the oldest age of housing and least modern amenities
• Housing: The housing in the City after World War 2 had been increasingly classified as defunct with many homes lacking indoor plumbing such as in Mill Creek Valley
• Transportation: Shift from streetcar/bus to auto dependence + highways and large arterials
• Infrastructure: lack of public investment and thus deteriorated roads, sidewalks, sewers, roadway volume capacity
• Modern Age: historical St. Louis is not modern or platted to accommodate modern infrastructure and building such as larger office buildings and parking lots
• Stabilization: Necessity to stabilize out-migration, free up space for new office buildings with parking lots to accommodate modern transportation of the era, necessity to provide better housing or building with modern amenities for the inhabitants of slums, modernize the appearance of the City, and attract back residents and jobs
Expanded Area, future projection of continued urban renewal
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The purpose of this research is to better comprehend the reasons for urban renewal and slum clearance, the principles, motivations, ideologies, and visions of leaders at the time. I was motivated to compile this data after attending the National APA Conference in Philadelphia last April where I walked around all of Center City. To my surprise, and unlike immediate areas surrounding downtown St. Louis, I could walk from downtown through neighborhoods immediately adjacent and interconnected from similar periods as our Mill Creek Valley or Soulard. Society Hill, Rittenhouse Square, areas south of South Street, historic Independence Hall and surrounding neighborhood, and even rowhouses and townhouses within blocks of office skyscrapers. Can one walk along the edges of downtown St. Louis and be amazed at how fast it flows into historic and vibrant neighborhoods? No, people even drive between downtown and Soulard or Lafayette Square. Small blocks have been made into large ones and mass removal of historic structures.
I would love to read your comments on what once was, what is, and what could be, now that the central corridor (Downtown, Midtown, CWE, Clayton) is again connected via Metrolink and quickly rehabbing and rebuilding:
Sources:
St. Louis Development Program. 1970.
St. Louis University history book
APA PAS report
Historical Photographs and Sketches
Pine East of Grand
Washington and Grand
Lindell West of Grand sketch, 1890
Lindell 1910
Mill Creek Valley before clearance
Existing Conditions
After Clearance
St. Louis University Area
1947 SLU campus
1969 SLU campus
Discusion on the Urban Renewal project: Mill Creek Valley, described in the St. Louis Development Program, 1970:
Amendment to the Federal Urban Redevelopment Law in 1954 allowed greater emphasis to be placed on commercial and industrial redevelopment. This provided a basis for the Mill Creek Valley redevelopment effort, the largest project undertaken in St. Louis and one of the largest in the United States. With Federal assistance approved, Land acquisition began in 1958. Resale of land and new construction was slow in developing and this generated public impatience and criticism. Renewing the area produced new industrial sites, areas for commercial expansion, land for new highways, and a new 22-acre expansion of the St. Louis University campus. Approximately 2500 new dwelling units including the nationally renowned Laclede Town Development as well as other low-rise and high-rise units are parts of the project. In 1970 a site in the Mill Creek redevelopment Area was selected for the construction of experimental Operation Breakthrough homes.
The Mill Creek Valley Project is snow substantially complete. It is estimated that the final property tax yield to the City after tax abatement period will be almost four times the amount paid by the area in 1957, the last full year before the start of the program. Assessed valuation was $13,262,000 prior to the redevelopment and $30,105,050 in 1970. The total cost of clearing the area was $28 million of which the City’s share was $7 million. Private investment to date is in excess of $100 million.
Perhaps the greatest success of the Mill Creek Valley Project is now a 464-acre area within the central city where approximately 7,000 people are living in an active, safe, attractive, well-balanced, physically sound community. The renewal project has also made possible the addition of jobs and industry to the City’s economic base, and the new highways improve the flow of traffic to and from downtown.
Because of the 1954 Housing Act, innovations were possible in Mill Creek Valley that were not allowed when Plaza Square was built. Termed a “broader and more comprehensive approach to prevent growth of slums,” the act added rehabilitation and conservation to clearance as methods of treatment, and both were used in the Mill Creek Project.
The project, however, has attracted some criticism. Although the publicly announced time-table for redevelopment called for a decade of time to clear and rebuild the area, redevelopment in the early 1960’s appeared slow and the area became known locally as “Hiroshima Flats.”
A more serious problem developed over the relocation of the very low-income Negro families who moved from the blighted areas. An estimated 1,772 families and 610 individuals were displaced. Approximately 195 moved to public housing, 174 relocated in an area bounded by Gratiot, Lafayette, Grand and 12th Streets and the majority (1,498) moved to the area bounded by Delmar, Hodiamont, Jefferson, and Natural Bridge. Only three families and three individuals relocated in the County. This movement of people contributed to the mounting problems of these and other areas of the City which had been fighting neighborhood deterioration. The income level of the new residents of these areas were generally lower than that of the previous residents; resident ownership decreased, maintenance levels sank, and school enrollments increased beyond capacity of existing facilities. These criticisms have resulted in increased emphasis on relocation of families from urban renewal areas as well as focusing on the need for rehabilitation of blighted areas.
After Diagram
Result:
Historical Land Use and Development progression
Forest > Farmstead > Country Estate > 1860s row-house & townhouse additions > 1910s apartment houses & commercial buildings > 1930s subdivided houses and slumming or lack of maintenance and reinvestment, private or public > in-migration of low-income Southern African Americans looking for work in the North 1940s/50s > urban renewal and slum clearance
Why Slum Clearance and Urban Renewal?
Many factors contributed to why the City of St. Louis actively sought to conduct slum clearance and urban renewal.
• Money: the Federal government, under Title 1 provided money for public housing, urban renewal, and slum clearance
• Financing Ratio: The ratio was 3:1 where the Federal Government paid 75% of the cost of clearance and assemblage where the City paid 25%, this financing scenario makes it easier for the City to take on large projects
• Location: Mill Creek Valley is located in the central spine of the region from Downtown, Midtown, Central West End, and Clayton where land values are highest and lead to construction of office and high-end residential
• Population: The City was rapidly losing upper class and middle class residents to the suburbs
• Demographics: The 1940s and 1950s saw the migration of low-income African Americans moving to the North for jobs and were forced to move into segregated neighborhoods like Mill Creek Valley with the oldest age of housing and least modern amenities
• Housing: The housing in the City after World War 2 had been increasingly classified as defunct with many homes lacking indoor plumbing such as in Mill Creek Valley
• Transportation: Shift from streetcar/bus to auto dependence + highways and large arterials
• Infrastructure: lack of public investment and thus deteriorated roads, sidewalks, sewers, roadway volume capacity
• Modern Age: historical St. Louis is not modern or platted to accommodate modern infrastructure and building such as larger office buildings and parking lots
• Stabilization: Necessity to stabilize out-migration, free up space for new office buildings with parking lots to accommodate modern transportation of the era, necessity to provide better housing or building with modern amenities for the inhabitants of slums, modernize the appearance of the City, and attract back residents and jobs
Expanded Area, future projection of continued urban renewal
The purpose of this research is to better comprehend the reasons for urban renewal and slum clearance, the principles, motivations, ideologies, and visions of leaders at the time. I was motivated to compile this data after attending the National APA Conference in Philadelphia last April where I walked around all of Center City. To my surprise, and unlike immediate areas surrounding downtown St. Louis, I could walk from downtown through neighborhoods immediately adjacent and interconnected from similar periods as our Mill Creek Valley or Soulard. Society Hill, Rittenhouse Square, areas south of South Street, historic Independence Hall and surrounding neighborhood, and even rowhouses and townhouses within blocks of office skyscrapers. Can one walk along the edges of downtown St. Louis and be amazed at how fast it flows into historic and vibrant neighborhoods? No, people even drive between downtown and Soulard or Lafayette Square. Small blocks have been made into large ones and mass removal of historic structures.
I would love to read your comments on what once was, what is, and what could be, now that the central corridor (Downtown, Midtown, CWE, Clayton) is again connected via Metrolink and quickly rehabbing and rebuilding:
