A ‘Rebirth’ in The Greater Ville

By SYLVESTER BROWN, JR.
Senior Staff Reporter

GREATER VILLE — Samuel Moore, alderman of the 4th Ward, has fond memories of the Greater Ville Neighborhood, the area where he was raised.

“We had black educators at the Sumner campus and Turner schools. We had the Tandy Community Center, a hotel, dentists and doctors, hamburger places, shoe repair shops, a store on every corner and several movie theatres,” Moore recalled. “It was a pretty vibrant community.  We never had to leave the area to be serviced.”

During the years of restrictive segregated housing and education, the Ville was a solid black community. Thriving institutions like Sumner High School, Antioch Baptist Church, the Annie Malone Children’s Home, and Homer G. Phillips Hospital provided the neighborhood with robust economic activity and senses of safety, pride and stability.

Homer G. Phillips Hospital, Moore said, was the economic engine of the neighborhood. “That’s where most of the jobs were.” The closing of the hospital in the late 1970s signified the neighborhood’s eminent decline.

However, Moore said he’s proud of the Ville’s recent rebirth. A new development in his ward, the Dick Gregory Place Apartments, is but one sign of its renaissance.

Benefiting from a combination of low-income housing tax credits and $7,875,000 from the American Recovery & Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA), the developers, Northside Community Housing Inc. and the Greater Ville Neighborhood Preservation Commission, have completed 32 historically rehabbed units and constructed four new units. Built for low-income residents, the one-, two- and three-bedroom units—all built to modern energy and environmental design standards—rent for prices ranging between $390 and $575 per month. More than half have already been leased.

The boundaries of the project are Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd. on the south, Dick Gregory Place on the east, Marcus Avenue on the west, and N. Market on the north.

The project’s namesake, comedian, activist and health guru, Dick Gregory, has visited the property often and will be on hand with Martin Luther King III when the final unit at the intersections of MLK Blvd. and Dick Gregory Place is officially completed in March.

The Dick Gregory Place Apartments, Moore said, helps bring back the grandeur of this historically-significant black community.

Moore, who was elected alderman four years ago, jokingly compares himself to President Barack Obama: “He inherited a mess and so did I.”

Still, Moore added, there’s much gratification in his work.

“To be part of the demise of this neighborhood and now to be in a position to help it come back means a lot to me. I want my legacy to say that I was a momentum-builder.”

Other projects coming soon will further fuel the momentum of revitalization, Moore said. Plans are underway for a new minimall, a Barber and Beauty College, an apple orchard, the construction of new Masonic Temple and a Homer G. Phillips College of Osteopathic Medicine. More said he’s also working to bring a major grocer and bank to the 4th Ward.

“It’s like teaching a kid to ride a bike,” said Moore.

“I can push you along until, eventually, you’ll be able to ride on your own. Well, I’m giving this neighborhood the push it needs and after I’m gone, it’ll ride on its own.”