VIDEO: Webster Groves Development Project Name Recognizes Historic Black Leader
Date Posted: February 11, 2021
Posted In: Discussion, Projects,
From Webster-Kirkwood Times: An ambitious commercial and residential redevelopment proposal linking the Old Webster business area with the neighborhood of North Webster Groves now has a name.
Developer SG Collaborative unveiled the project’s long-awaited name as part of a 10-minute video released on Feb. 1. “Douglass Hill” was chosen to honor the historical roots of the area.
The former Douglass School was a segregated elementary school built in North Webster in 1892. By the end of the 1920s, Douglass had expanded to include a high school program. Douglass High School, named after abolitionist Frederick Douglass, was the only accredited public high school for African American students in St. Louis County until the end of segregation in 1957. Douglass High School closed in 1956, and the elementary school later closed in 1978.
Designer Melisa Sanders, and other members of the SG Collaborative team, were featured on the newly-released video, “SG Collaborative + Webster Groves.”“This particular area is one of the first sites where free blacks could settle and have their own property and live here freely,” said Sanders. The redevelopment area includes some of the original land owned by Black residents dating back to the Civil War.
Larry Chapman is a Webster Groves resident and president and CEO of Seneca CRE. Seneca is partners with Green Street STL on the Webster Groves project.
“We thought about naming it after Douglass School and the name Douglass Hill came about,” Chapman said. “We believe that name is a way to cement the legacy of Douglass and North Webster into the community in a way that can’t be forgotten.”