Visitation Park Historic District and Ivory Perry Park

The Visitation Park Historic District was designated a local historic district by the City of St. Louis in 1975 and expanded in 1987. It reflects a range of architectural styles, containing a mix of residences, schools, libraries, and other institutions. The district also includes Ivory Perry Park, which was formerly known as Visitation Park. This was once the site of the Visitation Academy and Convent (1892), a female Catholic school staffed by cloistered nuns. The surrounding neighborhood mostly developed during the years following the 1904 World's Fair held in St. Louis, and the architecture in the historic district reflects this period. After the Visitation Academy and Convent was demolished by the City in 1962, the land was converted into a public park. It was later renamed for local Civil Rights leader Ivory Perry, an African American who fought for racial equality, tenant rights, and environmental justice in the 1960s and 1970s.

Originally anchored by the Visitation Academy and Convent (1892), the Visitation Park Historic District is bounded by Maple Avenue to the north, Delmar Boulevard to the south, Union Boulevard to the east, and Belt Avenue to the west. At its center is Windermere Place, a residential street that began to develop in 1895. The Union Avenue Promenade features designs by prominent architectural firms, including Mauran, Russell, & Garden, as well as A.B. Groves and William B Ittner. A wave of development starting in 1906 saw the creation of four separate churches within the neighborhood. During this period, educational and cultural buildings were also constructed, including Soldan High School and the Cabanne Branch Library. City landmarks within the historic district include the Frederick von Harten House (1896) and the Smith Academy & Manual Training School (1905), originally built for Washington University.

Although the Visitation Academy and Convent was built in 1892, this Catholic school was first incorporated in 1858 by the Sisters of the Visitation, an order of cloistered French nuns who came to St. Louis by way of Kaskaskia, Illinois, in the wake of the 1844 flood. For a time, they occupied a building at Cass Avenue and Twentieth Street, but by 1892, the school needed more space, so it was moved to a larger parcel further west on Belt and Cabanne Avenues, in what was then called the Cabanne neighborhood. The new school was built on 10 acres of land that had previously been part of an uncultivated meadow owned by Dr. J. Sheppard Cabanne. The architectural firm of Barnett, Haynes, and Barnett designed a massive French Renaissance Revival chateau-style building, surrounded by an ample lawn with trees, for the new Visitation Academy and Convent. The school remained at this site until 1962, when it was again moved westward. The building was sold to the City, which dismantled the edifice and converted the land into a public green space known as Visitation Park.

In 1989, the name of the park was officially changed to Ivory Perry Park, in honor of a local Civil Rights leader. Ivory Perry (1930-1989) was born to a family of sharecroppers in Arkansas. After serving in the U.S. army during the Korean War, where he was twice wounded and also faced racial discrimination, he returned home to a country that was still segregated. Perry moved to St. Louis in 1954 and became active in protests for racial and environmental justice during the ensuing decades. In 1963, the year that Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., addressed crowds during the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, Perry was consistently on the picket line at Jefferson Bank in St. Louis calling for the inclusion of Black workers, as jobs were routinely denied to African Americans. Perry also protested against police brutality, speaking out in front of the St. Louis Police headquarters during a protest in 1965. His commitment to direct action, such as lying down in front of cars as a form of civil disobedience, caught the attention of the press and inspired other activists.

By the late 1960s, Perry was hired as a community outreach leader at the Human Development Corporation. He witnessed some positive changes in St. Louis in response to his efforts and as a result of the Civil Rights Movement on a national level. However, discrimination was still rampant in the housing market, so in 1969, Perry began organizing rent strikes and demanding tenant rights. Advocating against high utility rates, he helped senior citizens and other tenants facing utility shut-offs to organize and campaign for affordable utility services and to ensure that these services were actually delivered. He was instrumental in establishing local chapters for the National Tenants Organization and National Welfare Rights Organization.

While he was advocating for fair housing practices, Perry became aware of the negative effects of lead paint, especially on children's health. Many older homes in the city had lead paint, which scientists had found to be fatal if accidentally consumed. Although lead paint had already been banned in Missouri in 1950, it often remained on the peeling walls of older homes, where it could cause a range of severe adverse health effects for children exposed to its toxicity. Perry raised awareness about the issue, and in 1970, he successfully convinced the St. Louis Board of Alderman to pass legislation against lead paint. Because he still didn't think that the bill was strong enough, he continued speaking out against the issue, staging direct action, organizing a lead screening program, and pressing for better treatment options. In 1989, Perry was officially recognized by the City as a leader in the Civil Rights Movement, when the City decided to dedicate a public park in his name.

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