The Hill is a neighborhood in St. Louis, Missouri, located on high ground south of Forest Park. The official boundaries of the neighborhood are Manchester Avenue (Route 100) on the north, Columbia and Southwest Avenues on the south, South Kingshighway Boulevard on the east, and Hampton Avenue on the west.
The Hill began with immigrants from Northern Italy, Germany, Ireland, and African-Americans who wanted to live near the railroad which connected the neighborhood to downtown. The vast numbers of northern Italians migrating to the area resulted in an Italian American majority population during the early part of the 20th century. Historically, it is a predominantly blue collar neighborhood.
Various ethnic groups existed in the area in the mid-19th century. Italians, mainly from the north and especially from the northern Italian region of Lombardy, immigrated and settled in the area starting in the late 19th century, attracted by jobs in nearby plants established to exploit deposits of clay discovered by Irish immigrants in the 1830s.
St. Ambrose Roman Catholic Church, the former Italian parishA banner posted throughout the neighborhoodA fire hydrant painted with the colors of the Italian flag
Due to the increasing number of Italian speakers, the parish of St. Ambrose was founded by members of St. Aloysius Gonzaga Parish [5] in what later came to be known as the Hill in 1903 to serve primarily the recent Lombard immigrants. After the first wooden church burned in 1921, a brick church was built in 1926. The structure, designed by architect Angelo Corrubia,[6] was modeled after the Sant'Ambrogio Church in Milan, in a Lombard RomanesqueRevival style of brick and terra cotta. Residents took pride in their parish and donated funds for the new church. It became a territorial parish of the Archdiocese of St Louis in 1955, after existing as a personal ethnic parish until that time.
According to Garagiola's book Baseball Is a Funny Game, during his youth, the Hill was called "Dago Hill;" the term "dago" was a disparaging and offensive term used to refer to a person of Italian descent. The Hill was also well known to African-Americans, for during the era of Prohibition and bootlegging, the area had an African-American enclave that produced a number of blues songs that referenced The Hill. Other talent from The Hill includes Toni Carroll who made a singing career in New York in the 1950s and 1960s, appearing on Broadway and at the Copacabana. She appeared as a guest on The Tonight Show guest hosted by Garagiola and with special guest Yogi Berra. Hill native Ben Pucci played with the Cleveland Browns in the 1960s.
In 1926, the blues singer Luella Miller recorded "Dago Hill Blues" about the area.[7]
In 1929, the pseudonymous blues singer Freezone recorded "Indian Squaw Blues" in which he sang, "I'm gonna buy me a mansion, I'm gonna live on Dago's Hill / So I can get my whiskey, honey, right from the still."
In 1932, Tampa Red and Georgia Tom Dorsey sang of the Hill and its connection to illegal liquor in "You Can't Get That Stuff No More" – "stuff" being a reference to alcohol.
In 1934, Charlie Patton mentioned the Hill in his single "Love My Stuff," a song in which "stuff" again means liquor.[8]
In 1935, the North Carolina blues musician Blind Boy Fuller made reference to the Hill in his song "Log Cabin Blues".
Demographics and culture
In 2020 The Hill's racial makeup was 90.4% White, 2.5% Black, 0.2% Native American, 1.1% Asian, 4.5% Two or More Races, and 1.2% Some Other Race. 3.3% of the people were of Hispanic or Latino origin.[9]
On June 13, 2020, Black Lives Matter protests overtook the Hill as the neighborhood has struggled with racism and bigotry against African Americans.[10] Reports surfaced that African-Americans were routinely being denied residency which has caused demonstrations and protests during the 2020 BLM riots.[10] In 2020, total crime in the neighborhood has seen a 27.69% rise as the neighborhood has seen more vandalism, property crimes, rapes, and assaults.[11]
The Italian Community of St. Louis, an organization which promotes the Italian language and culture, has several events including Carnevale[12] in February and Ferragosto in August. The St. Louis Italian Language Program has its home on the Hill at Gateway Science Academy on Fyler Avenue.[13] St Louis' Italian sister city is Bologna.[14]
Frank Borghi, (1925–2015) was a professional soccer player/goalkeeper for the USA national team.
Charlie Colombo, (1920–1986) was a professional soccer player for the United States men's national soccer team.
Frank Crespi, (1918-1990) was a professional baseball player. He was the first Hill resident to play on a World Series championship team (in 1942) and it happened to be for his hometown team, the St. Louis Cardinals,.
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