Zoning and the ‘‘Negro Invasion,’’
Zoning and the ‘‘Negro Invasion,’’ 1914–1917
The first such effort was quite blunt. At a time when cities were first exploring the
politics and legality of local zoning, St. Louis was one of a handful of cities to propose—as a matter of municipal law and policy—formalizing racial segregation. The
logic of ‘‘permanent protection from intrusion of business or nuisance of all kinds’’
was already embedded in local agreements governing land use on the City’s private
streets. These central city subdivisions (notably Bell Place just north of Forest Park and
Vandeventer Place between Forest Park and downtown) were developed in the late
nineteenth century as tracts of exclusive ‘‘high caste residence property.’’ By design,
and by mutual agreement among all property owners, these streets prohibited commercial use and other ‘‘nuisances,’’ set a floor (in Bell and Vandeventer Places,
$10,000) for the value of single-family homes, and (with an exception for live-in servants) barred occupancy by nonwhites.1 But the practice and scope of private zoning
was quite limited. Such agreements offered no guarantee that private subdivision
