Little Italy — The Hill — St. Louis Mo.

The Hill is a small Italian enclave in the heart of St. Louis Mo. I did know that baseball greats Yogi Berra and Joe Garagiola came from St. Louis, but I never knew about The Hill.The neighborhood is generally defined by Manchester on the north, Southwest Avenue and Columbia to the south, Kings highway on the east, and Hampton on the west.

The area was originally populated by German and Irish immigrants. From the 1880’s, Italians mainly from Lombardy and Sicily laid claim to the area due to large number moving in for mining. Most lived in boarding houses initially, but began to move into permanent homes as their families came across. 

During prohibition their was an African-American enclave and many blues songs were written in or about the area.

In the early 1970’s Interstate 44 split the neighborhood and 98 home were destroyed. Today “The Hill” is considered by many to be one of the surviving Little Italy’s in America.