Found St. Louis

3455 Longfellow in Compton Heights is a MONSTER. How many cats do you think could fit in there?

This was built around 1894 for Charles Hermann, a German immigrant who came to the states around 1850. Interestingly, Hermann had no intention of living in StL when he got to the country. He came to help his brother found the settlement of Hermannsburg which was like, the teeniest tiniest town in Arkansas.

When the Civil War hit the area, bushwackers and Confederates saw these German communities (most of which were anti-slavery) as theirs for the taking. Here’s the thing though...Charles Hermann WAS an enslaver. He purchased a woman named Melinda for $950. She also had a child. There are so many accounts that the family was anti-slavery but it seems like those morals disappeared when opportunity for free labor had arisen.

When the Civil War started, things got bad for the Hermanns. Hermannsburg was in violent territory and the Hermanns were scared.

As all of this was happening, Melinda and her child fled Hermannsburg.

The Hermanns also ran from Hermannsburg…apparently leaving all of their posessions (including possible buried treasure) behind. Charles Hermann got a job with Adolphus Busch (beer man). Hermann got into the brewery supply business and was so successful that he got rich enough to build this house. The end.

Oh PS. After the Civil War, the Arkansas town that was called Hermannsburg was changed to Dutch Mills, apparently an insult to those who lived there before.

In WWI, somewhere around 380,000 African Americans served in the US Army. Most of the guys were assigned labor roles like trench-digging and latrine-cleaning.

St. Louisan Calvin Hyde had a very different story. He was a Harlem Hellfighter.

The Harlem Hellfighters (aka the 369th Infantry Regiment) were a famous all-black US Army Regiment in WWI. Since the US military was still segregated in 1917, the Army didn’t want them on the frontline. They ended up fighting under French command. These dudes endured SO MUCH. They spent 191 days in the frontline trenches. Impossible to imagine.

They were called the Harlem Hellfighters because a large portion of the guys were from Harlem, but not StL’s Calvin Hyde. Hyde was born into a sharecropping family in Mississippi, and then came to StL during the Great Migration. When he was drafted in 1917, he was 27, sharing an apartment with his brother, and working at a bar on the riverfront.

Hyde received his training in the US and in April of 1918, got on a ship headed bound for France, where he joined up with the Hellfighters.

On July 15th, 1918, the Germans made a huge attack along the Marne river (near Paris). It was very very bad. The Germans ultimately lost the battle, but there were 168,000 casualties. 12,000 Americans died in that battle, and one of them was Calvin Hyde. He died of wounds received on July 15th.

The war ended about a 100 days later.

Calvin Hyde is buried in France, along with 168 other Harlem Hellfighters. Hyde’s grave is located at Meuse-Argonne American Cemetery.

The story of Lloyd Gaines is so important to the story of civil rights in Missouri but it’s rarely told so LET’S DO THIS!!!!

In 1926, 15-year-old Lloyd Gaines moved from Mississippi to StL. He didn’t receive much education in Mississippi so he was placed in the 5th grade when he got here. He caught up quickly - so quickly that he became the valedictorian at Vashon High School.

In 1935, Gaines graduated with honors from Lincoln University (Missouri’s first black university) and decided to pursue law. Well, Lincoln didn’t have a law school so he applied to the Missouri University School of Law. I’m sure you can take a guess at their response.

It was “contrary to the constitution, laws and public policy of the state to admit a Negro as a student in the University of Missouri.”

If Gaines wanted to pursue law, he would have to cross state lines.

So, with the help of the NAACP, Gaines sued.

It took three years for the appeal to reach the Supreme Court, but when it did, the court ruled 6-2 that U-Missouri would have to allow Gaines to study there or the state would have to create a law school for black students.

Missouri being, well, Missouri, gave Lincoln University money to establish a law school so that U-Missouri wouldn’t have to accept black students.

The NAACP did not accept this. They thought the Lincoln law school was an inadequate rush job so they prepared for another fight. But when they went to find Gaines...he was gone.

Before his disappearance, Gaines had moved to Chicago to work odd jobs and get out of the limelight. One night, he left the frat house he was staying in, and never returned.

J. Edgar Hoover, director of the FBI, twice denied requests to investigate Gaines’ disappearance. There’s been a lot of speculation over the years ranging from being murdered to moving to Mexico, but ultimately no conclusion has ever been reached.

In 1950, a court order declared that U-Missouri had to enroll Black students. The Gaines case was a huge stepping stone toward that victory.

In 2006, Gaines was granted an honorary law degree. The University of Missouri, now acknowledging him, offers a scholarship in his name.

Once upon a time, this beautiful baby lived at Kingshighway and Easton (Easton was later changed to Dr. Martin Luther King Dr.)

I’m sure you’ve heard of CBC High School. This building represented a much earlier era of CBC. Christian Brothers College built this campus in 1882 and it was to serve as a boarding school for elementary/middle/high school/college students.

This beauty served CBC from 1882 until 1916, when it was completely destroyed by a horrific fire. Ten people died that day, including six StL firefighters and four CBC staff members.

After the fire, CBC moved to Clayton, and the site at Kingshighway became Sherman Park.

CBC may be long gone from that site, but a small reminder of its history remains. There is a little street called Paulian Place just west of Sherman Park. The street was named after Brother Paulian, who served as the president of CBC for 30 years.