Archived mainstream media news clippings and footage tell one story about Mill Creek Valley. The historically Black neighborhood was relentlessly referred to as a slum in the years leading up to it being demolished in 1959. A demolition of another kind came after the buildings. It was one that attempted to wipe away the contributions of a place that had been a cultural and civic anchor for generations of Black St. Louisans.
Thanks to Gwen Moore, Curator of Urban Landscape and Community Identity for the Missouri Historical Society, the St. Louis region – including former residents of Mill Creek and their descendants – had a chance to spend the past eight months learning the truth.
“Mill Creek: Black Metropolis,” the 5,000-square-foot exhibit that reminds St. Louis that it existed, closes on July 12 with a robust schedule of finale programming.
Lyah LeFlore-Ituen, who was appointed director of the Missouri Historical Society’s African American Initiative in January, is a proud descendant.
“This exhibit hits home in so many ways,” LeFlore-Ituen said. “I came [to the Missouri Historical Society] at a really cool time, because it’s still up. I had a chance to see where I lived for a little bit of time of my life.”
Through photographs, oral histories, home movies, business records, church programs, school memorabilia and rare archival footage, the exhibit reconstructs daily life in Mill Creek: the businesses that lined its streets, the families who built stability there, the artists and musicians who shaped its sound, and the civic leaders who organized for progress.
Moore is a daughter of Mill Creek. Her decades of research began with a simple question: why was the community she knew described so differently in the newspapers of the time?
“I have been studying Mill Creek for decades and it wasn’t a part of my assigned duties,” Moore said. “I was curious. My family is from Mill Creek, and I wanted to have a deeper understanding of why this demolition, displacement and erasure happened.”
What was written in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch and the St. Louis Globe-Democrat sounded nothing like the place where she spent an early part of her childhood.
“They were relentless in their smearing of this community,” Moore said.
She added that in the decade between the introduction of the bond issue that resulted in Mill Creek being leveled ten years later, Mill Creek was referred to as a slum. Its residents were called slum dwellers, and the stories reflected that propaganda.
“They said there were outdoor toilets and that there were rats the size of cocker spaniels – they actually said that,” Moore said.
But what bothered her the most was how they talked about Mill Creek’s residents.
“They were nameless, faceless slum dwellers,” Moore said. “What occurred to me was that you are talking about my parents. You are talking about my grandparents, my aunts, my uncles and everyone that I knew.”
She was asked to curate an exhibition about segregation in St. Louis. Moore had a better idea. She would use her decades of research to highlight a segregated community – one that managed to thrive despite the systemic racism that was a part of their everyday reality.
“I’m going to tell this story from a Black lens,” Moore said. “That means I am going to tell this story from the experiences of people who lived there – the voices of the people who lived there – not those outside forces who have been describing this community.”
And she was determined not to tell the story from the vantage point of oppression, woe, sadness and trauma.
“I wanted to show a community living in a segregated society that wasn’t just sitting at home crying because they couldn’t live next to white people or couldn’t go to a white bank or white restaurant,” Moore said. “Mill Creek is an example of what Black people built. It was erased from the landscape, but it was also erased from consciousness.”
“Mill Creek: Black Metropolis” was an effort to restore the legacy of this historic Black community.
LeFlore-Ituen feels that Moore’s work was necessary – and that the entire population is a benefactor of Moore’s hard work.
“Our history informs this world. It has global impact,” LeFlore-Ituen said. “And we have to continue to tell those stories and not be afraid to do exhibits like this.”
As the exhibition prepares to close, the museum will mark its final weekend with three days of programming that honor Mill Creek’s legacy. The schedule is as follows:
Friday, July 10 — A Mill Creek Homecoming: Stories in Sound & Spirit
5–8 p.m. | Free The weekend opens with an evening of music, dance and community reflection. DJ Lamar Harris will bring the neighborhood’s sound to life, and Mademoiselle Mystique will perform a tribute to Mill Creek native Josephine Baker. Moore and former residents will share reflections as visitors explore the exhibit one last time.
Saturday, July 11 — A Night at Peacock Alley: Mill Creek’s Musical Legacy
Doors 6 p.m., Concert 7–9 p.m. Saturday’s concert celebrates Mill Creek’s reputation as the “Harlem of St. Louis.” Composer JD Parran will lead an ensemble through original works inspired by the neighborhood’s cultural life. Saxophonist Stanley Coleman will follow with an all-star quintet featuring vocalist Kim Fuller Barnes and pianist Ptah Williams, offering a tribute to the Laclede Town era.
Sunday, July 12 — Mourning Mill Creek
2–4 p.m. | Tickets $10 | Doors 1:30 p.m. The closing event is a staged production by A Call to Conscience, written by Kathleen Gamble and directed by Fannie Belle Lebby. Set in 1958, the play centers the families who learned their neighborhood would be dismantled in the name of “urban renewal.” A talkback will follow the performance.
Together, the three-day celebration marks the closing of an exhibition that has helped St. Louis revisit, reclaim and honor the story of Mill Creek — a community that built its own brilliance.
For more information about “Mill Creek: Black Metropolis,” which closes July 12 at the Missouri History Museum, visit www.mohistory.org.
Living It content is produced with funding by the ARPA for the Arts grants program in partnership with the Regional Arts Commission of St. Louis and the Community Development Administration.
