Tower Grove Heights: The Neighborhood That Forgot to Decline

Mark Abbott (Harris-Stowe State University)

Tower Grove Heights is a historically designated neighborhood in South Central St. Louis located roughly five miles from the Gateway Arch. Largely built out within five years after the 1904 St. Louis World’s Fair, Tower Grove Heights – while weathering demographic and economic decline that affected the city at large—has been able to be resilient to various stresses in contrast to many abutting neighborhoods that have not. As a result, it raises the question of which are the key defining attributes of the neighborhood that allowed it to remain active and adapt to change. Understanding the historical factors that have contributed to long-term neighborhood resiliency in so-called “shrinking cities” such as St. Louis could lead to a pathway to resiliency in other communities.

In his presentation, Abbott identifies five sets of variables that have contributed to Tower Grove Heights’s resiliency. These include a strong sense of place, social and economic diversity, synergy between the residential and commercial spaces, organizational vitality, and environmental sustainability. Exploring the interplay of community characteristics such as strong landmarks, a range of housing types and price points, a mixture of basic and export services, the presence of strong social institutions as well as the role of mass transit, Abbott suggests a research agenda that may lead to a more complicated understanding of resiliency in a larger urban context. He concludes by enumerating several take aways for neighborhood planners.