Skinker DeBaliviere Neighborhood

The Skinker DeBaliviere Neighborhood is located just north of Forest Park at the western edge of the City of St Louis. The boundaries for the neighborhood are Delmar Blvd on the north, DeBaliviere on the east, Lindell Blvd that runs along Forest Park on the south and the City Limit boundary line that runs just west of Skinker Blvd. Surrounding neighborhoods are the DeBaliviere Place Neighborhood to the east and the West End Neighborhood to the north. To the west lies St. Louis County and University City.

Parks and Recreation

Forest Park, the largest of the St. Louis City parks and the "gem" of entire region, lies along the southern border of the neighborhood. DeBaliviere Avenue is one of several entrances to Forest Park and to one of the many amenities of the park, the Missouri History Museum. Golfers will enjoy that the Forest Park Golf Course, also known as the Norman K. Probstein Golf Course, a public golf course with three 9-hole golf courses, is also located in Forest Park. The trail, that many visitors use for walking, jogging, in-line skating and biking, that runs around and through the entire park, is accessible along Lindell Blvd. Other well known amenities of Forest Park are the St. Louis Zoo, The Muny, the St. Louis Art Museum, picnic sites, tennis courts, ball fields and so much more. Two small parks are found within the boundaries of the neighborhood. One is the Greg Freeman Park which is located at Des Peres Avenue and DeBaliviere and features a playground. The other park is the Kingsbury Sqaure Park at Kingsbury and Westminster that features about half an acre of landscaped green space with a gazebo. The Phillip Lucier Park is almost 3 acres and provides a full size soccer field and a playground for the neighborhood.

MetroLink

The residents of Skinker/DeBaliviere Neighborhood also have another advantage, access to the MetroLink light rail service at the Forest Park-DeBaliviere MetroLink Station which is located on DeBaliviere Avenue. This station gives access to both the Red and Blue Lines of Metrolink. The Central West End Metrolink Station on South Euclid Avenue is the next station to the east and the Delmar Loop MetroLink Station is the next station to the west on the Red Line and the Skinker MetroLink Station is the next station to west on the Blue Line.

Schools

The St. Louis Public School District serves the residents of neighborhood with several schools located closeby in the surrounding neighborhoods. The Hamilton Elementary School is on Westminster Place in Skinker/DeBalivier. Soldan International Studies High School, an International Studies Magnet School featuring six foreign languages, is found in the Academy Neighborhood. The Stix Early Childhood Center Elementary School is a Magnet School for Preschool through 2nd grade and is located on Tower Grove in the Central West End Neighborhood, as is the Metro Academic and Classical High School, a Magnet School with focus of "General Academics". There is a private school located within the DeBaliviere Place Neighborhood, the St. Roch School, which is a Catholic school with classes for students from Preschool to 8th grade.

Libraries

Conveniently located in the Academy Neighborhood on Union Boulevard, is a branch of the St. Louis Public Library, the Cabanne Branch. The Cabanne Branch is one of the six libraries built with the orginal gift from Andrew Carnegie with stipulation that the libraries would be "free to the public." There are 15 branch libraries located throughout the City of St. Louis.

History

Julius Pitzman, an important St. Louis surveyor, began in 1905 to develop the last and largest private street subdivision in the city, Parkview Place. It is a 70 acre area with more than 250 homes that had deed restrictions that specified having 50 feet setbacks, the use of brick, stucco or stone as building materials and at the time, had to cost at least $7,000 to build. Half of Parkview Place also lies within St. Louis County and includes the streets of Waterman, McPherson, Westminster, Washington and Pershing. The subdivision is located in the National Register of Historic Places designated Parkview District. The Parkview District is located in another, larger historic district designated by the City of St. Louis that covers the entire neighborhood. It is the Skinker-DeBaliviere/Catlin Tract/Parkview District. This district includes over 850 historic buildings with residential building being mostly built between 1907 and 1916. Some of the non-residential buildings include the Hamilton Elementary School on Westminster designed by Rockwell M. Milligan in 1917; the Delmar Baptist Church, designed by William B. Ittner in 1918, at the corner at Washington and Skinker; the St. Roch's Church on Waterman, designed by Lee & Rush in 1921; and the former Wabash Railroad Station, now the Delmar MetroLink station designed by R.E. Mohr in 1929. At the corner of Waterman and DeBaliviere is a building that was designed in 1922 by Preston J. Bradshaw, the former Dorr and Zeller Building which is now home to Pulaski Bank. An Art Deco styled building designed by Saum Architects in 1940 on Delmar Blvd was the first A & P Food Store location in St. Louis. Today this restored building houses the Saint Louis Design Alliance Architectural Firm and has been placed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Skinker Debaliviere Neighborhood Related Links:

City of St Louis Website, Skinker-Debaliviere Community Website

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