Pamela Talley: Biographical Information (p.1), Transcript DVD 1 (18 pp.), Transcript DVD 2 (6 pp.). Talley lived at 4527 Lewis Place for 25 years and was head of the Lewis Place Historical Preservation, Inc. at the time of the interview. She began the interview by explaining the differences between Lewis Place the street and Lewis Place the neighborhood and the significance of the 1980 National Register of Historic Places listing. Talley told the history of breaking the racial barrier at Lewis Place; the circumstances leading to the formation of Preservation, Inc., the nonprofit housing and neighborhood development corporation, in 2000 and its goals; the decline of Lewis Place after the dissolution of the Union Sarah Economic Development Corporation; the relationship with Ranken Technical College; and background on some of the earliest homes. Interview and release signed., 2008 Sept 5

File — Box: 1, Folder: 8

Staff Only

Scope and Contents

From the Collection:

The collection is comprised of ten oral history interview transcripts for interviews with nine individuals conducted by historian Gwen Moore of the Missouri Historical Society for the Lewis Place Oral History Project. The video interviews were conducted between September 2008 and January 2009. The transcripts are arranged alphabetically by name of interviewee. Moore began each interview with questions about the interviewees’ backgrounds (family history, education, etc.), which revealed St. Louis’s segregation history. Some other topics included reasons for moving to Lewis Place or to the neighborhood, reasons for remaining in the neighborhood, causes and effects of the neighborhood’s decline, and the pros and cons of Lewis Place being a private street. Five of the individuals interviewed lived on Lewis Place (Buchanan, Goldston, Johnson, Renner, Talley); two lived on neighboring Newberry Terrace (Hill, Sampson); and one lived on Lewis Place as a child (Kennedy). John Wood was vice president for education at Ranken Technical College. Several of the interviews discussed the role of Ranken Technical College in the Lewis Place neighborhood. In 1909, David Ranken, Jr. located his School of Mechanical Trades on Cook Avenue near Lewis Place. The school later changed its name to Ranken Technical College. Ranken did not admit African Americans until 1963, which affected its relationship with the surrounding area. In the 1990s, Ranken began working in the community to build homes with community input.