Visitation Park Neighborhood

The Visitation Park Neighborhood is located in the mid-western area of the City of St. Louis. The neighborhood boundaries are Maple Avenue to the north, Union Blvd to the east, Delmar Blvd to the south and Belt Avenue to the west. Surrounding neighborhoods are the Academy Neighborhood to the east, DeBaliviere Place to the south, the Central West End to the southeast and the West End Neighborhood to the north and west.

Schools

Like all of the St. Louis City Neighborhoods, the St. Louis Public School District is the local school district for its school age children. The district does not have any schools in the boundaries of the neighborhood but has several schools nearby. Soldan High School, an International Studies Magnet School featuring six foreign languages, is located in the Academy Neighborhood. Hamilton Elementary School and the Collegiate School of Medicine and Bioscience, a Magnet School with a focus on "Pre-College Curricula," are both in the Skinker/DeBaliviere Neighborhood. And Ford Elementary School is located in the Hamilton Heights Neighborhood. A private Catholic elementary and middle school, St. Roch School, is located in the Skinker/DeBaliviere Neighborhood on Waterman Blvd.

Parks and Recreation

The neighborhood has one of the 111 City of St. Louis parks, Ivory Perry Park, which features basketball courts, a softball field, a picnic pavilion and a playground. And of course, Forest Park, the jewel of the St. Louis parks, with its 1370 acres of parkland filled with the St. Louis Zoo, St. Louis Art Museum, Missouri History Museum, the Forest Park Golf Course, biking and walking trails, picnic facilities, playgrounds and so much more, is just half a mile away, straight down Union Blvd!

Libraries

The St. Louis Public Library has 15 branch libraries places throughout the city. One of the branches, the Cabanne Branch Library on Union Blvd, is conveniently located for residents in the neighborhood, as well as the surrounding neighborhoods.

History and Landmarks

The neighborhood gets its name from the Visitation Academy, a Catholic academy as well as a convent, that was a beautiful and elaborate Victorian building designed by Barnett, Haynes & Barnett in 1891. It was razed in 1962 to create the Ivory Perry Park. The historic St. Louis City Visitation Park District lies within the neighborhood and has as its center Windermere Place, a street that was developed beginning in 1895. Also in the district is what is called the "Union Avenue Promenade" which highlights the work of promenient St. Louis architects and architectural firms including Mauran, Russell & Garden, William B. Ittner, and A.B. Groves. The buildings were built beginning in 1906 and includes several historic churches such as the Union Avenue Christian Church (1907), Westminster Presbyterian Church (1913), the former Church of the Messiah (1907) and the Pilgrim Congregational Church (1906), as well as Soldan High School (1908), William Clark Elementary School (1906), the Cabanne Branch Library (1906) and several others. Two other historic landmarks are within the Visitation Park neighborhood. One is the now closed Enright Middle School building which was originally built for Washington University in 1905 as the Smith Academy and Manual Training School. Designed by Mauran Russell & Garden in a Classical Revival style, it was an elite, private preparatory school for boys until 1917. The other designated City Landmark is the Frederick von Harten House on Enright. It was built in 1896 by Herbert C. Chivers, the same St. Louis architect who designed the University City Missouri City Hall (1903, the Magazine Building).

Visitation Park Neighborhood Related Links:

City of St Louis Website