The Hill, St. Louis
| The Hill | |
|---|---|
| St. Louis neighborhood | |
 |
|
 Location of The Hill within St. Louis |
|
| Country | United States |
| State | Missouri |
| City | St. Louis |
| Wards | 10, 24 |
| Area | |
| • Total | 0.97 sq mi (2.5 km2) |
| Population (2010) | |
| • Total | 2,443 |
| • Density | 2,500/sq mi (970/km2) |
| ZIP code(s) | Part of 63110 |
| Area code(s) | 314 |
| Website | stlouis-mo.gov |
The Hill is a neighborhood within St. Louis, Missouri, located on high ground south of Forest Park. The official boundaries of the area are Manchester Avenue (Route 100) on the north, Columbia and Southwest Avenues on the south, South Kingshighway Boulevard on the east, and Hampton Avenue on the west.
The Hill has an Italian American majority population, and is home to many Italian restaurants and businesses.
Its name is due to its proximity to the highest point of the city, formerly named St. Louis Hill, which is a few blocks south, at the intersection of Arsenal Street and Sublette Avenue. The intersection borders Sublette Park, the former site of the Social Evil Asylum built there in 1873.
Italians, mainly from Lombardy and Sicily, immigrated and settled in the area starting in the late 19th century, attracted by jobs in nearby plants established to exploit deposits of clay discovered by immigrants in the 1830s.
With the growth of Italian immigration came the growth in the influence of the Roman Catholic Church such that the Parish of Our Lady, Help of Christians, was founded in the downtown area of St. Louis in 1900 to serve primarily recent Sicilian immigrants, while the Parish of St. Ambrose was founded by members of St. Aloysius Gonzaga Parish in what later came to be known as the Hill in 1903 to serve primarily the recent Lombard immigrants. By the time the new church of St. Ambrose was built in 1926, the Parish had already been a force in the area for over 20 years. The structure is modeled after Sant'Ambrogio Church in Milan, in an Lombard Romanesque Revival style of brick and terra cotta. It became the parish church for the area in 1955, after 30 years of focusing on those of Italian heritage. When Our Lady, Help of Christians, Parish closed in 1975, St. Ambrose became the center of Catholic life among many Italian-Americans in the St. Louis area.
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Wikipedia