The Tandy Community Center is a historic building dating from 1938, at 4206 West Kennerly Avenue in The Ville neighborhood of

St. Louis, Missouri St. Louis () is the second-largest city in Missouri, United States. It sits near the confluence of the Mississippi River, Mississippi and the Missouri Rivers. In 2020, the city proper had a population of 301,578, while the Greater St. Louis, ...

, U.S.. It is also known as the Tandy Recreation Center and PWA Project No. 8483. With It has been listed on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic v ...

since 1999.

History

The Tandy Community Center building was constructed in 1937 to 1938 near Tandy Park, under the funding and guidance of the

Public Works Administration The Public Works Administration (PWA), part of the New Deal of 1933, was a large-scale public works construction agency in the United States headed by Secretary of the Interior Harold L. Ickes. It was created by the National Industrial Recove ...

(PWA). The neighborhood of The Ville is a center of many important African American institutions and history. The building was designed by architect Albert A. Osburg and engineer William C. E. Becker. Osburg served as the chief of the Public Improvement Board for the city of St. Louis, and also designed the nearby

Homer G. Phillips Hospital Homer G. Phillips Hospital was the only public hospital for African Americans in St. Louis, Missouri, from 1937 until 1979, when the city still had segregated facilities. Located at 2601 N. Whittier Street in The Ville neighborhood, it was the fi ...

. It is an

Art Deco Art Deco, short for the French ''Arts Décoratifs'', and sometimes just called Deco, is a style of visual arts, architecture, and product design, that first appeared in France in the 1910s (just before World War I), and flourished in the Unite ...

-style building has a T-shaped plan with a buff brick exterior, decorative

limestone Limestone ( calcium carbonate ) is a type of carbonate sedimentary rock which is the main source of the material lime. It is composed mostly of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different crystal forms of . Limestone forms whe ...

and

terracotta Terracotta, terra cotta, or terra-cotta (; ; ), in its material sense as an earthenware substrate, is a clay-based ceramic glaze, unglazed or glazed ceramic where the pottery firing, fired body is porous. In applied art, craft, construction, a ...

details. The interior layout of the building has some

Classical Revival Neoclassical architecture is an architectural style produced by the Neoclassical movement that began in the mid-18th century in Italy and France. It became one of the most prominent architectural styles in the Western world. The prevailing style ...

design aspects. Most of the stem of the "T" shape is a gymnasium space for sports, with community services at the far south end.

References

{{Authority control African-American history in St. Louis Art Deco architecture in Missouri Buildings and structures completed in 1938 Public Works Administration in Missouri National Register of Historic Places in St. Louis Sports venues in St. Louis Sports venues on the National Register of Historic Places in Missouri

History

See also

References