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 ( , sometimes referred to as St. Louis City, Saint Louis or STL) is an Independent city (United States), independent city in the U.S. state of Missouri. It lies near the confluence of the Mississippi River, Mississippi and the Miss ...

, 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 Federal government of the United States, United States federal government's official United States National Register of Historic Places listings, list of sites, buildings, structures, Hist ...

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 United States Secretary of the Interior, Secretary of the Interior Harold L. Ickes. It was ...

(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 1955, when the city began to desegregate. It continued to operate after Desegregation in the United States, the desegregation of c ...

. It is an

Art Deco Art Deco, short for the French (), is a style of visual arts, architecture, and product design that first Art Deco in Paris, appeared in Paris in the 1910s just before World War I and flourished in the United States and Europe during the 1920 ...

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

limestone Limestone is a type of carbonate rock, carbonate sedimentary rock which is the main source of the material Lime (material), lime. It is composed mostly of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different Polymorphism (materials science) ...

and

terracotta Terracotta, also known as terra cotta or terra-cotta (; ; ), is a clay-based non-vitreous ceramic OED, "Terracotta""Terracotta" MFA Boston, "Cameo" database fired at relatively low temperatures. It is therefore a term used for earthenware obj ...

details. The interior layout of the building has some

Classical Revival Neoclassicism, also spelled Neo-classicism, emerged as a Western cultural movement in the decorative and visual arts, literature, theatre, music, and architecture that drew inspiration from the art and culture of classical antiquity. Neoclassic ...

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