WEBSTER GROVES, Mo. – A home in Webster Groves is one step closer to receiving historic status.
“It’s the only home I’ve ever lived in. We were literally the only home there and growing up where the industrial park is now, there was nothing but industrial fields as far as you could see,” said Gayle Jones, owner of 15 Marvin Court.
Jones’ parents purchased the home together as a married couple in 1956.
“Growing up, I never knew the real hidden history of what my mom and dad went through. It wasn’t until Pastor Denoon that I started learning,” Jones said.
“She thought she was moving into a residential area and then the city changed all of the zoning around her into industrial, and it’s pretty clear that the reason why is because there was a white neighborhood all around, and this Black neighborhood that was in the midst and now Black middle-class people were starting to buy homes there,” Rev. David Denoon, First Congregational Church, said.
Working with Pastor Denoon, Jones said she’s learned about the lawsuit her parents filed against the city for the rezoning and depreciation of their home’s value. Her parents lost the lawsuit in the 1960s, but Jones is continuing their fight.
“I’m picking up where they left off. Justice will be served. Whatever that is. I don’t even know what that looks like,” she said.
