Despite my better judgment, on Saturday I headed out to Kinloch, the famous first African-American community incorporated in Missouri. I had my preconceptions; a policeman I once had as a student told me Kinloch was the one place he ever felt scared while working, and he had worked in some pretty dangerous neighborhoods. Bud, my student, is about the size of Arnold Scharzeneggar, so I was intrigued that he would be scared of anywhere in the metropolitan area.
So I hopped on I-70, got off at N. Hanley, and hung a right onto Martin Luther King Blvd, the main thoroughfare--if you can call it that--of Kinloch.
I was immediately pleased that I had come to visit Kinloch myself, as it is totally different than what I had expected. I felt like I had stepped into a rural community, yet I knew I was still surrounded by the suburbia of North County. Kinloch has always been isolated; there are still very few streets that go in and out of the community.
But what is so striking, driving around the hilly terrain of the town, is just how desolate the town is. I think I read that five hundred people live in Kinloch, but for the life of me, I cannot figure out where they all live. Most of the town was demolished for an aborted airport expansion, so there are only a few pockets of dense settlement in the entire town.
The houses look like your standard rural St. Louis County vernacular--the standard shotgun house as well as a few commercial buildings. The writing on these stores has long outlasted the businesses they once advertised.
There is a fairly large apartment complex in the center of town, and it looks like it burned a while ago, despite sitting across the street from the fire station. I am not sure how old the buildings are, but they look like old HUD housing, and perhaps date to the 1970's when much of the town was deemed "obsolete," necessitating the demolition of five hundred structures.
A friend related a story of giving a coworker a ride home one night years ago. As the coworker was giving directions, he nonchalantly told my friend to stop two doors down from the burning couch in the street. Apparently it was such a regular occurrence that you could give directions by it.
One thing I strive to accomplish with my photography is to give an honest assessment of any area I photograph. After driving around Kinloch for awhile, I asked myself, "Am I missing something? Is the whole town one gigantic wasteland? There must be some stable, occupied streets left somewhere?" I am a little hesitant to post nothing of Kinloch except abandonment and desolation, but I quite frankly could not find any part of the town that wasn't largely abandoned or demolished. Looking at
satellite images, you can see that there is very little left; where civilization begins again is when you reach nearby communities such as Berkeley.
The future of Kinloch, quite frankly, does not look good; its reputation is one of the worst in the area, and despite witnessing signs of life, I came across a large group of young men blocking the street in front of me. I turned around, as I had no idea where I was, and was not about to go driving through a crowd of people who had assembled in front me. I don't know if they were hostile, but the whole situation gave me that bad feeling that I never second guess.
Kinloch, despite its reputation, has much still going for it.
An urban farm is cultivated by the city during the summer on vacant land.
A hall of fame for Kinloch residents was just completed last summer as well.
And many streets, not devastated by buy-outs for the airport, still maintain their clean and well-maintained appearance.
In an attempt to add population to the city of Kinloch, many apartment buildings were built in the 1960's and 70's.
Most of these buildings now are unfortunately abandoned; some were snatched up by the airport, such as these burned out hulls in the center of town, while some seem to have been abandoned gradually.
I like these apartments; something about their 1980's Post-Modern look reminds me of my childhood.
Reutilization of these properties could be a key to improving Kinloch's future prospects.
It's so important to stress how the aborted airport expansion wiped out a wide swath of Kinloch.
Scattered through the trees, remnants of the earliest houses in Kinloch still stand in several places.
Kinloch has a long and storied history, which I will talk about in future posts. Perhaps some of the key players in its history once lived in these houses.
While some are beyond repair, a few are still in good enough condition that they could be restored.
A first step would be for the airport to give the land back to the city of Kinloch. The whole noise abatement things seems ridiculous to me; nary a flight passed over Kinloch during my hour tour of the area. Would it really be that intolerable for people to live here again? I'm sure people would love the short 15 minute drive to downtown.
Like some ancient necropolis, mounds of rubble pop out of the underbrush throughout the western part of Kinloch.
Demolished for an airport expansion that never happened, each pile represents a house that once stood there.
All this week I will revisit Kinloch, examine many fallacies surrounding the town, its fascinating past, and what the future may hold.
Spurred by my first, inconclusive visit to Kinloch over a year ago, this time I was able to tour the town with Bryce Robinson, who works in the town, giving me a much better look at this historic community.
Despite my better judgment, on Saturday I headed out to Kinloch, the famous first African-American community incorporated in Missouri. I had my preconceptions; a policeman I once had as a student told me Kinloch was the one place he ever felt scared while working, and he had worked in some pretty dangerous neighborhoods. Bud, my student, is about the size of Arnold Scharzeneggar, so I was intrigued that he would be scared of anywhere in the metropolitan area.
So I hopped on I-70, got off at N. Hanley, and hung a right onto Martin Luther King Blvd, the main thoroughfare--if you can call it that--of Kinloch.
I was immediately pleased that I had come to visit Kinloch myself, as it is totally different than what I had expected. I felt like I had stepped into a rural community, yet I knew I was still surrounded by the suburbia of North County. Kinloch has always been isolated; there are still very few streets that go in and out of the community.
But what is so striking, driving around the hilly terrain of the town, is just how desolate the town is. I think I read that five hundred people live in Kinloch, but for the life of me, I cannot figure out where they all live. Most of the town was demolished for an aborted airport expansion, so there are only a few pockets of dense settlement in the entire town.
The houses look like your standard rural St. Louis County vernacular--the standard shotgun house as well as a few commercial buildings. The writing on these stores has long outlasted the businesses they once advertised.
There is a fairly large apartment complex in the center of town, and it looks like it burned a while ago, despite sitting across the street from the fire station. I am not sure how old the buildings are, but they look like old HUD housing, and perhaps date to the 1970's when much of the town was deemed "obsolete," necessitating the demolition of five hundred structures.
A friend related a story of giving a coworker a ride home one night years ago. As the coworker was giving directions, he nonchalantly told my friend to stop two doors down from the burning couch in the street. Apparently it was such a regular occurrence that you could give directions by it.
One thing I strive to accomplish with my photography is to give an honest assessment of any area I photograph. After driving around Kinloch for awhile, I asked myself, "Am I missing something? Is the whole town one gigantic wasteland? There must be some stable, occupied streets left somewhere?" I am a little hesitant to post nothing of Kinloch except abandonment and desolation, but I quite frankly could not find any part of the town that wasn't largely abandoned or demolished. Looking at satellite images, you can see that there is very little left; where civilization begins again is when you reach nearby communities such as Berkeley.
The future of Kinloch, quite frankly, does not look good; its reputation is one of the worst in the area, and despite witnessing signs of life, I came across a large group of young men blocking the street in front of me. I turned around, as I had no idea where I was, and was not about to go driving through a crowd of people who had assembled in front me. I don't know if they were hostile, but the whole situation gave me that bad feeling that I never second guess.
