Visitors often notice them before anything else: fire hydrants painted in the red, white and green of the Italian flag. They are one of the simplest ways to tell you have arrived on The Hill, and they come with a story about a neighborhood that refused to fade.
A neighborhood under pressure
By the 1960s, The Hill was facing real trouble. Young people were moving away, and plans to run Interstate 44 through part of the neighborhood led some owners to stop maintaining their homes, TIME magazine reported in a 1974 profile. The city of St. Louis notes that the highway destroyed 98 homes and isolated 450 residents from the heart of the neighborhood.
Residents organized. Led in part by Father Salvatore Polizzi, then an associate pastor at St. Ambrose, they pushed for an overpass to keep the two sides of The Hill connected, raising money themselves to get it built, according to TIME.
Painting with pride
That same organizing spirit produced the hydrants. According to TIME, a nonprofit neighborhood development corporation, then about four years old, ran a summer youth program that paid students $1 an hour. Among their jobs was repainting the hydrants and trash cans in the colors of the Italian flag.
The corporation did much more, TIME reported. It planted more than 1,000 trees, found jobs for residents and fixed up vacant houses to sell to young couples. The hydrants were a small, visible piece of a larger effort to show the neighborhood was cared for.
Still a signature
More than 50 years later, the colors remain. La Gazzetta Italiana lists the tricolor hydrants among The Hill’s hallmarks, and a neighborhood guide from Living St. Louis MO says the hydrants, along with banners in the Italian colors, are how visitors know they have entered the area. That guide credits a neighborhood association effort, with help from the City of St. Louis, for the neighborhood’s Italian-themed streetscape.
We could not find a public record of exactly when the first hydrant was painted or how often they are refreshed. If you have photos or memories of the hydrant crews, we would love to hear from you.
When you visit, look for the hydrants at street corners throughout the neighborhood. They make an easy, uniquely Hill photo.
For more on the neighborhood’s past, see our History of The Hill timeline.
Sources: TIME (1974), City of St. Louis, La Gazzetta Italiana, Living St. Louis MO.
