Normandy kids study area's early history

Crystal Richie

Thirteen-year-old Crystal Richie admits she doesn't know much about the history of her home area in north St. Louis County. But, she and her Normandy Middle School classmates are in the process of learning.

The students in teacher Kim Morton's social studies class are creating a book and PowerPoint presentation about the early days of the Normandy area. When completed this spring, they plan to present findings to the Normandy school board and city council.

(Their efforts are part of the Citizenship Education Clearing House program at the University of Missouri-St. Louis' College of Education. To learn more aboutCECH, you can visit www.umsl.edu/divisions/education/cechsite/)

Kelvin Shelton

Twelve-year-old Kelvin Shelton said he's lived in Normandy all this life. But, he said, "I don't know a lot about the history and nothing about the people who lived here."

The Normandy area now has a high concentration of African-American residents. Virtually all of the Normandy Middle School students are black.

But, in the early 1800's, the area was considered to be rural. And, much of it was owned by the Lucas and Hunt families, who were white. Their names live on with such designations as Lucas and Hunt Road.

The kids in Ms. Morton's class will be researching individually or in teams of two the early history of area landmarks. She has a list of 26 specific places the kids will research. Some are historic homes. But, there are many municipalities as well as Catholic institutions and the University of Missouri-St. Louis.

Ms. Morton said, "I wanted students to understand Normandy wasn't always all-black."

But, that doesn't keep some of her students from wanting to focus on the history of blacks in the area.

DeJon Smith

Thirteen-year-old DeJon Smith said, "I want to know how the slaves were treated in the Normandy area and about the plantations."

Twelve-year-old Dantavier Thompson said, "I'd like to know how the slaves bought their clothes and what they ate."

Dantavier Thompson

He also said, "I'd like to know the history of houses of kids from school."

The kids are going to take a bus tour of the area and meet with municipal officials.

The students will take along notebooks and cameras to record the present-day situation. Then, they will compare them with pictures and reports from the Missouri Historical Society archives.

The kids got a taste of historical research in a recent "Colonial Life Dictionary Project." In that project, they created a book based on research they did into the early days of Colonial Williamsburg in Virginia.

Now, they'll use the same skills to create a history of their own area.

Each student will be responsible for a write-up of the historic site assigned to them. Then, they'll collaborate to create the PowerPoint presentation from the historic material.

Kelvin Shelton, Crystal Richie and DeJon Smith hope to work on publishing the book.

DeJon said he's already made a book out of eight of his original poems. The book included a cover and then stapled the book. "I like to do a lot of stuff like that," he said.

Dantavier Thompson said he wants to work on the PowerPoint presentation. "I've done a PowerPoint before on an assigned research project," he said.

The kids will find that several properties have had different uses during the past years.

For instance, the St. Ann Church and Cemetery property was owned by Anne Lucas Hunt. Ms. Hunt donated the land to the Jesuits for a church and school. The first church was a small frame building that was later enlarged.

Then, Father Peter DeSmet replaced it with a stone structure. The stone wall on the east side of the present-day church is part of the DeSmet structure. The current church was dedicated in 1952. The oldest grave in the cemetery dates from 1860.

The Hardy House at 415 Bermuda Road was built as a summer home in 1891. Thomas Walter Hardy, a prominent St. Louis businessman, lived there from 1915 to 1966.

At one time, the home had a pond where an alligator brought from Florida lived. It was found dead one day, having choked on a frog. The building is now owned by the Normandy School District and used for special education programs.

The towns of Northwoods and Pine Lawn are located on land formerly used as campgrounds for Native American Indians. They were housed there while negotiating with William Clark (of Lewis & Clark fame) who was superintendent of Indian affairs for the Louisiana territory.

These are just some of the historic sites in the Normandy area that the middle school kids will be researching for their new history of their hometown.