St. Louis to turn Chuck Berry’s one-time home into museum
St. Louis is planning to convert Chuck Berry’s one-time home into a museum and to create a cultural district around it honouring the rock ‘n’ roll legend and other prominent African Americans who have lived in that part of the city.
The city on Monday solicited bids for the project, which will be centred around the home at 3137 Whittier St. in north St. Louis where Berry lived for eight years in the 1950s. During that time, he wrote many of his biggest hits, including “Maybelline,” ”Roll Over Beethoven,” ”Sweet Little Sixteen” and “Johnny B. Goode.”
The museum would anchor a “Chuck Berry Cultural District,” to honour Berry, who died in March at age 90, and the area’s African-American heritage.
The neighbourhood known as “The Greater Ville” was among the few areas of segregated St. Louis where blacks could own property in the early to mid-1950s. It was home to many famous figures in addition to Berry, including singers Josephine Baker and Tina Turner, comedian Dick Gregory and tennis star Arthur Ashe.