Update: This first building above and below was originally Stowe Teachers College, which combined with Harris Teachers College in 1954.

The Ville was the center of African-American life in St. Louis for generations, and really in some ways (and like most St. Louis neighborhoods) functioned as its own little mini-city lying inside of a larger metropolis.  If we follow that analogy, then Tandy Park was the “village green” of the Ville.  Surrounding the park were three schools: Harris Teachers College, later Turner Middle School, that looks to have been built in the 1940’s on the west side…

Sumner High School faces the south end of the park, built in a George Revival style, with strong similarities to the City Hospital on the other side of the city.

On the far eastern end of the park is the former Homer G. Phillips Hospital.

Tandy Park itself, as illustrated below, is no longer a fully public park; fenced off and contained for the football field of Sumner, or tennis courts sitting coldly alone this blustery Saturday, erase the open plan that the park would have had originally.  The original Turner School sits on the north side of the park.