Anyone from St. Louis?

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Hi everyone,
My husband may be getting transferred to St. Louis. I know little about the city and I’m feeling a great deal of anxiety. Right now we live about a 2 minute walk from a Church and school that I am very pleased with. We’ve got a charming Victorian in a safe neighborhood even though we live in the city. I know this is all rather vague but is there any possiblilty of duplicating these conditions. I’m sure I’ll have more questions and answers later, but he just gave me the news and I’m kinda edgy right now. I had to tell to someone! Thanks in advance. Pax
 
A very Catholic city/suburban area. With a very different feel between different areas.

What you described may best be found in the southern part of the city, around St Gabriel or St. Raphael parishes, off Tamm Avenue; or, if you are Italian, in St. Ambrose on “The Hill.”

The University City area (Christ the King) may be right for you, although the public schools may not be adequate. Clayton, if you have the appropriate income, may be more to your liking. Kirkwood is great . . .

Take the time to look around. Catholic families happily spend generations in St. Louis and would never dream of leaving. (Personally, I left town right after college many years ago, as soon as I could . . . but that’s another story and my mum is still happily there!)
 
I was born and raised in STL, but have not lived there for more than 15 years. I was not Catholic when I lived there, however, on my visits there, I found two parishes that were quite memorable and seem like great places. One is in West County, the other in the South St. Louis

St. Monica, in West County at off of I-270 and Olive St., is a wonderful parish. I was there once and at the morning daily Mass (Wednesday) there were at 250 people at the morning daily Mass!

Another wonderful parish is St. Francis de Sales in South St. Louis. This is a spectacular parish, rich in art and architecture. This parish celebrates the Extraordinary Form (Traditional Latin) Mass. Sadly, the neighborhood is one where you will most certaily want to lock you car.

Of course, you will want to apprise yourself of a particular parish that is currently having some cannonical difficulties which resuilted in the pastor and several memors of the governing board being excommunicated.
 
I was just in St. Louis visiting family. I know it has a reputation for being high in crime (stay out of East St. Louis!), but there are certainly some positives too. The Basilica Cathedral is the most beautiful church I have seen, the St. Louis style pizza is decent (Ino’s Pizza), and the Zoo is top notch and free. Check out “the Hill” area for some very good and authentic Italian food, too. We liked St. Louis quite a bit. Oh, almost forgot: take the kids to the City Museum (bit expensive, but worth the visit at least once).
 
My daughter has lived there four years (student at St. Louis University). She just got married this summer, and she and her new husband live in Kirkwood. They really like it there, except for the extreme heat and humidity.

My daughter loves the zoo. As a student, she would often take her studies to the zoo, sit in front of the elephants, and watch them as she studied.

The Botanical Gardens are fantastic–and I don’t even like gardening! But we spent an entire day there. Lots of fun.

You might want to take a look at the suburb of Webster Groves. It is really charming with quaint homes and downtown area and beautiful little gardens.

Housing in St. Louis is extremely expensive, unfortunately. The house that we live in, apprised at $99,000, would be worth about a quarter of a million in St. Louis. But at the moment, my daughter and her husband have found that due to the economy, houses are selling for really cheap. So you are moving there at a good time.

It’s a very Catholic city. One thing I love about visiting is all the Catholic radio stations we can pick up.
 
I JUST moved from StL. It really is a great city if you are catholic. There is a parish for everyone. My recommendation to you is when you contact a real estate agency, make sure your realtor knows exactly what you are looking for, and that they pay close attention to your personality. Every area in StL is distinct. East StL is actually in Illinois. If you have school age children, catholic schools are just as popular as public. I would be happy to answer any questions that you have!🙂 I lived on the West side…Chesterfield/Manchester. Everywhere was no more than 20 minutes away, good neighborhoods, low crime, great schools.
 
Depending on how you feel about commuting, don’t forget to check out some of the small towns in Illinois (not, East St. Louis, IL!!). They are really growing and are cheaper as far as housing pricing and taxes. They also have more of a small town feel. Living on the outskirts of St. Louis may have the same commute as living in IL, depending on the location of your DH’s work.
 
Do not forget about the Our Lady of Snows shrine in Belleville, Illinois, just across the Mississippi River. It is a great place.

And being of Italian descent, I can confirm that The Hill neighborhood has some of the best restaurants in the entire region. And most are quite affordable.
 
We used to live in a small town which is rapidly becoming a suburb of St. Louis (MO side.) Our priest and small parish was awesome!!!

When we go back to visit St. Louis, we’ve been known to drive an hour from where we were staying so that we can attend his mass.

I second the sentiments of the pp who said you should check out St. Francis de Sales. If you’ve never been to an extraordinary form, it’s a great place to start. Very holy and very reverent!

Good luck to you on your move.
 
You could not be moving to a better Catholic oriented place. As far as expensive, it depends on where you want to live. Kirkwood and Webster are more expensive than other areas for the house you get. There is something for everyone. Now can you replicate what you have exactly? Well, probably not. You will have to make some allowances that STL is not where you are from. But from a Catholic perspective you can find great parishes and schools and great holy catholic people. We’ve even invented a phrase to find out how catholic you are. It is "So what high school did you go to?’’ Which is essentially a way to find out which Catholic High School you attended and what part of the city you live in. There is St. Louis City which has terrible public school so many kids who live there go to a Catholic school. There is St. Louis County with many public and Catholic school options. There is St. Charles county with good Catholic school. We have private elementary Catholic schools. Your choices are unlimited. Instead of just visiting houses, go visit churches in the neighborhoods you think you might like and attend Sunday Mass. This will give you a better idea of what a parish is like. You can cross the river if you want, but then you are in the Belleville diocese. St. Louis and surrounding areas are in the Archdiocese of St. Louis.
 
St. Louis has a lot to offer and tends to be a rather conservative town. I’d check out the Botanical Gardens as suggested that a nice place to start. Forest Park (Art Museum, Boathouse, History Museum, Muny Theater, golf course, science museum and biking / walking trails and the FREE Zoo), Soulard (French Quarter) has great restuarants and clubs, The Hill (Italian Neighbor) has some of the best Italian food in the nation), Central West End (Artsy, area with lots of good restaurants and shops), The Delmar Loop (College age hangout and nice place for restaurants, music and interesting shops) Lafeyette Square, Lacledes Landing…you get the idea.
 
Thank you all for your responses. I’ve had a few days to come off the edge 🙂 . We haven’t been in the home we’re in now for very long and it was difficult to make the change originally but it has worked out very well. I love being so close to our Church and Catholic school, it’s the Cathedral so there are plenty of masses and I just never knew how great it is to be so close that we can walk to Mass everyday and at any time it is open. My kids even came up with the idea of going to 7:15 Mass before school during Holy Week! It’s been such a gift. Your responses have reminded me that there are wonderful opportunities in many places and if we do in fact have to move St, Louis there is a place for us,

Thanks again to all.
 
I have lived in St. Louis my whole life, and it is a great place. As other posters have noted, it is a very Catholic city, with a lot of great neighborhoods, free family attractions, and strong parishes and Catholic schools.

If you’d like more insights on neighborhoods or parishes, feel free to ask.
 
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