Shelley House - St. Louis, MO - U.S. National Register of Historic Places on Waymarking.com

The Shelley House gained its prominence is a landmark United States Supreme Court case Shelley vs. Kraemer. In 1945, a black family by the name of Shelley purchased this house. When they purchased the house they were not aware that a restrictive covenant had been in place on the property since 1911. The restrictive convenants were common in St. Louis and other cities at the time, barred black and Assians from owning the property. Neighbors sued to restrain the Shelleys from taking possession of the property they had purchased. The St. Louis courts had ruled in the Shelleys' favor, ruling that the restrictive was not enforceable because it had not fully gone into effect because not all the property owners in the district of 57 properties had signed the agreement. This was appealed to the The Supreme Court of Missouri. The Supreme Court of Missouri ruled that the covenant was enforceable against the purchasers because the convenant was purely a private agreement betweent original parties and "ran with the land" and was enforceable against subsequent owners.

The United States Supreme Court had two legal decisions to a make. 1. Are race-based restrictive covenants legal under the Fourteenth Amendment of the United States Constitution? (The Fourteenth Amendment include the Due Process and Equal Protection Clauses) 2. Can they be enforced by a court of law.

The United States Supreme Court ruled that it is unconstitutional under the Fourteenth Amendment to enforce such race based restrictive covenants, in effect enforcement of the private agreements makes them state actions in violation of the Constitution.

The practical implication of this case was that major portions of cities which had been restricted were now open to ownership without regard to race.

Street address: 4600 Labadie Ave St. Louis, Missouri County / Borough / Parish: St. Louis (Independent City) Year listed: 1988 Historic (Areas of) Significance: Event Periods of significance: 1925-1949 Historic function: Domestic Current function: Domestic Privately owned?: yes Primary Web Site: [Web Link] Season start / Season finish: Not listed Hours of operation: Not listed Secondary Website 1: Not listed Secondary Website 2: Not listed National Historic Landmark Link: Not listed

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Date Logged Log User Rating   06/15/2014 iconions visited it