Msgr. Sal Polizzi, who led efforts to boost The Hill in St. Louis, dies at 92

ST. LOUIS — Monsignor Sal Polizzi, whose efforts to organize and preserve The Hill neighborhood in the city gained national attention in the 1970s, died Monday night at Mother of Good Counsel nursing home in Northwoods. He was 92.

Polizzi, while associate pastor of St. Ambrose Catholic Church, was a founder of The Hill 2000 booster organization still active today in the heavily Italian-American enclave.

In 1981, Polizzi was reassigned a few miles north to St. Roch Catholic Church in the Skinker-DeBaliviere neighborhood, where he was pastor until his death. He also was active in community revitalization efforts there.

But it was on The Hill where Polizzi made his name. In 1971, he played a key role in community efforts that, against all odds, got federal officials to approve an overpass connecting two parts of the neighborhood that would have been split by the new Interstate 44.

Three years later, because of that push and his other fights to maintain the area, he was chosen by Time magazine as one of America’s 100 most promising leaders.

Among his other efforts was working to stop a proposed drive-in theater. The Hill 2000 group under his tutelage was involved in initiatives such as planting trees, opening a day care facility and youth centers and building a park.

“The Hill is where it is today because of him,” said Joe Vollmer, the neighborhood’s longtime alderman. “To make this continue, there has to be a plan. No one else saw that. He was in charge.”

Vollmer said among other things, Polizzi would match people interested in living on The Hill with houses becoming available. “That’s what kept continuity,” Vollmer said.

Joe DeGregorio of south St. Louis County, who grew up on The Hill and gives tours of the area, said Polizzi was a catalyst for spurring “pride in our Italian heritage” and “in keeping up the neighborhood and making it safe.”

He said he and others hope to get a plaque in his honor installed at the overpass.

Polizzi, in a Post-Dispatch interview in 1980, explained his triangle approach to organizing: “The church, the elected officials and the people of the neighborhood, all working together.”

Salvatore Polizzi, one of 11 children of Sicilian immigrants, grew up in the now-defunct Italian neighborhood north of downtown St. Louis. He went to St. Louis Preparatory Seminary and Kenrick Seminary and was ordained in 1956.

He later earned a master’s degree in urban planning at St. Louis University and was the first priest to receive the school’s alumni merit award.

He was first assigned to St. Ambrose from 1956 to 1959, then was associate pastor at the old St. Catherine of Alexandria Church in north St. Louis County before serving again at St. Ambrose from 1964 to 1981.

At St. Roch, a longtime friend said, he worked to stabilize housing and was known for offering scholarships at the parish school. He was a founding member of Operation Food Search and was a former member of the boards of the city Land Reutilization Authority and the old St. Louis Regional Medical Center.

Among his survivors are a sister, Patricia Daher of Creve Coeur.

Visitation will be from 4 to 7 p.m. Monday at St. Roch Church, 6052 Waterman Boulevard, and from about 8:45 a.m. to 9:50 a.m. Tuesday at the Cathedral Basilica of St. Louis, 4431 Lindell Boulevard. The funeral Mass will be celebrated at the cathedral at 10 a.m. Tuesday. Burial will be in Calvary Cemetery.