Nini Harris

NiNi Harris (sister of Shelia Harris) got her first St. Louis history lessons around the kitchen table as her grandmother made chocolate cakes from scratch. “On Sunday mornings she went to 6 a.m. Mass, and then she’d come back and start baking,” Harris said. “I associated history with chocolate because we’d lick the spatulas as she told stores about what life was like growing up in Soulard.”

Harris, 57, has made it her mission and her living to preserve those stories. She’s written nine books that detail neighborhood and ethnic histories in the St. Louis area. Her most recent effort is about Holly Hills and the adjacent Bellerive area in south St. Louis.

In addition to writing the history of an area, Harris conducts walking tours that are offered through several universities or senior organizations. Walking through a neighborhood is key to getting to know a place she said. “When you walk, people see you, they wave, they talk to you,” she said. “Walking creates a kind of friendliness. If you’re just getting in and out of a car you don’t get that.”

Harris, her husband Roman Kordal, an urban planner with the city of St. Louis, and their rescued Calico cat Tina Two live in a home Harris’ great-uncle Charlie built in 1924. One family member or another has lived there ever since. The two-story flat is in the St. Cecilia Historic District. It’s decorated with her father’s hand-painted designs from 1960. Murals of New Orleans adorn the walls in the living and dining rooms on top of designs painted by Harris and her siblings under the direction of her father, who was employed as an engineer. Harris’ job was to brush pink squares and rectangles into colorful pattern. “It’s starting to chip off now,” she said. Just like the rest of the neighborhood, she’s eager to protect it.