5130 Wilson Avenue (at Marconi)
St. Louis (The Hill), Missouri 63110  
www.archstl.org

TAlthough St. Louis is a city of immigrants, we have only one distinct ethnic neighborhood, the Hill. Originating in the 1880s, when Italian immigrants were drawn to jobs in the clay pits and the brick, refractory, and other clay-related industries in the area, the Hill developed a network of social and cultural institutions that have remained resilient across several generations. The neighborhood even has its own distinguished chronicle, Immigrants on the Hill by Gary Ross Mormino, written in 1986 and reprinted in 2002 by the University of Missouri Press.

St. Ambrose Church was in many ways the crowning achievement of this neighborhood, built to Italian designs by Italian craftsmen. Even the cornerstone makes the point, “Italian Roman Catholic Church, AD 1925.” Although St. Louis Italians came from both northern and southern Italy, the design is distinctly Lombard the Romanesque, the 11th and 12th-century architectural style of Lombardy, the region around Milan. Specific features recall the churches of Sant’ Ambrogio and Santa Maria delle Grazie in Milan, as well as San Zeno in Verona and San Petronio in Bologna. Architect Angelo Corrubia had studied at Washington University and Massachusetts Institute of Technology, but often brought features from his native Italy into his designs, which included houses for successful Italian businessmen in Clayton and Richmond Heights. (His son, also Angelo Corrubia, was one of the architects in the conversion of the St. Louis Theatre into Powell Symphony Hall)

The overall impression of the interior is a symphony of semicircular shapes, which appear as the curves of the arcades above the scagliola columns, the bull’s-eye clerestory windows, the aisle vaulting and the main barrel vault, the triumphal arch, the apse, and the dome of the baldachino or canopy over the main altar. The marble-lined narthex lists benefactors to the church and commemorates the visit of the papal legate, Cardinal Bonzano, who came shortly after the 1926 dedication to give a papal benediction. Statues of saints along the aisles include the church’s namesake Ambrose, 4th-century bishop of Milan and mentor to St. Augustine, other Italians including Anthony of Padua, Aloysius Gonzaga, and the female hermit Rosalia, while the Spanish Teresa of Avila and Dominic find places, along with the Infant of Prague. Windows include Franciscan images. The arms of two of our city’s three cardinals surmount the side chapels, Joseph Ritter on the left and John Glennon on the right.
Perhaps the most touching link to the community is Rudy Torrini’s statue, “The Italian Immigrants,” erected outside the church in 1972.

Although the Chamber Chorus Octet performed here earlier, we believe the April 15, 2007 performance to be the first by the full choir.

Notes by Esley Hamilton and Philip Barnes
Photos by Roger Hill